‘Did he? Sorry,’ Persey said. ‘I suppose you’re normally singing most evenings and so I’ve got to know him quite well these past few years.’ It wasn’t strictly untrue. She wished sorely she could tell Dido about Lise. But the risk to Lise wasn’t worth it. The risk to Dido wasn’t worth it either, knowing something she shouldn’t. No, it was better this way. The fewer people who knew, the safer it was all round.
It had been weeks since Persey had been able to visit Lise at Doctor Durand’s. She didn’t wish to raise suspicions by being a frequent visitor and so had opted for sporadic calls as much as possible. She couldn’t speak to her friend on the telephone for fear of the Germans listening in, but on prior occasions when she had visited, Lise’s spirit had been undiminished, grateful she had been promised a home with the Durands until the eradication of the Nazis from Guernsey. But even Persey couldn’t have imagined it would go on this long.
‘Would you like to see Doctor and Mrs Durand? If so … we could invite them here?’
‘Not really,’ Dido replied, looking at her fingernails. ‘They’re not really my cup of tea, despite being old friends of father’s. Bit old before their time if you ask me.’
‘Which they probably know and which is why you probably weren’t invited, I assume,’ Persey pointed out.
But Dido ignored her remark. ‘Besides, I’m singing tomorrow.’
‘Dido?’ Persey started. ‘Do you think it might be time to stop singing publicly? Just for a while I mean? It’s not as if we need the money and—’
‘No,’ Dido responded immediately. ‘No, I’m not going to stop. I love it. It’s the only thing I have. I know Mother never really approved, but I didn’t think you’d go the same way.’
‘It’s not the singing I object to,’ Persey tried to rationalise. ‘It’s the fact that it’s to so many Germans now. If it wasn’t for the fact the locals no longer come to listen to you.’
‘Only because they don’t want to be around the Germans,’ Dido countered.
‘Yes, quite,’ Persey replied. ‘Once it used to be singing to the crowds in the hotel ballrooms while tourists danced or the club but now it’s just German officers. I’m deeply uncomfortable with it. I have been for some time. Won’t you consider stopping?’
‘No,’ Dido snapped. ‘Life has to go on, Persey. The world keeps spinning. I enjoy it. I’m good at it. It’s the only thing I am good at. Don’t take it away from me.’
Persey blew out a puff of air from her cheeks. ‘That’s not true. You’re good at many things, but please be careful.’
‘Oh, Persey,’ Dido said. ‘Don’t be boring. I was going to try out that new Vera Lynn number, see if the Germans can recognise it given all our radios have now been confiscated and we aren’t supposed to know any of the new tunes.’
‘Don’t,’ Persey reprimanded immediately. ‘It’s not worth it. Trust me. Don’t give them any reason to suspect we’ve kept hold of our spare wireless, for God’s sake.’
‘I was teasing,’ Dido said, throwing her hands up in surrender.
Persey rolled her eyes. ‘Dido, honestly, don’t do that to me. Do you know they’ve raided Ida Sayle’s farmhouse three times so far? First suspecting her mother and father of having a radio, then of having an old weapon from the first war stashed away, and then alleging they were hiding one of those foreign workers. They only just put the contents of the house back in place and another lot of soldiers turn up and turn the house over again. We’re taking such a risk with our wireless set. I only allowed youto keep it because you begged and begged me. We need to find a better hiding place than in the back of the pantry.’
‘I know,’ Dido said, ‘but if I didn’t have my music I think I’d go mad. And Jack’s forever listening to all those coded messages the BBC put out, imagining there might be an instruction in it for him. Not that he’d know what to listen out for even if there was one.’
Jack still considered his role here to be that of a spy, although he had kept true to his word and had found employment in town at a photographic shop. His old job as a clerk had been reassigned upon Jack’s departure, and so now Jack really was hiding in plain sight at the front of a shop. He spent most of his days serving German soldiers, much to Mrs Grant’s worry. But as her son pointed out, they were the only ones on the island allowed to purchase such fripperies as cameras and films, and he had no choice but to take whatever job he could, given the employment situation wasn’t exactly bountiful if he didn’t want to work directly for the Germans.
Even Jack wasn’t that brave. He’d laughed at how many Germans had been photographing the island, each other and the beaches, posing with the newly constructed fortifications built should the Allies mount an invasion campaign. Jack revealed he’d been studying their photographs as he’d developed them, recognising locations where new gun emplacements could be seen in shot; soldiers photographing each other lounging around and smoking cigarettes as if they hadn’t a care in the world. The Germans were providing the evidence Jack needed without him having to lift a finger. He was just waiting for his time to come. Waiting for that moment when he could use his precious information.
He had even confessed that the camera shop’s elderly owner had gifted him a broken Kodak Box Brownie, flouting every kind of occupying order. It had been at the back of the shop for years and if Jack could fix it, it was his.
Persey shook her head. ‘Yes, I did rather think it was specificcodes for specific people. I’ll admit it’s nice to have the comfort of the news still while others don’t, but don’t mess it all up by singing a new song you shouldn’t know. Please.’
‘All right. I’d love to see the looks on their faces though, the Germans I mean, if I did. Especially now they aren’t allowed theirs either. And we all know it’s so they can’t hear about the disasters befalling their army all over the world. As if hiding the news from them keeps up their morale! What would be more surprising is if they’d all secretly kept hold of their wireless sets and sang along with me.’
‘Did I just hear you correctly? You’ve kept your wireless?’ the doctor asked Persey.
Persey was helping Mrs Durand set the table in her kitchen and had just relayed yesterday evening’s news to her and explained the precarious position with the radio set.
Lise was filling a jug with water and listened, open-mouthed. On the occasions Persey had been invited to join them all for supper, they had always eaten in the kitchen rather than in the dining room at the front of the doctor’s cottage. Any knock at the front door would enable Lise to get to her emergency hiding place in the cellar, the entrance to which was concealed in the cold store.
‘Yes,’ Persey groaned. ‘We had two radios, you see. They don’t know that and so we’ve handed one in so as to not look suspicious. They registered which set belongs to which family the first time they confiscated them, and Mrs Grant only handed one in then, so now they only think we have one.’
‘If it’s anything like last time they’ll give them all back again soon enough,’ Lise suggested.
‘I’m not so sure, actually,’ Doctor Durand said. ‘They’ve had them for a couple of months now. I think it might be a bit different this time. Sherry?’
‘Yes, please,’ Persey enthused. ‘How do you still have sherry? All our supplies are long gone.’
