“Excellent. Can you begin tomorrow morning?” Miss Gregory asked, and when Eileen said yes, told her when and where to report and what to wear.
“Are you going?” Theodore asked, his voice rising threateningly when she rang off.
Not yet, Eileen thought. “No,” she said, and smiled at him. “I’m going to stay here and work at Padgett’s.”
Is Your Journey Really Necessary?
—MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT POSTER, 1940
London—26 September 1940
POLLY’S RETRIEVAL TEAM STILL HADN’T COME BY THURSDAY night. I can’t stand this waiting. I’ll give it till Saturday, and then I’m going up to Backbury, she thought, listening to Miss Laburnum and the others argue over which play to do.
Surprisingly, Sir Godfrey had agreed to the idea of a full-scale theatrical production. “I’d be delighted to assist in such a worthy cause,” he’d said. “We must do Twelfth Night. With Miss Sebastian as Viola.”
“Oh, I had my heart set on one of Barrie’s plays,” Miss Laburnum said.
“Perhaps Peter Pan,” Mrs. Brightford suggested. “The children could be in it.”
“Nelson could play Nana,” Mr. Simms said.
Sir Godfrey looked aghast. “Peter Pan?”
“We can’t,” Polly said quickly. “We’ve no way to manage the flying.”
Sir Godfrey shot a grateful glance at her. “An excellent point. On the other hand, Twelfth Ni—”
“It must be a patriotic play,” Mrs. Wyvern said decisively.
“Henry V,” Sir Godfrey said.
“No, not enough women. We must do a play with women in it so everyone in our little troupe can participate.”
“And with a dog,” Mr. Simms said.
“Twelfth Night has lots of women,” Polly said. “Viola, the Lady Olivia, Maria—”
“I think we should do the clock one,” Trot said.
“What a good idea!” Miss Laburnum exclaimed. “We can do Barrie’s A Kiss for Cinderella!”
“Is there a part for a dog in it?” Mr. Simms asked.
“What about a murder mystery?” the rector said.
“The Mousetrap,” Sir Godfrey said dryly.
When I get to Backbury, I must tell Merope that Sir Godfrey likes Agatha Christie, Polly thought, and then realized he was referring to Hamlet. And probably plotting the murder of Miss Laburnum.
She half listened to them propose possible plays, trying to decide when to go. If she waited till after work on Saturday, she wouldn’t need to ask Miss Snelgrove for time off or run the risk of missing the retrieval team while she was gone. But she seemed to remember Merope saying her half-day off was Monday and that that was when she went through to Oxford to check in. If it took Polly longer than planned to get to Backbury, she ran the risk of Merope’s not being there when she arrived.
Or not being there at all. Merope’s assignment had to be nearly over. What if she was going back for good on Monday? I’d better not wait till Saturday night, Polly thought.
“I saw three copies of Mary Rose in a secondhand bookshop last week,” Miss Laburnum said. “Such an affecting play… That poor boy, searching for his lost love those years…” She put her hand to her bosom. “I shall make an expedition to Charing Cross on Saturday.”
And I shall make one to Backbury, Polly thought. I’ll go Saturday and come back Sunday.
She needed to find out about trains. It was too late to go to Euston to look at the schedule. The Underground trains had already stopped for the night. She would have to do it in the morning.
But when the trains began running again at half past six the next morning, there was a notice board saying the Central Line was out of service due to “damage on the line,” so instead she had to ask Marjorie to watch her counter while she ran up to the book department and consulted an ABC railway guide.
The earliest train on a Saturday was at 10:02, with connections at Reading and Leamington. It didn’t get in to Backbury till… Oh, no, after ten o’clock at night. That meant she wouldn’t be able to go to the manor till Sunday morning. And depending on how far from Backbury it was, it might take her the better part of the day to walk there and back.
And if Merope had already gone back, she couldn’t afford to miss the return train. And, according to the ABC, the only one from Backbury on Sunday went at 11:19 A.M.
I shall to have to go tonight, she thought. If there’s a train.
There were three, the first one at 6:48. If I go straight to Euston from work, I should be able to make the 6:48, she thought, starting down to her counter to relieve Marjorie.