Ashton Park (51 page)

The feeling of having escaped a dogfight with Richthofen’s Flying Circus vanished when he looked across the aerodrome to where his SPAD S.XX was parked. A tall man stood beside it. He glanced at Caroline, who was hugging a sleeping Charles to her chest. Her lips tightened.

“Yes. It’s Tanner.”

Kipp glared at the French official next to him. “
Pourquoi avez-vous permis que l’homme près de mon avion?
”

The official grew flustered. “He said he was one of your business partners, Captain Danforth. From England.”

“He is as much a business partner as the German ace Hermann Goering,
monsieur.”

The Frenchman’s face reddened. “
J’en suis desolé.
”

“Never again. Please call the
gendarmes.
”

Kipp waited a moment while the sun rose clear of the spring fields and stared at Buchanan, who remained perfectly still by the plane. Then he made up his mind and began to stride across the damp grass. Again his thoughts took him to 1917 and 1918 and the walk to his fighter plane under an early morning sky. The memory made every muscle in his body tense.

“Kipp!” Caroline ran after him. “Wait for the police to handle Tanner!”

“I don’t need the police.”

“Please.”

“I policed the skies and aerodromes of France four years ago, Caroline. I can do it today.”

Caroline realized she was dealing with a different man than the one she had known in England, all smiles and gentle words and gallantry. This was the man she had never seen, the one who had climbed into cockpits every day of the war knowing he might never land again, might never see her again, a man who might take bullets to his chest or be burned alive when his plane caught fire but who still flew east to the sun and challenged the Germans to a duel with wings and guns. She stopped running.

“Who are you?” she whispered. “We are both strangers to each other this morning.”

“Tanner Buchanan.” Kipp stopped in front of the tall Scot with burning blue eyes and hair like black water in a stream. “Have you cut the fuel line?”

The Scot’s face was rough-cut but handsome. He shook it quickly once. “There is no honor in that.”

“I’m putting Caroline in the plane with Charles.”

“You’re not taking my son. Or my woman.”

“I’m taking both.”

“I’ll kill you, Danforth. I’ll snap you like a dry branch.”

“Stop it!” Caroline came up, still holding a sleeping Charles. “Tanner, I’m going back to England. Back to my father and mother. If you want you may visit us there at the Scarborough estate. Though you must understand my father may take exception. He is wild enough to challenge you to a duel.”

“A duel.” The words rolled in a thick brogue off the Scotsman’s tongue. “I’d like that.”

“I wouldn’t. Charles would lose his father or his grandfather. Or both. If you still love me you won’t let it come to that.”

“Love you? I’d die for you.”

“I don’t want you to die for me. I want you to live. We will never be husband and wife. But you will always be Charles’s father.”

Tanner sneered. “So are you going to marry this Englishman?”

“No. He’s already married to another.”

“Perhaps he fancies you for a weekend lover.”

Kipp lashed out swiftly and struck him on the chin with his fist. Tanner’s head snapped back. Before he could recover Kipp hit him three more times in rapid succession. The Scotsman’s eyes glassed over and he fell to the ground under the wings of the SPAD.

“No more!” cried Caroline, seizing Kipp’s arm.

“He’s down. There is no more.”

“You shouldn’t have hit him.”

“Someone had to hit someone if we were going to get on board that plane.”

“He’ll never forgive you. He’s as medieval about honor as my father.”

“It might be that I am as well.” Kipp turned eyes of fire on her. “No one can talk to you like that.”

Startled by the strength with which he spoke his words, Caroline did not reply for a moment. Then she said quietly, “You love someone else now.”

“I have a great deal of love in me.”

Confused, Caroline took the sentence in. “What are you saying? Is it possible you think you can love us both? No man can do that.”

“Here are the
gendarmes.
”

Six policemen arrived and picked Tanner off the ground.

“Are there any charges, Captain Danforth?” asked the officer in command.

“Just keep him away from my airplane until we’ve taken off.”

“Of course. Did he have a fall?”

“Yes. A fall from grace.”

As they dragged the big man away, Kipp dug out a flight jacket, helmet, and goggles from the rear seat and handed them to Caroline. “Put this on, please.
Tout de suite.
”

“Whose are they?”

“Christelle wears them whenever we go up.”

“Kipp, I can’t put those on.”

“Chris knows you’re going to use the helmet and jacket. She was the one who offered them. ‘For heaven’s sake,
mon cher,
you cannot put the poor woman in clothing four times her size. She has been through enough.
Laissez-lui quelque chose d’usure dans laquelle elle ressemble et se sent merveilleux.’”

“I’m afraid my French isn’t quite as good as my Portuguese.”

Kipp took Charles gently from her arms. “
Let her wear something in which she looks and feels wonderful.
”

“Your woman has a good deal of space in her heart.” Caroline picked the flight jacket off the grass and pulled it on. “More than I should ever have if you were my husband.”

Kipp was wrapping a sheepskin blanket around Charles. “The old Caroline maybe. I’m not so sure about the new one.”

“Why do you keep saying that? I’m the same person. Yes, a few changes, life does that, but I’m still Caroline Scarborough.”

“No.” He kissed the top of the boy’s head. “Four years ago you would have said you were
Lady
Caroline Scarborough.”

She stood still as she took this in. Dawn found her and lit up her bright hair and blue eyes. Kipp smiled.

“What is it?” she asked, the flight jacket fastened up to her throat. “I look foolish, don’t I? I have no doubt your French wife is absolutely smashing in this.”

If Caroline was confused about her feelings and the man she had once known as Kipp Danforth, then Kipp was just as confused about the woman who used to be Lady Caroline Scarborough. He let his eyes linger as the light showered her body and face. The brown leather gleamed and held her shoulders and hips snugly. She filled the jacket perfectly, her hair falling loose over its front and back.

“
Vous êtes magnifique.
” With one hand he held the boy to him and with the other he took Caroline’s arm. “Let me help you into the rear cockpit.”

“I know that much French. You shouldn’t be saying it if it’s not true. And you, my old friend, should not be saying it at all.”

She lowered herself into the cockpit, his hand on her back.

Kipp gave Charles to her once she had strapped herself in.
“Christelle dirais la même chose—et vos yeux sont d’azur, pas simplement bleu, mademoiselle.
”

“What?” Caroline half-laughed. “You sound like a man selling apples and oranges on the Champs Elysees.”

“I merely said that Chris would agree. And that the proper word for your eyes is
azur,
not
bleu.
” The
gendarmes
had brought up the luggage and he placed it in the back with her and her son. “Please put on the helmet and goggles. I will be flying low so that Charles is not distressed for lack of oxygen but you’ll see more and be more comfortable with them on.”

His head passed near hers as he stowed the bags. They looked at each other.

“Kipp. When you kissed me in the hotel room—”

“I had to. I didn’t want you to cry out. And I felt that placing my hand over your mouth would make you panic.”

“So it meant nothing?”

“I didn’t say it meant nothing. The last twenty-four hours have made my life difficult.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have to tell you.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

“Are you afraid?” he asked.

“A little,” she replied.

“Are you afraid of flying?”

“A little.”

“You will be all right.” Kipp jumped into his cockpit and began to check all the gauges. “And Chris will have to come up with the answer because it’s beyond me. I can’t understand anything that happened in the hotel from the moment I saw you at the foot of the staircase. But she will.”

“No woman can understand your feelings for another woman.”

“Chris can.”

“She will not want to.”

“Yes, she will.”

“No woman is so free or so gracious.”

“Get your helmet and goggles on. We’re leaving. First to London. Then from our airfield there to Ashton Park.”

“All of this is quite mad.” Caroline began fighting to get her hair under the leather helmet. “I think we are both suffering from lack of sleep.”

The French ground crew came up and pulled the chocks away from the SPAD’s wheels. Kipp leaned down to one of them. “
Mélange complet—radiateurs fermés—un accélérateur troisième place au chaud.
”

“What was that you said?” she asked.

“Petrol mixture full. Radiators closed. I’m going to start the engine and then open the throttle a bit to about one-third. Two minutes or so of warm-up and we’re off.” He turned around to face her. “You’re sitting where the tail gunner is supposed to be. Let me know if you see Tanner coming after us in a Fokker D.VII, all right?”

“That’s not funny, Kipp.” She stared at his goggles. “They make you look like someone else.” She pulled hers over her eyes.

“So do yours.
Démarrer le moteur
!” On the propeller’s second spin the engine caught and roared. After a couple of minutes Kipp gave the thumbs-up. “
Radiateurs à mi-chemin. J’ouvre le papillon des gaz maintenant—merci—au revoir.”

“What?” asked Caroline again.

“You don’t have to know everything.”

“This is my first time, Kipp.”

“Radiators are at half. I’m opening up the throttle.” The plane began to roll forward. “We’ll get the RPMs up. Head into the wind. Once we’re going fast enough we’ll lift off. The principles of aeronautics.”

“Motorcar engines are always failing.”

“I’ve never had a plane engine quit on me yet, Lady Caroline.”

“Please don’t call me that!” She had to shout above the engine.

“It’s your title. Your parents will insist on it once we land at Ashton Park.”

“I prefer being ordinary.”

“Your father will think I’m insulting you. It will be matter of family honor. There will be a duel.”

“Stop it.”

“There will.”

“Oh, use my title when we land in Lancashire, if you must. Until then, I’m Caroline.”

If he replied, she did not hear it above the rush of wind and the howl of the engine. Green grass and plane hangars were flashing past. They bounced two or three times and began to leave the ground. Charles opened his eyes, looked around him, looked at his mother, looked at the clouds and blue sky, and began to laugh.

His mother was terrified. “How can you laugh? We’re hanging in the air with nothing underneath us.”

The SPAD flew low, heading north and east. They could see the tiny farms and roads and cattle and people. Soon they were over Amiens and the skies Kipp had patrolled. Again the feeling of war came over him. Then it was Calais and the Channel, a rugged blue with whitecaps and gulls that turned over and over. Caroline’s mouth opened as they soared over the water and the cliffs of Dover drew closer and closer, flaming a pure white in the early morning air.

It’s like the beginning of the world, Kipp.

“What’s all the commotion?” Victoria stood at the head of the staircase and looked down at Christelle as Lord and Lady Scarborough rushed out the door with her father and mother. “Is it the king?” She laughed, holding one hand over her large stomach.