Page 62 of The Secrets We Left Behind
“Yes, we need to travel to Lille. It’s under German occupation, but there’s no reason we can’t try to make it there. My friend’s father might be able to help us.”
“He might know how to get us out of France?” Cate asked.
“Apparently there’s an underground network of sorts, and from what I learnt today, my father was loosely part of it.”
Cate’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll find out more in Lille, but all I know for certain is that they’ve been secretly moving Jews to safety, so if they can find a way to move them—”
“They might have a way to move us.”
“Exactly.”
Cate followed Elise downstairs, filled with hope that one day, maybe, she and Jack might just make it home after all.
“It’s a strange thing, living in a house with somebody and feeling like you know so little about them,” Elise said later, as they walked.
Cate smiled. “I know. I feel so close to you and Adelaide in some ways, but I know next to nothing about you both, really.”
“She told me that your fiancé was listed as presumed dead?”
“He was. It seems like a lifetime ago now.”
“Is that your engagement ring you wear around your neck?”
She’d barely spoken about Charlie to anyone, almost wanting to keep her memories just for herself so she didn’t have to admit she’d never see him again, which seemed stupid given the kiss she’d just shared with Jack.
“I put it there on the ship sailing from England to France,” she told Elise, trying her best to chat normally, but feeling jittery aboutbeing so exposed along the side of the road. “I never in a million years thought he’d be gone so quickly, though.”
“Had you known him for long?”
“He was friends with my brothers when I was growing up, and I am,was, best friends with his sister. We actually worked together as nurses, right up until ...” She swallowed, wondering as she did every day whether Lilly was still alive. “She fled for the beach to be evacuated and I ended up here. The last time I saw her she’d taken an ambulance to try to save more injured troops, and she was driving away from the chateau we were stationed at.”
Elise’s smile warmed her. “She sounds like a great best friend.”
“She is.”
They walked in silence for a long while, listening for danger, braced for gunfire or the yell of a German officer telling them to halt. But surprisingly, they were over halfway to Lille before they encountered a patrol, and they just stood to the side, arms linked, eyes downcast.
“Don’t look,” Elise whispered. “They’ve no reason to bother us. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
But as hard as she tried to keep her eyes averted, Cate found herself looking up, which garnered a whistle and call from the passing German soldiers. She forced a smile and a little wave, and the soldiers must have had somewhere to be, because they didn’t stop. Even so, she slipped her hand into her pocket and felt the weight of the small knife, feeling better just for knowing it was there.
When they eventually reached Lille, Cate could sense Elise’s horror at what confronted them. She’d been there before herself, and recalled it as a pretty city full of beautiful architecture, and now some of those houses had walls missing or crumbling down. She supposed the only consolation was that the town center was largely untouched.
It was hard to take in.
“I can’t believe it,” Elise murmured beside her, her footsteps slowing. “It used to be so beautiful, so ...”
Cate linked her arm back through Elise’s, drawing her close. “And it will be beautiful again one day.” She didn’t know why she said it when she had no way of knowing, but something within her told her that it was true. There was no way Europe could be overtaken by Hitler, not forever, and she couldn’t imagine for a second that Britain would fall to his rule either.
“They’re everywhere here, so we have to be careful,” Elise said as they started to walk more purposefully again. “And if anyone asks us what we’re doing here, we’ve come to visit our uncle who’s unwell.”
The streets were deserted, other than a stray cat lying in a puddle of sunshine, and Cate’s heartbeat elevated again; she was certain they were going to be shot at or that something terrible was about to happen. Her ears were straining for every possible noise, and she jumped when a door slammed nearby.
“Calm down,” Elise whispered. “We have every right to be here, we’re not doing anything wrong.”
Maybe not, but Cate was still plagued with nerves.
