Charlie let out a scoffing sound. “Nonsense. The meeting was very hush-hush. Your girlfriend is in the resistance, and so are you.”
Gerrit’s blood chilled, crackled.
“You’re mistaken,” Bernardus said in a measured tone. “You mustn’t say things like that in public, or you’ll get yourself killed.”
“It all makes sense now.” Charlie struck the match. “You aren’t like the others. Bernardus, you just warned me. A real Nazi would have had me arrested.”
No color remained in Bernardus’s cheeks. “I don’t care to see young men come to—”
“And Gerrit.” Charlie held the match to the blackened wick. “You fed the Todt workers.”
“I...” Truth clogged his throat.
A flame wiggled above the stub of the candle. “Your sack was full when you went into the hold and empty when you came out, and the hold smelled of Camembert. You’re good men, both of you. Why did you join OT?”
“We already told you.” Bernardus scooted forward to stand.
Charlie’s face lit up. “I think you joined to spy. It’s fantastic. And I think your resistance friends want me to be your courier.”
Absolutely not, and Gerrit’s muscles clenched. He should leave. They should both leave. But Bernardus had also frozen in place, halfway out of his seat.
Charlie waved his hand toward shore. “Whatever you’re spying on, you have no way to send the information off the island, do you? But I do. And I want to do so.”
A million arguments swarmed in Gerrit’s mind.
“You think I’m too young.” Charlie’s smile hardened. “But itmakes me look innocent. Same reason they sent Marie to fetch me. Simply a pretty girl meeting her boyfriend at the docks.”
“That’s quite enough.” Bernardus stood. “Please don’t spin stories. You’ll land in prison, and you’ll get us arrested too.”
Gerrit also stood. “We’re late to church.”
Charlie didn’t rise, and he huffed. “You can trust me. I’m smart, and I’m discreet. I brought you somewhere private to deliver the letter, yes? And I’m a physician’s son. I’ve watched my father and sister discuss patients whilst guarding their privacy. And the three of us—we’re already known to be acquainted. We even have a place to meet—at church.”
Bernardus stepped toward the cabin door. “Speaking of church, we are indeed late.”
Charlie bolted to his feet, and the flame in his eyes matched the candle in his hand. “I know you’re worried about me getting arrested, tortured, killed. I understand. But I want to do something that matters. My friends—they play pranks on the Germans. They slash tires and siphon petrol, but it doesn’t truly matter. They could get arrested and killed for something of no account. But this—this would matter.”
Bernardus opened the cabin door. “For your sake, we will forget we ever had this conversation, yes, Gerrit?”
“Yes. You should too,” he said to Charlie.
The boy’s upper lip curled in frustration. “I want to help. I hate how the Germans treat people—the Todt workers, the Jews, the deportees. Please let me help.”
Gerrit’s chest hurt for Charlie. He also wanted to do something that mattered. More than anything, he wanted to draw those maps and send them to the Allies. But not at the expense of a young man’s life.
Gerrit stepped closer. “Your sisters need you alive.”
The flame died in Charlie’s eyes.
With one breath, Gerrit blew out the candle.
The Very Reverend Matthew Le Marinel spoke the final words of the benediction, and Ivy opened her eyes.
“Oh, good.” Thelma Galais beamed her smile toward the back of the sanctuary. “Our nice young men came. It isn’t like them to miss church.”
Nice young men? Surely she didn’t mean...
Ivy followed her line of sight to the back pew on the right, where that Mr. van der Zee was looking straight at her.
