Merope had said Gerald Phipps was doing something in World War II, but she hadn’t said what or when. Michael Davies was doing Dunkirk. He might be here. But Dunkirk had been over for nearly four months. He was probably in Pearl Harbor by now, or at the Battle of the Bulge, neither of which did her any good. He’d mentioned his roommate, but he’d been doing Singapore, also of no help. Polly frowned, trying to remember if he and Merope had mentioned anyone else who-
Merope. Might she still be in Backbury? When Polly’d seen her in Oxford, she’d said she still had months left on her assignment, but that might mean anything. She tried to remember if Merope had said anything else about how long her assignment was. Most of the children had been evacuated in September and October 1939. If Merope had been on a yearlong assignment, there was a chance she might still be there.
I need to write her immediately, Polly thought. But what was her name? Eileen Something. An Irish name. O’Reilly or O’Malley. Or Rafferty. She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember the name of the manor either. Had Merope even mentioned it?
There would scarcely be more than one manor near Backbury. But what if there were? And even if there was only one, she couldn’t send a letter addressed only to “Eileen the Irish Maid at the Manor near Backbury.”
I’ll have to go up to Backbury and find her, she thought. She’d need to go up there to use her drop at any rate, and going would be quicker than writing and then waiting for a letter back.
But what if she’s not there? Polly thought. I’ll have given up my job-and the best chance the retrieval team has of locating me-for naught. And what if it is a divergence point that’s standing in their way, and they come the moment I’m gone? She’d better stay here.
But every day that went by increased the chance of Merope’s going back to Oxford and Polly’s missing her. And she needn’t quit her job to go find her-she could show Miss Snelgrove Props’s letter saying that her mother was gravely ill and that she needed to come at once. Miss Snelgrove could scarcely refuse to let her go in that sort of situation, and she’d been extremely understanding the day the shelter had been destroyed. And as far as the retrieval team went, Polly could tell Marjorie to tell anyone who came in asking for her that she worked there and when she’d be back.
And making the journey to Backbury would be better than sitting here fretting over what would happen if the retrieval team didn’t come by her deadline. But, given her recent run of luck, they’d arrive as soon as she left. Especially if the divergence point they were being kept from interfering with was the big attack on Fleet Street, which would happen Wednesday night.
I’ll give it till Thursday, she thought. Surely they’ll be here by then. But they weren’t.
11 Across:-But some bigwig like this has stolen some of it at times. (Solution: Overlord)
War Emergency Hospital-September 1940
“COMMANDER HAROLD AND JONATHAN WERE KILLED AT Dunkirk?” Mike said to Daphne. “No, they weren’t. They made it safely back to Dover. I was with them. The Commander helped put me on the stretcher-”
“That’s when you were hurt?” Daphne asked. “On that first journey?”
“Yes-first journey?”
She nodded. “When the Lady Jane turned up missing, the Commander’s granddaughter-Jonathan’s mum-was afraid they’d gone to Dunkirk. She asked Dad to go down to Dover to find out what he could, and the Admiralty told him they’d gone to Dunkirk on their own and brought troops back and then set off again immediately, but that they didn’t make it back that time. They didn’t know what had happened to them, but we do know they made it over to Dunkirk that second time. Mr. Powney saw them.”
“Mr. Powney? The farmer who’d gone to buy the bull?”
“Yes. That’s why he didn’t come back that day. He never made it to Hawkhurst. On his way there he found out about the rescue effort and went to Ramsgate to volunteer. They put him on a coast guard cutter, and he made three journeys and rescued ever so many soldiers.”
“And he saw the Commander and Jonathan?”
“Yes, in Dunkirk. On the thirtieth. They were loading troops onto the Lady Jane under heavy fire. He hailed them, but they were too far away to hear him. And the Daffodil saw them leaving the east mole, but they weren’t seen after that. The officer who talked to Dad said it was likely a torpedo got them on the way back. Or a mine.”
Or a Stuka, Mike thought, remembering the shriek of the diving plane. Or another corpse in the propeller.
“When your letter for him came, Miss Fintworth-she’s our postmistress-didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t give it to Jonathan’s mum-she’d gone to her people in Yorkshire after she got the bad news-and she didn’t like to send it back since it was plain you didn’t know what had happened, so she brought it to Dad to ask him what to do. I hope you don’t think we did wrong by opening it, but Dad said it might be urgent, being from a hospital and all, and when we read it and found out you’d been injured at Dunkirk, we thought you must have been with them. We knew you didn’t know”-she gave the gloves another twist-“how things had ended, or you wouldn’t have written the Commander, but we thought perhaps you were there when the Lady Jane was hit and then got separated from them somehow and been rescued, and that you knew what had happened.”
No, but I know why they died, he thought. Because he’d untangled their propeller. He’d made it possible for them to go back again.
Daphne was looking questioningly at him.
“No, I was injured on that first run,” he managed to say. “I didn’t know they’d gone over there again. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking down at her gloves. “Dad says it was the Commander’s foolhardiness got them killed. The Small Vessels Pool had turned the Lady Jane down, you see. Dad says he should have listened to them.”
“He wanted to help,” Mike said. “A lot of boats went over on their own, and it was a good thing. The Army was in a pretty bad spot.”
“And you went along to help them. I think it was marvelous of you to do that, being a Yank and everything. It was very brave. The officer told Dad that the Commander and Jonathan brought home nearly a hundred of our boys. He said they were true heroes.”
They were, he thought. You wanted to observe heroism, and you got your wish. “Absolutely. They showed a lot of courage.”
Daphne nodded solemnly. “You were a hero as well. The nurse told me about your untangling the propeller and all that. She said you should have a medal.”
A medal, he thought bitterly, for being where he wasn’t supposed to be, for murderously altering events. If I hadn’t unfouled that propeller, that bomb would have hit the Lady Jane and damaged her rudder. They wouldn’t have been able to make that second trip-
Daphne was looking worriedly at him. “I’ve tired you out,” she said, standing up and beginning to pull on her gloves. “I should go.”
“No, you can’t.” He hadn’t been able to ask her about the retrieval team yet. “Can’t you stay a little longer?”
She hesitated, looking uncertainly in the direction of the doors. “The nurse said I was only to stay a quarter of-”
“Please.” He reached for her hand. “It’s so nice having a visitor. Tell me what’s been happening in Saltram- on-Sea.”
