‘Maybe,’ Lucy said. ‘But what about this Jewish girl the letter mentions. Who was she? What happened to her?’
‘Maybe she wasn’t anyone,’ Will said, pocketing his phone and sitting back. ‘Maybe it was a lie to make trouble for Dido’s sister, to send a few Germans knocking at the door to frighten her.’
‘Why?’
Will gave her an exasperated look. ‘I don’t know.’
‘I wish I’d paid slightly more attention in history classes,’ Lucy muttered.
‘I wish you had as well,’ Will joked. They sat companionably, feeling the gentle sea breeze that was never far away and listened as it rustled the leaves on the trees.
‘How do we find out who the Jewish girl was?’ Lucy asked.
‘We may not have a way to find her,’ Will offered.
‘They were all told to register,’ Lucy reasoned, ‘at one point or another. I know that. I think, actually, there were more than one set of rules thrown at remaining Jews. They were weeded out and persecuted until there were none left.’
‘So perhaps she didn’t register. Would you have done?’
Lucy thought. ‘Probably not.’ But she was only saying that with the power of hindsight. ‘What the Nazis did, what they did to the Jews, did anyone really know quite what was coming? How could anyone have possibly envisaged that? I don’t thinkthey could have known in the early days of the Occupation that the Nazis were in the midst of building the extermination camps. We know now. But did they know back then? So what harm could registering have done? That’s probably what I’d have thought,’ she said.
Will was quiet and then said, ‘Somewhat naïve.’
‘Well yes, probably,’ Lucy bristled, rather offended. She cast him a look. ‘Actually, it’s very naïve of me considering they built a concentration camp in Alderney during the war.’
‘You’re kidding,’ Will said. ‘A concentration camp in the Channel Islands. Really?’
‘Yes, it’s one of those things that you can’t forget when you know. It was only taught as a sidebar to our history lessons, but if you go now, you can see remnants of it.’
‘How did they build a concentration camp in the Channel Islands, and no one knew?’ His voice was louder than before.
‘Alderney was evacuated in its entirety,’ Lucy said soothingly. ‘The Islanders moved to Guernsey, livestock included. There was no one left there. Population zero. Until the camps were built.’
Will frowned. ‘Camps? Plural?’
Lucy took a large glug of wine. ‘Some for forced slave workers, some for Jews and—’
‘I’ve heard enough,’ Will said.
‘I can see how people would hold on to their faith throughout all of that, not relinquish it. And how could they know that’s where they might end up as a result? I’m not a churchgoer. Neither were my parents really. Surprises me that Dido was, but maybe it was something she needed. Maybe she needed that faith.’
‘Some people do,’ Will said.
The conversation reminded her that she and Clara had to choose a headstone for Dido. It had been her father who had initially prompted her to think about this in a text message earlier in the day, and it shocked Lucy to think that she would have easily left Dido in an unmarked grave if her father hadn’t suggested a localstonemason. It was all well and good dictating to her and Clara from the sunnier side of the world.
She tried to look at it from her parents’ point of view. Dido was their father’s cousin, who they’d rarely seen. And her dad – and now she and Clara – were the last of the family. She realised, if they didn’t help out then who would? And besides, Dido who she hadn’t really remembered all that well had left her a joint share in a house that was going to fetch rather a lot of money. Of course she could do all of this and it wasn’t begrudgingly either.
‘Listen,’ Will said, turning towards her. ‘How far do you want to take this?’
‘Sorry?’ Lucy was confused.
‘This search for the Jewish girl and for Persephone Le Roy. They’re both dead now, surely,’ Will said.
‘Yes, probably.’
‘Don’t you have other things you need to be getting on with? Other things you’d rather be getting on with, instead of museum visits and … whatever with me?’
Lucy smiled. She was quite enjoying the ‘whatever’ with Will. ‘Even though it’s a serious subject, I’m quite enjoying myself actually. Aren’t you?’
