Chapter 28
Millie looked up at the sky in Annapolis, grateful that there wasn’t a cloud to be seen.
It was warmer than usual for early December, so hopefully their guests were comfortable in their seats.
Rory Hawley, whom she’d only met a few weeks back, was a wonder when it came to organizing a big event.
The moment Rory heard from Katherine what they were planning, she’d set to work.
From the size of the crowd, it looked like all of Congress and their families had come out to see the show, along with a sizeable contingent of the women’s rights activists who had led the suffrage movement.
Millie just had to hope they had enough blankets, hot water bottles, and hot cocoa to keep them all warm so that they could be comfortable and enjoy the entertainment.
Some silly part of her hoped she’d spot Ernie in the crowd, but the odds of that were low.
She’d avoided reaching out to him about it.
If it went well, she could tell him about her triumph, but if it went poorly…
No, she wasn’t going to think about that.
The last thing she needed before a big show was to give in to self-doubt.
After all, Mr. Burleson was out there somewhere, and he was expecting perfection. Initially he’d declined the invitation, but Millie had enlisted the help of her formidable new friends, Rory Hawley and her aunt, Alva Belmont—prominent suffragettes from a powerful and influential family.
The three of them had visited his offices together to make their case.
He agreed that if this worked and he got his airmail funding, he would reconsider his stance on women flying the mail.
He also grudgingly agreed to offer Ernie his job back after Millie pleaded his case.
But Mr. Burleson’s parting words were, “No mistakes or our deal is off.”
Millie had to deliver the best performance of her life, and everything she cared about was on the line. Thank God she had help! She could never have pulled this off alone.
Rory came striding over, decked out in a plum satin flying suit lined with fur, her homage to Harriet Quimby, the first woman to earn a pilot’s license—God rest her soul.
If only Harriet could have flown with them today!
But Rory was an excellent pilot and would dazzle the crowd just as thoroughly as her predecessor.
“Darling, are you ready for the show? It’s simply smashing how many people came out to see us ladies take flight! ”
It was. The sight of so many brought tears to Millie’s eyes, which she blinked back.
The only thing that would have made this more perfect was Ernie, but she’d promised herself she wouldn’t reach out to him until she’d made things right and gotten him his job back.
And this was the day she would make everything right.
She would save the airmail and get Ernie’s job back, God willing.
“I’m ready. Where are Katherine and Gertie? ”
“Over by their airplanes doing final checks. Shall I tell Aunt Alva we’re ready to go?”
Sure enough, her friends had already donned their flight suits and were scrutinizing every inch of their aircrafts.
Millie had already checked her plane several times over.
Nerves didn’t usually bother her, but with the stakes so high, she had butterflies in her stomach as she looked out at the airfield.
“Yes, please. Let’s show everyone what an aviatrix can do. ”
Rory grinned and nodded then strode off to tell her aunt to deliver the opening address.
Millie headed for her plane, holding her head high and fending off the jittery flutter in her gut. Katherine and Gertie greeted her as she joined them.
“Millie, I’m so glad we’re doing this!” Katherine came over and wrapped her in a big hug. “Let’s show those dusty old idiots in Congress what we ladies are capable of.”
“Hear, hear,” Gertie added, joining the hug. “This is going to be one heck of a sockdolager!”
Yes. Yes, it was.
The electric crackle of the microphone over the loudspeaker made them break apart and stand at attention. Rory hurried over and joined them as they all turned to the podium where Alva Belmont took her position, somehow managing to look like a brigadier general despite her fur coat.
“Ladies and gentlemen, members of Congress, and dignitaries, we are gathered here today to see a once-in-a-lifetime performance by four daring young women who are pioneering a new era in the skies. No sooner were airplanes invented than ladies took flight. The future, my friends, belongs equally to both sexes, and aviation is no exception.”
The women in the crowd rose to their feet and applauded so loudly that Mrs. Belmont had to pause.
The men were slower to clap, but when they saw the reaction of the women around them, they joined in.
The women’s vote had become very powerful indeed!
Millie’s heart was fit to burst at the sight.
Maybe this crazy scheme was going to work.
“Yes…yes…now then…” Mrs. Belmont attempted to calm the crowd. At last, they settled down. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to introduce to you the amazing pilots who will perform daring aerial acrobatics today, starting with my niece, Mrs. Aurora Hawley!”
The audience jumped to their feet again, hooting and hollering, as Rory climbed into her cockpit and waved.
“Miss Gertrude Hamilton,” Mrs. Belmont called out, and Gertie beamed as she climbed into her cockpit and waved with both hands to the adoring crowd.
“Miss Katherine Stinson!”
The noise from the crowd got even louder as Katherine took her place.
“And Hollywood’s high-flying sweetheart, Miss Millie Aldrich!”
As Millie climbed into her plane, the roar of the crowd deafened her. She could do this. She’d done it hundreds of times before—maybe thousands. But never had so much depended on her performance—the future of the airmail, women pilots, and the love of her life.
“It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you our announcers for this performance, Evelyn Carnegie and Beth Rodgers!” Aunt Alva stepped aside, making way.
Millie couldn’t hold back her grin as she watched Beth sashay up to the podium along with a petite brunette who must have been Miss Carnegie.
“Thank you, Mrs. Belmont for the wonderful introduction,” Miss Carnegie said, kissing Mrs. Belmont on the cheek as she descended from the podium. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the show of a lifetime?”
“I know I sure am,” Beth quipped, and the crowd hooted their agreement. “Well, then, ladies. Let’s give the people what they want. Pilots, start your engines!”
Deep breaths. Ignore the crowd. It’s time to fly.
Millie signaled to the mechanic standing by to swing her propeller as she opened the throttle. The buzz of the engine drowned out the roar of the crowd as she taxied out onto the green runway and took off.
Airborne at last, she let all her worries fall away and reveled in soaring above the grounds as the other ladies took off one by one.
She couldn’t hear the announcers or the crowd. Up here, it was just her, her fellow pilots, and the rumble of her engine.
And the beep of the radio telegraphing instructions in Morse code.
Rory had arranged for the experimental devices to be installed so that they could stay coordinated in the air.
Millie could only imagine how it would improve safety for airmail pilots if the planes were equipped with radios like this.
No doubt, Mr. Burleson would have balked at the expense, but she hoped they would find a way.
It would save lives if they could communicate.
The four of them circled above the airfield, aligning themselves into formation for a fly-by.
Leading the others, Millie swooped down, flying low over the crowd and making all the men clutch their hats.
She laughed to herself as she pulled up and glided over the trees.
It was fun to give those congressmen a bit of a thrill.
The knot in her stomach loosened a bit as she settled into the rhythm of their act.
She soared up, up, up into a death-defying loop-the-loop, playing with gravity like it was at her personal command and not an inexorable force of nature.
She pushed higher, harder into a corkscrew.
The other ladies followed her lead, duplicating her tricks one after another.
So far, everything was going swimmingly.
But the hardest part was yet to come. They’d invented a stunt they called “The Mail Drop,” which they had practiced over and over for hours on end in the lead-up to the show.
It was a tricky maneuver, and it only worked about half the time, but she hoped against hope that they would pull it off today.
Following the commands of the radio tones from the ground, she and her friends moved from one feat of derring-do to another.
With each trick, her confidence rose, and the cloud that had settled over her since she broke things off with Ernie lifted a little bit more.
She could only hope the crowd was properly awed by the skill and speed of their acrobatics.
Would it be enough to save the airmail, give women a chance at pilot jobs, and salvage Ernie’s job? Only time would tell.
The signal came for “The Mail Drop,” and her stomach clenched.
Sitting next to her in the cockpit were five canvas sacks about the size of small handbags with “Mail” printed on them.
They were filled with beans for weight. Blue scarves were tied to each of them to make them easy to see.
Down on the field, there were three white circles painted on the grass.
To start with, they each had to drop one bag in each of the circles.