Page 63 of The Secrets We Left Behind
“Here, his house is still intact, so that’s a good sign.” They hurried along and knocked, and even Elise fidgeted on the spot. Cate half-expected enemy troops to answer, having commandeered the place, but there was a shuffle followed by the door opening barely a crack.
“Mr.Bernard?” Elise asked, leaning toward the opening.
“Who’s asking?”
“Elise DuPont. Claude’s eldest daughter.”
The door flew open then, and an old man propped up by a walking stick beamed at Elise as if his long-lost daughter had just shown up.
“Elise! What are you doing out here? It’s not safe for you to be leaving home and traveling so far.”
“I’m fine, honestly I’m fine.We’refine,” Elise said, gesturing back to Cate. “This is my cousin, Cate. May we come in?”
He beckoned them inside and Cate gratefully followed Elise, glancing over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching them, but seeing no one.
“Come down to my cellar,” he said. “Away from prying ears and eyes.”
They went down, and Cate was surprised to find a table and four chairs in there, surrounded by bottles of wine and boxes stacked haphazardly.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your father, Elise. He was a good man.”
“We miss him terribly,” Elise replied. “It’s been such an awful year for us, for so many of us.”
“And thiscousinof yours?” he said, chuckling to himself.
“She’s a nurse, with the British army,” Elise said, as he opened a bottle of wine without even asking them if they wanted any and pouring more than a splash into three glasses.
“A nurse, huh? And how did you end up with a British nurse for a pretend cousin?”
They all sat down together and Cate spoke, nervous about sharing her secret but seeing that Elise was prepared to put full trust in him. “When the Nazis came I escaped from the clearance hospital I was stationed at,” she said. “I found myself on Elise’s doorstep and she was kind enough to take me in.”
“The story doesn’t end there, though,” Elise said, lowering her voice. “I have two British soldiers in my home, too.”
The old man looked like he was about to fall off his chair and he slapped his palm on the table. “Soldiers?” He made a loudtutting noise and then drained his glass of wine. “You are too kind-hearted, just like Claude.”
Cate could see the pain on Elise’s face at the reference to her father.
“You think he would have done the same?”
“I know so.” He sighed. “And now you need my help to get them home, I suppose?”
A noise upstairs startled them, but the old man shook his head, smiling. “You have your hidden secrets, I have my own,” he said. “Your father and I weren’t so different, but I’m an old man and don’t have as much to lose as you do.”
Cate couldn’t believe it; he had someone, or more than just someone, hidden in his home, too.
“Elise mentioned there was a network of sorts, an underground collection of people?” Cate asked. She lifted her glass and took a hesitant sip of the wine, hoping it would calm her nerves.
“You heard right. There is a network that is expanding all over France, and we’re only going to get stronger if those bastards take hold here. We’ve been smuggling Jews to safety, but soon we might be joining the fighting, too.” He sighed again. “The German presence here is too great for us to fight it physically, but that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. We got rid of them during the Great War, and we’ll get rid of them again.”
“So can you help us?” Elise asked.
“The first day of the new moon, when it’s not visible in the sky, we have an evacuation planned,” he murmured, his ruddy elbows propped on the table between them. “You get your three to the beach at Calais then, and a rowboat will be waiting to take them to a larger ship. We have three downed British airmen who’ve been recuperating for some time, and they’ll be on that boat too.”
Cate reached for Elise’s hand and gripped it. “You really think we could make it back to England?”
His smile lit his eyes. “If the Luftwaffe don’t catch sight of you, then yes, I do. There are always risks, and if you can’t make it this time we plan on doing it with every new moon, when the night is bathed in true darkness. There are more formal evacuations taking place from Brest, but it’s a long trek by foot to get there, and I think this is your best option.”
“We’ll be there,” Cate said, nodding at Elise. “Unless something unforeseen happens, we’ll be there.”
