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“I’ll take her, Papa.”

As they go to the spare bedroom, Joséphine asks again, “What about school?”

“Not today, Joséphine.”

“Tomorrow?”

“We’ll see.”

“I’ll stay with her until she is asleep,” Andrée calls over her shoulder.

Chapter Two

When Andrée returns to her parents, her mother is sitting on the sofa, her father standing nearby as if frozen to the spot. They are talking in quiet, anxious voices.

“Let’s have some breakfast. I have a bit of bread left over from yesterday’s ration. I’ll pop it in the oven for a few moments to freshen it up. It’s always so stale now,” Louis says, rousing himself into action. Augustine follows him into the tiny kitchen.

Andrée sits at the dining table, listening to the familiar sound of her mother preparing a meal, spooning the ground chicory that serves as coffee under occupation, then pouring water into the coffeepot and placing it on the stovetop. She knows exactly what they’re both doing without being able to see them. She hears her father put the remains of a stale baguette on a tray and into the oven, saying, “Won’t take long.” They maneuver around one another in the small space, a familiar dance they’ve performed her whole life.

Tina appears and places three plates, knives, cups and saucers on the table in their usual places, pulling a chair out for Louis. She sits down opposite Andrée, and, reaching across the table, takes one of her daughter’s hands.

“Did she tell you how she got into the building?”

Andrée shakes her head. She knows what her mother is thinking. Have they been compromised? Louis takes a seat.

“I don’t know. My guess is that Maurice let her in, and that he’ll have recognized her as one of my pupils. I think we can trust him. But what are we to do? I honestly don’t know what to think. I’m so angry I want to hit something. I’m heartbroken for that beautiful little girl. I can’t imagine what she witnessed, how she is feeling—and where her mother and brother are now.”

“It’s not the time to ask her for details. Right now, we must decide how best to protect her,” Tina says, her voice trembling, her eyes damp.

Louis stands and begins to pace the room. “I’ll not let anything happen to her as long as I have breath in my body. But is she safe here with us? Can we keep her hidden while we’re working for the liberation of France?”

Andrée considers his words carefully. “You’re saying that if we get caught, she gets caught, and her mother sending her to us will have been for nothing. But what is the alternative? Who else could possibly take her? At least she knows us, knows this apartment—has loved coming here for her lessons. And her mother sent her to us, trusted us to care for her.”

“If we decide to keep her here—if we think it’s the right thing to do—we will need to have a backup plan. There might be others we know who would protect and shelter a Jewish child, but it won’t be easy to find someone.” Louis hesitates.

“But we’ll be putting our network and ourselves in greater danger. And the little girl also.”

The sound of the bubbling coffeepot distracts them. Louis disappears and brings it to the table along with the half-eaten baguette from the oven. He breaks it into four small pieces, placing three of them on a plate for them to share. He wraps the fourth piece in a napkin. They’re all thinking the same thing. If they keep this child, how will they feed her, without her ration book? It’s hard enough to survive on their own small rations. There’s a scraping of compote to go on the stale bread, and they serve themselves, carefully leaving a small amount for their sleeping guest. It’s not much. Louis pours the coffee. Today there is milk, and the coffee, although it doesn’t taste of coffee, is at least hot. They are silent for a time, each contemplating the enormity of harboring a Jewish child.

“Do you think her mother would have sent Joséphine to us if she had any idea of our activities?” Tina asks Andrée.

“I’ve been thinking about that. I think she might have suspected we were connected to the Resistance. Something she said to me a couple of weeks ago that I’m just now remembering⁠—”

Louis and Tina stop eating and focus on Andrée.

“What did she say?” Tina asks, a tremor in her voice. They all live in fear of denouncement or betrayal.

“Two weeks ago, Joséphine asked if she could extend her lesson. Because it was getting dark, I walked her home. She ran into her apartment. Ruth was there and told me that, a few weeks earlier, Joséphine had said to her after a lesson that she overheard you and Papa saying that a cat was coming to stay with us. She heard you telling Maman that ‘the cat will be here shortly.’”

They all know what this means. Cat is the alias of one of the Resistance operatives working with them.

“Oh my God, what did you say?” Louis asks.

“I smiled and said, no, we weren’t getting a cat. Joséphine must have heard wrong.”

“And?” Tina prompts.

“I was just about to walk away when she asked me if I knew anything about what was likely to happen to Jewish families, whether the Germans were going to move them out of Paris. There was something about the way she asked that told me she thought I might know something others didn’t.”