Persey nodded.
‘And I liked it so very much. It seemed like heaven,’ Lise said, glancing round the lush gardens and the view down towards the sea. ‘It was only supposed to be temporary as I nannied for a German family who spent their summers here. But they returned home to Germany just before the outbreak of war. They knew, before I did, what was going to happen. They left and I stayed here. I didn’t want to return to Germany. I didn’t want anything to do with what was happening there.’
‘Wise,’ Persey cut in. ‘I didn’t realise you were German,’ she said warily. ‘I thought you were Swiss.’
‘I’m from a town on the German and Swiss border,’ Lise said. ‘I read the newspapers. I could see the reach the Nazis had extended across Europe. But it wasn’t until Dunkirk, until the soldiers were lifted from the beaches, the British retreating from France, that I knew we really were in much more trouble in the Channel Islands than originally anticipated; much more danger.’
Persey sighed deeply. ‘Yes. We left it too late to leave,’ she admitted.
‘As did I,’ Lise said simply. ‘I tried to leave for England, although I don’t know if I would have been much safer there considering how fast the Nazis are progressing. It’s only a matter of time before they move across the Channel and enter England.’
‘Don’t say that,’ Persey whispered.
‘But,’ Lise continued, ‘when I tried to leave, I was not allowed.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I am German,’ she stated. ‘Because England was notaccepting arrivals from nations with which it was at war unless in possession of a visa, which I did not have.’
‘Oh,’ Persey said. ‘Of course.’
‘And so I am stuck here. For my own silliness in leaving it too late.’
‘But being German … won’t that stand you in good stead with … them. You’re one of them,’ Persey joked. She nodded towards the soldiers as they laughed and joked their way happily through the gardens: Guernsey, their holiday posting, their playground.
Lise looked angry and almost spat, ‘I am not one of them. I will never be one of them.’
‘No, I know. Don’t be angry. I’m sorry, it was a very poor joke,’ Persey admitted.
‘So you see,’ Lise continued, attempting to calm herself. ‘I can’t go to England and I can’t stay here either, under their gaze. I’m caught. I’m trapped. And I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who I can trust. I think no one.’
‘But why? I don’t unders—’
‘I need you to help me. I don’t have any friends here, not really, and I need somewhere safe to go,’ Lise said.
‘For how long?’
‘However long the Nazis are here. However long this Occupation may last.’
‘But why?’
‘Because,’ Lise said quietly. ‘I am Jewish.’
Chapter 10
Persephone sat at the miniature grand piano at the far end of the sitting room that afternoon, her fingers placed on the keys, but she couldn’t bring herself to play. She had been past the airport one last time for Jack and now she watched the pendulum swing inside the glass cabinet of the wall clock as she thought about Lise. Deux Tourelles was quiet. Mrs Grant was in the kitchen, Dido and Jack were heavens knew where and Stefan was in the sitting room he’d commandeered, much to Mrs Grant’s lividness. Presumably, given it was Saturday he had nowhere else to be.
She looked across the room towards the door, which she’d left open, and out into the hallway. She wondered how long they could do this for. Perhaps she was attaching too much importance to that kiss on the cliffs all those years ago. Perhaps it had meant so little then and even less now that he’d possibly forgotten it had ever happened.
He was a stranger but not a stranger. A man she knew but didn’t know. What had he been doing in those intervening years? What had he studied? Where had he lived? Who had he loved? Who had he left behind in Germany to come to Guernsey?
She had no idea what had led her mind down this path. She remembered the way he’d been all those summers ago. There had always been a level of Germanic reserve about him until that finalday on the cliff when all reserve had fallen away, shocking her, thrilling her.
Earlier that hot summer he had accused her of the same thing, decreeing that she had the same oddly formal characteristics. He had said it was because she was English and she had told him in no uncertain terms that she was not English and those who went around calling Channel Islanders such needed to prepare for an uncomfortable conversation. He had laughed and told her the two of them were more similar than she realised. She wondered if that was true back then. She wondered if it was still true now.
She looked at her wristwatch. Jack would be gone in a matter of hours. The British navy was scheduled to collect him tonight and Persey had volunteered to go with him down to his pick-up point, Petit Bot Bay, where he’d been dropped last time, to help keep lookout for patrols while he made the agreed signal.
‘You know the risks don’t you, in coming with me?’ Jack had asked when she’d volunteered even after he’d fought profusely against it.
