“Did you check the lofts?” Bertie called from his chair in the living room.

Susan went inside. “All of them.”

Bertie rubbed his knees, his feet propped on a stool. “She’ll be back. Remember the time we took a flock to Willingham?”

Susan nodded and took a seat on the floor beside him. She recalled the training trip with a group of young pigeons. It was one of the rare occasions she had not taken Duchess along for the ride. When they arrived in Willingham to unload the pigeons, Duchess landed on the hood of the truck and angled her head, as if she were thinking, Why would you leave without me? It was the first and last time they failed to take her along.

“She’s probably circling North Weald,” Bertie said. “She’ll be back before Oliver.”

“How’re the knees?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Same.”

“We shouldn’t have gone for that walk. You’ll be paying for it later.”

He adjusted his legs on the stool. “I needed the exercise.”

“Tea?”

Bertie nodded. “That would be splendid, my dear.”

Susan went to the kitchen and placed the kettle on the stove. She opened the tea jar. Only a spoonful of finely broken tea leaves remained. She glanced out the window to the garden. It looked dormant, brown stems and vines shriveling into the ground in preparation for winter. She’d have to scour the garden, or perhaps even take a hike in the forest to find something tolerable to brew. For now, she’d have to make do with weak tea.

Susan looked at a clock on the wall: 2:47 PM. The pigeons were likely inside the planes by now. She didn’t know the time of the mission but assumed they would be leaving under the cover of darkness, like the Luftwaffe. She hoped the pigeons would not be frightened. After all, they had never been on a plane. Nor had she, for that matter. Perhaps they could tuck their heads under their wings and sleep. How many would make it back?

Be an egg, she thought.

She sat at the kitchen table and turned her thoughts to Ollie. She was glad he was with the pigeons and believed he would do his best to make sure they were properly cared for. Despite knowing him for only a short while, she trusted him. Perhaps it was his interest in her, her pigeons, or the way he cared for Bertie, getting him cold towels for his knees, something she deeply appreciated.