wooden panels warping off, and discolored patches in the roof. He’d sworn to tear it down with his bare hands if he ever found it. But now, with his mother pressed to his heart and his grandmother heavy in his hand, he lacked the strength for it.
The packed dirt beneath his feet was hard, unrelenting. The tangle of weeds crawling over the simple mound within the plot a cruel ending to the woman buried beneath as the world marched on unknowing of her. Here she had been for the entirety of his life and here she would remain. To have come so far to find her, to stand so close only to be separated by a sleeping eternity of dirt. Would he ever be so near her again? Would he ever see all of those snatched away from him again? His mother. Sam. Or was Barrett doomed to walk on with only their fleeting memories to haunt his guilt? Their lives might have turned out different without him shouldering in death.
He would not allow their sacrifices to go without atonement. If he couldn’t save them, he could save Kat. He would take her far and away before she, too, fell victim to the curse of those linked with him. This filthy place and the blackness that carved his path were the only things he had left to offer her. She’d never want him now.
“And thank you for not turning us away, especially when I’ve brought back less than pleasant memories.” He started down the slope, eager to flee the grief behind him and dreading the heartache before him.
“She would’ve been proud of you. Saving these women at great cost to yourself.”
Barrett stiffened but kept walking as the bleakness gnashed at his heels.
“You were the light of her life.”
The teeth of anguish bit, wrenching a cursed single tear from him.
Chapter 26
“I’m sure he just went for a walk.”
“All afternoon and evening?” Kat scanned the room for the two hundredth time. Night had fallen well over an hour ago, and still no sign of Barrett. “He knows how dangerous it is to be outside at night with Nazis patrolling the area.”
Ellie shouted over the din of the music and dancers’ feet stomping over the floor in what was supposed to be a quadrille. “And I’m more than sure he can take care of himself should he be questioned.”
Kat swung back to her sister. “By now, Eric has our faces plastered on every piece of paper available in France and probably Germany. No amount of clever talk and finely crafted false identifications can stop us from being rounded up and slammed into a hole the Gestapo have specially carved out for us. With any luck, they’d shoot us on the spot instead.”
Ellie blanched, hands halted midclap. “You’ve been talking to Barrett too much.”
Perhaps she had, or perhaps it was the first time her eyes had opened to what truly lurked around them. They weren’t safe. Not even their next breath was guaranteed as long as they remained in occupied territory. But scaring Ellie wasn’t helping their situation any either.
She patted her sister’s pale hands. “Forget I said anything.”
“How can I? Eric is all I think about.” Ellie’s eyes dropped to her newly mended skirt, washed and patched up from crawling over the ground. They were finally back in their old clothes. A little worse for wear, but at least they fit properly. “He’ll never stop looking for me.”
“As soon as we’re back in England, he’ll have no option but to give up. He can’t touch you there.”
“Maybe not, but he’s always here.” She pointed to her head. Without the constant use of peroxide, the dark roots were creeping out. “It’s his face looming over me every time I close my eyes. Sweet and gentle at first, and then the murdering coldness like he had that night he shot that man.”
She hunched over with a shudder. Kat wrapped her arm around her. “We’ll be all right. I’ll never let anything happen to you. Believe me?”
Ellie looked up at her and nodded. “Of course. You never fail, Kat.” Her eyes slid over Kat’s shoulder. “And he never fails you.”
Kat turned as Barrett hovered in the doorway to the card room now turned dance hall. If he’d hoped to go unnoticed, he was unsuccessful. Standing well above every other person crammed into the room, and one of only four men amongst the women, he was like a flashing red beacon on a pitch-black night. He scanned