Sophie tried to nod but the buzzing inside her head had turned into a sound similar to a stream dancing over a bed of stone. And like the stream, whatever pain she had felt seemed to be draining away just as quickly.

“Chain her back up.” Another loud, guttural command.

Sophie didn’t take her eyes off Piotr. He glanced beside him and smiled, and Sophie could now see that he wasn’t alone. A colt, the color of a new copper penny, was standing at his side. The foal shook its head and pranced, skittering away before coming to stand beside Piotr once again.

The sight filled Sophie’s heart with joy. Her husband put one hand on the colt’s withers and looked back at Sophie.

“Come home, Sophie,” he said and held out his hand.

And Sophie reached for it, grasping it tight.

Chapter ​23

Chapter
​23

Estelle

Norfolk, England
14 September 1946

The English, like the French, often had the most literal names for their villages, Estelle reflected as she gazed north. Wells-next-the-Sea was exactly as advertised, perched stubbornly at the edge of a tidal flat that was even now giving way to the steady, creeping onslaught of the North Sea. The midmorning sun was warm on her skin, the breeze barely stirring. Here, the salty air was humid, thick with an underlying scent of earthy vegetation. Above her head, a bird shrieked and wheeled away toward the sea.

Perhaps it was the sight of the unending horizon, where the darker blue hues of the sea met the brighter, paler smudge of sky, that made her realize why she had come here. A thousand generations before her and a thousand generations after she was gone would stand in this same spot and look out at the same horizon. The line that stitched water to air would be found in the same place. It would never move. It would never leave or disappear. Not like the people who had once anchored Estelle’s life. Gone, all of them, vanished without a trace like smoke in a gale.

Including Sophie Beaufort.

But the place that Sophie had loved was not gone. It had survived against the cruelty of time and man and beckoned to Estelle for reasons she hadn’t been able to explain until she had stood looking at the horizon where sky met sea. She could find Millbrook. She could visit the place where Sophie had spent hours exploring the hills with her brother, shooting tin cans. Even if Sophie was gone forever, the home she had adored was not.