“Yes, we need to travel to Lille. It’s under German occupation, but there’s no reason we can’t try to make it there. My friend’s father might be able to help us.”

“He might know how to get us out of France?” Cate asked.

“Apparently there’s an underground network of sorts, and from what I learnt today, my father was loosely part of it.”

Cate’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”

“We’ll find out more in Lille, but all I know for certain is that they’ve been secretly moving Jews to safety, so if they can find a way to move them—”

“They might have a way to move us.”

“Exactly.”

Cate followed Elise downstairs, filled with hope that one day, maybe, she and Jack might just make it home after all.

“It’s a strange thing, living in a house with somebody and feeling like you know so little about them,” Elise said later, as they walked.

Cate smiled. “I know. I feel so close to you and Adelaide in some ways, but I know next to nothing about you both, really.”

“She told me that your fiancé was listed as presumed dead?”

“He was. It seems like a lifetime ago now.”

“Is that your engagement ring you wear around your neck?”

She’d barely spoken about Charlie to anyone, almost wanting to keep her memories just for herself so she didn’t have to admit she’d never see him again, which seemed stupid given the kiss she’d just shared with Jack.

“I put it there on the ship sailing from England to France,” she told Elise, trying her best to chat normally, but feeling jittery about being so exposed along the side of the road. “I never in a million years thought he’d be gone so quickly, though.”

“Had you known him for long?”

“He was friends with my brothers when I was growing up, and I am, was, best friends with his sister. We actually worked together as nurses, right up until . . .” She swallowed, wondering as she did every day whether Lilly was still alive. “She fled for the beach to be evacuated and I ended up here. The last time I saw her she’d taken an ambulance to try to save more injured troops, and she was driving away from the chateau we were stationed at.”

Elise’s smile warmed her. “She sounds like a great best friend.”

“She is.”

They walked in silence for a long while, listening for danger, braced for gunfire or the yell of a German officer telling them to halt. But surprisingly, they were over halfway to Lille before they encountered a patrol, and they just stood to the side, arms linked, eyes downcast.

“Don’t look,” Elise whispered. “They’ve no reason to bother us. We’re not doing anything wrong.”