Page 80 of The Last Night in London
“Surely your St. John has plans to tuck you securely away in the country?” Alex spoke slowly, as if they were discussing the weather. “Although I heard from David that Sophia has already signed up with the Women’s Voluntary Services. At this very moment, she’s helping escort the last of the children who are evacuating London for the country.”
Eva nodded. “Yes. She told me. Precious and I signed up for the WVS, too, to help in the shelters, but we haven’t had our first meeting yet.” She had followed Precious and Sophia into the building and signed her name to a document. But she’d done it as if she were an actress in a play, with no meaning behind her actions. No belief that any of it would matter. But those words splashed on the front of the newspaper suddenly made it all so startlingly real.
She stood, recalling the bolts of fabric Precious had procured and sewn into blackout curtains. The two gas masks sitting on the foyertable. Precious had picked them up and made Eva practice putting hers on.
“I should go. We should all go. And prepare ourselves.”
“Surely you’ve already started?” Alex said with mock surprise. “Our friend Precious said she needed someone to help hang your blackout curtains. I suggested Graham since he’s so tall—although he’s training somewhere with the RAF, isn’t he?”
His eyes sparkled with some inner joke that Eva didn’t find amusing. Ignoring him, she turned to Mr. Danek and said, “Thank you for your honesty. You always put things in perspective for me.” She made the mistake of glancing at Jiri, saw his look of feigned concern as he blew out a plume of smoke. She turned blindly toward the door, stumbling in her heels. “I’ve got to go.”
Alex put a hand on her arm, steadying her. “I’ll walk you home.”
Eva wanted to pull her arm away, to tell him no, but she wasn’t sure if her legs were strong enough to carry her back to her flat.
“Co oci nevidí, to srdce nebolí,”he said to Mr. Danek and Jiri as he held the door open for Eva.
She had a glimpse of Mr. Danek’s bland face looking toward her as the door shut.
“What does that mean?” she asked, standing on the sidewalk. Her head spun; she forgot where she was or where she was headed.
“It’s an old Czech saying. It means ‘What eyes don’t see, heart doesn’t hurt.’ You are so good at pretending, Eva. You even fool yourself.”
She pulled away from him, running down the sidewalk. But her heel stuck in a grate, and broke. She pulled off both of her shoes and kept going, aware of Alex managing to keep up with her without even breaking into a run.
She needed to barricade herself in her room, to calm her thoughts. Inside her building, she ran up the stairs, unwilling to wait for the lift, feeling Alex climbing behind her. Pausing in front of the thick mahogany door, she tried to catch her breath as she dug through her purse for the key, dropping the purse and all of its contents in her haste.
“Damn!” She bent down to gather up her items just as Alex reached her floor, not out of breath at all.
“I believe this is yours,” he said, handing her the cigarette case.
She took it without thanking him, then jabbed her key into the lock and pushed open the door. She was about to tell him that he could leave now, that she was fine, but froze at the sound of Precious’s laughter. And a man’s voice. A voice she knew.
An RAF uniform cap hung from the hat rack inside the door.
“Graham?” Eva called, dropping her shoes and rushing into the front reception room, stopping at the threshold as she registered Graham, wearing his smart new bluish gray RAF uniform, and Precious sitting together on the sofa.
Graham stood, his smile fading as Alex came to stand behind her. Eva moved across the room toward him. He hesitated only a moment before taking her in his arms, not caring about their audience. “You’re here. You’re really here,” Eva whispered. She buried her face in his neck, smelling the scent that was uniquely his, now mixed with that of new wool. She wanted to stay there forever, to make Precious and Alex and the rest of the world disappear so that it was just the two of them.
Instead, she heard Alex crossing the room, felt Graham moving her aside, his hand firmly planted at her waist as he took Alex’s hand. “Pleasure to see you safe and sound, old man,” Alex said, his voice jovial. “We didn’t expect you back in London so soon.”
“Nor did I. I managed to pull in a favor and get one night’s leave.” Graham’s gaze flickered over to Eva’s stocking feet, before returning to Alex. “Tomorrow they’re sending me to another base for further training.”
“Where, Graham?” Eva asked. “Closer to London?”
He paused for a moment, his eyes never leaving hers. “I’m not at liberty to say.” He dropped his hand from her waist and looked at Alex. “I wasn’t expecting to bump into you.” He kept his voice light but there was something about the inflection that made Eva wince.
“I ran into him at Horvath’s Café. It was quite by accident.” Eva was babbling, and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the guilt ofsharing Graham’s letters with Alex. It wasn’t as if she’d had a choice or she’d planned on meeting Alex or she’d even wanted to. But something in Graham’s expression made her want to explain.
“I’m sure it was, Eva.” Graham’s voice was almost curt, although he continued to smile.
Eva’s heart fell. “When do you have to be back?”
“Tonight. I’ll have to catch the three ten from Euston.”
“But that’s not even a full day.” Eva felt horribly close to tears, although her heart sang with the knowledge that he’d come such a long distance just to see her.
Graham cut a glance toward Alex and Precious. “Sadly, yes. And if Germany ignores Chamberlain’s ultimatum, I’m afraid we will be at war.”
