Summary

Part One: Preservation, continued

May, 1940 – Tom and Mary have sex for the first time. They confess their love to one another. Tom finds himself thinking about Alistair’s letters, wherein Alistair speaks about his military service. Mary reveals she believes the war is amazing because it has given her the freedom, at nineteen, to have her own school. Tom walks her to the Tube to catch the train back home. When Mary turns back to talk to Tom, she has lost him in the crowds. She feels a dread now about love.

June, 1940 – Alistair’s regiment is given leave after fighting in France and evacuating at Dunkirk, so Tom takes the opportunity to travel to London by train. He is still recovering from a slight injury in his arm, where glass, shattered in the fighting, has lodged. Alistair tries to suppress memories of the...