“It’s all the papers documenting that he was who he said he was—letters of recommendation, school records, security clearances, everything he’d need to pass a background check. Plus train tickets and money. And a letter from his sister in Northumbria informing him his mother was ill. Addressed to Mrs. Jolsom’s address.”
He looked up at them. “He obviously never came through.”
The net wouldn’t let him, Polly thought, which means its safeguards are still functioning. Only it didn’t necessarily mean that at all. It might just as easily mean that there was no Oxford from which to send him.
She glanced anxiously at Eileen to see how she was taking the news, but she didn’t look upset.
Because she doesn’t believe it, Polly thought. In a moment she’ll say Mr. Dunworthy must have rescheduled Gerald’s assignment and Mike shouldn’t have taken the parcel because Gerald will need it.
Mike said it instead. “I intended to put the package back, but when I saw what was in it, I thought I’d better not leave it there for some curious hotel clerk to open.”
“Will the Mitre notice it’s missing?”
“No. I wrapped my wool vest up in the brown paper—and had a hell of a time doing it, I might add; I couldn’t get the string tied around it for the life of me—and sneaked it back on the shelf, and I stuck a Notting Hill Gate ticket stub in the pocket, so if Phipps does come through, he’ll know where to look for us.”
“If he can get to London,” Polly said, looking at the money on the steps.
“I stuck enough money for the train fare to London in the pocket, too,” Mike said. “I was going to leave all of it, but I decided we might need it to tide us over till we find some other way out. I assume our retrieval teams still haven’t shown up?”
“No,” Eileen said. “Have you heard from Daphne?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been to Mrs. Leary’s yet. I came straight to Mrs. Rickett’s to find the two of you. I’ll check when we go back. But if Phipps’s drop didn’t open, then our retrieval teams’ drops probably can’t either, which explains why they’re not here. But if that’s what happened, then Oxford knows something’s wrong, and they’ll start working on figuring out a way to get us out of here. We’ll be home in no time. We just need to make sure they can find us when they get here, so we need to—”
“Will we be home in no time?” Eileen asked challengingly. “Or will we still be here when the war ends, Polly?”
“When the war ends?” Mike said. “What are you talking about? None of us knows how long we’ll—”
“She does,” Eileen said. “She was already here.” She turned to Polly. “That’s why the night you found me in Padgett’s you asked me if the manor in Backbury was
“She does,” Eileen said. “She was already here.” She turned to Polly. “That’s why the night you found me in Padgett’s you asked me if the manor in Backbury was my first assignment. Because you were afraid I had a deadline like you.”
“A deadline?” Mike said. “You were here before, Polly?”
“Yes,” Eileen said, looking steadily at Polly. “That’s why she asked me whether you were supposed to go to Pearl Harbor first. She was afraid that you had one, too. And that the increased slippage means we won’t get out before her deadline.”
I should never have underestimated her and her mystery novels, Polly thought.
All those weeks Polly’d been trying to protect her from the truth, Eileen had been patiently collecting clues and piecing them together. But she can’t know when—
“I don’t understand,” Mike said. “When I asked you if you’d been to Bletchley Park, you said no.”
“Not Bletchley Park,” Eileen said. “VE-Day.”
“VE-Day?”
“Yes,” Eileen said, her face stony. She turned to confront Polly. “That’s why when I saw you in Oxford, you asked me if that was where I was coming back from.
And why, when we asked you who’d gone to VE-Day, you changed the subject. You saw me there, didn’t you?”
As long as VE-Day was all Eileen knew about, it would be all right. She could tell them.
“Is what she’s saying true?” Mike asked. “Were you at VE-Day, Polly?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus.”
“And you saw me there,” Eileen said.
Polly hesitated so it would sound like she was reluctantly admitting to it. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mike asked.
“I … at first, in Oxford, I didn’t want Eileen to be angry with me. I hadn’t known Mr. Dunworthy wasn’t going to let her go to VE-Day. I didn’t want her to think I’d stolen the assignment from her. And then when we found out the drops weren’t working, we were already in so much trouble, and you were both so distraught, I didn’t want to add to your worries.”
“But if we’d known—” Mike began.
“If you’d known, what? There wasn’t anything either of you could do about it,” Polly said angrily, hoping the show of anger would stop them from asking any more questions. “And you already had more than enough to deal with.”
“You say you saw Eileen,” Mike said. “Are you certain it was her? Did you talk to her?”
“No. I saw her from a distance. In the crowd in Trafalgar Square the night before VE-Day. She was standing next to one of the lions. The one whose nose had been knocked off in the Blitz.”
