Chapter 36
They were all involved in the perilous return of Frank’s cap to him.
Telling Elisavet about it the following day when they met on the bridge turned out to be an energising conversation because they each remembered it differently.
Elisavet was sitting on the bridge wall, arms straight, head tilted, her hair plaited over one shoulder.
Cora thought she looked like an orphan from a story book surrounded by three squabbling witches.
‘You never told us he’d drawn a map in it, Cora,’ Megan said indignantly. ‘How did you manage to keep that quiet all these years?’
‘I knew about it,’ Gladdie said, sounding superior.
‘Did you? How?’ Cora asked.
‘You acted as if it was so important, and you tried to get Arthur, the guard with the bad leg we met that time in the pub, to smuggle it in. So I guessed but I didn’t like to say anything.’
Although this sounded highly unlikely, there was no way to prove or disprove it.
Megan continued where she’d left off. ‘So, Elisavet, as I was saying, my idea was to carry rubble in our pockets to weigh the cap down, give it a bit of heft to carry it over the wire.’
‘Not rubble,’ Gladdie argued. ‘Bits of brick.’
‘Bits of brick is rubble in my view. Anyway, that’s not the point. It was ballast,’ Megan said. ‘I went miles down the stubble field and took a long run up. Dew! Those were the days. I used to love running. I used to run everywhere.’
‘That’s probably what did your knees in,’ Gladdie said. ‘Mine are as good as new because I’ve never run anywhere in my life.’
Megan ignored her. ‘It got snagged on a barb and I felt awful for Frank, I’d let him down.
But he took a jump at it and dislodged it.
It dropped by his feet and he grinned, jammed it on his head and gave us that salute.
A British salute,’ she added. ‘I thought it was lovely of him. He was laughing as well, wasn’t he? ’
‘He was so pleased! And you got it over first time, too, all credit to you.’
‘I surprised myself, to be honest. I felt good about it for a long time afterwards. That we’d done the right thing.’
‘Yes. So did I. Until—’ Cora paused. ‘Until the night of the escape.’
‘Until the shooting,’ Gladdie said.