Will blew air out of his cheeks and then said, ‘I’m not sure the Nazis did much by accident. I think it’s a real prison sentence. It must have been …’ Will trailed off.
‘Hell.’ Lucy shivered. ‘Gas chambers? And then relatives of those murdered were able to claim compensation?’ Lucy asked.
‘God. Don’t.’ Will picked up his wine glass and then put it back down. Obviously mistaking her shiver for a chill, he said, ‘That sea breeze really rolls in.’ He stood up and lit the fire. It roared to life and they sat quietly with only the sound of the wood catching. It was something beautiful and calming to watch while they pondered the vile nature of what they were discussing.
‘What else did you bring?’ he said after a minute or two.
‘The shorthand documents,’ Lucy said, producing the little bundle. ‘I haven’t had a go at translating them yet. Unless you can read shorthand in under five minutes as one of your many talents …?’
‘No. I can’t.’ He leafed through the stack of carbon copies. ‘But if we can find a how-to guide on the Internet—’ he reached over to the little side table and pulled his laptop from it ‘—I’m sure we could divide and conquer this lot.’
‘Now?’ Lucy asked, not feeling quite sober enough.
Will grinned while his laptop flared to life. ‘There’s no time like the present.’
Chapter 14
1940
The knock at Persephone’s door was gentle. Once, twice. A few minutes prior to this she could physically feel the curiosity oozing from every other member of the household. Jack, in his room at the back, probably desperate to know what Persey could see at the front of the house. Dido, clever Dido, keeping away and not daring to enter Persey’s room. And downstairs, Mrs Grant, who must have been using every ounce of her energy not to run upstairs, grab Jack by his collar and shake out of him the reason why he was still on the island and how he had come to be chased by soldiers. And now, instead of Stefan at her door, Persey would have given anything for it to be any one of them.
The third knock came louder – more forcefully. She smoothed down her nightdress and contemplated putting on her dressing gown, but chose against it. She may as well give the impression she’d just climbed out of bed, even if he knew better.
She feigned tiredness, yawned loudly – wondering if that was just a bit too much of an act – and opened the door. She looked Stefan up and down. Why did her stomach lurch every time she saw him? ‘Yes?’ she said.
Stefan looked at her, one hand in his pocket, the other clutchingthe torch, which Persey did her best not to look at. Neither of them spoke and the fact he didn’t speak unnerved her. It was far more effective than shouting at her. Silently, she moved inside her room, leaving the door open for him.
She shivered in her thin nightdress and cast her eyes around for her dressing gown, regretting not putting it on now. Stefan softly closed the bedroom door behind him, moved to put the torch on her dressing table and, wordlessly, removed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
‘You are shivering,’ he said quietly. He scrutinised her face.
She looked at the torch on the dressing table and then glanced away. ‘Thank you,’ she said, pulling his jacket around her. It smelled of him and was warm from his body heat, but the eagle embroidered on the front sickened her.
‘Is this yours?’ Stefan said softly, looking towards the torch.
She paused, studying it hard. ‘I don’t think so. Possibly though. I have one fairly similar somewhere.’ Her voice was strained, her chest tight. Her ribcage felt as if it was closing in on her, crushing her from within.
He nodded slowly. ‘I found it outside. After curfew.’
‘I must have dropped it earlier. If it is mine, that is,’ she clarified.
‘It was not there when I went out with your sister this evening.’ His gaze bore into her.
‘I nipped out to the garage for something,’ she said, tipping her chin up defiantly.
‘For what?’
‘Is this an interrogation?’ she asked with a laugh that sounded false even to her own ears.
Stefan’s laugh was genuine. ‘Of course not. But you went outside after curfew?’
‘To the garage,’ she said.
‘No one is allowed outside at all after curfew.’ He stepped towards her as if to illustrate the severity of his point.
‘Both you and Dido were out after curfew,’ Persey countered. ‘Even though the club has adjusted its hours so you didn’t need to be so late.’
She was aware of his proximity to her and the inappropriateness of his being inside her bedroom while she was in her nightdress. He was watching her silently and so she pushed on. ‘You are both back far later than when the club closed.’
