‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Do you believe me, do you believe that I truly do love you? That I loved you back then – I just didn’t know I did? But that I love you now, more than anything.’
He smiled. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I believe you.’ He inhaled deeply. ‘But now you must go.’
‘No,’ she repeated, standing her ground. ‘I’m staying with you. Or … or perhaps I can fetch someone?’ she said suddenly, resigned that this was not the end.
He laughed but it was bitter. ‘Who?’
‘One of the military? Can I fetch someone who can help you?’
‘And what do you tell them?’
‘The truth,’ Persey said. ‘That you’ve stepped on a mine.’
‘You will be arrested,’ he said simply. ‘And so will I.’
She looked at him uncertainly. ‘Why would you be arrested?’
‘When they eventually find out that Jack – who lived in your house – has left the island, and the missing Jewish girl they have been told about is nowhere to be found … they will associate that escape with you and I, being on this beach tonight for no good reason. If you go and tell them I am here and they find a way to save me from this mine, I will die anyway for helping an escape. So will you. They will not let us live. And I would rather take my fate with this mine than with the Gestapo. This death will be quicker.’
‘This isn’t it,’ Persey cried. ‘This isn’t the end. I refuse to let this happen,’ she pleaded.
‘Shh,’ he said, pulling her close, careful that her feet should not touch his. She could not help it. She cried. Great, heaving sobs into Stefan’s chest, into the fabric of his hated uniform.
He sighed and placed his chin on top of her hair. ‘I am sorry,’ he said.
‘What for?’
‘For stepping on the mine.’
‘I don’t know what to do, what to say,’ she cried.
‘You know what to do. You know you have to leave. If I couldnot get you in that boat then I must get you to your sister. She will need you.’
‘She won’t,’ Persey said. ‘She’ll be quite fine. I’ve seen to that.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve done something,’ Persey said. ‘I’ve done something to save Dido.’
‘What?’ Stefan asked. ‘What have you done?’
Chapter 35
2016
Lucy and Will moved into the sitting room, clutching their mugs of coffee. Will put the wartime photo of Jack on the coffee table and, next to it, Lucy laid the photograph of the four on the beach in 1930. She thought about what the passing of a decade had done to these four young people, plunging them headlong into war. She turned her photograph over, looked at the looped, swirled writing of all of their names with a smile. And then the smile fell from her face while she thought. She traced her finger absent-mindedly over the lines of the writing and looked towards the window – towards the ivy that was in danger of covering the glass.
‘What?’ Will asked.
‘Hang on.’ Lucy fetched the Perspex box, opened the lid and looked through all the detritus of Dido’s life until she found what she was looking for: the newspaper from 1940 announcing the Germans’ arrival. The one with the official announcement from the Germans on the front page, littering the paper with the new rules to abide by. There it was. The curfew notice and Persephone’s annotation next to it:
Dido, how will you get to and from the club now? We need to talk about you not singing there anymore. Persey. x
Lucy looked at it thoughtfully. ‘This isn’t it. This isn’t the only place I’ve seen it.’
Will put down his coffee mug and joined her on the floor, looking over at the newspaper. ‘What are you looking at?’
‘The handwriting.’
