‘And they’ve come to tell you about it? Why?’
‘They haven’t,’ Stefan replied. ‘They have chased the woman here and our arrival has coincided with it.’
‘Here?’ Dido cried a little too shrilly.
‘Yes, so they say.’
‘Well they can jolly well unsay. They’re mistaken.’
‘I have told them that,’ Stefan said. Persey strained to hear his quiet, calm voice, unsure if she was catching all of the scant information being spoken in English. Stefan turned back to the soldiers and continued talking to them calmly, his face now angled away from her as he gestured around the property with open arms. Was he inviting them inside to search?
The foot soldiers turned to go, looking between them as if they were unsure, as if wondering whether they were doing the correct thing by leaving.
Persey found she had been holding her breath and only now allowed herself to let it out.
It was Dido who spoke first when it became clear Stefan wasn’t going to. ‘What did you tell them to make them leave?’
‘I told them they were wrong.’
‘That was brave of you.’
‘Not really,’ Stefan said. Persey desperately wanted to push her ear against the glass to hear better. ‘They are foot soldiers and I am an officer,’ he finished simply.
‘But they had seemed so sure?’ Dido queried.
‘Yes, they were sure.’
‘And yet—’
‘And yet,’ Stefan interrupted, ‘I have just personally vouched for every member of this household. And told them that if they were chasing a woman through the woods, then they were not chasing her here. I told them they were welcome to search the house, but after enjoying a wonderful evening listening to you sing, I would be less than impressed if they chose to conduct a raid inside my lodgings at this late hour just as I intend to go to bed.’
Dido looked impressed. ‘Gosh. Well done you.’
‘I had a very nice time tonight, listening to you sing. Thank you for …’ But he stopped and looked at something in the driveway.
‘Thank you for …?’ Dido prompted.
Stefan looked back at her. ‘Pardon?’
‘You were saying thank you for something.’ She laughed.
He looked confused and then: ‘Yes, thank you for making me feel so welcome again after all these years.’
Dido nodded. ‘It’s all right. Goodnight, Stefan. Sleep well.’
But Stefan simply nodded and remained by the car. Persey looked down at him as he stood alone in the driveway and wondered why he wasn’t making a move to enter the house. Dido left the door on the latch, presumably so Stefan could enter when he was ready without having to fumble for his key. To Persey it looked as if he had waited until Dido had entered the house before he moved. He walked across the gravel four or five steps, bent down and picked something up. Perseyinched her face closer to the glass, straining to see what he was looking at.
As he righted himself, he held the item out, turning it over and over in his hands before turning round to face the house. Persey looked in horror at the object in his hands. It was a torch. Her torch. She must have dropped it as she’d run back towards the house. Had she been holding it? Or had it fallen from her coat pocket? She could hardly remember.
Stefan had stopped walking towards the front door and Persey dragged her eyes from the torch in his hands to look at his face. She wanted to see his expression, wanted to see how significant he believed the torch to be. Would he know just by looking at it? Of course not, and it struck her that she should move away from the window, stay hidden, out of sight. But she was rooted to the spot, wondering what he would do, whether he would work out its significance. If she remained still he might not see her.
Slowly, he lifted his head up and looked towards her window. She held her breath. She was too late to step back. Stefan was looking directly at her.
When the knock at her door came she was ready. Persey had heard him climb the stairs slowly, painfully slowly and she counted each tread on the stair, knowing when he was at the turn, and then at the top. He had paused on the landing stairs and she assumed it was because he was deciding whether to go towards his room or towards hers. She braced herself, looking at her bed, wondering if she should climb in and pretend she’d been asleep the entire time, but he had seen her at the window. He had looked right at her, and she at him.
Whatever the outcome of the next few minutes she would face it bravely and she would not give Jack away. Stefan was an officer of the Reich. She knew where his loyalty lay.
They had only seen a woman, the soldiers had said, and she clung to this fact as the knock came gently on her door. Once,twice, so softly that if she hadn’t been listening for it she might have missed it entirely. And then a third time, louder now, more determined. Persey paused, took a deep breath and slowly moved towards the door to open it.
