“Gary?”
“Yes, and Bernardus is Benny. You must wear your civilian suit. We told the Bertrams you and Bernardus are Dutch, but they don’t know you’re in Organisation Todt. We told them you were Dutch only to explain your accents.”
Gerrit murmured and memorized the sequence of turns.La Grande Routede Saint-Clément to Rue de Fauvic to La GrandeRoute des Sablons.
“Take your pistol,” Ivy said in a soft voice.
To protect her little brother, and Gerrit gave her a solemn nod. But how could he leave her? Why should he have to? “You shouldcome too. They’re investigating you, and the food shortages grow worse each day. It isn’t safe here.”
Ivy gazed down at her clenched hands, and her cheeks twitched. “I thought about it. I could help Charlie on the journey. But my patients need me as well. The health of the islanders is in great peril, and the doctors are spread so thin.”
Gerrit’s throat clamped shut, and he gripped her forearm. “How can I leave you? If you escaped, we could be together.” He could propose to her, marry her.
Her face turned red, and she shook her head and let out a little sob. “Oh, this is just like at Oxford. I’m choosing Jersey over love. Again.”
Gerrit stilled. Her boyfriend had forced her to choose. Gerrit didn’t want to do that, not at all. “This is temporary, mijn geliefde. When all this is over, I’ll come to you, to Jersey.”
“Oh, Gerrit.” She wobbled. “I’ll miss you so much.”
He pulled her hard into an embrace and kissed the top of her head. “I love how you care for your patients. I love your conscientiousness. I love your loyalty to your family and community. I would never ask you to choose me over all that.”
Her shoulders shook, and he rocked her until the shaking stopped.
How long until he could hold her again? Would he ever?
chapter
40
St. Helier
Since a mere slit of light emitted from the shield over her carbide headlamp, Ivy had cycled home with great care.
She pulled her bicycle into the garden in the moonless night. She’d stayed late after dinner with Uncle Arthur and Aunt Opal. Any secret police watching the farm and following Ivy wouldn’t be free to follow the men to the beach.
By now, the Bertram family would be instructing Gerrit and Bernardus, and soon they’d take Charlie and the boat to the beach. Deputy Wilfred Bertram—Ivy still couldn’t believe a States deputy was involved—had told her the party would row to sea under cover of darkness. Later, the three-quarters moon would help them navigate east to the Cotentin Peninsula of France.
Ivy’s green coat grew thinner each year, and she shivered. If liberation didn’t come before the winter, she’d need to patch the seat again.
Her shiver became a shudder. German patrols, coastal guns, patrol boats, tides, rocks, rough seas, Charlie’s weakness and delirium—would he even respond to medication in France?
The dangers piled high, so she chipped away at the pile withfaith. “‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,’” she said in the blindness of night.
After Ivy unlocked the back door and the supply room, she pushed her bicycle inside the supply room and removed her medical bag from the basket.
The light in the hallway flicked on behind her, and Fern stood silhouetted in the supply room doorway. “Did you have a pleasant evening?”
Ivy couldn’t see her sister’s face, but her tone hinted at insincerity. Regardless, she’d treat it as a friendly question. “Quite pleasant. I spent the evening with Uncle Arthur and Aunt Opal.”
“Is that so?” Fern held up a piece of paper. “You weren’t with ‘mijn geliefde’? Did I pronounce that correctly? It’s Dutch, yes?”
All the blood rushed from Ivy’s face, tingling, dizzying, pooling in her gut.
Fern leaned back against the doorjamb, and the lamp illuminated a smug smile. “I thought it curious this morning in church when you dropped a piece of paper into the pew beside Gerrit van der Zee, and he failed to return it to you.”
Ivy fumbled for a shelf for balance, and the keys in her fingers tapped the wood.
“Do you want to know why I found it curious?” Fern said. “Hmm? A few weeks before, he handed you a paper you’d dropped. So why didn’t he return today’s piece of paper?”
