already been hit?” Eileen asked, glancing up at the stairs spiraling above them.
“Yes, I don’t know exactly when. I wasn’t supposed to still be here when it hit, so I don’t know the details. Only that it was early this evening and that there were three fatalities.”
“But if it had already been hit, wouldn’t we have heard it?” Eileen asked. “Or the fire bells or something?”
“Not in here,” Polly said. “Don’t worry about the coat. Mrs. Wyvern—she’s one of the people I sit with in the shelter—helps distribute clothing to people who’ve been bombed out. I’ll see if I can arrange a coat for you from her.”
“Do you think you could talk her out of one for me, too?” Mike asked. “I hocked mine.”
Polly nodded. “You’ll both need one—1940 was one of the coldest and rainiest winters on record.”
“Then let’s try not to spend more time in it than we have to,” Mike said. “There’s at least one historian here now. Both times I was in the lab, Linna was on the phone giving someone a list of historians currently on assignment. I only heard snatches, but one of them was October 1940.”
“Are you certain it wasn’t me?” Polly asked. “I was supposed to go back October twenty-second.”
He shook his head. “October was the arrival date. The departure date was December eighteenth.”
“Which means whoever it is is here right now,” Eileen said. “You didn’t hear the name?”
“No, but I also met a guy in the lab. He was there doing a recon and prep drop. I don’t know the date of his assignment, but the recon and prep was to Oxford on July second, 1940. His name was Phillips or Phipps—”
“Gerald Phipps?” Eileen said.
“I didn’t hear his first name. Do you know him?”
“Yes,” Eileen said, making a face. “He’s insufferable. When I first told him about my assignment, he said, ‘A maid? Is that the most exciting assignment you could find? You won’t get to see the war at all.’”
“Which tells us he would,” Polly said.
“And that his assignment was exciting,” Mike added. “Did he tell you where he was going?”
“Yes. It began with a D, I think. Or a P. Or possibly a T. I wasn’t really listening.”
“And he didn’t tell you what he’d be observing?” Mike asked, and when Eileen shook her head, “Polly, what was happening in July?”
“In England? The Battle of Britain.”
“No, I don’t think that’s it. He was wearing tweeds, not an RAF uniform.”
“But you said it was a setup,” Polly argued. “Perhaps he had to arrange for a transfer to an airfield.”
“He did say he’d posted some letters and made a trunk call,” Mike said. “What airfields begin with a D?”
“Detling?” Polly suggested. “Duxford?”
“No,” Eileen said, frowning. “It might have been a T.”
“T?” Mike said. “You said a D or a P.”
“I know.” She bit her lip thoughtfully. “But I think it may have been a T.”
“Tangmere?” Polly said.
“No… I’m sorry. I’d know it if I heard it.”
“We need a list of English airfields,” Mike said.
“But I can’t imagine Gerald as a pilot,” Eileen said.
“Yeah, I know,” Mike said. “He’s scrawny, and when I saw him, he was wearing spectacles.”
“And he’s a dreadful grind,” Eileen said. “Maths and—”
“He might be posing as a course plotter or a radio operator,” Polly suggested. “That’s much more likely than his being a pilot. The life expectancy for pilots during the Battle of Britain was three weeks. Mr. Dunworthy would never have allowed it. And if he was a course plotter or a dispatcher he could observe the Battle of Britain without being in as much danger, though the airfields and sector stations were bombed as well. But if he was here to observe the Battle of Britain, then he may already have gone back.” She turned to Eileen. “He didn’t say how long he was staying?”
“No. At least I don’t think so,” she said, frowning in concentration. “I was late for my driving lesson, and, as I said, he’s insufferable. All I was thinking about was getting away from him. If I’d known this was going to happen, I’d have listened more carefully.”
“Yes, well, if we’d known we were going to be stuck here, we’d all have behaved differently,” Mike said grimly. “Never mind, we can easily find out the airfields. Do either of you know who this other person who’s here from October to December could be? Or do you know of anyone else who might be here?”