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.By half-past twelve, she’d worked her way down to the ground floor, and still hadn’t found her.If Polly’s not on this floor, I’ll have to try Selfridges, she thought, walking toward the stationery department.But as she was asking the shopgirl if Polly Sebastian worked there, two saleswomen emerged chattering from the stairwell, obviously just back from lunch, and the one behind the stationery counter began putting on her hat.It’s lunchtime, Eileen thought.She hadn’t seen everyone after all.She’d have to search the store again after they were all back from lunch.And she might have missed Polly at John Lewis as well.She’d have to search it again, too.But there was no sign of her at either store, and no one who knew her.That left Selfridges, which stretched for miles, with all sorts of pillars and alcoves and recesses that made it impossible to see more than one department at a time.By closing time she’d only finished searching two of its six floors and wasn’t convinced she’d seen every part of those two.She went out to find Selfridges’ staff entrance, but by the time she did, employees were already streaming out and obviously had been for some time.A siren began its up-and-down whine nearby.I want to go home, Eileen thought, then smiled ruefully, thinking, You sound just like Theodore.At least she wouldn’t have to put up with this for weeks on end, as he would.You’ve only got to stand it one more night.But she wasn’t certain she could.The raids were so heavy Mrs.Owens abandoned her cupboard and came out to join Theodore and Eileen in the Anderson despite the dampness, and it was only the older woman’s presence and Theodore’s trembling little body pressed against her that kept Eileen from cowering in the corner and screaming.The bombs sounded as if they were right in the garden, though when Mrs.Willett arrived home from the factory, she said Stepney had been largely spared, that most of the bombing had been over Westminster and Whitechapel.I hope Alf and Binnie are all right, and that I did the right thing in not giving that letter to Mrs.Hodbin.Today was the thirteenth.If she sent the letter now, it probably wouldn’t arrive till after the City of Benares had sailed, and no other evacuee ship had sunk after that.And they’d be far safer in Canada than in London.Eileen borrowed a stamp from Theodore’s mother, wrote Mrs.Hodbin’s address on the envelope, intending to post the letter on the way to the tube station, and then changed her mind at the last moment.If the City of Benares hadn’t sailed…She’d hoped to get to Selfridges before it opened so she could watch the employees arriving, but her train was delayed twice because of damage on the line.When she finally reached Selfridges, she devised a new strategy: She took the lift up to the personnel office to ask if Polly was employed there.“Sorry,” the secretary said as she walked in.“We’ve already filled the opening for a waitress in our Palm Court Restaurant.”“Oh, but I’m not—” Eileen began.“I’m afraid we have no openings for sales assistants either.” She turned back to her typewriter.“I’m not looking to be hired on,” Eileen said.“I’m trying to locate someone who works here.Polly Sebastian.”The secretary didn’t even stop typing.“Selfridges does not give out information regarding its employees.”“But I must find her.You see, my brother Michael’s in hospital, and he’s asking for her.He’s an RAF pilot.His Spitfire was shot down,” she added, and the secretary not only looked up Polly’s name in the employee files for her, but, when she couldn’t find it there, checked the list of recent hires.She also asked a number of difficult-to-answer questions about which airfield Michael was stationed at, so when Eileen went to John Lewis, she said he’d been injured at Dunkirk.The secretary there couldn’t find Polly’s name in the files either, and at Padgett’s the secretary said, “I’m only temporary.I usually work in the perfume department, but Miss Gregory’s secretary was killed, and I was called in to substitute, so I don’t know about the personnel files, and Miss Gregory’s not here just now.If you’d care to leave your name, I can have her ring you when she returns.”Eileen gave her her name and Mrs.Owens’s telephone number and went back to Selfridges to ask the shopgirls in each department if they knew anyone named Polly Sebastian who worked on their floor, but none of them recognized the name.“She’d only just have started,” she told one in the millinery department.“She has fair hair and gray eyes,” but the young woman was shaking her head.“They haven’t hired anyone new since July,” she said, “even though several girls have left, and now I doubt they will, what with the raids causing business to fall off.”Which presented a whole new problem—what if Polly had been unable to get hired on at any of the stores she’d mentioned? Presumably she’d have got a job at some other store.But which one? There were dozens of department stores and shops on Oxford Street.It would take weeks to search them all.Polly had said Mr.Dunworthy had insisted she work in one that hadn’t been bombed, but except for the three she’d heard Polly mention, she had no way of knowing which ones those were.“Are you certain it was Padgett’s and not Parson’s?” the shopgirl was asking.“Yes,” Eileen said.“Her letter said she was coming to London to take a job at Padgett’s.”“Did she say when? Perhaps she hasn’t started yet.”She hadn’t thought of that either.Polly might not even be here yet.Eileen didn’t know how long the Blitz had lasted, but she thought it was several months, and Polly’d said her assignment was only for a few weeks.She might not be coming till next week.Or next month.“Are you all right, ma’am?” the shopgirl was asking.No, Eileen thought.“Yes,” she said, thanked her for her help, and started toward the lifts.“I hope you find her,” the shopgirl called after her
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