The Bletchley Women by Patricia Adrian

Author:Patricia Adrian [Adrian, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008526016
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter Nineteen

Evie

The name is wrong, all wrong. Mrs Pike. But it’s her, unmistakably her. The eyes, the way she pats her hair. The chignon. I’ve found Elinor in Rose’s kitchen. This is so absurd that I almost want to laugh.

If I weren’t on the verge of crying. ‘I’m so glad to see you, Elinor.’

Her jaw squares in a way that says she isn’t pleased to see me. ‘Miss Milton. How are the boys?’ She draws herself up straight, and even so the top of her head barely reaches under my chin.

‘They miss you so much. They’ve been livid with Papa after what happened.’

Rose stands in the middle of the room, as if she can’t quite decide what to do with herself. She probably doesn’t understand a single thing about what is happening, but Lucy is ahead of her. Lucy is always ahead of us. ‘So you two know each other?’

I smile, calculating. I’ve found Elinor. Now all I have to do is not startle her. Let her think I will go wherever she leads me. I tell myself I can do this. I’ve been lying for as long as I can remember; can’t I find a string of little lies to pick her brains? Anything so I can have my answers. Anything to make her put in a good word with Will, though who knows where she might be with Will now? Maybe they parted ways. Maybe she met someone else. And married so soon? It can’t be. It’s been a year. She wouldn’t have had time for it all.

Will must be hiding her from us under a false name. That’s it. That must be it.

The silence stretches, and then Lucy, again, is the girl who presses on. This girl has no shame, and perhaps there’s a thing or two I can yet learn from her. ‘So?’

‘I used to work for Lord Milton,’ says Elinor. ‘I assume you can say we know each other, Miss…?’

‘Stevens.’ Lucy stretches out her hand as if she’s been waiting for this cue ever since Nell came into the room. ‘Lucy Stevens.’

‘I’d offer you some tea,’ says Elinor, ‘but I see Rose has taken care of it.’

‘We work together,’ says Rose in a small voice. ‘The girls wanted to help me find a way to see my fiancé.’

At this point I want to scream, will you stop going on about your bloody fiancé?

‘Don’t let me keep you,’ says Elinor. ‘Have a lovely evening.’

‘Elinor, wait,’ I say. ‘Since you’re here…’ I scour feverishly for the right thing to say. I finally decide there is no such thing. No time for elaborate lies. No time to beat around the bush. So here it goes. ‘Would you please tell Will that I’m sorry? And that I’ve been worried sick about him?’

‘I can certainly pass that on, but…why would you…?’ Elinor frowns, but all I can hear is that she could pass it on. So she’s in touch with him. He speaks to her. ‘You do know that I’m

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