And because if I did go back, Mr. Dunworthy would have pulled me out and canceled all our drops, and none of this would have happened. Including this VE-Day celebration.

There’d have been no cheering crowds, no church bells, no victory. Binnie would have died of pneumonia and Alf on the City of Benares, and Captain Westbrook would have died waiting for an ambulance, and they would have lost the war.

“When did Polly see you?” Binnie demanded.

“I’m not certain,” Eileen said. “She told me she got to Trafalgar Square around half past nine, and she was only in the square an hour.”

“Then why’d you come get us out of school? Why’d you make us hurry?”

If she lied to her now, Binnie would never trust her again. “Because I hoped that Colin—the man who came to fetch Polly and Mr. Dunworthy that night—might be here.”

“And he’d take you back.”

“No. I told Colin—will tell Colin—where to find us, and I thought tonight might have been when I told him. I thought he might be here, but I don’t know that for certain. I don’t know when I told him. It might be tonight or years from now.”

“And when you tell him, he’ll go back and find everyone at the theater,” Binnie said.

“Yes.”

Binnie frowned at her. “You should have asked him when it was you told him,” she said practically. “And where, so you wouldn’t have to go running about looking for him.”

“That’s true,” Eileen said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ll find each other in time, and I’ll tell him.”

“Because he had to have found you or he wouldn’t have known where you were, so he couldn’t have come to the theater,” Binnie said.

And why did I assume she wouldn’t be able to understand time travel? Eileen wondered. “Exactly.”

“And that’s why you had to stay here. To tell him.”

“No, I stayed because I couldn’t leave you and Alf.” She smiled at Binnie. “Who’d take care of me if I left—?”

But she didn’t get it out. Binnie had flung herself at her, her arms round her neck, clinging so tightly Eileen could scarcely breathe.

“Binnie,” Eileen said gently, enfolding her in her arms.

“I can’t see Polly nowhere,” Alf said, jumping down from the lion. “Are you sure she’s ’ere?”

“Yes,” Eileen said.

“What part of the square was she in?” Binnie asked.

“I don’t know. She said she saw me from a long way off.”

“Well, I can’t see nothin’. She must’ve climbed up on Nelson’s statue or somethin’,” he said, elbowing his way over to a lamppost.

“She would not have climbed a lamppost,” Eileen said.

“I know,” Alf said. “I’m only climbing up so’s I can see.” He stuck the staff of his Union Jack between his teeth, like a pirate’s cutlass, and shinned up it.

“Can you see her?” Eileen called up to him.

“No,” Alf said, taking the flag out of his teeth. “Are you sure she’s—there she is!” He pointed toward National Gallery with his Union Jack. “She’s wearin’ a uniform.”