“Course ’e ain’t, you puddinghead,” Binnie said, coming out to the edge of the stage beside Alf. “Air-raid wardens don’t evacuate people.”
“They do if there’s a UXB,” Alf retorted. “Is ’e ’ere with the bomb squad, Polly?”
“I know who he is,” Trot said, joining Alf and Binnie. “He’s the Prince. He’s come to rescue Sleeping Beauty.”
“Don’t be daft,” Binnie said, while Alf collapsed in laughter. “There ain’t no such thing as Prince Dauntless.”
Oh, yes, there is, Polly thought. And he’s here. In the very nick of time.
“He is so the Prince,” Trot said, and started down the steps on the side of the stage. “I’ll show you.”
“No, you won’t,” Polly said. That was all they needed, the children down here asking questions. “Go change into your christening-scene costumes this instant.”
Trot headed immediately for the wings, followed by Nelson, but Polly should have known better than to think Alf and Binnie would obey her. “Sir Godfrey told us we was s’posed to go on from where we was,” Binnie said.
“I don’t care what he said, Binnie. Go put on your fairy costumes.”
Next to her Colin murmured, “That’s Binnie?”
Even he’s heard of the notorious Hodbins, Polly thought.
“Yes,” she said. “Go change for the christening scene now.”
“I can’t,” Binnie said. “Eileen ain’t back yet.”
Eileen. She’ll be overjoyed at the thought of going home.
“Eileen isn’t here?” Mr. Dunworthy asked.
“No, I think she went to check my drop first,” Polly said.
He and Colin exchanged glances.
“Why?” she asked worriedly. “The raids aren’t over Kensington tonight, are they?”
“No, they’re mostly over the docks,” Colin said.
“We can’t do the christening scene without I’m wearin’ my costume,” Binnie said. “And Eileen said not to put it on till she fixed the wing. It’s broke. Alf was the one what broke it,” she added unnecessarily.
“Put on the costume without the wings,” Polly ordered.
Eileen will be even more overjoyed at not having to cope with the Hodbins than she will be at going home, she thought, and then felt guilty. Alf and Binnie had already lost their mother, and now they were going to lose Eileen. Poor little—
“Eileen said not to,” Binnie said belligerently. “And Sir Godfrey said we was s’posed to go straight through to the end and no stopping.”
“Eileen said not to,” Binnie said belligerently. “And Sir Godfrey said we was s’posed to go straight through to the end and no stopping.”
“And I said go put on your costume,” Polly ordered. “And when Eileen gets here, tell her I need to speak to her.”
“All right, but you’re goin’ to be in trouble,” Binnie muttered darkly.
You’re wrong, Polly thought. We were in trouble, but now Colin’s here.
“Do as I say this instant,” she said, and Alf and Binnie trudged off the stage into the wings.
Polly turned back to Mr. Dunworthy and Colin. “I still can’t believe you’re here, Colin.”
“I can’t either. I had the very devil of a time finding you. Far worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.”
She could imagine. No one at Townsend Brothers would have known where they were, and even if he’d managed to find out they’d lived at Mrs. Rickett’s—
He must have seen the announcement of the pantomime in the newspapers, she thought. Mike had said they’d be reading the newspapers, looking for clues to where—
Oh, God, Mike. “Mr. Dunworthy,” she said, “did you tell him about Mike?”
“He already knew.”
Of course, she thought. He read that in the newspapers as well. Mike Davis, American war correspondent for the Omaha Observer. Died suddenly.
“What about Charles Bowden?” she asked Colin. “He’s in Singapore. He needs to be pulled out before the Japanese Army—”
“His drop was still working,” Colin said. “We pulled him out as soon as we realized something was wrong.”
Oh, thank God. “What about Denys Atherton?”
“He never came through, and neither did Gerald Phipps. Nor Jack Sorkin. Nothing would open. Except your drop, Mr. Dunworthy,” Colin said, “and it stopped working the moment you’d gone through. Till three years ago, we thought the entire war was permanently shut to us.”
Three years ago, Polly thought. And how many years before that had he kept searching, had he refused to give up, even though he’d believed they were permanently lost?
