square—Lili must have told him not to move too directly to his target—and then he was bumping into Lili who seized him by the wrist to administer a scolding. Eve watched through her lashes, and even when looking for it, she couldn’t see Lili slip the pass out of the boy’s sleeve. But she had it five minutes later, when she came to the head of the line.
Eve’s heart beat again like a gong as the German sentry flicked his eyes over the safe-conduct pass. It had no identifying photograph, it was just a piece of paper allowing passage—they all looked alike; surely he wouldn’t notice the same one twice . . . Violent relief pierced her as he honked his nose and waved Lili through.
“See?” Lili whispered under cover of the train’s piercing whistle, coming to join Eve. “They are too stupid. Shove any bit of paper under their nose, and you can always get through!”
Eve laughed a bit too giddily in her relief. “Can you find a j-joke in absolutely everything?”
“So far,” Lili said, airy. “Shall we have time to buy silly hats in Tournai, do you think? I long for pink satin . . .”
Eve was still laughing when it happened. Later she wondered if it was her laughter that drew their eyes, if she was too free and easy. Later she wondered, What could I have done? Later she thought, If only—
A German voice sounded behind them, cutting off Eve’s laughter like a knife. “Your papers, Frauleins.”
Lili turned, blond brows rising. This wasn’t the sneezing sentry, but a young captain with a razor-neat uniform. Beads of mist clung to the brim of his cap, and his face was hard and suspicious. Eve saw the nick in his chin where he’d cut himself shaving, saw that he had very pale lashes, and her tongue turned to stone. If she tried to speak she would not get out a single word before it stuttered like one of those Chauchat machine guns mounding up dead soldiers in the trenches . . .
But Lili spoke, and her voice was easy and impatient. “Papers?” Pointing in annoyance to the sentry. “We’ve already shown them there.”
The captain put out his hand. “You will show me, nonetheless.”
Lili bristled, an offended little French housewife. “Who are you—”
He glowered. “If you have passports, I want to see.”
That’s it, Eve thought, and the terror was so all-encompassing it felt almost calming. There could be no bluffing past the fact that she had no pass. They are going to take me. They are going to take me—
She raised her eyes as Lili handed her own safe-conduct pass over to the captain. As he bent his head to examine it, Lili’s and Eve’s eyes met. When they take me, walk away, Eve did her best to telegraph. Walk away.
And Lili smiled—that impish lightning flash of a smile.
“It’s her pass,” she said clearly. “I borrowed it illegally, you stupid Hun.”
CHAPTER 25
CHARLIE
May 1947
She was dead.
My best friend in all the world, dead.
It wasn’t enough that the ravenous war had reached out with greedy fingers and stolen my brother from me. The same beast had gobbled up Rose too, taken the girl I loved like a sister and riddled her with bullets.
I think I might have stood in numbed horror forever, there on that patch of tainted grass, pinioned between the church’s bullet-pocked wall and the figure of Madame Rouffanche. She might as well have been a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife, made immobile and monstrous by what she should never have seen. I could feel a scream scraping up my throat like a rusty blade, but before I could release it, Finn shook me hard. I stared up at him, dazed. Charlie, I could see him saying. Charlie lass—but I couldn’t hear him. My ears felt like they’d been shelled. All I heard was a monstrous buzzing.
Madame Rouffanche was still staring at me calmly. She deserved my thanks for bearing witness. She deserved balm for her pain and medals for her courage. But I couldn’t look at her. She’d been with Rose at the end, seen Rose fall. Why her and not me? Why hadn’t I been here, facing the Nazis with Rose? Why hadn’t I been at James’s side either, listening to him rage, telling him I loved him, drowning out the terrible cacophony of his memories? I loved them both so much, and I’d failed them so utterly. I’d let my brother go out alone on a