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“In the service, were you?” Brian pats his shoulder.
“Royal Navy for twenty years.”
“Good on you. I have a daughter in the navy. And a son in the RAF. Pilot, like me.”
The cabbie, who must be close to Brian in age, glances back. “My folks met during the war. They were both wardens.”
Brian lets out an admiring whistle. “That was a brave group of people.”
“They were both at St. Paul’s the night it was bombed. Guess all that danger brought them together. Never spent a day apart after they married, and Mum died only a few days after Dad. Couldn’t live without each other.”
The story touches my heart. Maybe I can find a place for it in the Bletchley book.
Our driver is chatty. “What brings you to the Smoke?”
My historian senses go on alert. I know I’ve heard the term before, but I can’t place it. “Is that a reference to The Great Fire?”
“Nah, for the pollution. When we had coal fires. Don’t have those pea soupers now, but the name stuck.”
Of course. I should have remembered from all those Golden Age British mysteries I devoured as a kid.
“We’re here for a party,” Brian tells him.
“Sounds fun. What sort of party?”
Brian chortles. “My seventy-eighth birthday.” As we pull up in front of the club, he goes on. “Bet you thought I was younger.”
“Seventy-eight! I wouldn’t put you a day past fifty.”
Delighted, he ripostes. “Hardly likely when my eldest is fifty.”
“No.” I try for incredulous, but I’m laughing too hard. “I thought Ian was your twin.”
“I’m seventy-two myself,” the cabbie says. “Love the job too much to retire, although the wife is pushing for it.”
Max is standing on the sidewalk, hands jammed into his pockets, head on a swivel. Now he stares, open-mouthed as, laughing like a loon, I wait for the cabbie to come around and open the door.
Brian reaches over the seat back and slips something into the hand of the driver, who then opens the door with a flourish, and offers me his hand to help me out. I wince as Brian struggles out after me.
Back in the driver’s seat, the cabbie calls out, “Hope you enjoy your time in the city,” waves, and drives off.
When we reach the lobby, the rest of the family has assembled near the desk. Even the kids are still up. Lots of hugs and kisses all around, although I stand a little way off, still not really used to this big family dynamic. Or any family dynamic, really.
Max’s sister, Meggy, suddenly throws her arms around me. “Cress. It’s been too long. You and Max need to spend more time on this side of the pond.”
I try not to pull away. “Good to see all of you, too. We’re hoping to buy something in London and spend some time here each year.”
Meggy raises her eyebrows. “Max has a place here. He shares a house with Ian.”
“I know. But he—”
“He what?” Max slips an arm around me.
“Cress was saying you’re looking for a place to buy in London.”
“Ian’s going to buy my share of the house. I want to find a new place with Cress.”
“Still in Clerkenwell?”
