“Don’t let them kill you,” she said softly. “Many people depend on you.” She could tell that from the way his men looked out for him, and what the British were doing for him. “I want to see you again,” she said, and meant every word. It had been the strangest night of her life, trying to save him so he could escape. He leaned forward then, and his hands were strong but gentle as he pulled her toward him and kissed her in a way she knew she would never forget if she lived a hundred years. Her eyes were full of tears when he stopped. She wanted him to live so she could see him again. Or maybe he would just be a fantasy forever. She was a young Black air forces nurse from Raleigh, North Carolina. If what he said was true, he was a French count. She guessed him to be about ten years older than she was. He was a white French nobleman, a powerful agent of the Resistance whom every German in the area wanted to put in front of a firing squad. The chances of her ever seeing him again were slim to none. In her mind, she knew it, but in her heart she wished it could be otherwise. There was a fairy-tale quality to meeting him that she wanted to remember in every detail.

One of his men came to walk him into the next room when it was time to leave. They cheered when they saw him on his feet, and the shots Louise had given him helped him to move more freely than he should. He might pay for it in pain later, but for now, he looked like a healthy man again, which might save his life. She quietly joined her team and watched him from across the room. He and his men and the two women went up the ladder. Louise and her team were to wait an hour, and then two members of the Resistance would lead them back the way they’d come. They would be picked up that night at a designated location by a British transport plane. And Gonzague would be on his way over the mountains by then, in a truck headed north to the Swiss border.

He was the last one of his group to leave the subterranean room, and he turned with one hand on the ladder. His piercing sky-blue eyes found her again. He said nothing, but she remembered his lips on hers. He nodded, thinking the same thing, silently reminding her of his promise to find her, and then he was gone.

Chapter 14

Louise’s team returned safely to the base after an arduous journey. The plane picking them up had trouble landing and there were German fighter planes in the area, but they eventually were picked up after the pilot made several passes at it and then flew them home.