Maman gave her a pointed look. “We both know you will be right back here by two o’clock. But we are dining at your brother’s tonight, do not forget. We must leave at a decent hour.”

“Oui, Maman.” Her bed calling all the louder from down here, she stepped away. “I’ll see you later.”

“Rest well.”

Margot slid her hand into her pocket to reassure herself that her key was still there and set off for their flat. A meal, some sleep, a chilly bath. Then she’d be back here, where she belonged.

2

Drake Elton stared down the hallway, half a grin on his face, long after he’d been left alone by the nameless girl with the impossibly dark eyes. It was the eyes that had done it—that had made the questions surge to life in his mind.

Who was she? What was her name? And the more important one—what thoughts raced through her mind to make those dark eyes so deep?

Questions were old friends. Questions kept him alive. And in this particular case, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find the answers.

Of course, even if he didn’t manage it on this visit, it wouldn’t mean bullets whizzing at his head or cuffs threatening to encircle his wrists. But the questions were no less interesting for being a bit less urgent. He leaned a shoulder into the doorjamb and called those dark eyes to mind again.

She had a wit to match the eyes, the type he most preferred. Antarctican, indeed. His lips refused to lose their grin. Though her accent was so faint it was scarcely there, discernible only in a few vowels, he’d recognized the French Belgian in her. She’d probably been young when she came to England. Maybe at the start of the war, when the rest of the refugees flooded the country? Probably, given that she was from Louvain. If so, then she must be around Dot’s age, or a little younger even. To look at her, he hadn’t been able to peg that. Her skin was smooth, but those eyes . . .

She must be trusted implicitly to work here, that much he knew. And Hall had called her my dear—an endearment that some men might apply willy-nilly to any female they knew, but not DID. DID never did anything willy-nilly.

At the same moment, he heard the lift ding and Hall’s door open and shut quietly. Drake pushed off from the wall and turned toward his superior. If the interview was over already . . . But when he turned to look, Hall’s expression seemed pleasant enough. No scowl, no exasperation.

Please, Father in heaven, let Dot find favor here. Drake’s fingers tightened around the hat he held.