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Back The Guardian of Lies Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  52. Acknowledgements
  53. ‘The Survivors’ Ad
  54. ‘The Betrayal’ Ad
  55. ‘The Liberation’ Ad
  56. Copyright

He gripped his daughter’s shoulder, knuckles white with the force of it, as if to ensure this child was not snatched away from him.

‘You’re the policeman,’ he said. ‘Where do we start?’

‘We start by asking Louis for a description of the attackers.’

‘Big hard-fisted thugs, he says.’ Caussade looked down at his daughter and his dark eyes, so like hers, were fierce with hatred. ‘The bastards were speaking Russian, he says.’

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

They shut the front door of the farmhouse when they left and told me to bolt it on the inside. They told me to stay here in case André turned up. They told me to wait. Because that’s what they expected women to do. Wait.

‘I’ll get my men out searching, despite the filthy night,’ Léon said. ‘Louis remembers that the three Russians drove up in a black Peugeot 203. We’ll put out an immediate search for any in the area.’ He paused and chafed my hand between his, the conviction in his eyes giving me a thin thread of hope when he added, ‘We’ll find André, I promise.’ He pressed his lips to my forehead. ‘Stay safe.’ He set two of Papa’s gardians to sit in the kitchen with me.

But the moment I heard their cars drive off into the wet evening, I picked up the telephone in the hall. The receiver shook in my hand and only then did I realise that I was still in wet clothes, cold and shivering. But I barely noticed. Like I barely noticed the darkness creeping across the hallway tiles as night started to settle on the farm.

Guilt was eating into me. I had broken my promise. I had not kept my brother safe. I put down the receiver, walked into the living room and opened Papa’s wine cupboard. I poured myself a shot of brandy and knocked it straight back, feeling it kick some warmth into my veins. I returned to the telephone, dialled a number and did not let the images of André fighting for his life in that stifling room upstairs rob me of words.

‘Hello.’ My voice came out rough. ‘May I speak to Major Dirke, please?’

*

I sat in my car outside the gates, engine rattling like a wheezy lawnmower, while I waited for the guards on duty to decide to open them. The wind had dropped as the worst of the storm passed out to sea, but the rain was still coming down in sheets, trickles of it sneaking under my canvas roof and dripping on to my shoulder.

‘Come on,’ I muttered. I was frightened they wouldn’t let me in again.