Gerrit lowered his fork so he wouldn’t drop it. “Yes, Dr. Picot?”
Fern chuckled. “Such formality on Christmas Day. That’ll never do. Ivy, you shall call him Gerrit. Gerrit, please call her Ivy.”
He’d do no such thing. For the sake of peace, he wouldn’t call her Dr. Picot. But out of respect, he wouldn’t call her Ivy. “What is your question?”
Ivy kept slicing, and her tiny chin jutted forward. “As a Dutchman, how can you work for the nation that invaded your country? And build military installations for them?”
Gasps sprang from both ends of the table, objecting to such a question—of a guest!—on Christmas!
“No, no.” Gerrit raised a hand and his voice. “It’s all right.”
Fern and Charlie quieted.
Ivy stilled her knife, and a blush flooded her cheeks. Quite becomingly.
“It’s a good question, a fair question.” If only he could give a full and honest answer. “In the Netherlands, men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three must register for labor. But the German labor shortage only worsens. They’ve called for volunteers throughout the Netherlands, France, even in the Channel Islands, yes?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. “But few volunteer.”
“It’s only a matter of time until the Germans conscript men my age as well. Now, I am a civil engineer and Bernardus a geologist. We’d rather work in our professions than be forced to dig ditches here in Jersey or to assemble weapons in a German factory under Allied bombardment.”
Charlie clucked his tongue. “It’s more than—”
Gerrit shot him a quick sidelong glance. Better to be thought a collaborator than to endanger the resistance network, which now included young Charlie.
“Well.” Charlie straightened his necktie. “I would do the same thing.”
Ivy met Gerrit’s gaze for the first time, her eyes as hard as onyx. “I wouldn’t. And if conscripted, I’d refuse.”
Gerrit gave her a slow nod. “Then you are braver than I. But it’s easy to know what you’d do when you aren’t actually faced with that choice.”
Something gray smudged Ivy’s gaze.
And something strange bubbled in Gerrit’s throat. Words he’d never dream of saying to a woman with such a gentle spirit. Yet he released them. “The Dutch resistance publishes underground newspapers. They sabotage railways and telephone lines. They smuggle military intelligence to the Allies. Dozens in the resistance have been executed. If a member of the Dutch resistance came here, he might wonder why the people of Jersey don’t do the same.”
A gasp from Charlie. “We do—”
“You do what you can, yes.” He held up a hand to silence Charlie, while never moving his gaze from his sister. “But what would he see here? Schoolboy pranks. People hiding wireless sets so they can listen to the BBC. Sheltering escaped Todt workers. Nothing to truly harm the German war effort, not like we see in the Netherlands. But would that Dutchman be right to say the people of Jersey are complacent? Cowardly?”
“We aren’t cowardly.” Indignation colored Charlie’s voice.
The same protest twitched around Ivy’s dark eyes.
“I agree,” Gerrit said. “You are not. Your island is small, and everyone knows everyone. You have no mountains to hide in, no forests, no large anonymous cities. The ratio of German soldiers to locals is far higher than in any other occupied land. To resistwould be to die. So the assumption the Dutchman made would be incomplete.”
Fern laughed, light and airy. “One can tell from your speech that you’re an engineer. So much logic. Oh my. How did you come to be an engineer?”
Gerrit couldn’t break his gaze with Ivy, nor did he want to.
Her eyelids fluttered, and her mouth relaxed. “I do not agree with your decision, but—but I do see it may not be as simple as I thought.”
Gerrit gave a single nod in gratitude.
Fern gestured to Gerrit’s plate. “Howdidyou come to be an engineer?”
Gerrit shrugged and lifted his fork of vegetables again. “My father and uncles own an engineering firm, and I’ve always loved to build. Not terribly exciting. I’m more interested in hearing how an artistic Jersey girl became a physician.”
Ivy fiddled with her fork for a long moment. “I come from a long line of physicians, and I’ve always wanted to heal.” Some of the chill left her voice.
