“I see it,” Alf said, pointing above the trees.
“I don’t see nothin’,” Binnie said, “you’re fibbing,” but when Eileen looked where he was pointing, she could see a faint blur of smoke above the trees. The train was definitely coming. It was a miracle.
“All right, gather up your things,” she said. “Alf, fold up your map. Theodore, put your jacket on. Binnie-”
“Look!” Alf said excitedly, jumped off the platform, and ran toward the road with Binnie at his heels.
“Where are you-?” Eileen said, glancing anxiously up the tracks. “Come back here! The train-”
It was approaching rapidly. She could see it emerging from the trees. “Theodore, stay right here. Don’t move,” she ordered him and took off for the platform steps. If those two made them miss the train…
“Alf, Binnie! Stop!” she shouted, but they weren’t listening. They were running toward the Austin, which roared past them and skidded to a stop at the foot of the platform stairs.
The vicar leaped out and ran up the steps, carrying a basket. “I’m so glad I caught you,” he said breathlessly. “I was afraid you’d gone.”
“I thought you were in Hereford.”
“I was. I got stopped on the way home by a wretched troop convoy or I’d have been here earlier. I’m so sorry you had to walk all that way with the luggage.”
“It’s all right,” she said, feeling suddenly that it was.
“I thought you said drivin’ fast was only for emergencies,” Binnie said, bounding up onto the platform.
“You was going a ’undred miles an hour,” Alf said.
“Did you come to say goodbye to us?” Theodore asked.
“Yes,” he said to Eileen, “and to bring you-” He stopped and glared at the train, which was nearly at the station. “Don’t tell me the train is actually on time. It hasn’t been on time once since the war started, and now today of all days.… At any rate, I brought you some sandwiches and biscuits.” He gave her the basket. “And.… Alf, Binnie, go fetch the luggage,” and when they did, he said quietly, “I rang the Children’s Overseas Reception Board.” He handed her an envelope. “I’ve arranged passage for Alf and Binnie on a ship to Canada.”
To Canada? That’s where the City of Benares had been going when it was sunk by a U-boat. Nearly all the evacuees on board had drowned. “Which ship?” Eileen asked.
“I don’t know. Their mother’s to take them to the Evacuation Committee’s office-the address is in the letter-and they’ll take them to Portsmouth.”
The City of Benares had sailed from Portsmouth.
“And this is for you as well.” He handed her an envelope with several ten-shilling notes inside. “To cover your train fare and the children’s expenses.”
“Oh, but I can’t-”
“It’s from the Evacuation Committee.”
You’re lying, she thought. It came out of your own pocket.
“It isn’t fair to ask you to pay your own way when you’re doing the committee’s job,” he said. He glanced over at Alf and Binnie. “I’m certain you’ll earn every penny.”
“The train’s ’ere,” Alf said, and they both looked over at it.
It came to a whooshing stop.
“Thank you,” Eileen said, handing the envelope back to him, “but I don’t want you to have to-”
“Please,” he said earnestly. “I know what a worrying time this has been for you, and I thought… I mean, the committee thought that at least you shouldn’t have to worry about money. Please take it.”
She nodded, blinking back tears. “Thank you. I mean, please convey my thanks to the committee. For everything.”
“I will.” He looked at her searchingly. “Are you all right?”
No, she thought. I’m a hundred and twenty years away from home, my drop’s broken, and I have no idea what I’m going to do if I can’t find Polly.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” the vicar said. “Perhaps I can help.”
I wish I could tell you, she thought.
“Come along,” Alf said, yanking on her sleeve. “We gotta get on.”
She nodded. “Children, gather up your things. Here, Binnie, take Theodore’s duffel for him. Alf, take your-”
“I have them,” the vicar said, picking up the bags. With his help, she got them and Alf and Binnie up the steps onto the train. This one wasn’t crammed with troops, thank goodness.
“Now you, Theodore,” she said.
Theodore balked. “I don’t want-”
Oh, no, not again, Eileen thought, but the vicar was already saying, “Theodore, will you show Eileen what to do? She’s never been to London on the train before.”
“I have,” Theodore said.
“I know, so you must take good care of her.”
Theodore nodded. “You go up the steps,” he instructed Eileen, demonstrating. “Then you sit down-”
“You’re a miracle worker,” Eileen said gratefully.
“Part of my job,” he said, smiling, and then soberly, “London’s extremely dangerous just now. Do take care.”
“I will. I’m sorry I won’t be here to drive the ambulance after all your lessons.”
“It’s all right. My housekeeper’s agreed to fill in. Unfortunately, she shows the same aptitude as Una, but-”
“Come along,” Alf called from the top of the steps. “You’re makin’ the train late!”
“I must go,” she said, starting up the steps.
“Wait,” he said, catching hold of her arm. “You mustn’t worry. It will all-”
“Come on!” Alf shouted, dragging her aboard. The huge wheels began to turn. “I get to sit by the window-”
“Goodbye, Vicar!” Theodore shouted, waving.
“You do not get to,” Binnie said. “Alf says ’e gets to sit by the window, but I want-”
“Shh,” Eileen said, leaning out. The train began to move. “What?” she called back to the vicar.
“I said,” the vicar shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth, “it will all come right in the end.” The train picked up speed, leaving him behind on the platform, still waving.
And if we no more meet till we meet in heaven, then joyfully, my noble lords and my kind kinsmen, warriors all, adieu!
London-21 September 1940
“OPEN THE DROP!” POLLY CRIED, IN HER PANIC HAMMERING on the peeling, nailed-shut door with both fists. “Colin! Hurry!”
The scream of the bomb rose to a painful shriek. Polly clapped her hands over her ears. Oh, God, it’s right on top of me, she thought. It’s a direct hit, and dropped to her knees, her head ducked against the eardrum-shattering sound, the expected blast.
But there wasn’t any blast, only a deafening, bone-shaking boom, followed by the rattle of things falling and then fire-engine bells. They stopped nearly a quarter of a mile away.
Impossible, she thought. That was on top of me. So was the next one, and the next one, and even though she told herself, murmuring it like a prayer, that the drop hadn’t been hit during the Blitz, it was impossible not to put her arms over her head when the bombs’ descending screams began, and cower, terrified, against the foot of the door.
“Colin!” she sobbed. “Hurry!”
After what seemed like an eternity but was only, according to the glowing dial of her watch, an hour and a half, the bombardment began to subside. Polly waited till the Kensington Gardens gun had stopped and then crept cautiously down the passage, almost afraid to look at what was left of it.
But the only sign of new damage was to the last two barrels at the alley end of the passage, which had toppled over. She pushed them out of the way and climbed a short way up onto the mound to look across the road. An incendiary had fallen in the middle of it and was sputtering and fizzing like an oversized child’s sparkler, and in its light she could see the still-intact tobacconist’s and could read “T. Tubbins” above the door of the still-there greengrocer’s. None of the shops was on fire. She couldn’t even smell any smoke. The shops’ unharmed roofs stood out sharply against the crimson sky, and she couldn’t see any firespotters on top of them, and none on the warehouses on either side of the drop. But the drop still didn’t open.