to make a drop to a German spy on the beach. He was using the beach house as a headquarters.”
Jerome Curtis scowled with anger, his already misshapen face contorting. “A filthy spy, was he? Giving our secrets to the Germans?”
He then let out a stream of language, the likes of which I’ve seldom heard and which Nacy would never allow me to repeat. In a way, though, it summed up a lot of what I felt about the entire evening.
Then he turned to me. “They’re just lucky me and your Uncle Laddy wasn’t here to get our hands on ’em.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
It was two days before Jakub knocked on my door again, asking if he could escort me to the major’s office.
Things had been quiet since our return from Torquay. I had crawled into my bed upon our return, scratched, bruised, and exhausted, and had slept for nearly a day straight.
Then I had risen and consumed the banquet Nacy had prepared for me. She always cooked too much when she was nervous, and I ate more food than I would’ve thought could fit in a girl my size.
“I’m so glad you’re all right, Ellie,” she said. “I knew, of course, that you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, but glad I am to see you home, safe and sound.”
“I’m glad to be home,” I told her. And I had never meant it more.
My only regret was that I’d had to leave Colm behind in Torquay. I’d fought the tears in vain as I hugged him outside the cottage.
“Don’t cry, Ellie,” he said, patting my back. “I’ll be home on leave again before long. Chin up. And it was an exciting night we had, eh? Memories to last until next time.”
I nodded, brushing back the tears, and managed a smile.
The constant goodbyes were the one part of war I knew I could never get used to.
Feeling a bit melancholy after my meal, I went in search of Uncle Mick. He was right where I knew he’d be: in his workshop. I stepped inside and saw him at his worktable, busily tinkering with something.
He’d had the whole of the story immediately upon my return, before I’d collapsed in my bed, and I was glad that now we could just sit in a comfortable silence, pretending for a few moments that our lives hadn’t turned into a whirlwind.
Wordlessly, I slipped into the desk chair and sat watching him as his nimble fingers moved over the tools spread out before him. There was something soothing about watching him work, about seeing the way that everything came together—or apart—with such ease beneath his skilled hands.
It was a moment before I realized something was off. I frowned, trying to figure out what it was. And then I knew.
“Where’s your bandage?” I asked.
He looked up at me, a hint of a twinkle in his eye. “Bandage?”
“Yes. From the cut on your hand.”
He held up his hand, the one that he had supposedly cut so deeply the day before our escape to Torquay. “It’s all healed up,” he said. “Right as rain.”
I gave a shout of laughter. “You faked it, Uncle Mick. You old fraud!”
“I knew the lay of the land, Ellie girl,” he said. “When we found out Winthrop was gone, it was clear enough he’d have to be followed. The major would’ve made you stay in London if I was able to help him with the locks, and this was your fight. I knew you wanted it.”
“I did, Uncle Mick,” I said softly. “Thank you.”
I knew what it had cost him to let me go, he who had always been so very protective of the niece who was more like a daughter to him.
I rose from my chair and moved to his side. “You’re a dear,” I said, dropping a kiss on his cheek.
And Kimble had vouched for him. So, in a way, he had vouched for me. I didn’t think Kimble would ever be a dear, but he was a sporting fellow, and I appreciated it.
* * *
Jakub drove me to the major’s office in the big black car, and I wondered if it would be the last time that I rode in it. I made sure to bid him a cheerful farewell, just in case.
At the office, I went slowly up the stairs to the front door. I was expecting to have to ring the bell and wait for Major Ramsey, to walk past the silent desk in the front office, a sad reminder