‘Hello, Yvette,’ said Camilla. Her French wasn’t quite as competent as Edward’s, but it was good enough to be understood. ‘How lovely to meet you. Do you like biscuits? Cook has just baked some.’ She held out her hand and to Fitz’s surprise, Yvette took it, seemingly happy to go with Camilla.
Fitz and her father exchanged a look as they followed on. Camilla was doing a sterling job of chatting away to the little girl. ‘You’ll have to meet Geraldine’s brother, Michael,’ she was saying.
Yvette turned and looked at Fitz. ‘Oh, gosh,’ said Fitz. ‘I forgot, Yvette doesn’t know my real name.’
Everyone paused in the doorway.
‘Doesn’t know your real name?’ queried her father.
‘Why doesn’t she––’ Camilla stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes wide as she looked at Fitz.
Fitz could tell Camilla had immediately put two and two together. She shook her head at her stepmother. ‘I’ll explain later.’ Fitz knelt in front of Yvette. ‘So, I should have told you before but now I’m in England, I can use my English name – Geraldine or some people call me Fitz. Do you think you can remember that?’
Yvette looked confused as if this was the most ridiculous thing she’d heard. ‘You have three names?’
Fitz scrunched up her nose. ‘Kind of. But mostly I’m simply called Fitz.’
As they went through to the sitting room, Fitz was nearly bowled right over as Michael ran at her, throwing his arms around her waist.
‘Geraldine!’ he cried.
‘Michael! Oh, I’ve missed you. Let me see you.’ She held her little brother at arm’s length and then held her hand above his head, measuring his height against her. ‘My goodness, I do believe you’ve grown since I last saw you.’
Michael beamed with pride. ‘Soon I’ll be taller than you.’
‘You have a little way to go yet,’ replied Fitz. ‘Anyway, I’d like you to meet a friend I’ve brought with me.’ She held out her arm towards Yvette, who shyly came over. ‘Michael this is Yvette.’ And then in French. ‘Yvette this is Michael.’
‘Hello,’ said Michael.
‘Darling, you will need to try to speak as much French as you can to Yvette,’ said Camilla. ‘She doesn’t speak English.’
‘Bonjour,’ said Michael. ‘Tu aimes les trains?J’ai mes trains dans la salle de jeux.’
Fitz wasn’t sure if Yvette would want to play with Michael’s train set but after a moment’s hesitation, Yvette smiled. ‘Oui.’
Michael gestured for her to follow him. Yvette looked at Fitz, who nodded. ‘Go on. The playroom is upstairs.’
Yvette followed Michael out of the room and then Fitz heard their feet galloping up the stairs as Michael, who had slipped back into English, was excitedly telling Yvette about the new Dorchester Loco and coal tender he’d got for his birthday.
‘I’m sure they will be fine,’ said Edward. ‘So, tell us about our surprise house guest.’
‘Well, I can’t go into too much detail,’ warned Fitz, sitting down on the sofa. ‘But I’m looking after Yvette until it’s safe for her to go back to France. We don’t know what happened to her family at this point. It’s possible they aren’t alive anymore.’
‘Oh, the poor little mite,’ said Camilla.
‘That is terrible,’ agreed Edward, picking up his pipe from the side table. He looked at his daughter. ‘And what about you? I suspect you can’t tell us your role in all this.’
‘No. I’m sorry.’
‘Are you still flying with the ATA?’ asked Camilla.
‘I was just coming to that,’ replied Fitz, unsure of the concerned look her stepmother was giving her. ‘I might be having a little change in direction. Working for the government, but I really can’t say anything more. To be honest, I don’t know much else.’
‘It all sounds very secretive,’ said Camilla. ‘But then everything is these days. You don’t know who you could be speaking to or who is listening. We keep being told toKeep it under your hatandMr Hitler wants to know.There are posters on the village notice board.’
‘And rightly so,’ said Edward, lighting his pipe.
‘So, going back to Yvette,’ said Fitz. ‘If I do take up this new position, or even if I do go back to flying for the ATA, I wondered if––’
