But he’s still too old for me, she thought regretfully, though it wouldn’t matter if she were a FANY and not an historian. She still couldn’t have him. He hadn’t found Paige in the crowd yet, but he was clearly looking for her, and when he did, he’d only have eyes for her.

I’m still glad I get to see him one last time, she thought, watching him work his way cheerfully through the jostling crowd, looking for Paige, his dark hair …

“He doesn’t see us!” Paige wailed. “Wave, Mary!”

She waved along with the others, and shouted, and Parrish emitted an ear-splitting whistle, which would have made her titled parents shudder but did the trick. He looked up, saw Paige, grinned that devastatingly crooked smile of his, and started straight for them.

“Oh, good,” Talbot said. “He’s seen—good God! Is that the Major?”

Talbot pointed three-quarters of the way across the square, beyond the bonfire, but they all spotted her instantly. And worse, she’d spotted them. “This is all your fault, Fairchild,” Talbot said. “If we hadn’t been waving at Stephen, she’d never have seen us.”

“What do you think she’s doing here?” Reardon asked apprehensively.

“If I know her,” Parrish said, “she’s probably come to tell us we’re all on report.”

“Or to send us to Edgware for sticking plaster,” Paige said.

“Should we start a pool on it?” Reardon asked.

Talbot laughed. “Oh, I’m going to miss all of you.”

“We’ll see each other again,” Paige said confidently. “You’re all invited to my wedding. Douglas is going to be my maid of honor, aren’t you, Mary?”

I can’t, she thought.

“Only if you promise not to make me wear the Yellow Peril,” she said lightly.

“I knew I was glad the war was over,” Parrish said. “It means I’ll never have to wear the Yellow Peril again.”

“Or drive the Octopus,” Talbot said.

Or be afraid you’re going to be killed any moment. Or dig body parts and dead children out of the rubble again, Mary said silently and thought of the man in the wrecked newspaper office in Croydon. After she’d got out of hospital, she’d telephoned St. Bart’s and Guy’s Hospital and then every ambulance unit within forty miles, but she hadn’t found any trace of him. He must not have been as badly injured as she’d thought, though that seemed impossible.

I hope he made it, she thought. I hope he’s here tonight to see this.

“Oh, no,” Talbot said. “The Major’s coming this way!”

“Do you think she’ll make us go home?” Reardon said.

No, just me, Mary thought. With the Major here, it was a perfect time to go back to the post, leave her a note saying, “My mother’s very ill. Must go,” and then head for the drop.

She was sorry she hadn’t got to see Maitland or Sutcliffe-Hythe or Reed one last time—she had grown amazingly attached to all the FANYs over the last year. But she was only experiencing what every person here in Trafalgar Square would be in the next few days and weeks. This wasn’t only an end to the war. It would be the end to who knew how many friendships, romances, careers. All sorts of partings, all sorts of goodbyes.