She clasped Polly’s hands. “But there was something I could—I can—do. I can stay here. I can find Colin and tell him where you are,” she said, her face radiant. “And I’m so glad!”

That’s what they were telling her while I was gone, Polly thought, remembering Eileen wiping away tears as she came up the aisle.

“You shouldn’t have told her,” she said bitterly to them. “It’s not fair to put a burden like that on her—”

“No one told me,” Eileen said. “I knew it the moment I saw Colin.”

Just as I knew it was him, Polly thought, that he’d come to rescue us.

And that was why he had looked so sad, so careworn. Because he knew Eileen wasn’t coming with them. Because he’d already seen her, years from now. She had already told him where they were.

It’s already happened, she thought, all of it, Eileen’s staying here and VE-Day and Colin’s asking her where we were. It’s all already happened, and there’s nothing I can do to change it.

But she had to try. “I’m not going without you, Eileen,” she said.

“You’re right, you’re not. I’ll always be there with you,” Eileen said briskly, as if she were sending her off to school like Alf and Binnie. “Now go. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Oh, my goodness, what about ENSA? Mr. Tabbitt—”

“I’ll tell him you were transferred to a touring troupe or something. Go.”

There was a whistling screech and then a crump, and the theater shook slightly.

Eileen looked up at the ceiling. “The raids sound like they’re growing worse, and I won’t have you blown up now after all the work I’ve done—will do—to get you out of here. And if I know Alf and Binnie, they’ll be banned from the stage at any moment and come tearing up here to ask all sorts of questions, and you’ll never get away in time.”

She hugged Mr. Dunworthy. “Goodbye. You take care to rest and get well.”

“I will, my dear.”

“Polly, eat lots of eggs and bacon for me, and heaps of sugar.” She hugged her tightly. “And be happy.”

“ ‘This is a comedy, not a tragedy,’ ” Polly murmured.

“Yes,” Eileen said joyfully. “Only just think, you’re going home!”

“But I can’t bear the thought of leaving you here all alone—”

“I’m not alone. I have my children. And Sir Godfrey and Miss Laburnum and Winston Churchill. And Agatha Christie. And who knows what may happen? I may get to meet her properly next time and tell her how much I owe to her. She taught me to solve mysteries,” she said and turned to smile at Colin.

“My dear boy,” she said, embracing him and then holding him out at arm’s length to look at him again, “take care of her for me.”

“I will,” he said solemnly.

“Now, go,” she ordered, propelling them up the aisle toward the exit.

“Wait,” Polly said, and fished in her pocket for the letter. “Here. It’s a list of the V-1s and V-2s in London and the southeastern suburbs, but not Kent or Sussex, so stay out of them if you can.”