we can apprehend Winthrop once he arrives, we can still make the switch and deliver the documents to the German agent. With any luck, they won’t know that I’m not Winthrop when I hand off the papers and won’t question what happened to him after the drop is made.”
I didn’t ask what Major Ramsey intended to happen to him.
“And what about me?” I asked.
He looked at me. If he so much as suggested that I go back to Torquay and wait this out, I was going to kick him in the shin.
“You can stay,” he said at last. “But you’re to keep out of the way. Understood?”
“Understood,” I replied ungraciously.
He ignored me and turned to Colm. “You’ll keep a watch from inside. I’ll watch from the woods. When he enters the house, I’ll follow and subdue him. You can back me up. Miss McDonnell will wait outside with me, where she’ll be clear if we have to resort to the use of weapons.”
“He wants you alone in the dark woods,” Felix whispered to me with a smirk as he moved close to my side.
“You’re talking nonsense,” I said.
“I know what I’m talking about.” His grin widened. “Because that’s exactly where I’d like to be with you.”
“Stop it, Felix. It’s no good your flirting with me on the cusp of a dangerous escapade.”
His face softened. “When would be a good time, Ellie?”
I was surprised by something in his expression. It was more earnest than it usually was, and that caught me off guard. “Perhaps when all this is over,” I said as lightly as I could manage.
“All clear?” the major asked, his voice breaking into our conversation. I couldn’t help but feel he was directing this at Felix and me, as we had been whispering at the edge of the group.
I met his gaze. “All clear, Major,” I said.
Colm nodded. “It sounds like a fine plan, Major. There’s just one thing I’d like to know.”
“Yes?”
“How in the dickens have you managed to get Ellie so well trained? For the life of us, my brother and I can never get her to listen to a single thing we say.”
In the end, it was Colm who received the kick to the shin.
* * *
And so we all assumed our places and waited for darkness to fall. Waited to see what sort of mark we would leave on history.
It was very dark. I could barely see my hand in front of my face within the shade of the trees, especially when the moon went behind the clouds. But there was the wind and the sound of the waves, and I found it soothing somehow.
No matter that there was a German spy making his way toward these grounds or that a traitor was preparing to meet him; the sound of the water was a reminder that although the world might be falling apart, some things were as they had always been, and would go on being that way no matter what the future held.
The major and I stood close in the wooded darkness. I could feel the warmth coming off him, but I was still chilled by the evening breeze.
“Are you cold?” he asked me suddenly.
I had put my jumper back on and pulled it tightly around myself to fight off the chill, but I wasn’t going to admit that. “No,” I whispered back.
After a moment I heard his voice, closer to my ear this time. “Stay here. Don’t leave. I’ll be back in a few moments.”
Then before I could even reply, he had slipped off into the darkness.
I was a bit annoyed he had left me alone. I didn’t expect, as Felix had insinuated, that the major would try to take advantage of our being alone in the darkness, but I hadn’t exactly expected him to wander off either.
There was a small sound somewhere to my left, in the direction of the road and the opposite direction from where the major had gone. I stilled, listening. It could be anything: a mouse, a rabbit perhaps, or an owl. Or it might be a Nazi spy who would think nothing of knifing me and leaving me to die in the dark woods all alone. That was a cheery thought.
I forced myself to stand still and listen. Whatever the noise was, it didn’t repeat itself. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed. After all, it was so intensely dark that someone might very well be standing in the shadows nearby and I wouldn’t know