But they were up to twenty-five children, more than half of them their original evacuees who’d come back. By mid-April, all of them had returned except Theodore. His mother probably couldn’t get him onto the train, Eileen thought, wearily making up more cots. I can’t believe I ever complained about not having enough evacuees.
She was so busy she didn’t even attempt to go to the drop, though she hadn’t been through since February. Even if she’d had the time, it was nearly impossible to get away without being spotted by the Hodbins and followed, or lectured to by Mrs. Bascombe on the dangers of meeting young men in the woods. And there was only a week of her assignment left.
Surely I can last a few more days, she thought, but when two more batches of evacuees arrived, all with head lice, she wasn’t certain she’d make it. She spent the entire week washing their hair with paraffin.
It was after midnight on Sunday before she was able to lock herself in her room, rip open a section of her coat’s hem, and take out the letter Props had sent with her, although it was probably just as well she hadn’t been able to do it before. No hiding place was safe from the Hodbins.
The letter was addressed to her, and the return address was a nonexistent village in remote Northumberland. It and the postmark were smudged slightly to make them unreadable. She tore open the letter. “Dear Eileen,” it read. “Come home at once. Mum’s very bad. I hope you are in time. Kathleen.”
It was to be found lying on her bed for Mrs. Bascombe or Una to read after she’d gone. She debated hiding it under her mattress till tomorrow afternoon, then thought of the Hodbins and stuck it back inside the lining of her coat and basted the hem shut.
She got up at five on Monday and worked frantically all morning so everything would be in order before her half-day out began at one. She hoped they could find someone to replace her. She’d assumed Lady Caroline would simply hire another maid when she left, but yesterday Mrs. Bascombe had said that Mrs. Manning had been advertising for help for three weeks and hadn’t had a single reply. “It’s the war. Girls who should be in service running off to join the Wrens or the ATS. Chasing after soldiers is all girls think of nowadays.”
Not all, Eileen thought, shrugging out of her uniform and into the blouse and skirt she’d arrived in. She retrieved the envelope from her coat lining, took the letter out, arranged them to look like she’d flung them down in haste, and pulled on her coat.
There was a knock on the door. “Eileen?” Una said.
Oh, what now’? Eileen opened the door a crack. “What is it, Una?”
“Her ladyship wants to see you in the drawing room.”
Eileen couldn’t tell Una she was just leaving, not when she’d supposedly packed and departed instantly after reading her sister’s letter, too distraught to let anyone know. She’d have to go see what Lady Caroline wanted. It’s probably another set of louse-y bed wetters, she thought, changing back into her uniform and hurrying along the corridor. Or she’s decided the staff should learn to operate an anti-aircraft gun. Well, whatever it was, she wouldn’t have to do it after today. She’d never have to stand there again with her hands folded and her eyes demurely down, taking orders and saying, “You asked for me, ma’am?”
“You asked for me, ma’am?” she said.
“Yes,” Lady Caroline said grimly. “Miss Fuller came to see me just now. While she was at the Women’s Institute meeting yesterday, someone stole the hood ornament and the door handles off her Daimler.”
“Does she know who it was?” Eileen asked, even though she already knew the answer.
“Yes. She saw one of the culprits running away with them. It was Alf Hodbin. This sort of disgraceful behavior cannot be allowed to continue. Heaven knows, I am eager to do my bit, as it were, but I cannot have criminals at the manor.”
“I’ll see to it Alf returns them,” Eileen lied. “Will that be all, ma’am?”
“No. The billeting officer, Mrs. Chambers, is coming this afternoon. She’s bringing three more children. Two of them were originally to be sent to Canada, but their parents decided the North Atlantic was too dangerous.”
It is, Eileen said silently, thinking of the City of Benares, which would be torpedoed and go down with four hundred evacuees aboard in September.
“Mrs. Chambers assures me they’re extremely well-behaved children,” Lady Caroline said. Eileen doubted that, and even if they were, three days in the company of Alf and Binnie could turn an angel into a hookey-playing, stone-throwing, distributor-stealing hooligan.
“You’ll need to prepare cots for the children,” Lady Caroline said. “I shan’t be here this afternoon. Mrs. Fitzhugh-Smythe and I have a Home Defence meeting in Nuneaton, so you will need to fill up the paperwork for Mrs. Chambers when she arrives. She’ll be here at three.”
And this is the last time you can make me do something on my half-day out, Eileen thought. “Yes, ma’am. Will there be anything else?”
“Tell Mrs. Chambers I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be here,” she said, pulling on her gloves. “Oh, and after you have the children settled, this cotton lint needs to be torn into strips and rolled for bandages. I promised they’d be done for my St. John’s Ambulance meeting tomorrow. And tell Samuels to have the car brought round.” She picked up her bag. “You may go.”
That is just what I intend to do, Eileen thought, running down to tell Samuels and then pelting back up to her room. But before she could even get her uniform unbuttoned, Una appeared to tell her that Mrs. Chambers was downstairs with three children.
“There must be some mistake,” Una said, nearly in tears. “They can’t be for here, can they?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Has her ladyship gone?”
Una nodded. “What will we do with more children?” she wailed. “We already have so many!”
And Una would never be able to manage the billeting forms. Eileen glanced at her watch. Half past two. The children wouldn’t be home from school for another hour. I’m already leaving her and Mrs. Bascombe in the lurch, Eileen thought. At least I can get the new evacuees settled before I leave. “Go make up three more cots in the nursery,” she said, “and I’ll go and speak with her. Where are they?”
“In the morning room. How will we manage thirty-two children with only the three of us?”
The two of you, Eileen corrected, hastening down to the morning room. Lady Caroline would simply have to exert herself and find a new maid. Or pitch in and do that bit for the war effort she was always talking about. She opened the door to the morning room. “Mrs. Chambers, her ladyship asked me to-”
Theodore Willett was standing there with his suitcase. “I want to go home,” he said.
He has missed the bus.
Saltram-on-Sea-29 May 1940
MIKE STARED AT THE GIRL. “WHAT DID YOU SAY?” HE asked. He had to have heard her wrong.
“I said, the bus came yesterday. It comes on Tuesdays and Fridays.”
Which meant today was Wednesday the twenty-ninth, and he’d already missed three days of the evacuation.
“It used to be every day,” she said, “but since the war-”
“But Friday’s the thirty-first,” Mike exploded. “There has to be a bus before then.” The entire British Army would have been evacuated by then. He’d have missed the whole thing. “What about Ramsgate? When’s the next bus that goes there?”
“I’m afraid that’s Friday, as well,” the girl said. “It’s the same bus, you see.” She’d retreated warily up a step, and he realized he’d been yelling.
“I’m sorry,” Mike said. “It’s just that I was supposed to be in Dover this afternoon to cover a story, and now I don’t know how I’m going to get there. How far’s the nearest train-I mean, railway-station?” If there was one in the next village, maybe he could walk to it.