theater aisle. She looked from Colin to Mr. Dunworthy. “What does she mean?”
“I’ve decided to stay,” Eileen said.
“Because they need a principal boy?” Polly burst out. “They can get Mrs. Brightford to play the Prince. Or Binnie. She knows all the lines. And how do we know the drop will open again after the pantomime’s over? You can’t—”
“I’m not staying till after the pantomime, Polly. I’m staying for good.” She looked at Colin and Mr. Dunworthy. “It’s already settled.”
“Settled? What are you talking about?”
“Remember how you saw me in Trafalgar Square on VE-Day? I wasn’t there because we hadn’t been rescued. I was there because I stayed behind.”
“No, you weren’t. There could be a dozen other reasons why you were there that day. You could have been there on some other assignment, or—”
Eileen laughed, a clear, happy laugh. “Oh, Polly, you know Mr. Dunworthy would never let me go anywhere again after this. If I want to go to VE-Day, I’m going to need to do it from here. Isn’t that right, Mr. Dunworthy?” she asked, smiling at him.
He was looking solemnly at her.
He’s going to let her stay, Polly thought incredulously. But he can’t.
“This is ridiculous, Eileen,” she said. “I don’t even know for certain it was you. I was halfway across Trafalgar Square. It might have been someone else entirely—”
“In my green coat,” Eileen said.
“Someone could have bought it at an applecart upset,” Polly said. “You said yourself it was perfect for a redhead.”
Eileen shook her head. “It was me. I have to be there so everything else can happen.”
“But there must be some other way,” Polly said, appealing to Colin. “You can’t let her—”
“That isn’t the only reason I’m staying,” Eileen said. “There’s Alf and Binnie. I promised the vicar, Mr. Goode, that I’d look after them, and I can’t let him down.”
“But there must be someone else who could take them, the rector or Mrs. Wyvern or someone,” Polly said, knowing even as she said it that it was impossible. She had already lost this argument when Eileen took them in.
“There isn’t,” Eileen said. “Binnie’s growing up far too fast as it is, and by next year England will be overrun with American soldiers. I can’t abandon her—or Alf
—in the middle of a war.”
Which they might not live through even if you do stay, Polly thought. Neither Alf nor Binnie had been with Eileen on VE-Day in Trafalgar Square. But if she told her that, it would only make her more determined to stay and try to protect them.
“And if Alf’s left on his own,” Eileen was saying, “he’s likely to end up destroying the entire space-time continuum.” She smiled. “Don’t you see? I can’t leave them. There’s still a war on. And they saved my life.”
And mine, Polly thought. And England’s. And knew there was no way to talk Eileen out of this.
“But you hate it here,” she said tearfully. “The raids and the rationing and the dreadful food. You said believing you’d be able to go home someday was the only thing that kept you going.”
“I know, but wars require sacrifices. And this spot in history’s not so bad. It is, after all, England’s finest hour. And I’ll get to see VE-Day, which I always wanted to go to.”
“But—”
“Please try to understand,” Eileen said, taking Polly’s hands. “You’ve done your job by saving Sir Godfrey. My job’s not finished yet, and I can’t do it unless I stay here.”
“That isn’t true. Colin, tell her she has to—”
“He can’t,” Eileen said. “He knows I stayed.” She looked at him again. “Don’t you?”
Colin didn’t answer.
“Mr. Dunworthy knows it, too,” Eileen said, turning to him. “That’s why you risked your life coming back here to the theater with Colin instead of staying at St.
Paul’s and going through to Oxford, isn’t it? To say goodbye to me?”
“Yes.”
“But … I don’t understand,” Polly said, looking helplessly from one to the other. “What’s she talking about?”
“I was the one who told Colin where we were,” Eileen said. “Wasn’t I?”
And when he didn’t answer, “He found me after the war, and I told him where you were. He’d never have been able to find us otherwise. So you see, I’ve got to stay. I’ve got to be here when he comes to look for me.”
“Is that true, Colin?” Polly said. “Did Eileen tell you where we were?”
He still didn’t answer.
“Did she?” Polly demanded. “Tell me. Did she stay here in the past to tell you we were here?”
“Yes,” he said. “She did.”
