Alice didn’t have much to bargain with. “Keeping your whereabouts a secret.”

Beatrice gave a loud, throaty laugh. “That’s not much of an incentive, love.”

Alice thought she understood how far she’d go to find her daughter. She’d returned to her Dulwich home during the day when her mother was at work to get her father’s gun. The trips with her father and brother had been to hunt for food, then when William was drafted he’d insisted she be able to defend herself. But as she fingered the pistol in her pocket and felt the cold hard metal beneath her skin, she didn’t feel capable of using it on another human being.

Thirty

Regent’s Park Road was in pitch darkness and the blackout blinds in all the houses were drawn by the time Alice stumbled through the café doors. The book group had finished, everyone long gone except for Ursula, who leaned against the counter, looking remote, and Penny, who threw her arms around Alice as soon as she appeared. “What happened?” she asked.

“I’ll explain in a minute,” Alice replied, “I just need to sit down.” She sank heavily into one of the chairs, hands still trembling, while Penny scurried about, fetching her a mug of tea before sitting next to her. “How did you get on at the book group?” Alice asked, sipping it slowly. “Did Rex have any news?”

“Yes, he told us to remember the name Sidney Jardine,” Penny replied, before exchanging a look with Ursula.

“What’s happened?” Alice asked, glancing from one to the other.

“Ursula knows, Alice. I’ve told her everything.”

“Everything?”

“Well, she guessed, actually.”

So that was it; Ursula knew now. Alice was uncertain how she felt; a mix of relief and regret that she hadn’t told her friend personally.

“I’m so sorry, Alice,” Ursula said. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through . . . what you must still be going through.”

“Thank you. How did you guess?”

Ursula told her about the evening’s events. They’d all sat in the usual horseshoe around the table: Helena, Rex, Marjorie, Terrance, Henry, Penny and Ursula. Terrance had propositioned Ursula. “As if I would contemplate a relationship with him,” she said, sounding amused and appalled as she threw some humor into the conversation. “It’s about as likely to happen as Churchill striding through the door and asking to join the book group!” She went on to explain how the group had argued about whose turn it was to open the box of books, and they’d waited patiently as Rex retrieved The Body in the Library and his eyes lit up. Everyone had seemed overjoyed—except Penny, who was gazing distractedly into space. “That’s when I knew something was wrong,” Ursula said, looking at Alice.

“Why?”