Bill watched her fill the kettle with water, his eyes narrowing when she swayed slightly and had to grab hold of the edge of the counter to steady herself. He waited until she had finished filling it, then he stood up and took it from her hand.
“I’ll do this,” he said, gently guiding her into a seat at the table. “Sit down. You look as if you’re about to fall over.”
“I just got a little light-headed,” she protested. “It’s nothing.”
“I’m very glad to hear it, but I’d feel better if you sat. I’m quite capable of making a cup of tea, I assure you.” He lit one of the gas burners and set the kettle over the flame, turning to look at her. “When was the last time you ate?”
“I had a few biscuits on the train.”
“I mean a real meal. When was the last time you had something substantial?”
Evelyn thought for a moment. It was a brief moment, but it was too long for him. The fact that she had to think about it brought a frown to his face and he studied her silently for a long moment.
“I had dinner when I arrived in Scapa, but I’m afraid my stomach was upset after the crossing,” she finally said. “Given the horrid weather, I didn’t want to eat before getting on the boat to go across to the mainland. When I reached John o’ Groats, it was mid-morning and I just had time for a scone and some tea before my train left for Inverness.”
“So you’re saying you haven’t had a decent meal since you left Scapa?”
She shrugged and rubbed her temples. “I suppose not. To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought. I’ve felt so...well, it really doesn’t matter, does it? I’m here now, and you’ve brought plenty of food to make a lovely dinner of eggs, sausage and beans. I’ll make up for it.”
“You said you went by foot?” Bill asked. “You mean to tell me you walked all the way from Oslo to Namsos?”
“Not quite all the way. We had a car part of the way until it broke down south of Trondheim. While Peder, that’s the man whose car it was, tried to figure out what was wrong, Anna’s brother Erik came out of the hills. He’s in the Norwegian army, and he had a few of his men with him. They were separated from their battalion when Trondheim fell. He advised leaving the car. By then, Peder had decided it was most likely a crack in the head gasket, so the car was dead anyway. That’s when we started hiking.”
“Who is this Peder?” Bill asked after a moment.
“He was a friend of Anna’s. He went to school with Erik. He was a radio enthusiast, and I’d met him a few days before. He’d agreed to join the network to get information to us, but only if the Germans really did try to invade Norway. When he learned there were ships in the fjord outside Oslo, he went to warn Anna. They came to get me.”
“And it was his radio you were using to contact us?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?” he asked after a moment.
Evelyn was quiet for a moment and he thought she wasn’t going to answer, but then she spoke, her voice flat and emotionless.
“He was killed outside Steinkjer.”
The kettle began to whistle and Bill turned to look for cups. Finding them behind the second cabinet door he opened, he pulled out two.
“The tea is in that one over there,” Evelyn said, pointing.
He opened the indicated door and pulled out the tea. “And the radio?”
“He gave it to me when...well, when it was clear he couldn’t continue. But I think it must have been damaged when he fell because I couldn’t get it to work.” She watched as he fixed the tea, a silence falling over them. After a moment, she continued. “I kept trying, but it was no use. In the end, Erik took it and said he would contact another friend of his who would be able to get it working. He promised to use it to contact us with information on German activity if the Nazis do end up occupying Norway.”
“And Anna?”
“She will continue building the network we started.”
Bill handed her a steaming cup of tea, frowning when her hands shook as she took it from him.
“How was Peder killed?” he asked gently, taking his seat with the other cup of tea.
“The SS were waiting for us outside Steinkjer.” She sipped her tea, then lifted her eyes to his. “They knew I was there. They knew where I was going.”
He sighed, his face grave.
“Yes, I know. MI5 has been intercepting messages between the spy in London and Berlin. We were only made aware if it after you were already on your way, and by then it was too late to warn you. I notified you as soon as I could.”
“Your message came as we ran into an SS patrol,” she said after a moment. “In a way, it may have saved us. We were already moving when we realized they were there. If we hadn’t received that message when we did, it could have been worse.”
Bill looked at the shadows in her eyes and the hollows in her face and wondered how much worse it could possibly have been. The woman sitting across from him was a stranger, a completely different person from the one he’d sent on her way three weeks before.
“There is one thing,” she said suddenly, her forehead creasing thoughtfully. “We heard some of the soldiers talking and they mentioned a name I’ve heard before, but I can’t remember where or how.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yes. Eisenjager.” She looked across the table at him. “It means—”
“Iron Hunter,” he said, a chill going through him despite the hot liquid in his cup. “Are you certain?”
“Yes.” She stared at him for a minute. “You know it as well.
