Dot listened as she described the crash, the Germans in the forest, and then waking up in the Paris apartment. Her heart ached when Dash told them about the horrible little room where she’d waited after Ruby had been killed. Then, with a wonderful flourish, Dash revealed that it had been Gus who rescued her. Dot did her best to look as shocked as the rest of her family.
“Gus!” her mother exclaimed. “How on earth did that happen?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” A sneaky little smile appeared. “I think—now, he never told me specifically, but I think he’s one of those secret agent guys. You know? Like a spy? He had a radio and a gun, and he looked like he was in control of everybody.”
Dot forced out a laugh, her training kicking in. “Gus, a spy? He’s a soldier, that’s all. There has to be another reason he was there.”
“No, you have no idea, Dot. He was amazing! Somehow he found me, then he carried me out, and we drove forever. I slept the whole way. But then—oh, I willneverknow how he accomplished this—he somehow managed to get Pete, the RAF pilot I told you about, to fly in and take me away!”
Dot fought the impulse to jump in:I did that! I found Pete after he found me, and it wasn’t easy, but we got him there…but she couldn’t. She’d reveal too much, and she had sworn Pete to secrecy. Dash might never know.
Instead, she leaned in and asked what she really needed to know. “What happened to Gus?”
Dash’s expression fell. “Right when we were taking off, we heard shots.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I saw him fall.”
“What?” Dot cried, and a shiver raced down her spine.
“The Germans came across the field, and they shot Gus. Pete roared in and took all the Germans down, but I have no idea what happened to Gus after that.”
Dot couldn’t breathe.
“No. That can’t be,” she whispered, feeling lost. “He promised that he would come home.”
sixty-twoDASH— Oshawa, Ontario —
Dash lay on her side, watching her sister sleep. With everything that had happened overseas, then the ship back and the anticipation of finally seeing Dot again, Dash had thought she’d sleep a whole year. But to her surprise, she’d slept poorly. In a way, she was glad, because it gave her the opportunity to watch her sister sleep.
Dot had changed. There was no more fear behind her eyes, though there was pain. Had she fallen in love? Dash hoped so. She needed her sister to feel that sense of happiness. Of oneness. After all this time, after the rift between them, after being an ocean apart and having their lives go in different directions, Dash was fascinated by how right it felt to be together again. She still had things to say to Dot, things to ask her, but her old anger had been replaced with a calmness that had not been there for a very long time.
She knew when Dot was waking. She knew her breathing patterns as well as she knew her own.
“Good morning,” she said softly.
Dot’s eyes opened, and Dash felt the love in them like a touch. “Good morning, Dash.”
She was also aware of the moment when Dot’s guard went up.
“What?” Dot asked.
Dash kept her voice relaxed. She didn’t want to fight. “You know what. Why weren’t you there?”
“I thought you’d forgiven me.”
“I have. But I still need to know why. It makes no sense.”
Dot swallowed hard. “I still can’t tell you, Dash. Can you please just leave it at that?”
“Did you do something bad, Dot?”
That surprised her. “No! I just can’t… it’s the war. There are secrets in war.”
“That you can’t even share with me?”
“That I can’t even share with you.”
Dash frowned, recalling Aunt Lou’s words at the funeral. She’d told Dash about her father, and of the secret life he’d led in the first war. Of the things he’d left unsaid.Sometimes in war, secrets are necessary, her aunt had said. Then Dash thought about her days at GECO when she’d had to take an oath of secrecy before she could fill munition shells with explosives. She supposed Aunt Lou was right. She couldn’t tell Dot about that job, either.
“Did you know Dad was a hero?”
