“You have a hole in your sock.”
David lifted up his foot and inspected it. His pink big toe poked through the black sock, with a few pieces of lint attached. “Nefarious Neptune.”
“Try stockings,” she snorted. She looked down. Hers already had a small run at the heel.
“Have, actually. None too comfortable.”
There was a silence. “Look, do you—do you want to talk about it?” David ventured finally.
“It’s just … Oh, I don’t know.” She was unsure how to put it into words. “I mean, my father’s alive. But he’s not really … there. I’m proud that he’s able to help the war effort, but—”
“Does it feel like losing him all over again?”
“In a way. I had all of these … expectations, and they’re all dashed now. And I had quite a few things to say to Aunt Edith, and now I only feel sorry for her. Maybe I wouldn’t have done the same thing in her shoes, but I’m beginning to understand why she did it.” She could see Aunt Edith, younger, with her whole future ahead of her, with a dead sister-in-law, an insane brother, and a small infant. “Maybe it’s best not to know everything.”
David sighed. “Maybe so.”
“And yet we just can’t help ourselves, can we?”
David had fallen asleep in the chair, mouth slightly agape, snoring lightly. Maggie didn’t want to leave him alone at the hotel in the middle of the night. But she knew they were due back to No. 10 first thing in the morning—and this night might be the last chance she’d ever have to see her father again.
She exchanged her suit for a heavy cardigan and brown corduroy trousers, and her linen pumps for thick-soled shoes. Then she found her coat and, pocketing her keys and ID, let herself out as silently as possible.
As if anything short of an air-raid siren would rouse David from his snoring.
“Rather late for a walk, don’t you think?” said the fat, balding, shiny-faced man at the front desk.
“Insomnia,” she said. “Need a bit of fresh air.”
“Don’t go too far,” the man cautioned. “Not a girl alone.” He gave her a lascivious look. “Unless you’re meeting someone.”
Maggie gave him a conspiratorial look. “Actually, now that you mention it … Is there a back door I could use?”
“Down that hall there and through the kitchen. Can’t miss it.” A broad wink. “Good luck, then, with your … meeting.”
If he only knew.
After Maggie left, the desk clerk picked up the telephone and dialed. “Yes, sir. She just left the hotel.”
The blackout was in full effect, of course, but the moon was a crescent, silvery and high in the shadowy sky. The wind blew through the trees, and they rustled in the dark. The cool air smelled of earth and wood smoke. Overhead, the stars glimmered and gleamed—Ursa Minor and Polaris, Pegasus and Pisces, Cassiopeia and the diffused glow of the Milky Way.
In her hand she had the piece of paper her father had slipped to her when they’d shaken hands as he left.
It had taken quite the effort not to look surprised, and then to keep it hidden from Mr. Easton until she could hide it in her purse. It was even harder to wait until David and she had returned to the hotel and she’d been able to lock herself in the loo and read it:
1301211303185251916152020575
1017215514191916152118201815014
23514554201520011211
The numeric ramblings of a crazy man? At this point, Maggie doubted it. A code. Vigenère Cipher, most likely. But what’s the key? Usually both parties have a key of some sort.…
Maggie thought. All right, what’s the one piece of information we both know, even after all these years, not knowing anything about each other? After a few false starts, Maggie hit on it: her birthday, March 1, 1916.
And so, written numerically, the birthday became the key: 01/03/1916, which began the series of numbers:
01/03/1916/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/
And then, by substituting 01 = 1, 03 = 2 and 1916 = 3:
1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26
… which then became letters in sequence:
a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m/n/o/p/q/r/s/t/u/v/w/x/y/z/
And so,
1301211303185251916152020575
1017215514191916152118201815014
23514554201520011211
… became:
13121133185253152020175
101721551419315211820181514
2351455420152011211