to the window to read the lines in English. The first said Café Liaison, and the second mentioned a dog, it just said Terrier. Sophie quickly went onto her phone and looked up Café Liaison and it didn’t take her long to discover there was a café by that name situated in Le Diben in Brittany close to the place the Helford Flotilla went occasionally to drop off SOE operatives. She felt a thrill, almost as if she was a spy herself; this café may have been her great-aunt’s place of contact. It also confirmed her hunch that the Byron poem was the code Vivienne had used. Or at least the first layer.
Sophie made a decision – she definitely needed to go to France, to where Vivienne had been an agent. Maybe there would be more clues there.
She placed the book in her pile of research and she also added Vonstein’s name to her information from the admissions book she had found. Then she did a Google search, but it turned up too many people with the same surname. Getting another idea, she typed the name into Ancestry.com – she had an account for her work. Sometimes it was useful to know more about the people who may have lived in whichever building the trust was working for.
She searched. There were still many Vonsteins. Sophie pared it down by his date of birth by the information in the admission books – he would have been thirty-four in 1944. She looked for Vonsteins of that age, and came up with four, and added a copy of their names into her Google doc. Two families appeared to live in Germany, according to the local census, one family had moved to the Netherlands, and the other was living in Paris. It occurred to her that asking them about their past might be difficult. Sophie couldn’t imagine that a family of Nazis felt any better than her own family when it came to their experiences during the war, but hopefully, she would get emails back, maybe some more information.
Two Marcus Vonsteins had died during the war. Sophie sent messages to relatives of both men, informing them who she was and what she was doing and hoped that they could help.
After closing her laptop, she went down to have dinner with her family, and enjoyed the warmth of being with them. It made her miss her mother so badly. Her auntie Jean had made a wonderful beef stew, and she felt as if she were putting on weight just being here.
It had been the right decision to come to Cornwall. If she’d been in London alone, she’d have felt unbearable sadness about the split with Matt, but instead, being around people who were welcoming and kind reminded her of what family life was about, and that there were other parts of her life she could embrace to help her feel safe and secure. Since Emily’s and her mother’s death, there was only her gran who lived in London, and she had forgotten how much she loved Cornwall. It was so reminiscent of every childhood summer holiday.
‘How is your research going?’ Jamie asked as he heaped a serving of Jean’s treacle sponge onto his spoon. ‘Did you find out more about our war skeletons?’
Sophie paused, not sure she wanted to tell them about the conversation with Barney. It only confirmed what everybody believed. Jean added a pot of tea to the table and joined them both, interested to hear what Sophie had to say.
Playing for time, Sophie scooped up a spoonful of the pudding that had been practically forced onto her, and at once wondered why she had held back. It was warm, sweet and moist, with custard of the perfect consistency. The ideal comfort food.
‘I found some records in the attic that might help me find out more,’ she stated circumspectly.
‘Such as?’ Jean asked, pouring them all a cup of tea.
‘Well, I found the name of the German officer Vivienne may have left with.’
Her auntie blew out air. ‘Why would you want to know about him?’ she asked defiantly. ‘If it wasn’t for him, she never would have gone. I mean, finding out about a relative is one thing but are you sure you want to go down the path of looking into the past of a Nazi?’
‘If there is a chance to clear Vivienne of what potentially comes down to treason, I think I need to find out more about the reason why she