Cool air rushed in to dispel the cramped stuffiness. She placed her palms on the sill and took a deep breath. The air was filled with the stench of damp concrete and car exhaust, but at least it wasn’t stale cigarette smoke. Five days was too long to be cooped up with any one person. Especially an obstinately blind sister.
Ferreting secrets from the enemy over the past few months had left her with a reliable scale to value what mattered and what didn’t. Tiptoeing around feelings and people-pleasing fell into the didn’t category. And good riddance. It was exhausting.
Who would’ve thought Kathleen Whitford could break the rules of conventional politeness and enjoy it?
Several long minutes dragged by before Ellie’s voice reached out to her. “I’m sorry. I’ve dragged you into this mess and now you’re miserable too. At least before you had Barrett to cheer you up, but now Eric’s taken him away as well. It’s what Eric does. He takes things away until you have no reason left but to look to him. I used to have friends, you know. Beautiful, wonderful French friends. But Eric didn’t like them. Said they were too unruly. One day they stopped coming to see me. He had forbidden their company, then set about choosing who I should be spending time with.”
Possessively persuasive. Eric’s charms seemed never to cease.
Kat’s fingers curled onto the stone ledge outside the window as the weight in her heart shifted to the place Barrett so often occupied. “I’ll see Barrett in a few days, and I can explain why I haven’t been around. That is, if our jailor deems our confinement sufficient.”
A swift breeze swept by, blowing the hair from her shoulders. Though carrying the scent of freedom beyond her four walls, it did little to dislodge the uncertainty hanging in the air. She needed something much stronger than a south wind. Her fingers curled tighter, her nails biting into the stone ledge. She wanted Barrett. Longed for his solid reassurance that calmed her shaking fears and set the world to right again, to feel his secure arms around her once more, his steady heartbeat beneath her cheek. To hear him say her name in that soft burr that melted her soul down to its core.
A key turned in the front door lock. Heart dropping, Kat turned. It was much too quick for Sylvie to have met her contact and returned by now.
Eric slid in the open door, a tight smile on his waxy face. A yellow-and-white-striped bag dangled from his hand. “Guten morgen. Anyone home?”
“Where else would we be?” From the couch, Ellie stared at him through slitted eyes.
Eric’s smile didn’t falter as he closed the door behind him. But not before Kat saw the muzzle tips of the armed guards outside. “I come bearing gifts.”
“We have all the excitement we can bear in here, thanks.” Cigarette smoke curled from Ellie’s nose.
Walking into the room, Eric swung the bag back and forth as if to entice her. “It’s from your favorite shop on Rue Leroux. With the birdbath out front. Remember? You always broke off pieces of your cake to toss to the birds.”
“I remember. I always met you there after you had a meeting at Gestapo headquarters right around the corner.”
“Ja, I suppose it is right around the corner.”
“They’re not looking to expand, are they? I’d hate to think of the Gestapo taking over a patisserie. No telling what kind of ingredients they’d use. Black market, or maybe whatever they find leftover in the house they raided the night before.”
Eric’s smile flattened. The pastry bag dropped to the coffee table. “That’s enough.”
“Is it?”
“Eleanor, I don’t wish to warn you again, but one more word—”
Ellie leaned forward, tapping her ashes into the pastry bag. “One more word and what? You’ll lock me away? Too late for that.”
His face mottling red, Eric clenched his hands at his sides until they shook. Ellie leaned farther back into the couch cushions without the sense to look frightened.
Kat stepped forward, bringing his wrath around to her. “Eric, please consider that we’ve been in here for five days and tempers are less than ideal.”
The buttons down the front of his tunic swelled on a deep breath. Slowly, his hands stopped shaking as the red drained from his face. “Ever the voice of reason, Kathleen.”
“Reason or not, an entire week of punishment is unacceptable for two grown women. Please reconsider and allow us to go out again.” Kat swung her gaze to Ellie.