don’t know what else you would need to know from me.’
‘I understand that’s what everyone believes, but there are still many gaps in the story.’ She went on to tell him about the photograph that she’d seen at the Imperial War Museum, and he became a little less guarded and more relaxed as he listened to her.
Finally he shook his head. ‘That might work for your aunt, but there’s no photograph at the Imperial War Museum of my Nazi relative. Trust me.’
She nodded. ‘Would you be willing to talk to me in more detail?’
He studied her for a second, then shook his head. ‘I know nothing more than what I’ve told you.’ He leaned forward across his counter, his tone softening. ‘This is a beautiful place, Sophie, even this early in the year. You should not be worried about dead people. Why don’t you enjoy our lovely city instead? Maybe buy yourself a piece of art.’ A lightness in his spirit had returned as he pointed at a particularly large prominent piece. ‘You won’t regret it,’ he advised her.
She shook her head. ‘I have to go. If you change your mind, I wanted to let you know that I’m going to have dinner somewhere around here tonight. In fact, is there anywhere you’d recommend?’
‘What is your budget?’
‘Modest.’
‘Then you should go to Claire’s. It is just down the street here. You’ll get a nice glass of wine and something warm to eat, but it won’t blow your budget.’
‘I’ll be there at seven o’clock if you change your mind. I would love your help,’ she added with a smile.
He shook his head. ‘Not that I wouldn’t enjoy the company of such an attractive woman’ – she blushed – ‘but there is no way for my mother’s sake I would want to drag up the past again.’
24
It was just as she started her dinner that evening that Sophie spotted Alex entering the restaurant. He approached her, an apologetic look on his face.
‘I was wondering,’ he enquired, ‘if I might be able to join you?’
She smiled. ‘Of course.’
‘I’m so sorry about the way I treated you this morning,’ he said as he pulled up a chair. ‘You really took me by surprise. The war is such a painful history for my family. It’s something my mother talked about ceaselessly when I was a child, her excruciatingly sad childhood. You see, one of her uncles was murdered, the other became a Nazi, and her mother’s fiancé – my grandfather – never came home from the war, which left her with the shame of being brought up as an illegitimate child.
‘But after you left, I realised that none of this was your fault and that, in fact, you were probably living under the same curse that I was. It also struck me that if, for some reason, your great-aunt had indeed been working for the British, that there was a very slim chance that my great-uncle was also working for the Allies too, so I thought I should at least entertain the thought.’
A waitress came over, and he ordered some dinner. Sophie watched him as he chatted comfortably with her. Under different circumstances, Claire’s would have been a marvellous place for a romantic evening. It was a tiny bistro, with black awnings that were decorated with gold detailing and signage. Marking its territory on the Parisian pavement were low black railings and flower boxes filled with a fresh-smelling evergreen shrub. Inside, candles illuminated elegant white walls with large artistic black-and-white photos of Paris. On the tables, antique wine bottles, with cream-coloured wax melted down them, and in the corner someone was playing the accordion.
As she watched Alex, Sophie admired the ease and self-confidence he exuded, and coupled with his blond hair and lively blue eyes, she realised, with a little embarrassment, he was also very attractive to her. He finished giving his order, and when Alex looked across at her, Sophie blushed, feeling a little self-conscious about the direction her thoughts had been heading. She hadn’t been out with a man for the first time since Matt, three years before, and though this wasn’t anything like a first date, she still felt a little awkward.
She needn’t have worried about what she should talk about though, because Alex didn’t seem to be burdened in the same way. He was happy to tell her all about his life in Paris and she listened to him as she watched him alternate between removing mussels from their shells from a