She had a small bag in her hands. Both fists were tight around the handles. She looked at me, then beyond me to Lyra.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said.
“You’re not interrupting.” Lyra stepped around me into the corridor. “What is it?”
She hesitated, then squared her shoulders.
Mrs. Eggers had served this family for longer than I’d been alive. I’d never seen her at a loss for words before today.
“My daughter is in Syracuse, in New York, ma’am,” she began. “She and her husband both teach at the university. I have four grandchildren I’ve met twice. She’s been asking me to come for years, and I’ve always said no.” She pressed her lips together. “Because of the family.”
Lyra approached and took both her hands. “If this is what you want, you’ll come with us. Henry will take you to your daughter’s door himself.”
When Mrs. Eggers put one hand over her mouth and her shoulders shook, Lyra embraced her.
“You’ve been a gift to all of us,” I heard Lyra say as I walked away.
Blackjack was in the dining room when I crossed the hall on my way from the study. I kept walking.Kingston was down the corridor, and I considered verifying his equipment list. I didn’t need to, and if I did, it would’ve been insulting. The list was fine. What I needed was distance from the man I’d kissed last night, because the alternative was walking through that doorway and having a conversation I was not prepared for with four hours left on this continent.
I went outside to drop off more bags and saw Magnolia sitting on the low wall by the front steps with a suitcase at her feet. I sat down next to her.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“I have an apartment in Geneva with books and furniture. Almost everything I own other than my clothes. I’m not returning to any of it. Henry’s people will arrange for what can be shipped, and the rest will be sold or given away.”
“I’m sorry.”
“When my family left Tirana, I was eleven years old. My mother packed for six hours. She cried when she told me she wasn’t bringing the teapot. I didn’t understand why a woman would cry over something so silly.” She looked at her bag. “I understand now.”
The convoy assembled at three.Henry helped Anna and my grandmother into the lead vehicle, offering his arm to each of them and making sure their bags were within reach. These women had survived so much. Now, they were being packed into an SUV because the enemy had found us again. My babushka faced the estate through the window. Anna faced forward.
Givre was being transported to the airfield separately. Her right tibia had been crushed under the slab, and she’d come out of surgery with a rod and pins holding the bone together. She was in a walking boot. Hornet and Delfino were with her.
Magnolia met my eyes when I climbed in the SUV Blackjack would drive. I’d managed to avoid him all day by making myself scarce, then continuing conversations with others far longer than they needed to go on.
When he climbed in, our eyes met for the first time since last night.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded rather than answer with words.
As the convoy pulled down the drive, I turned in my seat for one last look. The estate’s stone front wasalready half hidden by the trees that lined the road, and the shutters Anna had opened that morning still were. No one had thought to close them, and no one would.
The ridge above Lausanne was the last thing visible before the road curved south. I’d seen it from the windows of the estate for most of my life, and it held for another few seconds before the trees eclipsed it.
I put my hand in my jacket pocket and closed my fingers around the compass and the piece of molding. One from my father. One from the building where his work had continued after his death. Other than my clothes and a few other things, these were the only mementos I was taking from my home.
I turned around, closed my eyes, and silently bid it farewell.
9
BLACKJACK
The plane was over open water when I stood up.
Beacon hadn’t looked at me since takeoff. In fact, she’d barely looked in my direction since last night’s kiss. I’d watched her not look at me through the safety briefing and the climb and the first hour in level flight, and had decided somewhere around the end of the second hour that I was done with it. She’d avoided me long enough.
The cabin was quiet. Most of the team was working or sleeping. Kingston had his head down with Amaryllis on a shared screen. Hornet had a headset on. Mercury and Henry were at the front of the cabin together. Mrs. Eggers sat across the aisle from them with her hands folded in her lap. Nobody was paying attention to the aisle.
