Page 53 of The Island Girls

‘Thank you so much for agreeing to see us, Mr Taylor. I’m aware we might be dragging up history that could be difficult for you to revisit,’ began Paul, who was more used to this kind of thing than Rebekah.

‘Whatever it is you want to share is all from a very long time ago,’ Darrell said. ‘There’s probably not much you can tell me that will be news,’ he added, buttering the scones and pouring coffee for them all. ‘But I’m all ears, just the same.’ He smiled.

‘You mentioned your wife,’ said Rebekah. ‘Is she here today?’ she asked, looking around and wondering if the mention of a past lover might cause problems.

‘Sadly, no. Beryl passed away a few years ago now. We’d been married since 1948 – almost made it to our golden wedding anniversary, but missed out by a couple of years,’ he said, turning to show them a wedding photograph that hung on the wall inside.

Rebekah cleared her throat and decided to plunge right in.

‘Mr Taylor, during the war, when you were in England, did you know a Miss Peggy Symonds?’ she asked and saw the flash of something like horror in Darrell’s eyes as he nearly dropped his cup. He coughed a little and looked over his shoulder as though there was someone behind him.

‘I knew Peggy Symonds very well. I was in love with her. I intended to marry her, if the truth be known. But she cast me off for some other bloke she seemed to like better. He died, actually – up to no good and probably a spy, I think, but he died and Peggy loved him more. That’s all there was to it. So, I cleared off – got a transfer out of Poole as soon as I could. No good hanging around a woman and playing second fiddle to a dead man, is there?’ he said, rather gruffly.

Rebekah and Paul exchanged glances and wondered how to continue, but Darrell helped them out.

‘So, what news do you bring me? Something about Peggy, is it?’ he asked.

Paul began with what he had uncovered about Peggy’s life, and how she had lived from 1941 onwards. He had discovered that she joined an undercover government agency, been trained as an agent, and had worked mostly in Dorset, but occasionally in France, throughout the rest of the war.

‘Peggy? But she was a fisherman’s daughter – a sharp and beautiful one, mind you, but just a boatwoman. She worked on the launches for the flying boats when I met her,’ Darrell said.

‘Yes, that’s right – and that remained her cover for most of the war, when she wasn’t off in action elsewhere. But it seemed that at one stage, she had reason to believe her life might be in danger, and she wrote a letter to be passed to you in case she lost her life. We have that letter here for you, Mr Taylor,’ Paul said, handing over the envelope.

Darrell took the letter and opened it, patting his top pocket, looking for reading glasses which he had to go inside to find. Back at the table again with them, he opened the envelope and studied the date first.

‘Hmm, that’s the time I got to know Peggy,’ he said, and settled back to read the letter. As they watched him, Rebekah saw the emotion in his face change from interest to delight to a kind of horror and then disbelief. As he finished the letter, he looked up at them both, and then, open-mouthed, read the letter again.

‘She was a spy? She was casing Charlie for the government, not flirting with him? I don’t believe it! But when he died, she was devastated – I saw it with my own eyes,’ he said, resting his head in his hands. ‘Unless… unless she was just overcome with the trial of it all. And I didn’t give her chance to explain.’He laughed, mirthlessly. ‘We could have had it all – a whole life together, and I gave it up on a stupid assumption,’ he said, and sighed.

‘But life turns in strange circles, don’t you think, Mr Taylor?’ asked Rebekah, worried now that he would suffer terrible regret. ‘If you hadn’t moved away, you might never have met and married Beryl, and you’d have missed all the joy of those years.’

‘You’re right, but all the same, it is good to know this,’ he said, clutching the letter to his chest. ‘I held such bitterness for many years over Peggy, you know, and it was all needless.’

Another thought seemed to occur to him now.

‘What happened to her after the war? Did she make it to the end?’ he asked.

Rebekah swallowed, unsure now of the wisdom in passing on this news.

‘She did. She worked for the agency until the end of the war, and then, she moved to Australia. To Brisbane. She was my next-door neighbour in Bracken Ridge when I was growing up.’

‘Well, I never. Here in Brisbane, all that time? What a small world,’ he said, and Rebekah felt calmer to see that his mind was more happily reflective again.

For the next gloriously hot and sunny fortnight, Rebekah showed Paul the best of Queensland. She drove him up the mountains into the slightly cooler climes of the rainforest in Lamington National Park, where they enjoyed the welcoming hospitality of O’Reilly’s guest house. There Rebekah connected with old friends she had known from her days as a Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger.

‘Tell me, Rebekah,’ whispered her friend Lydia while Paul was deep in conversation with the guide who’d led them on their waterfall discovery walk earlier that day, ‘are all the men in England this hot, or did you just pick the best of the crop?’

The women laughed out loud, drawing the attention of more than a few dinner guests around them.

‘You know me, Lyds, I never really noticed what any of them looked like – even the hot ones. Not until I met Paul. He’s just so different, and I don’t think he even knows that he’s good to look at,’ she said.

‘Like you, you mean?’ said Lydia with a knowing smile.

‘I’m nothing special – you know that. I’m just a girl who likes a good walk in the outdoors. I’ve never been into that “look at me” kind of life. And I never even wanted to attract a man, anyway,’ Rebekah said.

‘Exactly – and that is why they were always all mad for you!’ Lydia replied, a little too loudly for Rebekah’s liking.

‘Who was always mad for you?’ asked Paul, returning to her side and putting on an arch look.

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