when she said it, I thought, The airfield Gerald told me he was going to was a two-word name.”
“Middle Wallop?” Polly said.
Eileen shook her head.
“West Malling?”
“No. I’m positive one of the words began with a T. Or a P—” She stopped, looking past Polly. “Oh, thank goodness, it’s Miss Miles!” She ran to meet the young woman coming across the street.
“What happened?” Miss Miles said, staring at the scattered mannequins.
“Padgett’s was bombed last night—” Eileen began, but Mike cut in, “Was Miss Rainsford still in the building when you left last night?”
“No,” Miss Miles said, still staring blindly at the sprawled bodies.
“No, you don’t know? Or no, she wasn’t in the building?” Mike shouted, and Eileen turned to look at him incredulously, but his anger had roused Miss Miles from her trance.
She turned from staring at the mannequins and said, “She wasn’t here yesterday. Her brother was killed the night before last.”
“You’d best tell Mr. Fetters that,” Eileen said, and to Mike and Polly, “I’ll be back straightaway,” and led Miss Miles off toward the others.
“Well?” Mike said before the two girls were even out of earshot. “You heard her. Everybody’s been accounted for. Which means there weren’t any fatalities.”
“It doesn’t mean that at all,” Polly said. “They could have been passersby. On my way to Padgett’s I saw a woman and her little boy insisting the doorman get them a taxi. They might still have been waiting for it when the bomb hit,” she said, though if that were the case, their bodies would have been blown out onto the pavement like the mannequins. “No one knew we were in Padgett’s. There might have been other people who—”
“Or the continuum might have been altered,” Mike said, looking like he was going to be sick, “and we’re going to lose the war. And don’t tell me it’s impossible.”
It is impossible, she thought, but she said, “If England lost the war, then Ira Feldman’s parents would have died in Auschwitz or Buchenwald, and he’d never have invented time travel, and Oxford would never have built the net, and we couldn’t have come through.”
“You’re forgetting something,” he said bitterly.
“What?”
“We came through the net before I saved Hardy.”
And I was at VE-Day before he saved Hardy, she thought, but—
“Why else would there be a discrepancy?” he said.
“You don’t know that it’s a discrepancy. You don’t know you saved Hardy, either.”
“What do you mean? I told you—”
“Perhaps it wasn’t your light he saw. Perhaps it was a light from some other boat, or a reflection off the water. Or a flare.”
“A flare,” he said, and some of the color came back into his face. “I hadn’t thought of that. There were flares.”
“In any case, we can’t know anything for sure till we’ve found Gerald and seen whether his drop is working.”
“Or yours is,” he said.
Now was no time to tell him of her multiple trips to the drop. “I’ll take you there tonight after work,” she said. “I think right now you should go with Eileen to Stepney. She’s had too many shocks to deal with to go by herself,” and before he could object, called “Eileen!” and walked briskly over to where she stood talking to Miss Miles. Eileen’s teeth were chattering, and she was hugging her arms tightly to herself. “Here, take my coat,” Polly said, unbuttoning it.
“But—”
“I won’t need it. I’m going to Mrs. Rickett’s to see about your moving in with me, so I can get my suit jacket.” She put the coat on Eileen. “I’ll see you when you return from Stepney. Come to Townsend Brothers, and we’ll plan our next move.”
Now she was the one shivering in the chill predawn air. “I’d best go if I’m to get to Mrs. Rickett’s and back in time for work. I’ll see you in a bit. I’m on third,” she reminded her. “The stockings counter. Take care,” and hurried off toward the tube station.
The train to Notting Hill Gate was empty, and she was grateful. She needed time to think what to do. If she told Mike why she was positive they’d won the war, it would stop him worrying about having altered events.
But she’d have to tell him all of it. Saying she’d been at VE-Day wouldn’t convince him. He’d just say the continuum hadn’t changed till later, after he’d rescued Hardy. She’d have to tell him why that wasn’t true. And both of them had had as many shocks as they could take for one night.