I was caressing Cosette’s hot neck when my father walked into the barn, his heavy features set hard, and I stepped back from my horse to let him examine her. When his great hands ran over her, he murmured soft loving words, and I was jealous. I had never received such words from him. He looked deep into her anxious brown eyes, then checked that each of her legs and fetlocks was sound despite the wound. He examined the burns on her flank and swept a hand up over her prominent white cheekbones and down the jugular groove. Satisfied, he leaned his broad forehead against hers with such devotion that she whickered gently in response.

When he finally turned and inspected me, he looked surprised. I didn’t care to think what I must look like. I was alone with him for once and would not waste my chance to learn more.

‘Papa, is it true you’ve already signed the contract to sell our land to the United States Air Force?’

I couldn’t keep my anger out of my voice. I tried.

‘Yes, it’s true.’

‘Why did you agree to it?’

‘I had no choice.’

‘That’s not what Mayor Durand says.’

‘Then Mayor Durand is lying.’

Lying. Which one was lying to me? Which one had reason to lie?

‘Was it a Compulsory Purchase order?’

‘No.’

‘So why sell?’

‘My reasons are my own.’

I knew better than to ask what those reasons were. ‘First Goliath. Now the horses, Papa. What next? Your children?’

His face shut down and he started to leave.

‘Papa, who are they, these people who kill our livestock? Do you know?’

He gripped his blood-streaked beard in the way he did when trying to control his anger. ‘They are Communist trash.’

‘Have they demanded anything from you? Like insisting you rescind the sale?’

‘Too many questions, girl.’ His straggly eyebrows descended in a deep V as he frowned at me. ‘I have enough to deal with out there without you making—’

‘Why did you ask me to come here from Paris? What was your purpose?’

‘When the Caussades are in trouble, they stand together, shoulder to shoulder. You know that.’ His mouth, large and broad-lipped, softened a fraction. ‘It’s why you came.’

It wasn’t why I came. I came because I thought André was dead. But yes, he’d summoned me and I’d come.

‘If the Caussades stand together,’ I said, ‘where is my brother Isaac?’