Aleida peered at a home and checked for slivers of light. “You’re very naughty.”
“So I’ve been told all my life.” He didn’t sound sorry.
“I didn’t find Theo, but I enjoyed seeing Tante Margriet and Uncle James, and I visited several villages.”
“How go the interviews?”
Aleida skirted a pile of rubble on the pavement. “I met the dearest woman yesterday. She loves her evacuees so much, she wants to adopt them. Since their mother was killed in the Blitz and their father is absent, it’s possible.”
“What a lovely lady.”
“She is. I’ve spoken to dozens of families who weren’t eager to take evacuees but have grown fond of them. But then the others.” She shined her torch around the entrance to the Green Park Tube station.
“What have you heard?” A growl rippled the caramel voice.
Aleida waited for a dozen people to pass as they exited thestation, then she turned the corner onto Piccadilly. If only she could banish the image of that hard-hearted woman. “I talked to a woman who sent back the first two children she was assigned. The third child she kept. Unlike with the first two, she was able to paddle the girl into submission.”
Hugh’s arm tensed in her grip. “Dreadful.”
Aleida nodded, and her stomach twisted. Across Piccadilly, Green Park lay dark and foreboding under the moonless sky. “I met a wealthy couple who wanted praise for billeting seven children. But they don’t even know the children’s names. They let them run wild around the estate and make their staff care for them in odd bits of spare time.”
Hugh grunted. “Good on you for interviewing them. Now something can be done.”
“No, it can’t.” Aleida’s sigh flowed into the frosty air. “Miss Granville doesn’t want my report. She’s afraid parents will bring their children back to London or refuse to send them away.”
“The truth needs to be told.”
Aleida faced him. Pale blue light illuminated the frustration on Hugh’s face. “Do you see my dilemma? If I fail to speak out, children will continue to be neglected or worse. But if I do speak out, children will be brought back to London, where they could die. As a mother, I want my son to be safe from the bombing, but I also want to know if he faces abuse or neglect. Is one danger truly greater than the other?”
“Will you speak out or keep silent?”
Aleida’s eyes slipped shut. “I will write my report in its full, uncensored truth, and I’ll give it to Miss Granville. But it’ll end there.”
“I could talk to her.”
She skewered him with her gaze. “You will do no such thing.”
He chuckled, and puffs of his breath warmed her cheeks. “I admire a woman who fights her own battles.”
“Thank you.” Her cheeks warmed even more, and she resumed her patrol.
“Your dilemma is similar to the one we reporters face. The uncensored truth could leak information to the enemy, which would cost lives. Or it could cause morale to plummet, which would cause production to plummet and could cost us the war.”
Aleida frowned and turned onto Bolton Street. “So you must conceal some of the truth.”
“Yet I firmly believe people are intelligent and resilient. I believe the truth helps the public make wise decisions.”
A chink of light shined from a second-floor window, then disappeared behind a swish of curtain. “There’s no easy way.”
“No, there isn’t.” He gave her a sad smile. “Now, let me pretend to do my job. Please tell me more about your duties.”
“Each warden has assigned streets within our sector. When the alert sounds, we guide people to the nearest shelters. If I spot an incident, I send a report with Tommy back to the sector post.” She nodded to the bored youth pushing a bicycle behind them.
Hugh tipped his helmet to Tommy, who raised a shy grin.
Aleida swung her beam around a gaping site where a house had once stood. “Our post rings the Report Center, which compiles the information and notifies the Control Center. They send out the necessary rescue parties, stretcher parties, and fire pumps. I remain at the site until the incident officer arrives, and I guide the various parties and assist where needed.”
“Important work. I’ll want to meet some of the other volunteers too.”
