Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- POPULAR BOOKS FROM THE ERA
- When We Meet Again
- A Conversation with Caroline Beecham about When We Meet Again
- Discussion Guide
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
She took a deep breath as she made her way down the charcoal-colored steps and through the painted barriers, following the crowd as they entered Chalk Farm station. When she reached the top of the steep escalator, she grasped the handrail and peered down, but she couldn’t see the bottom, as if the whole mechanism plunged into the center of the Earth.
Her breathing quickened, and she took off her coat as the heat of panic rose.
Then she squeezed the handrail, gritted her teeth and kept her eyes fixed on the steps as the escalator began its long journey down.
The platform was busy and the first train overcrowded, so she waited for it to pass through and for the platform to clear. She focused on taking measured breaths as the platform started to fill again, nearly as populated as before. As soon as the next train came she settled into a carriage, pulled out the copy of To Have and Have Not that she’d plucked off Penny’s bookshelf, and tried to concentrate on reading, but a woman with a baby girl got on at Angel and sat opposite. The baby looked about six months old with soft brown locks curling from beneath a knitted yellow bonnet, and her arms and legs pumped the air on either side of her mother’s embrace. The mother smiled, and Alice tried even harder to focus on the pages of her book but couldn’t look away as the baby drooled, her big blue eyes flashing around the carriage. Then she fixed her gaze on Alice, staring expressionlessly through long spider-leg lashes as if waiting for something, and Alice found she couldn’t help staring back. There seemed to be so much locked behind those eyes; the girl hadn’t existed long enough to have the knowledge she appeared to possess, and it confounded Alice.
“She’s a terrible distraction,” the mother said.
“She’s beautiful,” Alice said, smiling. “What’s her name?”
“Jessica.”
Hearing her mother call her name, the baby abruptly turned toward her, neck and head wobbling unsteadily, and she bumped her nose against her mother and cried out.
“Come on, you’re all right,” the mother said, jiggling her up and down. “That was such a tiny bump.”
“I’m sorry,” said Alice.
“Goodness, wasn’t your fault, you know what they’re like at this age. Do you have children?”