“I’m sorry. None I remember.”
I swallowed over an unexpected lump in my throat. “Can you tell me more about your childhoods? About growing up here?”
Her daughter let out a soft groan.
Nancy leaned forward. “Let me tell you about Nantucket, back in the day. The government almost took control of the island. The Navy planned to seize our ships and press them into war!”
From beside her, Laurie waved a hand parallel to the ground in silent negation. “It was a rumor, Mom,” she said gently. “They weren’t going to take anyone’s ships.”
Nancy scowled. “How do you know? Were you here?”
Laurie sighed.
Nancy ignored her. “The Germans sent one of their submarine packs here in ’42. You’ve heard about them? The wolf packs?”
“U-boats?” Noah said.
“Exactly. They went up and down the entire eastern coast, torpedoing and sinking ships, tankers and merchant alike. American, British, Dutch, Norwegian. Over five thousand people died—did you learn that in history class? We had fuel shortages during the war because cargo ships couldn’t get through. The Germans called it Operation Drumbeat, and our government pretended they didn’t exist. The Navy didn’t disclose anything, and the media agreed not to report on it. They pretended the U-boats weren’t here at all, but they were.”
Good lord. Where was this World War II blockbuster? “When did people find out?”
She nodded sagely. “A floundering ship ended up on our shoals, and some of our fishing vessels came across lifeboats filled with survivors from U-boat attacks. We knew what was going on.” She leaned forward. “The government sent the navy here, and they built an auxiliary air facility where the airport is. They buried mines on our landin case the Germans took over. We thought the war was coming to our doorsteps.”
“Wow.”
“Wasn’t good for tourism, either.” Nancy stirred her lemonade. “The rich families decided to vacation elsewhere. Even the Barbanels, and they’d lived here before the war. But they were Jewish, and worried, I think.”
I blinked. “Wait, so—were they not here during the war years? I thought my grandmother came here as a little girl.”
“Maybe she came when they first took her in, in the late thirties, but then they went back to New York until the midforties. We met after; we must have been ten or twelve.”
“Oh.” I supposed if there were U-boats running around the island, you wouldn’t want to chill here if you didn’t have to. “So what was it like then?”
“Ah.” She smiled, lost in thought. “It was wonderful. We used to run free all over the island. It was wilder then, only thirty-five hundred people during the winter months. A third of what we have today.”
“And she kept coming here until she was eighteen?”
“Every summer. We wrote during the year, too.”
“You don’t have her letters left, do you?”
She patted my hand. “I’m sorry, dear, I got rid of all my old papers year ago.”
“Did you know my grandfather, too, then?” Noah asked.
She looked at him consideringly. “Eventually. He was gone most of the time when we were growing up, off at his private school, then Harvard. But during the later summers, he was around more often.”
Noah and I exchanged a quick glance. “So our grandparents didn’t really... grow up together?”
“Oh, no.” She laughed. “Not really. They were barely even in the same house except for holidays and several summers.”
Veryinteresting. I considered asking about any romantic entanglements, but the force of Noah’s presence warned me against it. Instead, I pulled out my phone, bringing up the photo of O’ma wearing the necklace and turning it so Nancy could see. “Did you ever see her wearing this necklace?”
She frowned. “It looks vaguely familiar...”
My heart jumped, and I looked at Noah.
He, on the other hand, frowned. “Did you know my grandmother, too?”
