He was. When Polly came onstage in her doublet and hose, he was yelling at the rector—a scene made worse by the fact that Miss Laburnum had insisted Sir Godfrey try on his costume. In his Fuhrer’s uniform and Hitler mustache, he looked positively dangerous.
“Vivien Leigh will be here at ten o’clock tonight to rehearse her scenes, and not only will they not be ready, but she will not even be able to get onstage!” he shouted. “Alf and Binnie had better not be behind this.”
“They only just got here,” Polly said, though that was hardly proof of their innocence. They could easily have booby-trapped the fire-safety curtain last night.
They’re a force for good, she told herself. They saved Captain Westbrook’s life. And Eileen’s. They won the war. But she had difficulty persuading herself of it, particularly when she found them dueling backstage with her sword and one of Mr. Dorming’s wet paintbrushes.
The rector and Mr. Dorming finally got the fire-safety curtain to work, but when they tried to raise the painted scrim with the forest and the castle on it for the transformation scene, it stuck. “Perhaps we should send for a carpenter,” Miss Laburnum suggested timidly.
“And where exactly will we find one this time of night, and in the middle of a raid?” Sir Godfrey said, gesturing with his riding crop at the ceiling. “We might just as well send for the walrus!” His mustache quivered. “Or the March Hare, who would be entirely appropriate in this madhouse.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” he said to the cowering Miss Laburnum. “ ‘Go and catch a falling star! Get with child a mandrake root!’ ”
Miss Laburnum scurried off to find a carpenter, and Sir Godfrey turned to Polly. “I knew I should never have agreed to do pantomime, Viola.”
“I think we should’ve done Rapunzel,” Trot piped up. “It’s got a tower.”
Sir Godfrey, his Hitler mustache quivering, raised his riding crop threateningly.
“And a witch,” Trot said.
“Trot, go fetch the other children, there’s a good girl,” Polly said, shooing her out of Sir Godfrey’s reach. And to him, “We can do the prologue and most of the first act in front of the scrim, and then, when the carpenter comes, we can do the transformation scene.”
“Very well. Prologue!” he called. “Places, every—”
There was a terrific clatter of metal from the wings. “Alf!” Sir Godfrey roared.
Alf came onstage, holding one of the prop swords, slightly bent. “I didn’t touch nothin’. They just fell over. I swear.”
They won the war, Polly repeated silently. They won the war.
“If any of you foul fiends touch anything else, anything,” Sir Godfrey said, looking apoplectic, “I will cut off your head and nail it to the theater door as a warning to all other children!” and even Alf looked impressed. “Give me that sword and go sit down out front. Close the curtain! Places!”
Polly stepped out in front of the curtain and delivered her prologue to the audience, which consisted of Alf, Binnie, a skeptical Trot with her arms folded belligerently across her little chest, and Nelson in the front row. Polly welcomed them to the pantomime, telling them they were about to see miraculous things, and assuring them that, in spite of appearances, it would have a happy ending. “ ‘His evil will not triumph. In the end,’ ” she said, “ ‘it is the Fuhrer who’ll be round the bend.’ ”
The audience clapped and cheered, except for Trot, who apparently was still annoyed they weren’t doing Rapunzel.
“ ‘And now, to our tale,’ ” Polly said, sweeping her arm out toward the curtain. “ ‘Its beginning lies in a royal castle, with a King, a Queen, and their infant daughter.’ ”
The curtain, thankfully, opened, revealing Mrs. Brightford wearing a crown and holding a doll in her arms.
“Where is the King?” Sir Godfrey demanded, roaring out onstage.
“You mean the rector?” Binnie said. “He went with Miss Laburnum to fetch the carpenter.”
“ ‘My kingdom for a horse,’ ” Sir Godfrey muttered. “Mr. Dorming!”
Mr. Dorming appeared in the wings, paintbrush and bucket in hand.
“You’ll play the King.”
“I don’t know his lines,” Mr. Dorming said.
“Prompter!” Sir Godfrey roared.
“Eileen’s not here yet,” Polly said.
“I’ll play the King,” Binnie said, racing onstage. “I know all the lines.”
She went over to Mrs. Brightford. “ ‘My Queen, we must have a great christening and invite all the fairies in the land.’ ” She turned to Sir Godfrey. “See?”
Sir Godfrey rolled his eyes and waved at her to proceed, and they made it safely through that scene and the next, which involved, for some reason, a song and dance by the Three Bears, but they needed Miss Laburnum and the rector, neither of whom had come back yet, for the christening scene.
Eileen hadn’t arrived either, and Polly listened nervously to the bombs. It sounded like they were over Chelsea and moving northwest. Toward Kensington and Polly’s drop.
“I said, we’ll rehearse the Prince’s scene,” Sir Godfrey was saying. “If the bramblebushes haven’t deserted us as well.”
“Sorry,” Polly said, and went to find the children.
They were backstage, standing on Sleeping Beauty’s bed. Alf and Binnie were teaching Trot and the
