Page 68 of The Girl with a Secret
She said goodbye to Sally at least, who was in the kitchen with a few others.
“Going?” Sally looked dismayed. “But we’ve had such fun together, and we need you here. What on earth are they having you do now?”
Rosa smiled as she playfully wagged a finger at her friend, amazed she could act as if it were all a lark. “Now you know you can’t ask me that, Sally.”
“No, you’re right.” Sally frowned. “It’s not something dangerous, though, is it?”
“No more dangerous than what’s going on here, I’m sure,” Rosa replied lightly. “We’re all in danger, aren’t we, from the air raids?” Cockfosters Camp had been bombed several times already, although, thankfully, with little damage. She parroted Colonel Kendrick’s well-used line, “There’s a war on, after all.”
“Well I know it.” Sally stood up to give her a hug. “Write when you can.”
“I will.”
Rosa had just turned to leave, tears starting in her eyes that she knew she needed to hide, when Peter came into the room.
“Rosa!” he exclaimed. “Someone said you were back!” With an apologetic smile for the others, he drew her away from their prying eyes, lowering his voice to ask, “What did you find out?”
“I am being transferred,” Rosa told him. She tried to smile, but her lips felt funny. “Tomorrow, as it happens. To some other establishment like this, I’m not exactly sure.” She shrugged, tried for a laugh, but it sounded hollow. “They never tell you much, do they?”
He slipped his arm through hers, guiding her from the kitchen into an empty lounge. The stale smell of cigarette smoke hung in the air, and day-old newspapers littered the coffee table; it felt an appropriate place for an ending.
Peter gazed at her seriously. “You would tell me, wouldn’t you, if it was something dangerous?” he asked quietly.
Rosa kept his gaze, although only just. “Peter, you know I can’t tell you anything.”
His expression turned bleak, his shoulders starting to slump. “It is, then. It must be…”
“Don’t,” she whispered. “There’s no point, and you know we can’t…”
His expression turned anguished, his face crumpling. “Rosa?—”
“I love you,” she told him, and put her arms around him, longing to hold him close. “Somuch.”
He held her tightly, his lips pressed to her hair. “This feels like too much of a goodbye,” he told her, an ache in his voice.
“It isn’t.” She’d probably be given some leave when she finished her training, Rosa told herself. And, in any case, she might not even pass it! Major Thurston had made sure she understood just how challenging it was. “I’ll see you again, Peter, I promise,” she told him. “And I’ll write.”
He pressed his lips to hers and Rosa closed her eyes, trying to imprint the memory of his kiss, his touch, on her very soul. As long as she had this to hold onto, along with her emerald and all it meant to her, she would have the strength to face whatever came next, she told herself. She would have to.
That evening, Rosa mounted the steps of her old building, smiling faintly at the familiar smell of sauerkraut and drains. Some things, it seemed, never changed.
When her mother opened the door, she gasped in surprise before throwing her arms around her. “Rosa! Why didn’t you say you were coming?”
“There was no time,” Rosa replied, as she hugged her mother back. “I’m off again—tomorrow, as it happens.”
“But you’ll stay the night?” Her mother sounded so hopeful and anxious that Rosa almost smiled. How their relationship had changed, and she was so very glad for it.
“Yes,” she assured her. “I can spend the night.”
“Come see Zlata’s baby,” her mother entreated as she drew her into the apartment. “He’s only two months old but such a healthy, bouncing baby boy! He’s already smiling.”
Laughing, Rosa let herself be led into the sitting room, where Zlata was sitting in her mother’s old armchair, a chubby,grinning baby perched on her lap. The apartment looked more comfortable now, Rosa noticed, with a few bits and pieces to soften the austere furnishings, including a dressmaker’s dummy perched in one corner and covered in swathes of olive-green viscose.
“Utility clothing,” her mother explained, following Rosa’s gaze. “No one dares go out in silks and satins these days! Now come and look at this darling boy.”
“Isn’t he gorgeous!” Rosa exclaimed, and her former housemate held the baby out to her.
“Would you like to hold him?”
