Page 6 of One Last Step

“Ah.Of course.You’re right.”

“Thank you, anyway, but it’s all right.You can go to sleep.”

I sense something else in her tone, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s another reason she wants me away.I can’t imagine what that reason might be, but the tension in her shoulders, and the anxiety in her eyes as she looks at me makes me feel like there’s more to this late-night interruption than meets the eye.

But how can there be?A collection of old clocks has malfunctioned.It’s the most sensible answer to a mystery that really isn’t even a mystery?

Elena’s right.I just need to sleep.I smile at her and say, “Thank you.Good night, Elena.”

She sighs, and some of the tension in her shoulder.“Good night, Mary.”

I return upstairs, taking the elevator this time.It’s smooth, even whine and soft chime help to scrub the discordance from my mind.

I remove my slippers and shawl and return to bed.Once more, my eyelids droop immediately, and this time, when sleep takes me, it takes me all the way.

CHAPTER FOUR

My dark thoughts lighten somewhat as I spend my first full day with Sophie.The affection I feel last night is accompanied by a delightful curiosity and enthusiasm today.She listens with rapt attention to my lessons and attacks her homework with zeal.I rarely meet a child with such a love for knowledge, and I’m pleased to see that Sophie is so eager to learn.

“Mary?What’s a Lee-aya-sahn?”

I frown.“Pardon?”

“A… Lee-aye-sohn.”

“Let me see the word.”

I look at the passage she's reading.It's about Ernst Schramli, a Swiss soldier who was executed for treason in World War Two for attempting to provide Swiss military secrets to the Third Reich.The sentence that confuses her describes his secret meeting with a German contact.

“Liaison,” I tell her.“It means a meeting, particularly one designed to foster a close relationship between people or organizations.”

“What relationship was Ernst trying to foster?”

I smile sadly.“Unfortunately, he was trying to betray Switzerland.He was angry that Switzerland wasn’t fighting in World War Two, and he tried to force them into the war by helping Germany with their war.”

“Why?”

I take a deep breath.“He… that is… a somewhat complicated question.The simplest answer is that he believed strongly enough in his point of view that he was willing to fight and die for it.”

“What was his point of view?”

I debate the merits of discussing Nazism with her and decide to save it for a later date.“We’ll talk about that another time.For now, you don’t need to study Ernst Schramli.Here, let me see if I can find a book of medieval history that isn’t quite so dark.”

With the breezy ignorance of youth, Sophie asks, “Is a liaison like being a spy?”

“Sometimes.”

“Because there used to be spies here.”

I stop with my hand closed around the textbook I intend to have her read.“Is that so?”

She nods, brightening now that she sees she has my attention.“People used to put messages in clocks to give to other spies.”

And now she has myfullattention.“What makes you say that?”

“I overheard Mama talking about it.They used to write messages and stick them into hidden compartments in clocks.Then the clockmakers would ship the clocks to spies and pass information along that way.”

“Really.And did some of those clocks end up here?”

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