Lucy sat back, cross-legged and thought. ‘I know where I’ve seen the same handwriting,’ she said. She pulled out her mobile and began scrolling through the photographs she’d taken since her return to Guernsey.
She found the photograph she’d been looking for, looked at it hard, wanting so desperately to be wrong. But she wasn’t wrong. She’d not seen it then. Or maybe she’d not wanted to see it. But now it was unavoidable.
She showed the phone to Will who looked at it hard, looked at the writing on the photograph and the newspaper annotation and then, when he realised what he was looking at, swore loudly.
It was the anonymous letter informing on Persephone.
They zoomed in on the name of the house.
Lucy looked at the D of Deux Tourelles and the D of Dido’s name, written with a flourish on the newspaper and on the anonymous informant letter.
‘They’re the same,’ Lucy said, her eyes wide with something resembling horrified excitement. ‘The loop and swirl on the D’s are exactly the same. The handwriting is exactly the same.’
There is a Jewish girl still in hiding on this island. The woman hiding her is called Persephone Le Roy. She lives at Deux Tourelles. Search her room.
The last time Lucy had read it had been with disgust. But now, it was with cold horror. It was Persephone’s handwriting. Persephone had written this letter. Persephone had informed on herself.
Chapter 36
1943
‘I wrote a letter to the Gestapo,’ Persey said. ‘I told them quite clearly that it was I who had been responsible for hiding a missing Jewish girl.’
‘Why?’ he asked in horror.
‘Because Mrs Renouf said she was going to implicate Dido alongside me. And I couldn’t have that. So regardless as to whether she names Dido or just myself, I have named myself. I have taken the blame. I have protected my little sister. Because of Mrs Renouf’s letter, they will talk to Dido. But because of mine, they will look extra hard at me. They’ll search my room because I have told them to and in it they’ll find my shorthand notes. It might take them a while to work out what they all say but I’m sure there’s a shorthand clerk on the island willing to transcribe them for a few Reichsmarks or an extra meat ration. And Dido will be safe. They were coming for me anyway,’ she finished. ‘This way they leave Dido alone.’
He stared at her, his mouth open, horror in his eyes. ‘Do you know what they will do to you?’
‘They can’t do anything to me if I’m here,’ she said. ‘With you.’
He looked down. ‘If this explodes …’ he said quietly.
‘Then it explodes,’ she said. ‘I’m not scared.’
‘You should be. Persephone, I’m begging you.’
‘Please, Stefan, don’t dismiss me. Not now. Please let me stay with you.’
‘This is needless,’ he shouted. ‘You do not need to be here.’
‘Let me stay,’ she cried. ‘Let me stay. For a while. I’ll go soon. I’ll climb the cliffs and go home and I’ll wait for them to come for me. If that’s what you really want. But they’ll arrest me. I always knew they would. I had accepted it. Because Lise would be safe. Jack would be safe. And so would Dido. And that was all I wanted.’
‘Persephone,’ he cried but he had no further words. There was nothing else to say.
She slipped her arms around his waist, nestling into him. He put his arms around her and held her tightly. Persey felt the most comforted she had ever felt, despite this being the most awful of circumstances. ‘I love you,’ she repeated.
‘I love you.’
She would not leave him. She loved him and he would not die alone. He had risked his life to help her, to help Jack, to help Lise. After everything they had almost been to each other, she couldn’t let him die alone, scared. Dido was strong. Dido would be all right. Dido was in love and there was not a scrap of evidence she had been involved in any of this.
She tightened her grip around him. ‘I’m not leaving you. Hold me tight,’ she asked. ‘I love you. Tell me you love me one more time. Before it’s too late.’
‘I love you,’ he said quickly. ‘I will love you forever.’ He placed his lips on hers and she tasted the salt from his tears as they ran into hers.
‘It was not our time before,’ Stefan said mournfully.
And with a hint of gallows humour, Persey replied, ‘I’m not sure this is it now either.’
