02 - Flight of Fancy Read Online Free PDF

Clara
managed before Tommy pinched her arm.
    “I insist, and Mr Fitzgerald
you must come tomorrow too and get a good look at the Buzzard.”
    Tommy’s face broke into a big
grin.
    “Thank you, old boy!”
    “I know a fellow aviation
enthusiast when I see one.” O’Harris replied, “Well Miss Fitzgerald?”
    “I suppose I shall see you
tomorrow.” Clara said.
    “About 11 o’clock?”
    “Yes, that is acceptable.”
    “Good, I’ll send a car for
you.”
    Clara couldn’t help her
surprise.
    “A car?”
     

Chapter Four
    The car was painted burgundy
and glistened and sparkled in the morning sunlight. A grey liveried chauffeur
opened the door for Clara and refused to let her help him assist Tommy into the
vehicle. Sitting in the open-topped car as they whistled down the country lanes
Clara experienced a tremor of nerves as she clutched her hat to her head. Other
than in a train she had never travelled so fast.
    “Do you suppose he knows what
he is doing?” She asked her brother.
    “Isn’t this grand, old bean!”
Tommy said back, the roar of the engine and the wind whisking by obscuring her
question, “If only my legs worked Clara! Think of what I could do!”
    “Is that a cow ahead?”
    They both cried out as the
driver whipped them around a corner and confronted a black and white Fresian in
the centre of the road. He beeped his horn loudly, barely slowing, and the
animal ambled up the grass verge in time to avoid being mown down.
    “That was dreadfully
dangerous!” Clara gasped.
    “Old girl, once everyone learns
the rules of the road there won’t be a problem.”
    “Really?” Clara said cynically,
“Didn’t you read about that road accident in the paper? The man on the bicycle
and the Bentley?”
    “Yes, yes, but that is all
ignorance. Mark my words, once we get the hang of cars there won’t be any
accidents. You just have to have a little sense, that’s all.”
    “Excuse me if I don’t entirely
believe you.” Clara snorted, wondering who was going to teach road sense to the
cows and sheep that dotted the rural fields they flew past.
    There was one thing she could
not criticise, however. They arrived at Captain O’Harris’ house far quicker
than they ever could have done on foot. As they pulled into the drive O’Harris
waved at them and bounced down the steps to open the car door for Clara.
    “My dear, you look rather
windswept.” He laughed, offering his hand.
    “We nearly killed a cow.” Clara
said indignantly, “And no one informed me I was to travel open air at high
speeds.”
    “The beast can go some.”
O’Harris grinned, patting his car affectionately, “I call her Speedy Suzy,
after an old flame.”
    “Dare I ask if the girl would
be insulted?”
    “I imagine she would, Suzy was
anything but speedy, but she did look good in dark red.”
    “Captain O’Harris!” Tommy
appeared around the side of the car being pushed by the chauffeur in his
wheelchair, “You don’t know how I envy you. This car is magnificent! If only I
was not confined to this chair.”
    Tommy deflated slightly as
reality sank in.
    “Don’t get dispirited, I
wouldn’t have sent it if I thought it would plunge you down in the dumps.”
O’Harris said quickly.
    “It’s not that.” Tommy glanced
longingly at the car, “People don’t know what it is to dream of doing the
impossible.”
    “I do.” O’Harris assured him,
“I dreamt of flying and people laughed, they told me never, they told me give
up. But there I was in the war, skimming the skies. Who says one day you won’t
drive a car or even fly a plane too?”
    “The doctors say it.” Tommy
answered glumly.
    “And what do they know?”
O’Harris shook his head, “If I believed everything my doctors told me then I
shouldn’t be standing before you. My doctors tell me, my heart’s not quite what
it should be and could stop at any second from a sudden shock. If they had
known that in the flying corps they would have never let me fly,