‘What time is it?’ Persey asked. Where was Stefan? What had happened to him?
‘After twelve. I was only in for the morning. The rest of the day is mine. Anyone else in?’
Persey shook her head.
‘Good,’ he said conspiratorially. He sat next to her and threw a piece of bracken from the basket onto the fire. And then, from out of nowhere, ‘I’ve got a boat. A proper one.’
Persey looked from the fire to Jack, who looked delighted with his news as he awaited her reaction. ‘A boat?’ she questioned dumbly. ‘What do you mean you’ve got a boat?’ She couldn’t possibly have this conversation now. Out there, somewhere, Stefan was risking his life to save hers by hiding the body of a man. A man she had killed.
‘Just that. I’m escaping. I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t … be here anymore.’
She closed her eyes and put her head in her hands and spoke into them. ‘How have you got a boat?’
‘The Germans made everyone with a working boat register them, hand them in for the duration, do you remember? Other than fishermen who aren’t allowed out without a German onboard.’
Persey nodded.
‘I’ve found one that’s been missed.’
‘Found?’ she asked. ‘How?’
‘Remember Richard? One of my old school friends?’
Persey shook her head.
‘Well anyway, he used to have this boat. More a dinghy really, but he saved up, bought a motor. We used to career about the bays in it for a time. I’ve got it.’
‘How?’
‘Saw his mother in St Peter Port. Told her what had happened to my mother; that she’d been deported. Asked after Richard and she said he’d joined the navy and she’d had no word since the Germans arrived. No Red Cross note, nothing. Imagine that. I said, in passing, that if I had a way I’d leave this godforsaken island and join Richard in utterly annihilating the Boche. She hinted I should have joined up before the Germans came. Took every bit of self-control I had not to tell her there and then that was exactly what I had bloody well done.
‘Anyway, she told me to come for tea and then when I did, her husband told me they still had Richard’s boat. They’ve been using it for storage in the barn, could you imagine. All this time, it’s just been there. Waiting. I offered to take them with me, but they politely declined. Too old to make the journey to England at night. Because it will have to be at night. Said they’d rather remain here, safely, and wait for news of their son, which is fair. So …’ he said proudly. ‘What do you make of that?’
Persey didn’t know what to make of it. ‘Does the motor work?’ she asked.
‘Does now. What do you think I’ve been doing all this time in secret? Didn’t want to get your hopes up but now it’s all shipshape, so to speak, we can do it. We can leave.’
‘We?’
‘The three of us. You, me, Dido. It’s only a two-seater really but you and Dido are slips of things and I’m not exactly carrying a lot of muscle anymore. So … we’re off to England. We’re off to join up. I’ve already joined up, but you know what I mean.’
Persey swallowed and said nothing.
‘Good God, I thought you’d be pleased,’ he said.
‘I’m shocked.’
‘You are coming, aren’t you?’ he said despondently.
‘I … I don’t know.’ She needed to know what had happened to Stefan. She had to talk to him first before she made any decision.‘It’s such a risk,’ she said. ‘How will you get the boat to the water, unseen?’
‘Easy. Don’t worry about that. Richard’s father is going to trailer it down there. It’ll be there after dark. Then on we hop and off we go.’
‘It can’t be that easy,’ Persey said. ‘They’ll hear the motor. The Germans I mean, they’ll hear the motor.’
‘We’ll row out as far as we can. Got to get past the rocks first anyway and then time it right for the patrols, kick the motor and we’re away.’
Persey made a strange noise with her throat. ‘It sounds too easy.’
