Next, there I was, lying in the lumpy hospital bed, when in jaunts the Tilling woman, her beady eyes on me as she strode down the ward, a bright and shiny new look of determination about her. She was all fitted and buttoned up in a navy-blue coat I’d never seen on her before—a far cry from the baggy old gray thing she usually wears—and carrying a brown leather handbag that looked like it could give someone a nasty bruise if she took a good swing at them.
“Enjoying your break?” she chirped in her singsong way, putting on a forced, unfriendly smile, the one you might see on a magistrate’s face just before he finds you guilty. “Nice to put your feet up, isn’t it?” She patted my leg, and I winced at the thought of how much pain she could inflict should the mood take her. I thanked the Lord that she was such a wimp, although I have to say that she’s not the downtrodden widow any longer. This war has given her a real boost. You can tell by the way she holds herself, more upright now, none of the slouching shoulders and moping face. Where once she was always running little steps to keep up, now there’s a purpose to her stride, like she’s more worthy than the rest of us, doing more, giving up more for this war, for our community. And we’d better show a little respect.
“Ah, Mrs. Tilling, what a lovely surprise!” I pulled out my syrupy smile. “How good of you to visit poor little me, wrecked up in hospital. I was just thinking that you were the only person decent and kind enough to come.”
“Well,” she sighed. “I actually came to ask you a few questions about the day the two babies were born.”
I kept a calm smile glued on my face, but I never dreamed she’d jump to the chase like that. “I’ll be glad to help you there. Quite a day it was!” I took a sip of water from the glass beside my bed for sustenance.
She pulled up a chair, sitting her narrow behind on the edge.
“I’ve been thinking,” she began in an ominously lowered voice, “how strange it was that both babies appear to have had the same breathing problem that required resuscitation, at your house no less.”
“Yes, it was a very trying day, but one has to do one’s best. You see, these things are a lot more common than you think. It was fortunate I had the correct apparatus. It’s incredible how ten years of experience can mean the difference between life and”—a pause, creasing up my eyes for effect—“death.”
“How very fortunate that you were there,” she said, raising a skinny eyebrow. “Although perhaps if you hadn’t been, the babies would have stayed with their rightful mothers.”
All I could think was, We’re done for!
But then a nauseating little smile touched her lips, and I could see that she thought she’d won, and of all the things I am, Clara, I am not a loser, so I pulled myself together and did a spot of clever thinking. For her to just come out and say it means she thinks she can scare me into an admission, and she ain’t getting no admission out of me, no matter how close to the truth she gets.
“What can you mean?” I smiled.
“Only that having both the babies in your house at the same time would have made it possible for you to have swapped them. You could have given the boy baby to Mrs. Winthrop, and the girl to Hattie.”
“What a preposterous suggestion,” I sputtered, feeling my voice cracking a little. I decided to try to laugh it off, make her sound like the crazy one. “How could you dream up such a monstrous idea, Mrs. Tilling? Have you lost your mind?” I shook my head in a disgusted way.
“I didn’t dream it up, Miss Paltry.” She looked directly into my eyes, her voice calm and collected, a judge revealing the final sentence. “The facts led me to believe it to be true.”
I took a deep breath, searching for some facts of my own. Then I remembered. “Both of the mothers already knew the sex of their babies before I took them away. They’d been delighted. I’d been so pleased. Why would I have needed to do such a terrible thing?”
“Neither of the women actually saw her child close up before you whisked it away, Miss Paltry.” Her voice was mellowing, like an overripe plum, lowering in tone, gaining confidence. “Both told me that the only reason they knew the sex of their baby was because you had announced it.”
“Oh now, don’t be putting ideas together from different stories. I know you’re just upset because you weren’t there, but it can’t be helped.”
She leaned forward and her eyes bored into me, and that’s when she came out with the one thing I would never have imagined she knew. “You made a deal with the Brigadier, didn’t you?”
I was scared. If she knew the Brigadier was involved, and let him know that she knew, then I’d be dead meat. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you met him the night of the bomb, and I have a good idea of the information you were attempting to sell.”
I gazed up at her with shock. How could she have known that? There’d been no one around. I swear on it. Just me and the Brigadier, alone. “We just happened to cross paths. Had a chat about the trains. The delays are appalling—”
“Wasn’t it a little late for you to be catching a train?”