The woman shook her head. “Mary had the baby at home. Only a local woman came in to her—she delivered all the babies around our way. And Mary never registered the baby. She didn’t want it to be seen that Anna didn’t have a father.”
Maisie regarded the woman’s countenance, her brow furrowed with worry. And as she held her hand, she felt the weight of a lifetime’s hard work in her bones.
“Let’s not worry about that,” said Maisie. “I am sure it can be rectified.”
“I wish I’d not let her go now—I was panicking. I was bringing up blood, and I didn’t want her to see it. I knew the evacuation was coming, so I thought I’d take her down and perhaps she’d end up with children she would’ve known at school. And I was going to send her to school, really I was, but I wanted her to get ahead before she got there—you know, because the teachers might not have paid attention to her. I wouldn’t have kept her away forever—after all, I didn’t want the school board man coming round.”
“I understand, and I promise you Anna’s all right. Would you like me to bring her in to see you, Mrs. Mason? I can talk to the staff nurse. They’ll give you something to make you feel better when she visits.”
“I—I don’t have time. There’s not enough time in me.”
“You have enough, Mrs. Mason. I can bring her tomorrow afternoon, if you like.”
As Louisa Mason began to weep, Maisie encircled her birdlike shoulders in her arms, and felt her give in to the grief of relinquishing Anna. In time the tears subsided, and the woman looked up at Maisie.
“I’ll smarten myself up. I’ll not let her see me like this.”
The tinkling of a small handbell coming closer signaled the end of visiting time.
Maisie settled Louisa Mason, ensuring she was comfortable. She gave her another few sips of water and pulled up the sheet and blanket so she was warm.
“Tomorrow, Mrs. Mason—I’ll be back with Anna then.”
But Anna’s grandmother was already asleep by the time Maisie had spoken her name.
Having had a word with the staff nurse, Maisie and Billy left the hospital and began the journey back towards Fitzroy Square.
“How’re you going to get her here, miss?”
“Frankie and Brenda—they can come up on the train, and I’ll take them back afterwards. I’ll make the telephone call as soon as I get to the office.”
“Not enough hours in the day, eh, miss? I reckon MacFarlane will be on the blower soon enough, calling you over there to Whitehall.”
“My guess is he won’t, Billy. This is a delicate issue. Dr. Thomas will be all right—they all need her too much, and she hasn’t really done anything wrong.”
“Withholding information.”
“It could be argued that she wasn’t sure of the facts—and I don’t think she was sure. The Gervase Lambert she knew was a very amenable young man. As I’ve already said, I think we will find that Rosemary Hartley-Davies contributed financially to his education, and she might well have kept it a secret from her brother—given his condition, that wouldn’t be too hard. If Lambert had seen Hartley-Davies on occasion, then Emma knew him, and so did Mrs. Bolton.”
“They’d’ve known him all right, with that stuff he put on his hair—all done up like two penn’orth of hambone.”
“He only used the hair cream when he intended to take a life. Perhaps the disguise was all a part of showing that he was a man now, and not the boy they saw in him.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean—I don’t see men when I look at my boys. I feel like I was putting bandages on their scraped knees only last week.”
Almost as soon as Maisie drew the Alvis into Fitzroy Street, she saw an official vehicle waiting outside the office.
“He’s not supposed to stop there,” said Billy.
“He can stop anywhere he wants. That’s Caldwell.”
“Blimey—he chooses his moments.”
“Nothing I can’t deal with.” Maisie parked the Alvis and began to walk towards Caldwell, who was waiting at the bottom of the step, Sergeant Able at his side.
“Good afternoon, Detective Inspector Caldwell.”
“I wish it was, Miss Dobbs. I truly wish it was.”
“Would you like to come up to the office?”
“And have you butter me up with tea? No, not this time.” He gave a theatrical sigh, looked around to ensure there were no passersby, and turned back to Maisie. “What happened to ‘share and share alike’?”
“Inspector Caldwell, I am sure you know my hands were tied. There was a point when there was absolutely nothing to tell. So I decided to take a chance and go to Belgium just for a day. As soon as I returned, I had to move very quickly through official Foreign Office channels. Inspector—we both hit the wall called diplomatic immunity.”
“That means the bugger will get away with it,” said Caldwell.
“Language,” said Billy, stepping forward. “There’s a lady present.”