“But our dad’s waiting for us at the other end. What if he calls you and says it’s okay?”

The woman is getting annoyed. There are people waiting behind Rat. She says, in a tone of mounting irritation, “I’ve already told you. You need authorization from the préfecture. Next, please.”

Rat and Morgan walk away. The sun is beating down on the asphalt. Florian’s car is gone. Rat can see from the gingerly pigeon-toed way Morgan’s stepping that he’s sprouted another blister. Somewhere at the bottom of her pack is squirreled their last Band-Aid.

She looks at the cars lining up in their allotted lanes to board the noonday ferry to Newhaven. The cars are all British, with yellow license plates, steering wheels on the wrong side. It’s June still, too early for school holidays. Many of them are SUVs, loaded up with cases of alcohol in the back. And if two of those cases weren’t filled with wine and spirits, but with children? Rat is too big to pass for a bottle of Beaujolais, but what about Morgan?

She’d better get something over Morgan’s head or he’s going to catch sunstroke.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to buy you a hat.”

“Yippee,” says Morgan sarcastically. “I’d been hoping we were going shopping. And after that?”

“Lunch?”

“Are we going to ask Vanessa to get us that form?”

“No,” says Rat. “Not if we can find another way. I don’t want to talk to her just yet. You know what I mean? I don’t want to ask her for any favors. I’m not even sure she’d do it if we asked.”

She can’t quite imagine how Vanessa would feel about Rat’s going to England to meet Gillem McKane, all on her own. If something that exciting were happening to Rat, she suspects, her mother would want a piece of the action herself.

“Are you still mad at her?”

Rat reflects. “Yeah, I’m mad at her. She should have believed us. She should have protected you. She should have put us first. That’s what a mother’s supposed to do. I’ll get over it someday, but not yet.”

Morgan doesn’t say anything.

“But you love her, don’t you, Morgan? I mean, she’s a great person. We both know that. Heart of gold.”

“She’s supernice, Vanessa.”

“Yeah, well. Thierry won’t be around forever. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he finds a new girlfriend. Maybe he’ll run off with Jens’s wife, just to teach Jens a lesson.”

They laugh, uncertainly.

“Anyway, my dad wants to meet us, and that’s something.”

“Why don’t we call him?”