Flight of Faith: Virtues and Valor Series, #7

By Hallee Bridgeman

HELEN MULBERRY, the youngest child and only daughter of a wealthy Texas oil tycoon, has always had her every wish granted immediately. When the Germans march into France, no one denies her request to fly her plane to England and help free up a male pilot for combat. Her father's influence opens doors, and 19 year old Helen joins the Virtues team.

Now under the code-name FAITH, she flies between Britain and France, transporting passengers, supplies, or performing reconnaissance.  The Nazis guard their skies with vigor, and Helen learns to fly in combat, land in a field with no lights, and evade the anti-aircraft fire. She masterfully takes on each mission, despite the perceptions and chauvinistic attitudes of many of the male pilots.

Shot down over France during the mission to rescue the agent code named TEMPERANCE from the clutches of the Gestapo, Helen must make her way through enemy territory with no language skills and somehow come through with a means to get her team back to Britain. Can she save them, or will they all find that they have no way out?

FLIGHT OF FAITH  is the seventh episode in eight serialized novellas entitled the Virtues and Valor series by Hallee Bridgeman. Seven serialized novellas, each inspired by real people and actual events, reveal the incredible story of amazing heroines facing the ultimate test of bravery.

Seven valorous women — different nationalities, ethnicities, and social backgrounds — come together as a team called the Virtues.

In 1941 Great Britain a special war department assembles an experimental and exclusively female cohort of combat operatives. Four willing spies, a wireless radio operator, an ingenious code breaker, and a fearless pilot are each hand-picked, recruited, and trained to initiate a daring mission in Occupied France. As plans are laid to engineer the largest prison break of Allied POWs in history, the Nazis capture the Virtues' radio operator. It will take the cohesive teamwork of the rest of the women to save her life before Berlin breaks her and brings the force of the Third Reich to bear.

Some find love, some find vengeance, and some discover the kind of strength that lives in the human heart when all they can do is rely on each other and their shared belief. Courage, faith, and valor intersect but, in the end, one pays the ultimate price.

Continuing the Virtues and Valor series by Hallee Bridgeman. Eight serialized novellas, each inspired by real people and actual events, reveal the incredible story of amazing heroines facing the ultimate test of bravery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Olivia Kimbrell Press
• Release date: Mar 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781939603517

Hallee Bridgeman

Hallee Bridgeman is a best-selling Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real world problems. Her work has been described as everything from refreshing to heart-stopping exciting and edgy. An Army brat turned Floridian, Hallee finally settled in central Kentucky with her family so that she could enjoy the beautiful changing of the seasons. She enjoys the roller-coaster ride thrills that life with a National Guard husband, a teenaged daughter, and two elementary aged sons delivers. A prolific writer, when she's not penning novels, you will find her in the kitchen, which she considers the 'heart of the home'. Her passion for cooking spurred her to launch a whole food, real food "Parody" cookbook series. In addition to nutritious, Biblically grounded recipes, readers will find that each cookbook also confronts some controversial aspect of secular pop culture. Hallee is a member of the Published Author Network (PAN) of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) where she serves as a long time board member in the Faith, Hope, & Love chapter. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the American Christian Writers (ACW) as well as being a member of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Hallee loves coffee, campy action movies, and regular date nights with her husband. Above all else, she loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength; has been redeemed by the blood of Christ; and relies on the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide her. She prays her work here on earth is a blessing to you and would love to hear from you.

Book preview

FLIGHT OF FAITH, A NOVELLA

Flight of Faith, Virtues and Valor series part 7

Virtues and Valor Series, Part 7

a Novella by

Published by

Olivia Kimbrell Press™

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Flight of Faith, Virtues and Valor series part 7

First edition. Copyright © 2015 by Hallee Bridgeman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or recording – without express written permission of the author. The only exception is brief quotations in printed or broadcasted critical articles and reviews. Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, places, locales or to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or publisher. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

PUBLISHED BY: Olivia Kimbrell Press™*, P.O. Box 4393, Winchester, KY 40392-4393

The Olivia Kimbrell Press™ colophon and open book logo are trademarks of Olivia Kimbrell Press™.

*Olivia Kimbrell Press™ is a publisher offering true to life, meaningful fiction from a Christian worldview intended to uplift the heart and engage the mind.

Some scripture quotations courtesy of the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Some scripture quotations courtesy of the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas-Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Original Cover Art and Graphics by Debi Warford (www.debiwarford.com)

Colorized derivative image of WWII WASP Florene Miller Watson age 22 from an original black and white photograph CIRCA 1943 from the public domain. All other images from the public domain and conform to fair use.

Library Cataloging Data

U. S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014953683

Bridgeman, Hallee (Hallee A. Bridgeman) 1972-

Flight of Faith, Virtues and Valor series part 7 / Hallee Bridgeman

100 p. 23cm x 15cm (9in x 6 in.)

Summary: FLIGHT OF FAITH is part seven of seven serialized novellas entitled the Virtues and Valor series.

ISBN: 978-1-939603-51-7 (ebook)

1. Christian fiction 2. World War II 3. war stories 4. spies 5. historical fiction 6. espionage

PS3568.B7534 T517 2015

[Fic.] 813.6 (DDC 23)

Dedication

Dedication

For those women who fought right beside the men…

THIS series is dedicated to the amazing women who have worked, planned, strategized, served, led, and fought alongside men throughout human history. This novella is specifically dedicated to Florene Miller Watson. To read more about this true heroine, read the Inspired by Real Events section at the end of Faith’s story.

You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by

faith only.

James 2:24 (NKJV)

***

Prologue

Prologue

Near Lamarr, Central Texas: 1941

HELEN Mulberry bit into a sweet roll as she read the newspaper article about the loss of pilots in the ongoing Battle of Britain. Absently licking the sugar from her fingers, she only half heard her sister-in-law, JoAnn. Seriously, Helen, use a napkin. And get your feet off the chair!

It took a lot of self control not to stick her tongue out at the woman. Instead, she kept reading and just straightened, pulling her feet off the dining chair next to her. JoAnn was the only member of the family who called her Helen. Everyone else called her Troy, a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of her utter lack of femininity and a play on Helen of Troy.

She sat at the end of a table that would seat 18, next to her father who sat at the head of the table, his eyes scrutinizing the financial section.

JoAnn huffed at her brother Dwight. She acts like a 12-year-old boy instead of an eighteen-year-old woman. You should really do something.

Dwight, always her champion despite his wife’s preference to the contrary, joked, Actually, our 12-year-old son has much more dignity and grace. You really oughtn’t compare him to Troy that’a way.

Behind the paper, Helen snickered. Why do you think that’s funny? JoAnn inquired, popping the paper and breaking Helen’s line of reading. You’ll never find a husband acting the way you do. You’re so unladylike and crass. Wearing pants to the breakfast table!

Helen threw down the paper and picked up her coffee cup, which the downstairs maid had just refilled, intentionally putting her elbows on the table just because JoAnn bristled every single time she did. Helen could not help but try and rile her sister-in-law once in a while. Look-a here, JoAnn. First of all, I ain’t looking for no husband, she said, blowing on her coffee to cool the brew. ’Sides, Daddy gets at least one sincere offer per week for my hand. So, were I looking, which I ain’t, I’d have my pick of any one of those hundreds of gold diggers looking to marry into Daddy’s wealth. Know what I mean?

Her father peered over his paper. Don’t antagonize your brother’s wife, Troy. No reason to make him suffer. And you know better than to say ‘ain’t.’ You know I detest that.

To him, she did stick out her tongue, making him wink at her in return before he raised his paper back up.

Every last one of you coddles that girl, JoAnn announced, tossing her napkin onto her untouched breakfast and surging to her feet. If just one of you would say ‘Boo’ to her, she might just surprise you and actually start improving.

Knowing she’d pushed her long suffering sister-in-law to the edge, Helen waited until the older woman stormed out of the dining room before she looked at Dwight and said, Boo! before he could.

He did not laugh, but he smiled as he stood. I’m fixin’ to collect the boys from Nanny and head out to the field, Daddy. You free to come along? Check out that rig we talked about last night?

No one thought it odd that a man of his age stilled referred to his father as Daddy. Her father put down his paper and looked at his watch. I have to head on into Dallas around noon, but I’m free right now.

Despite the luxury of the formal dining room, her father and brothers wore denim jeans and blue cotton shirts. They wore leather moccasins on their feet, which would come off at the back door. There, they would and very muddy and oily boots with steel toes before heading out to work.

Dwight left the room to retrieve Helen’s nephews from their morning studies. Then he would head to the oil fields with them in tow. They would learn the family business in a very hands-on way this morning before reporting back to the tutor for afternoon studies. Her father and her brother both agreed that their education in the oil fields was just as important as the three R’s in the classroom.

She looked at her brother, Eddie, who stared at his plate of cold eggs with an absent look on his face. She could see the ever present darkness starting to settle on him like a mantle and took a second to think of the best way to push it back. "Wanna take Diamond up after breakfast, Eddie?" He did not move, just sat perfectly still and stared. Helen glanced at her father, who frowned at his oldest son before he drained his coffee cup and left the room, pausing only to pat the top of her head.

Helen pushed her chair back and rushed around the table to pull out the seat next to her eldest brother. She flipped the chair around and straddled the chair back so that her arms crossed across the back and her legs were spread wide. The undisguised tomboyishness of this pose would have sent JoAnn into a fit. Hey, Eddie, she said, nudging his shoulder. "Wanna go fly Diamond today?"

He looked at her with a blank stare, then shook his head. What?

"Diamond. Let’s give her a breeze this morning. Just you and me."

"Diamond? Sure. Yeah, sure, Troy. Let me, ah –" He ran his hands through his prematurely silver hair.

Knowing him better than she knew any person on earth, she put a hand on his shoulder. Why don’t you go get your jacket and meet me in the hangar?

He nodded, clarity finally returning to his eyes. Absolutely. I’ll see you out there in fifteen minutes.

Helen left the table and ran through the long dining room, out into the massive hall, and up the grand staircase. She went into her dressing room and found the wool lined lambskin leather jacket she’d tossed on the padded stool that sat in front of the hanging dresses that JoAnn insisted on stocking there with each fashion season.

Other than a famously unsuccessful debut three years ago, the only time Helen ever put on a dress was when she went to church. She exchanged her beloved denim dungarees for more feminine attire twice a week, forcing herself into a fashionable dress and those torture devices they considered shoes. When she came downstairs looking feminine and pretty, JoAnn would usually smile at her. That made pouring herself into what she considered the contraption worth it, because despite the constant bickering, she really did love her brother’s wife.

Five minutes later, she slid open the hangar door. Her father’s gift to her the Christmas of her 16th year, her beautiful North American Na-16, bright and shiny and silver, greeted her. She shone like a polished gemstone and so had been christened Texas Diamond almost immediately.