troops onto the Lady Jane under heavy fire. He hailed them, but they were too far away to hear him. And the Daffodil saw them leaving the east mole, but they weren’t seen after that. The officer who talked to Dad said it was likely a torpedo got them on the way back. Or a mine.”
Or a Stuka, Mike thought, remembering the shriek of the diving plane. Or another corpse in the propeller.
“When your letter for him came, Miss Fintworth—she’s our postmistress—didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t give it to Jonathan’s mum—she’d gone to her people in Yorkshire after she got the bad news—and she didn’t like to send it back since it was plain you didn’t know what had happened, so she brought it to Dad to ask him what to do. I hope you don’t think we did wrong by opening it, but Dad said it might be urgent, being from a hospital and all, and when we read it and found out you’d been injured at Dunkirk, we thought you must have been with them. We knew you didn’t know”—she gave the gloves another twist—“how things had ended, or you wouldn’t have written the Commander, but we thought perhaps you were there when the Lady Jane was hit and then got separated from them somehow and been rescued, and that you knew what had happened.”
No, but I know why they died, he thought. Because he’d untangled their propeller. He’d made it possible for them to go back again.
Daphne was looking questioningly at him.
“No, I was injured on that first run,” he managed to say. “I didn’t know they’d gone over there again. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking down at her gloves. “Dad says it was the Commander’s foolhardiness got them killed. The Small Vessels Pool had turned the Lady Jane down, you see. Dad says he should have listened to them.”
“He wanted to help,” Mike said. “A lot of boats went over on their own, and it was a good thing. The Army was in a pretty bad spot.”
“And you went along to help them. I think it was marvelous of you to do that, being a Yank and everything. It was very brave. The officer told Dad that the Commander and Jonathan brought home nearly a hundred of our boys. He said they were true heroes.”
They were, he thought. You wanted to observe heroism, and you got your wish. “Absolutely. They showed a lot of courage.”
Daphne nodded solemnly. “You were a hero as well. The nurse told me about your untangling the propeller and all that. She said you should have a medal.”
A medal, he thought bitterly, for being where he wasn’t supposed to be, for murderously altering events. If I hadn’t unfouled that propeller, that bomb would have hit the Lady Jane and damaged her rudder. They wouldn’t have been able to make that second trip—
Daphne was looking worriedly at him. “I’ve tired you out,” she said, standing up and beginning to pull on her gloves. “I should go.”
“No, you can’t.” He hadn’t been able to ask her about the retrieval team yet. “Can’t you stay a little longer?”
She hesitated, looking uncertainly in the direction of the doors. “The nurse said I was only to stay a quarter of—”
“Please.” He reached for her hand. “It’s so nice having a visitor. Tell me what’s been happening in Saltram-on-Sea.”
“Oh, all right then,” she said, looking pleased. “We did have a bit of excitement last week. The Germans dropped a bomb in Mr. Damon’s field. We thought it was the invasion starting. Mr. Tompkins was all for ringing the church bells, but the vicar wouldn’t let him till we knew for certain. Mr. Tompkins said it would be too late by then—that they’d already have sent in saboteurs and spies, and they’d be landing soon—and they had a grand row, standing in front of the church.”
Spies. That gave him the opening he needed. “I suppose you’re all on the lookout for strangers, then?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. The Home Guard patrols the fields and the beach every night, and the mayor sent round a notice telling us to report any strangers in town to him immediately.”
“And have you had any? Strangers?”
“No. There were a good many reporters in town just after Dunkirk to speak to Mr. Powney and the others—”
“Did any of them come in the pub and talk to you?”
“You sound as though you’re jealous,” she said, cocking her head flirtatiously at him.