Page 92 of The Secrets We Left Behind
Lilly kissed her cheek and smiled down at her. “You do realize I’m going to lose my job if anyone finds that scruffy little dog in my cabin, don’t you? So it’s lucky I love you, too.”
“Oscar is worth it,” Cate said, trying to return the smile despite the heaviness in her heart. “His owner ...” she said, as her voice wobbled, “his owner gave her life to save mine.”
Lilly’s eyes filled with tears as she hugged her again. “Then I’ll care for him like my life depends on it. I promise.”
As Lilly held her tightly once more, Cate remembered Adelaide. She remembered her smile and her kindness that first night, when she’d pretended Oscar was her own. Without Adelaide, she would never have had a chance of making it home at all. Without Adelaide, perhaps every single one of them would be dead by now.
I’ll never forget you, Addy. Not a day will go by when I won’t remember your sacrifice.
And as Lilly held her, rocking her in her arms, she finally succumbed to sleep.
EPILOGUE
ELISE
LEPARADIS, FRANCE,EARLY1946
It was the birds taking flight from the low-hanging branches of the fruit trees that made Elise look up, and she startled when she saw a man coming up the path. His beard was scraggly and his clothes old, and her heart skipped a panicked beat as she stood and looked for her son, scanning the garden.
“Louis!” she called, holding up her skirts as she ran to him.
Louis waved to her from the tree he was climbing, and she gestured for him to come down, glancing over her shoulder at the man, who’d stopped now, but was on her path still.
She cursed her gun being so far away. Since France had been liberated, she hadn’t carried her weapon, but she was wishing she had it with her now.
“Louis, get down!” she demanded, reaching for him and catching his hand. He landed in her arms with a thump, almost knocking her off her feet, and she held him tight against her chest.
“Mama!” he protested, but she ignored him, setting him down but keeping a firm grip on his hand.
She looked at the man and then at her front door, knowing that if she had to, she could run the distance and protect them both. If there was one thing that war had taught her, it was that she was more than capable of looking after herself. And she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot this man if he tried to hurt them.
“Stay where you are!” she called, moving Louis slightly behind her. “This is private property.”
“Elise,” the man called back, holding his hands in the air as if to surrender, showing her that he had no weapons. “It’s me.”
Me?
She squinted, lifting her free hand to shield her eyes from the sun.
It can’t be.
She studied his stature, the clothes hanging off his skinny frame, his long, unkempt hair. But as he walked slowly closer, his hands still raised, and she kept staring, something about his eyes stopped her from running for the house.
“Elise?” he said again.
His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long while, but the way his warm brown eyes shone, she just knew.
It’s Harry.
“Harry?” she whispered, no longer used to his name on her lips.
It was his smile that told her it was truly him, even disguised by a beard, even attached to a face so thin she could barely comprehend it was the man she’d once known and loved.
“Oh my God, Harry!” She let go of Louis’s warm little hand, running the last few yards between them and opening her arms. “Harry!”
When his arms closed around her, lips to her hair as she pressed her face to his chest and listened to the still-familiar beat of his heart, for a moment it was like he’d never left. Elise cried happy tears into his shirt, not caring that he was skin and bones, or thathis tattered shirt smelt like it hadn’t been washed in years. It was Harry, and she’d take him any way he came.
“I can’t believe you’re alive.” She leaned back in his arms and stared up at him. “I can’t believe it. I just—” Elise blinked through her tears. “I just can’t believe you’re actually here, standing in front of me.”
