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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?

Alice tried to look as open and friendly as she could as she smiled at each of them, trying to distinguish who was who based on Penny’s earlier descriptions. The young woman with milky white skin and auburn hair must surely be Helena, the librarian. Then Rex, the friendly warden with a shiny red scar across the left side of his face. Beside him was a nervous ball of energy, Marjorie, the civil servant who volunteered to repair books for the services. Then Terrance, the youngest member, Oxford-educated and on sick leave from the Royal Air Force. And, of course, the bespectacled Henry, dark-haired and intense, just as she’d imagined the retired major to be.

“Alice is a good friend of mine,” said Penny. “She works at a publishing house and has offered to get us books for our group.” There was a murmur of appreciation before Penny carried on. “Alice is working on a new book, a very important book,” she said, growing serious, “and she’d like to ask for our help. I thought it was the least we could do to show our gratitude.”

Penny sat down, leaving Alice standing by herself, nervously rubbing her hands together. “Hello, and it’s nice to meet you all. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Some good, I hope,” Rex said, and chuckled.

“Shush,” Marjorie said with a frown. “Let her finish. Go on, dear.”

“Fire away!” Henry added.

Alice cleared her throat and looked at Penny. Then she bent down to retrieve the newspaper articles from their folder and place them on the table. She had spent hours poring over these cuttings. Several of the accused baby farmers’ names appeared more than once, and although she’d tracked most of them down and ruled them out as the people responsible for taking Eadie, there was one couple Olive had warned against trying to trace in one of their off-the-record conversations: “The Pritchards are not only evil but very dangerous.” The journalist had promised to help, but she wanted to run it by legal affairs at the paper first. There was no telling how long that might take—it could be any number of days or weeks.