I did a quick headcount to make sure all twelve of us were present and correct.

Counted once.

That can’t be right.

Counted again.

Eleven.

Chapter 69

69

I shook my head to clear it.

Only eleven of us. Not twelve. Must be in the villa somewhere?

The radio on the breast pocket of Lepine’s uniform crackled into life, a young voice, breathless and urgent, calling his name over and over. Lepine answered it and was met with a torrent of French from one of his crew members. He fired two questions back. Two quick answers.

Rowan’s hand flew to her mouth.

Lepine gestured to her to come with him, quickly. I stood up too, icy fingers starting to curl around my heart.

Daniel took my hand, as if to come with me.

Lepine waved a finger and shook his head.

‘Non, madame,’ he said. ‘Pas avec le garçon.’

Not with the boy.

The world felt as if it was falling away beneath my feet.

Daniel looked at me uncertainly. ‘What did he say?’

‘You stay here for now,’ I said, my voice shaky. ‘With Daddy.’

I let go of Daniel’s hand and followed Lepine down the hill towards the blackened woods, scorched by flames and soaked with water, the nearest small trees twisted and black. The Frenchman led the way, with Rowan, Alistair and me following close behind in single file.

My legs were rubbery and weak. With every step over the uneven ground of the vineyard, I thought they would give way and buckle under me. Our footsteps, sandals and flip-flops crunching over dirt and stones and leaves, were the only sound as we made our way into the woods. There were no running men, no more sirens, no beating rotors of an approaching helicopter; no sounds of desperate activity, no life-saving urgency.

Just the three of us with Lepine walking stolidly ahead, a tarpaulin in a sealed plastic bag under his arm.

Here was the worn dirt path that wound around the big oaks and sycamores, here was the dip, the hollow, then up and around again, past the big rock and the fallen tree where Odette had hidden. The sign stuck lopsidedly into the ground, ‘ATTENTION’ in faded red lettering. We reached the clearing and the edge of the bluff, let Lepine lead us down the steps carved into the limestone cliff face, my legs threatening to buckle all the way. I realised, absently, that this was the first time I’d been down into the gorge since we got here.