Necessary Evil (Milkweed Triptych) Read Online Free PDF

He frowned. “Wait. What was that about Will?”
    Liv tipped her head back and filled the room with melodious laughter. “You went somewhere just now. I can always tell. It’s in your eyes. But when you crack your knuckles…” She touched the back of one slender hand to her face, pantomiming his habit. “That’s when I know you’re entertaining particularly deep thoughts.”
    She eased herself to the sofa. Marsh tried to help her, but she swatted his hands away. He sat beside her. Yawned. Rubbed his burning eyes.
    Marsh said, “Speaking of Will.” He pointed toward the entryway. “Did you know he left the door open when he took you to the hospital?”
    “I do believe you’ve mentioned it. Once or twice.”
    Congratulations. It’s a girl.
    “Liv, has anybody come around lately? While I was away?”
    She shook her head. “Just auntie. And Will.”
    “Nobody at all?” Marsh thought about all the means the Jerries might be using to keep tabs on him and Liv. There were so many. How long had they been watched? It was the only explanation. He stood, paced around the room, double-checking the blackout curtains. “What about ARP wardens?”
    “No wardens.”
    “You’d tell me if there had been, wouldn’t you?”
    A frown creased the space between her eyebrows. “You know I would.”
    “Has Will mentioned anything unusual? Strange visitors?”
    “Raybould. Sit.” She patted the sofa cushion beside her. “What is this about?”
    He sighed. “I worry about you and Agnes being alone while I’m at work all day.”
    “And you’re a dear for it. Now do stop before you smother us.”
    He assumed a new tack. “Perhaps the two of you could take a vacation in Williton. Go visit your aunt, rather than making her come to London.”
    Liv said, “We’ve already discussed this. I’m not leaving.” Her voice was tight with irritation. “The first evacuation of mothers and toddlers was an utter waste of time. They all came back. It’ll be the same again.”
    “What if the Germans start bombing in earnest?”
    “Stop it! You’re frightening me.” She narrowed her eyes, looked him up and down. “Did something happen while you were visiting the Yanks?”
    Liv didn’t know her husband was a spy for His Majesty’s Government. As far as she knew, Marsh was a mid-level bureaucrat in the Office of the Foreign Secretary. Before Stephenson had sent him to the Continent to scrounge up information about von Westarp, they’d concocted an appropriate cover story. Marsh had told Liv that he was being sent to America, as part of a delegation hoping to procure aid from the Yanks. He’d worried that Will, who had no background in tradecraft and showed little facility for it, would inadvertently contradict that.
    “Nothing. The entire outing was a loss, I’m afraid.”
    That didn’t allay her suspicions. “Is something happening in France they haven’t reported on the wireless?”
    “I don’t know any more than you,” he lied.
    “They say the BEF is regrouping.”
    Scrambling was more like it. Marsh had been just a few miles from the German advance. He’d seen firsthand the utter disarray of the British Expeditionary Forces as the Jerries sidestepped them on their lightning-fast incursions across the border. The Germans have burned through Ardennes. France would fall. Not immediately, but sooner than later. He knew it in his bones.
    But he didn’t want to alarm Liv more than he already had. So he said, “They’ll sort the Jerries out soon enough.”
    “Then we have no reason to worry.”
    “No. But I would feel better if you’d discuss the possibility of a visit with Margaret.” Liv answered silently with a scowl and a cocked eyebrow. The eyebrow meant she was sharpening the verbal barbs. Marsh quickly added, “Tell you what. Things get bad here, we’ll stay put, but send Agnes safely out of the city.”
    Liv sighed. “Well, that’s a start.” She snuggled against him. “It’s settled, then. The