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Back When We Meet Again Save as PDF
Chapters (57)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Prologue
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  51. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  52. POPULAR BOOKS FROM THE ERA
  53. When We Meet Again
  54. A Conversation with Caroline Beecham about When We Meet Again
  55. Discussion Guide
  56. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  57. What’s next onyour reading list?

“It was a miracle when you came along. We were so shocked, but it was obviously God’s will. He decided to bless us after all.” Ruth leaned back in her chair and let out a guttural groan. “I made a promise, Alice. When we were given William, I knew it was wrong in God’s eyes. Then we were blessed with you . . . I knew we would have to pay for it, one day.”

“So, when Eadie was born you decided she would be the sacrifice for the choice that you made.”

Ruth shook her head. “No, it was never like that. I never wanted you to pay for my mistake, or your own; we’ve paid enough with your father’s and William’s lives. No, I thought it would be better for her, and that you could recover from being a fallen woman, and even have a real family of your own one day.”

Alice’s whole being ignited with rage. She held her fists at her sides, suddenly aware of what she was capable of. “I had a real family,” she said. “Eadie and I were family—and now look what you’ve done.”

Twenty-four

London, April 17, 1943

“I want to see the lions,” the boy shouted as he skipped along the path.

“We will . . . just slow down!” his mother cried as she chased along behind him.

The walkways and gardens were crowded with families, children pulling parents from one enclosure to the next, as well as lots of servicemen—American, British and Royal Indian Army—all of whom Alice knew gained entry for half price. In fact, it was as if the two thousand daily visitors had descended at that very moment to invade her solitude. She sat on a bench, watching numbly as the boughs of a tree danced in the wind, white blossoms leaping like kids on a trampoline, the sunlight behind them crafting lacework from the leaves. Children’s squeals and laughter looped and fell, as though distant and then close again. It had seemed like a good idea for a Saturday outing: get the trolley bus to the zoo, stop at the corner store where her father had always bought sweets for her and her brother, re-create their childhood ritual. She had so desperately wanted to build the safe world for Eadie that her father had for her and William, but look how badly she’d failed. And she didn’t even know her family anymore; it was like seasickness, everything she knew kept shifting and changing. She really had no idea what to do next, so she just sat with the half-eaten bag of boiled sweets in her lap, feeling hopeless.