Mr.Churchill's Secretary(79)
“No tea, Mrs.—”
“Leticia.”
“Thank you. Leticia. We still have a lot of work to do tonight.”
She took a seat next to Pierce at the table, while Roger hung back near the door. Her eyes danced with excitement. “I can’t tell you how thrilling this all is. We’re just glad to be able, in our small way, to help.”
“An enormous help,” Pierce said. “The Führer will be most grateful.”
“You know him?” she said, hand to heart. “What’s he like?”
“A god among men,” Pierce said. “He saved Germany. Gave her order and strength and discipline.”
“How amazing,” Leticia said, leaning in. “People here just don’t understand it. That drunken fool Churchill certainly doesn’t.
“And they—” Leticia gestured to Edmund and Maggie.
“One of Britain’s premier code breakers and one of the drunken bastard’s secretaries. Invaluable sources of information, the both of them. Which is why we need to get them to Berlin.” He took a moment to smile at his captives, dimple flashing. “Tonight.”
“And that’s where we come in,” Leticia said, fingering the silvery pearls around her neck. “I knew it was dangerous to keep that old Airco in the barn. But I knew it might come in handy someday.”
Maggie tensed. A plane?
Leticia stopped suddenly, her brow furrowed.
“What?” Pierce prodded.
“It’s just that—”
“Yes?”
Roger leaned up against the door frame. “Plane’s a two-seater. There’s only room for two.”
“Damn it,” Snodgrass said.
Maumbrey Cottage was still and silent; only the two half-full brandy snifters gave the illusion that the place was still inhabited.
“Damn it. We’re too late.”
“No!” John was vehement. “We must go after them.”
Snodgrass rubbed his chin, looking around for signs of a struggle.
“Can someone please explain to me what exactly’s going on?” David asked.
John gave him a grave look. “Paige never died,” he said. “She’s an IRA sleeper agent who faked her death. She tried to use Maggie to get classified information on Churchill. When that didn’t work, she infiltrated Number Ten and tried to assassinate the Old Man. Posed as Maggie to get in. Nearly worked, too.”
“Hardly,” Snodgrass snorted, still looking for clues. “We were watching closely. Of course we did a background check when Miss Hope was hired. We were already keeping a watch on Miss Kelly. The fact that she and Miss Hope were friends was a red flag. I didn’t want her hired at all, if you recall.”
David gave a slow nod.
“And certainly not as a private secretary.” Snodgrass sighed. “You may recall that Miss Kelly worked for Ambassador Kennedy before he returned to the U.S.”
John strode to the door. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m not going to just sit around and wait. We have the addresses of the Saturday Club’s safe house. I say we go. Who’s with me?”
“That’s where we met her,” David said, hurrying after John. “At one of those cocktail parties Joe Kennedy was always giving. Nigel would always invite us—he was trying to win over Chuck.”
“Yes,” Snodgrass said as they made their way to David’s car, and got into the passenger seat. “Miss Kelly made sure to connect with you. And when the tide turned and Chamberlain stepped down, she became even closer, didn’t she?”
John got into the backseat. “That’s why she suggested Maggie for the typist’s job,” he said, connecting the dots. “She wanted to get a friend into Number Ten, when she couldn’t get the job herself.”
“And that’s why you didn’t want Maggie to work as a private secretary,” David realized, sliding behind the wheel. “Too much classified information.”
Snodgrass gave a nod as David turned the key in the lock and the engine turned over. “I didn’t want her working at Number Ten at all. But then Mr. Frain convinced me it was safer. We could keep an eye on her.”
The car pulled out of the driveway in the darkness. “So she really could have been a private secretary, not a typist,” David realized.
“Good Lord, yes,” Snodgrass said. “That girl’s smarter than the two of you put together. I would’ve been lucky to get her! But by that time we were suspicious that Miss Kelly and her handler were planning something big. It was easier to keep Miss Hope close but not let her know too much. Why do you think I was so distressed at her learning about RDF?”