The change in demeanor only strengthened Alexander’s resolve. “I don’t know why you’re here, but I know that Saffron shouldn’t be a part of it.”
“AndIdon’t know what you’re talking about,” Nick repeated. “I’m just here spending time with my sister. If Saffron happens to bearound, and she finds my company appealing, what can I do? She’s a pleasant, attractive woman.”
Alexander glared at him, unwilling to rise to the bait Nick offered. “Fine. But I’ve warned you.”
“A warning is hardly friendly.” Nick’s eyes bore into Alexander’s. “That sort of talk will get you into trouble.”
Alexander refused to look away first; it meant the same thing to humans as it did in the animal kingdom.
Nick cocked his head slightly to the side, blowing out more smoke. “Have a good night, Alexander.”
He turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadowy bustle of the street.
Alexander waited only a moment before retreating to his office. His hand shook as he paced the room.
He’d known right away who Nicholas Hale was; he’d recognized him nearly a year ago when he first saw the photograph of Elizabeth’s family in Saffron’s flat. An odd coincidence, he’d thought at the time.
He hadn’t been concerned about Nick’s presence in London until tonight. Nick had shown a marked interest in Saffron and her work, which made perfect sense if one believed he was working for the Agricultural Ministry. But Alexander knew better.
There was nothing he could do. Nick was right; trouble would come for him if he said the wrong thing. He’d have to find another way to keep Saffron out of whatever Nick was doing.
“The answer is obvious,” Elizabeth told Saffron that evening at the kitchen table. “They know each other from the military.”
Saffron paused in picking at the food Elizabeth had had waiting when she’d arrived home. She’d barely eaten any of the roasted chicken and vegetables, a rare treat for them, as she poured out the strange interaction she’d seen between Alexander and Nick. “But why wouldn’t they have mentioned it?”
“I’d wager they didn’t recognize each other at first,” Elizabeth said. “If the reports are to be believed, those poor men were covered head to toe in mud for the entirety of their service. I barely recognizeyou after you work in the garden on a spring day. Imagine how disconcerting it must have been for them to realize who the other was.”
“Be serious,” Saffron said, glaring at her.
“I am, darling. What I find far stranger is that Nick showed up at the U. Do you think he’s developed fond feelings for you?”
“After a reacquaintance of a few days?” Saffron shook her head. “No. He is remarkably friendly, though. I don’t recall him being so …”
“Goofy?”
Saffron smiled at the strange word. “Yes, exactly. I always thought he was very serious.”
“War changes people,” Elizabeth said. “Colin served under some major who worked in government, and his idol-worship of the man led him to become a private secretary. And you mentioned, during your long-ago fawning over Alexander, that he decided to study biology after the war. It isn’t unreasonable to assume that Nick changed because of his service.”
“I suppose …” Saffron attempted a few more bites of food in the ensuing silence. “You seemed to have changed your tune about Nick.”
Elizabeth sighed. “It is very easy to forgive a man who takes you out to the Savoy and then dancing.” She frowned at Saffron as if realizing something unpleasant. “How the devil did Nick know about Lou’s? He’d only been in town a few days. Lou’s certainly isn’t in any London guidebooks.”
“I don’t know. I’d never heard of the place myself,” Saffron admitted.
When they retired to the parlor, Saffron wandered to the mantle to examine the photograph of the Hale family.
Their black-and-white faces looked back at her steadily. Her eye went first to Wesley, as it always did. Face bright with anticipation, his lips were almost tipped into a smile. Five years on, it still made her heart ache. He’d been so full of life and energy, and it had been snuffed out so easily.
Tears blurred his image, and she blinked them forcefully away. Her tears had wet the very ground where he’d fallen, and she’d resolved to put it all behind her. Not her love for Wesley—she’d neverwish that away—but the guilt she carried that she was alive and he was not. The feeling of unworthiness because she had allowed her heart to be touched again, when she’d promised to love him forever in their last words to each other. She knew that was a childish promise—she’d been only fifteen at the time, after all—but it had been sincere, and knowing it was a young girl’s promise didn’t make her feel less guilty for feeling how she had about other men.
She turned her eyes from Wesley to the rest of the family. Nick and Wesley both wore army uniforms as they stood behind young Elizabeth and their mother, an older, less cheerful-looking copy of Elizabeth. Mr. Hale, a crag of a man, stood in the center, a hand on his wife’s shoulder. She examined Nick’s cool and collected expression. He’d have been something like twenty-three years old when this photograph was taken, still with some of the softness of youth in his face. His angles were sharper now, as if life at war had chiseled away every last trace of boyhood.
Saffron wrinkled her nose as the thought emerged. That sounded like something out of Elizabeth’s lurid poems.
Nevertheless, he looked older now, more mature despite his silly gentility. She wondered if Alexander’s childhood photographs showed the same. Had he once looked as hopeful as Wesley, or had he always had the same sort of cool confidence as Nick?
The army did seem to be their only connection, but Alexander had served briefly in France, his deployment cut short by his injury, and Nick said he’d been in the east.
