In the open doorway, he paused and faced her. “I admit I did come for another reason—to ask if you’d like to accompany me to dinner tonight.”
“At the Hart and Swan?”
“I’d like to take you to the Savoy.”
He was asking her on a date, and her heart and her face froze.
“Oh dear.” Hugh grimaced. “It does sound as if I brought the list for the sole purpose of enticing you on a date. I promise, I didn’t. The list—I would have brought it anyway. To the Hart and Swan. I should have done that after all. I didn’t want to wait until Monday, but—”
“It’s all right.” The poor man—she’d never seen him undone.
“No, it isn’t all right. You’ve been widowed only ... four months and—”
“Not quite four.”
“Not quite four,” he said with definition. “And you’re searching for your son. The last thing you need is a correspondent bumbling into your life.”
Nothing suave or confident about him now, and her heart went out to him. “That wasn’t charming at all.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and jerked his chin to the side. “My apologies. I’ll leave now.”
“No, that’s what I liked. I’ll go.”
Hugh turned back to her and gave his head a little shake. “Pardon?”
With her hands gripped together, she took one step closer. “You’re right. It is too early, and I need to find my son, but I would like to go to dinner with you.”
Incomprehension raced in furrows across his forehead. Then comprehension dawned, and a smile stretched wide. “Very well, then.”
He bounded down the hallway.
Aleida leaned out the door. “Hugh? What time?”
He spun back with a laugh. “Six o’clock?”
Her wristwatch read 4:43. “I’ll see you then.”
Hugh waved and raced down the stairs. He was rather darling when he bumbled.
A wail rose outside. The air raid siren. Again. They had to sound it whenever German planes came near London, but false alarms interfered with sleep and routines.
Hugh raced back up the stairs. “Do you have a shelter?”
“We have Anderson shelters in the garden. I’ll show you the way.”
He shook his head. “I meant for you. But would you please show me to the roof beforehand?”
Of course, the reporter wanted to watch for action. “This way.”
She led him upstairs and onto the roof. The sun blazed warm to the west, an hour and a half from setting.
To the southeast, silver sparkled in the sky, streaming closer and closer, bigger and bigger.
“Hundreds,” Hugh mumbled. “There must be hundreds of aircraft.”
A sickening feeling churned in Aleida’s belly. “They’re over London, aren’t they?”
“I’m sure they’re passing over to bomb an airfield.” Hugh shielded his eyes with his hand. “And yet...”
