“Let’s go,” I said.
He grinned, and we got out of the Model T. He motioned for me to follow him to the hangar.
The mechanics who had been watching us straightened as we approached, their faces ashen at the sight of me.
“This is Grace Cooper,” he told them. “Hope’s twin sister. She’s come to fly.”
Understanding dawned on their faces, and they smiled.
“Can you have my Blériot ready in ten minutes?” he asked them.
Nodding, they walked into the hangar and started preparing Luc’s aeroplane for takeoff.
“There will probably be a lot of confusion around here until everyone knows who you are,” Luc said. “You and Hope look a lot alike. I remember the first time I saw you standing together, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
“I remember.”
“Do you?”
I smiled. “Of course.”
“You didn’t like me.” His eyes teased in a way I was starting to love. Here, at the airfield, away from the noise of crowds and people and responsibilities—and my sister—he seemed different.
“I didn’t know you,” I protested, “and I had just learned that my sister had kept a very important secret from me—one that you encouraged.”
“Oui. I should have known you would be distrustful of me.” He returned my smile. “It didn’t take long to tell you apart, though. You are very different from your sister.”
“She and I could not be more opposite.”
“I realized that in Hardelot.” He was quiet for a moment as he considered me, as if he wanted to say more, but then he took a deep breath and said, “Come. I will take you into the sky.”
Ten minutes later, the aeroplane had been moved onto the field, and I stood before it as Luc finished preparing for the flight. This monoplane was very similar to the one Hope had used in Boston—which made me shake even more. Why had I let him talk me into this?
He came up beside me, putting his hand on the small of my back, and said, “Are you ready?”
“I’m scared,” I whispered as I pulled my gaze from the aeroplane to his face.
“Youarevery different from your sister,” he said, almost as quiet.
“She was fearless.”
“No.” He shook his head. “We are all afraid of something. She wanted people to believe she was fearless, but she just hid her fears better than most. And in the process, I think she started to believe it was true.” He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me to look at him. “It’s important to be honest with ourselves so we know who we are and who we are not. Only then do we become the best version of ourselves.”
Warmth spread out from his hands and wrapped around my heart.
“You know who you are, Grace Cooper, and it’s an admirable quality.”
That was what made me different from Hope? For so long, I had been under her wing—yet here, standing on my own, Lucas Voland saw me, and he liked what he saw.
“I’m ready,” I said, something sweet passing between us.
“Good.”
He bent to one knee and told me to use it to step onto the plane. I had seen Hope do it a couple of times, but she was wearing a flying suit. In a skirt, it wasn’t so easy.
We laughed as I attempted to maneuver into the machine—and it was exactly what we needed to overcome the seriousness of the moment before. After I plopped down on the metal seat, he climbed into the front.
He turned to hand me something. “Here is a hat for you.” It was one of his flat caps.
