‘She’ll be fine,’ Persey snapped. ‘We’ve come this far. She’s going with you. Just wait.’
Jack watched. ‘What are they doing?’
‘They’re being careful,’ Persey insisted as she stood on the rock. She held the handle of the suitcase tighter in frustration at not being able to go onto the sand, not being able to help, for fear of treading on a mine.
Stefan finally lifted Lise clean into the air and placed her on the rock. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘Be safe away from here.’
‘Thank you,’ Lise said and held out her hand for Stefan to hoist himself up with when she was safely on the rock. She winced in pain but said, ‘I’ll help you up.’
‘No,’ Stefan said. ‘I will go and watch out for a patrol. I will move to the rocks in a moment. Just go. Quickly. Good luck,’ he said to Lise. He called towards Jack. ‘Good luck, Jack.’
‘And to you,’ Jack called to Stefan. ‘Look after Persey and Dido. I’ll see you when it’s all over. If we make it.’
‘You will make it,’ Stefan called. ‘You have to.’ He raised his hand in farewell.
Persey moved toward Lise as she inched along the wet rocks. She let her friend pass, helping her as she limped with her twisted ankle. As Stefan called to her, Persey turned back to him and Lise continued on alone.
‘Persephone,’ Stefan said. ‘I want you to get on the boat too. There is room. I want to know you are far away from here.’
Persey looked at him as if he was mad. ‘No. I’m not going.’
‘You must,’ he said simply.
‘Why must I?’
‘Because I must know you are safe.’
‘What makes you think I’m not?’
‘Everything. Everything makes me think you are not.’
‘I can’t do this,’ she said. ‘I can’t have this conversation. I must say goodbye to Lise.’ She turned to watch her friend in the dark almost reach Jack.
‘No,’ Stefan called. ‘You must not. You must get on the boat so I know you will spend the rest of your life safe and away from here.’
‘I’m going to be safe with you … for as long as you are billeted here. Now for God’s sake—’
‘I will not be there to protect you,’ he said.
‘What? Why?’ she said, her body half turned to him, half towards Jack and Lise waiting at the end of the rocks for her to make her decision.
‘Because,’ he said, ‘I am standing on a mine.’
Chapter 33
2016
Will looked at the image of the man standing inside the front door at Deux Tourelles and then he looked at Lucy. ‘This man is my grandfather.’
‘What?’ Lucy asked in disbelief.
‘I knew that my grandfather lived in Guernsey,’ Will said. ‘Not in his final years. Actually, not for a very long time. But he’d never told me what he did during the war. Never spoke about it. He spoke about his love for Guernsey though. He’d wanted to return, but never wanted to, all at the same time. He said it was the geographical equivalent of the phrase “never meet your heroes”. He’d loved it here so much so long ago that he’d not wanted to come back and see how modern it looked now, how different. But he’d loved it here and so that’s why I came after he died. To see what he saw. To love what he had loved.
‘I didn’t twig when we looked up about the deportations,’ he continued. ‘I knew my grandfather was here during the war. But he’d made a new life with my grandmother and they never thought of moving back. They were happy. Their life was in England.’
‘Deportations?’ Lucy asked, finally able to interject.
‘I never knew who my great-grandparents were. My interest lay in my grandfather, who was living and seemed far more interestingthan any long-dead relative I’d never known. He’d always been cagey about the war, though. Said he’d never been proud of some of the things he’d done in his early life, but that he’d been proud of being able to do one great thing. He met my gran here, which wasn’t particularly interesting to me, I’m ashamed to say, so I didn’t think to question further.
