‘I suspected as much. It will be all right,’ he said, stroking her face.
She nodded, not quite believing it.
A knock sounded at the door and Jack entered without waitingto be told to come in. He saw them on the settee, hands entwined. Persey pulled her hand away far too late.
‘I’m going out,’ Jack said pointedly. ‘I’ve got things to do.’
He cast Stefan a look and then slammed the sitting room door.
‘Is he jealous?’ Stefan asked.
‘No,’ Persey said, sighing. ‘It’s not like that. He’s protective.’
She didn’t want to think about Jack right now. This had been the most frightening experience of her life and the death of the soldier only served to illustrate how short life really was, especially if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the soldier had been. As she had been earlier that day.
Is that what had happened to her and Stefan, back then? It had certainly been the wrong time all those years ago. And now it was both the wrong place and the wrong time: Guernsey in the midst of war. Here he was. But in that uniform. It was so difficult for her to get past, even with his emphatic dislike for what the Nazis were doing.
But life was fleeting. Wasn’t that what Dido was always saying? She felt emboldened. She looked at his hands and reached over, taking one in hers, wanting to feel the warmth, the comfort emanating from him. He jolted, looking confused as she touched him.
‘Thank you,’ she said, not daring to lift her gaze to meet his. Her mouth had become dry. ‘I owe you everything. I owe you my life.’
‘No,’ he said, his voice strained. ‘You do not. What good are old friends if they will not help you in your hour of greatest need?’
‘Friends,’ she whispered.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Friends.’
‘Did you mean it?’ she asked. ‘After all this time. After your yearlong absence, did you really mean it when you said that you still would like …’ She didn’t know how to phrase it. ‘That you would still like there to be something between us?’
His posture became stiff, wary and his tone even more so. ‘Yes,’ he said slowly.
She nodded. Her lips had become dry, the heat from the room suddenly overwhelming. She couldn’t bring herself to say it, couldn’t even bring herself to fully think the words she wanted to say. She stood up, reluctantly letting go of his hand. She moved away from him, towards the door. She rubbed her head, the pain of a new headache throbbing behind her eyes, her dry mouth begging for a glass of water.
She had to leave the room – had to go to the kitchen for a drink. She just needed a moment to think, alone. Perhaps she needed to sleep, although that couldn’t be it as she’d slept while Stefan had been out.
‘Excuse me,’ she muttered, opening the door and leaving the sitting room.
In the kitchen, she took a glass to the sink and let the water run cold for a moment or two as she looked out of the window towards the garden. She needed to take her mind off him, off what had happened today. Outside she could see weeds springing up. No one had told her gardening was a never-ending task, but the vegetable patch needed tending to and there were so many jobs that—
‘Persephone?’
Stefan had followed her into the kitchen. She turned slowly and looked at him.
‘Yes?’ she asked warily. She could not let her guard down. Not now. Not when she’d been so strong for so long.
‘You are all right. It will be all right,’ he said.
The words left her mouth before she could stop them: ‘I want it too,’ she said suddenly and clutched the glass of water so tight she was in danger of crushing it in her fingers. She put it down onto the side of the sink, spilling its contents while doing so.
‘You want what?’ he asked. On his face was a look of genuine puzzlement.
Everything Dido had said about Persey forcing love away from her had been true. The world had turned upside down, this islandhad turned upside down, the war had done so much to throw her and Stefan back together, why not let it throw them even closer instead of driving them apart.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, stumbling over the words she still couldn’t quite find. ‘Something. This. Perhaps. Between you and I. Only I don’t know how—’
‘Don’t,’ he said sharply, stepping back although he was already nowhere near her.
‘Don’t what?’ she asked, the shock of rejection stinging more than she had expected.
