I hadn’t allowed myself to think about my family, not knowing where they were and if they were safe for fear of shrivelling up like one of Papa’s gnarled grape vines.
I held my breath, looking at the note, my eyes wide.
‘Go on,’ Marguerite said. ‘Have a look.’
I ripped open the envelope—so many thoughts flying through my head—the gold heart pendant Luc had given me slid out from a heavy crease, and I nearly fell to the floor with it in my hand. Marguerite helped me into a chair next to one of the sewing machines, bolts of fabric stacked high like a wall. I held the heart in my hand, rubbing it in between my fingers, reading the letter written by someone I didn’t know but who had talked to at least one of my parents by the sound of it.
‘They’re at the chateau together,’ I said. ‘The Milice blame me for Gérard’s disappearance and have been at the chateau regularly searching for signs I’ve been back. Luc hasn’t been seen since I left and is in hiding.’ I sighed heavily, sad about Luc but glad my parents hadn’t been arrested—they must have hidden Gérard’s body well. At the end of the note was a scribble in Charlotte’s handwriting. Forgive me.
I pulled my eyes from the note. ‘Forgive her?’
‘What about the news of your parents?’ Marguerite said. ‘That’s something, isn’t it? They haven’t found Gérard’s body, and they don’t know where you are. Both those things are keeping your family safe, and alive. The Milice must think you’re close by.’
Mama probably knew I was here, as cunning as she was, but she’d never breathe a word. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It’s something. But Charlotte… I’ve given up on her as a sister. She knew telling Gérard my secret would bring violence upon me.’
‘The war makes people do things,’ Marguerite said, ‘sometimes awful things they wouldn’t normally do—’
I put my hand up, stopping her. The conversation about Charlotte was finished.
Marguerite helped me clasp the necklace around my neck. I pressed it against my chest, the coolness of the metal a refreshing feel on warm skin. And for the first time in a long time, hope had lifted my thoughts like a rising bubble—fragile, breakable, yet there. ‘I know you said Luc wouldn’t come looking for me, but I have to believe…’
Marguerite put her hand gently on my shoulder. ‘Then believe it.’
We pushed the gun crate against the wall, used a linen tablecloth to cover it, and then put a stitching machine on top, which Marguerite broke open like a valise to expose its mechanical guts. Thread had been pulled from it and working tools lay off to the side. ‘Has to look as if the machine is broken and placed on the crate haphazardly… in case.’ Marguerite took a deep, exhausted breath. ‘In case there’s a raid before the truck comes.’
I motioned to Marguerite for more cologne. We passed the vial to one another while standing in a loose circle, dabbing the cologne under our noses, talking about the elegant scent of Chanel compared to the fragrance Marguerite had made from mixing several bottles of unknown perfumes.
‘Shh—’ Mavis reached out, touching my hand. ‘Did you hear that?’ Her eyes shifted from side to side, and then I heard it too: a light noise that could easily be dismissed as a bird rustling around in the eaves. ‘Sounds like a bird,’ she whispered, ‘but not…’
Mavis’s gaze locked on to the far window set high in the stone wall, her eyes widening, her throat gulping as the noise grew into a continuous scratch, something that could only be made by a person, a finger scraping dirt from the glass. A shiver waved up the back of my neck, then Marguerite shivered and we all held our breaths.
‘We’re being watched,’ Marguerite said, smiling. ‘Everyone breathe.’ Her voice was steady, but her tone was unlike anything I’d heard, which added to the nervy feeling of eyes on my back. ‘Pass,’ she said, motioning for the vial. ‘Think about lying in the grass in the sun, feel the warmth, steady yourself, your nerves… Just like I taught you.’
We continued passing the vial around, the sound of fingers pulling at the window ledge outside very clear and present, not even trying to be discreet, as we breathed and thought about lying in the grass. Then came an odd tap against the outer wall that moved from the window to the front of