of Oscar.
But the door was opened as I reached the top step by a fresh-faced young woman with blond hair and bright blue eyes.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hello,” I replied. “Ellie McDonnell to see Major Ramsey.”
“Oh, yes, miss. Come right in, please. The major’s expecting you.”
“You’re … new here,” I said when we were inside.
“Yes, miss. My name’s Constance. I’m the major’s new secretary.”
“I see.” Major Ramsey had wasted no time. Efficient as always.
“Shall I show you to his office?”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I know the way.”
I went down the hall to the major’s door and knocked.
“Enter,” he called.
I opened the door to his office. He wasn’t sitting behind his desk as usual. Instead, he stood near one of his well-stocked bookshelves, a book in his hand.
He had turned as I came in. “Hello,” he said.
“Hello.”
We looked at each other for a minute. We had been through a lot together, had a shared history now. It had changed the dynamic that existed between us, but I don’t think either of us knew quite how it had changed or how to address it.
His ingrained manners took over at the end, though, and he motioned toward one of the chairs. “Will you sit down?”
I took a seat, and he came to sit at his desk, bringing the book with him.
“I’m sorry about Oscar,” I said softly. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him before, had never found a moment alone. It was the thing that had been most on my mind, and I wanted to say it before I somehow lost my nerve.
“Thank you,” he said. “So am I.”
For a minute I thought he would leave it at that, but then he looked up at me, and, for the briefest of moments, I saw a hint of sadness in those twilight eyes of his. “We were never close,” he said at last. “But it’s been a blow to my family. I couldn’t tell them the truth, of course.”
“No,” I said softly. It was a secret he was going to have to keep, one that would weigh him down at times, but one he would, like the rest of us, do his best to push to the back of his mind and bury deep.
“I did what had to be done,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “That’s what it comes down to in the business of war. We all do what needs to be done.”
“Yes,” I said softly.
“Jocelyn Abbot has been turned over to the appropriate authorities,” he said. He was purposefully changing the subject, but I could see why his mind had gone in that direction. No doubt she had also felt she was simply doing what had to be done.
“Will she … go to prison?” I asked.
“That has yet to be worked out, but I believe not. The Germans don’t know she’s been compromised, and we may still be able to use her.”
I didn’t miss the “we.” I wondered if they would be working together. If so, she would have to work hard to earn back the major’s trust.
Something occurred to me then, something I ought to have thought of before. “Even if the two of you … parted ways, why didn’t she come to you with her troubles? I would have.” I don’t know why I added that last part, and I tried to pretend that I hadn’t said it.
“She told me she wanted to,” the major answered. “But she didn’t know if she could trust me because Davies worked for me.”
He had spoken to her, then. I wondered how that conversation had gone, how painful it had been for both of them.
Whatever the case, her excuse for not coming to him for help wasn’t a good one. Anyone who knew Major Ramsey would know they could trust him.
“Have the Germans released Barnaby Ellhurst?” I asked.
“Not yet. I believe they’ll want to keep using Jocelyn to get information. If that’s the case, we’ll be able to feed them a good deal of misinformation.”
“That will be unpleasant for her,” I said. “And for you.”
He looked up at me. “Things were over for Jocelyn and me long before this. We … wanted different things from life.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that because I understood what he wasn’t saying. They had wanted different things from life, but that didn’t mean they had stopped wanting each other.
“And what of the others?” I asked. This time it was me who was shifting the conversation away from an uncomfortable topic.
“There is no evidence that