We'll Meet Again Read Online Free PDF

day. During the day any boats could be seen. Fortunately, there are not many places along this coast where it would be easy to land. However, the beach below this house is certainly one of them and this little stretch of coast is our responsibility. I am preparing a rota and the beach will be watched throughout the hours of darkness by two observers. You two will naturally want to do your part. With the servants and the people from the cottages around here there will be several available, so your periods of duty will not come round so frequently.”
    “Certainly we shall do our share,” I said. “Tell us more.”
    “We shall watch in pairs for two hours each night. Fortunately at this time of year there are not many hours of darkness. You and Dorabella can watch together. Some of the older couples can join in. It will give them the satisfaction of helping the war effort.”
    Charley and Bert Trimmell wanted to be on the rota and Gordon thought it was a good idea that they should be. He had discovered that Charley was quite interested in the estate and he was giving him tasks now and then for which he was receiving small payments. He and Gordon seemed to get on very well together.
    Dorabella and I quite looked forward to those nocturnal duties. It was good to have something worthwhile to do and be able to do it together.
    It was one o’clock in the morning. We had been on duty since midnight and at two o’clock the next pair would come to take over.
    We sat looking across the sea, talking desultorily.
    “How strange life has become,” said Dorabella. “At least it’s not exactly boring. I found it so once …”
    “That was when you had the urge to run away with your Frenchman,” I said.
    “You wouldn’t understand. I saw life stretching out before me … year after year … the same old thing day after day. And the impulse came. Oh, no, you wouldn’t understand. Violetta would always do her duty.”
    “You left Tristan,” I said. “That was what I could not understand.”
    “He was only a child. Oh, it’s no use trying to explain. I thought I’d settle in Paris, and Dermot would divorce me. I would marry Jacques Dubois and you would come over to see me. I thought it would work somehow.”
    “That’s just like you. You make a wild plan and then imagine everything is going to work out to make it come right.”
    “Don’t scold.”
    “Well, it was all rather stupid, as it turned out.”
    “You’ll never understand.”
    “I think I do … quite well.”
    Then suddenly I saw the light on the water. It was a long way out, almost on the horizon. It flickered for a moment and then went out.
    “Did you see that?” I whispered.
    “Where?”
    “Look. No. Towards the horizon there. It’s gone. No. There it is again.”
    Dorabella was staring ahead of her. “Lights,” she whispered. “Oh, Violetta, they’ve come. The invasion has started!”
    “Wait a minute,” I whispered. “It’s gone. No, there it is.”
    For a few seconds we watched the unearthly lights on the water.
    “There’s another, and another,” I cried.
    It was light and then dark; the lights seemed to be bobbing on the water.
    I said: “We must give the alarm at once. I’ll call Gordon. You wait here and watch.”
    I hurried to the house and up to Gordon’s room. I knocked on his door. There was no answer, so I went in.
    He was fast asleep.
    “Gordon!” I cried. “They’ve come. It’s the invasion.”
    Within seconds he was out of bed and pulling on some clothes.
    As we came out of his room, one of the servants appeared.
    “Wake everyone up,” cried Gordon. “Raise the alarm!”
    We hurried down. Dorabella came to meet us.
    The sea was dark now. I wondered whether the enemy had realized their lights had been seen.
    There were voices everywhere, and several people on the cliff looking out to sea. The whole company of the Local Defence Volunteers had arrived.
    “Should us alert them in Plymouth, sir?” asked