“Were Miss O’Reilly and Mr. Davis …?” He hesitated.
“Romantically attached? No. He was like a brother to us, and Eileen’s taking his death very hard.”
Polly glanced at her watch. It was nearly closing time, and she didn’t want Eileen to see the vicar till she’d had a chance to explain the situation to him. “If you’ll give me a moment, I’ll ask my supervisor if I can leave early,” she said, and hurried off to speak to Miss Snelgrove, who was nowhere to be found.
“She went up to sixth,” Sarah said, and the closing bell rang.
Polly hurried back, but she was too late. Eileen was already there. “I was so sorry to hear of your loss, Miss O’Reilly,” Mr. Goode was saying.
Eileen stiffened.
Oh, no, Polly thought, she’s not going to listen to him any more than she has to anyone else.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner,” he said.
Eileen was glaring at her.
She knows exactly why I sent for him, Polly thought.
“Miss Sebastian’s letter had to be forwarded on to me,” the vicar said. “And then it took several days to arrange for leave.”
“Leave?” Eileen echoed.
“Yes. I haven’t told you, I’ve enlisted as a chaplain in His Majesty’s Army.”
The color drained from Eileen’s face.
Oh, no, Polly thought, I’ve only made things worse.
“I couldn’t stay in Backbury,” he said, “preaching sermons and heading up committee meetings when so many others were making sacrifices. Like you, facing danger every day here in London. I felt I had to do my bit, as it were.”
“But you can’t,” Eileen said, and burst into tears. “You’ll be killed. Just like Mike was.”
Boyfriends were more important than bombs.
—TRANSLATOR AT BLETCHLEY PARK
Croydon
MARY WAS LYING FLAT ON HER BACK.
I must have slipped on something and fallen when I came through, she thought. The shimmer must have blinded me. She remembered that the light had been much too bright, and then …
There was a sudden deafening cr-rack, and immediately after it, a second one. That was the double boom of a V-2, she thought, suddenly panicked. I’ve come through too late. And remembered where she was. She and Fairchild had heard the V-2—no, that was wrong, it had been a V-1—and they’d come back to Croydon to see if there were casualties, and Fairchild had—
Fairchild! She tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. There was something on top of her, crushing her so she couldn’t get any breath in her lungs, couldn’t—
Oh, God, don’t let it be the printing press, she thought, gasping for breath, and then, I’m buried in the rubble.
She tried to feel what was pressing down on her, but there was nothing on her chest, no fallen beams or bricks on her throat, so why …?
Somewhere far off, she heard an ambulance’s bells. Croydon, she thought, straining to hear better and, in the attempt, stopped gasping for breath. And as soon as she did, she found herself able to breathe again, able to raise her head.
She had had the breath knocked out of her, that was all, and she wasn’t buried, she was lying atop the rubble. The explosion must have knocked her flat. She drew a long, ragged breath, then stumbled to her feet, wishing there was something to lean on, but she couldn’t see the printing press, couldn’t see anything at all. The explosion must have blown out the fires. “Fairchild!” she called. “Paige! Where are you?”
She didn’t answer.
Because she’s dead, Mary thought. “Paige!” she cried frantically. “Answer me!”
No answer. No sound at all, not even the ambulance’s bells. The V-2 must have punctured my eardrums, she thought detachedly, and then, Oh, God. I won’t be able to hear Paige calling.
And remembered that Paige was dead.
She heard ambulance bells again, but from the wrong direction, from behind her, and when she turned, she saw that she had been wrong. Not all of the fires had been blown out. One was still burning, more brightly than ever. She could see their ambulance silhouetted against it.
It was moving slowly past the fire. She stared at it stupidly for a long minute, unable to make sense of what she was seeing. If it was moving, then Fairchild must not be dead, she must be driving it, but she wouldn’t leave without her, she wouldn’t …
“Fairchild, don’t leave!” she cried, and staggered forward.
“No,” a scarcely audible voice said, just off to her left.
Fairchild. Mary groped for her in the darkness, but it wasn’t her, it was the man with the severed foot. How could she have forgotten him? She had been tending him when—
“Where—?” the man asked, and his voice was hollow, as if he was speaking from the bottom of a well.
“I’m here. It was a V-2,” Mary said, and her voice sounded just as echoingly hollow.
The man’s foot had been severed. She needed to tie a tourniquet on his leg, and she’d taken off his tie to use as one.
No, I already tied it, she thought, but when she bent over him, trying to see if the tourniquet was holding, it wasn’t a tie, it was a handkerchief.
But I remember untying the tie, she thought, confused. His other leg must have been bleeding as well. And it was, but she couldn’t find the tie. She must have dropped it when the V-2 hit.
She got to her knees, pulled off her jacket, and tried to tear it. The rough cloth wouldn’t tear, but when she tried again, the lining ripped, and she was able to yank a strip free, able to tie it around his thigh. But he’d already lost a good deal of blood. She had to get him to hospital. She bent over him. “I need to go fetch the ambulance,” she said.
“Go,” he murmured. “Have to …” and then, very clearly, “leave.”
“I’ll be back straightaway,” she said, and stumbled off across the dark wreckage, over bricks and roof slates she couldn’t see, looking for the ambulance.
“Mary,” a muffled voice said at her feet. “Here.”
“Fairchild!” She’d forgotten about Fairchild. Mary groped for her in the darkness and found her hand. “Are you all right?”
“I can’t … breathe,” Fairchild gasped, clutching her hand. “… can’t catch …”
“You’ve only had the breath knocked out of you,” Mary said. “Breathe out.” She pursed her lips and exhaled, showing her how to do it. Which was ridiculous.
Fairchild couldn’t see her. “Exhale. Blow out.”
“Can’t,” Fairchild said. “There’s something on me.”
“It only feels that way,” Mary reassured her, but when she patted around her, feeling to see if Fairchild was intact, she encountered splintered wood. She tried to lift it, but Fairchild cried out.
Mary stopped. “Where are you hurt?”
“What happened?” Fairchild asked. “Did a gas main blow up?”
“No, it was a V-2,” she said, and tried to move the piece of wood to the side.
Fairchild cried out again.
She didn’t dare try to do anything when she couldn’t see. She might make things worse. She’d have to wait for the ambulance.
But the ambulance was already here. She’d seen it pulling up. She turned to look over at it, silhouetted against the fire, and could see the driver’s door opening and someone in a helmet getting out. “Injury over here!” she shouted, and the driver started toward them and then, inexplicably, moved away across the rubble.
“No, over here!”
“I don’t think the ambulance is here yet,” Fairchild said. “Listen.”
Mary listened. She could hear more ambulance bells in the distance. Another unit, from Woodside or Norbury, must be coming. “Croydon’s already here,” she told Fairchild, “but they can’t hear us. We need to signal them. Is there a torch in the ambulance?”