Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
LUCY
‘Morning, Sébastien!’ Lucy called as she went into Jojo’s bar.
Sébastien was serving breakfast. A tempting heap of croissants were waiting on the bar, and some holiday-makers in shorts and T-shirts were tucking in at one of the tables.
He greeted Lucy with a wave as he turned from another table, where he was setting down bowls of steaming, dark coffee in front of a group of women.
‘Speak of the English devil,’ he said and laughed. ‘And here she is!’
‘Here I am,’ Lucy replied as she went over to the table, carefully holding the antique map.
She wondered who the three women at the table were and supposed that they were Cordeval locals. One of them was older, with short silver hair, while the others seemed to be around the same age as Lucy and Sébastien.
‘This is Lucy; she’s Arielle’s granddaughter,’ Sébastien told the women. ‘Lucy, meet Coralie, Odette and Sophie. They drink coffee and raise hell. But they mostly drink coffee.’
‘I’m Lucy. It’s great to meet all of you,’ she said. ‘Has Sébastien told you what we found yesterday, during the storm? There’s an amazing cellar under the shop! It’s been untouched for years.’
‘Why d’you think the mob’s out?’ The voice belonged to a young woman behind the bar.
Her white-powdered face and long black hair seemed out of place in the bright, sunny bar.
The young woman winked one mascara-heavy eye at the other women, then shot Lucy a beaming, black-lipsticked smile. ‘They’re plotting a raid on your shop.’
‘Anouk!’ admonished Coralie good-naturedly, with a toss of her red hair. She put down her coffee and waved a warning finger at Anouk, who shrugged it off. ‘Ignore my baby sister. We’re not planning a raid!’
Sébastien frowned and replied, ‘You kind of are, though?’ Then he addressed Lucy. ‘I told Anouk what we found last night and she went home and told Coralie. And Coralie told—’
‘I can speak,’ said Coralie. She stood up and held out her hand to Lucy. ‘We four are some of the descendants of the book club that used to meet in your shop.’
Lucy nearly dropped the map in surprise. She laid it down on the table and grasped Coralie’s hand. ‘It’s such an honour to meet you all! You’ll have to come down and take a look. It’s such an amazing story.’
She glanced from face to face. If Isabelle had made it through the war, one of these women could be Esther’s granddaughter.
Odette, who had silver hair and round cheeks, told her, ‘As soon as Coralie rang me, I knew we had to come down. I’ve heard the odd story over the years, but…’ She shrugged. Lucy understood; the occupation had been such a dark time. People didn’t always want to talk about it.
Sophie had a broad grin and blonde hair that cascaded over her shoulders. ‘I am so excited! Can’t wait to get down there and see what you’ve found.’
‘There’s this for starters,’ Lucy told them, gesturing to the map. ‘I didn’t know what it was at first, then I realised… it’s a really old map showing the route of the tunnels under the village.’
‘Oh wow!’ Anouk exclaimed. ‘We should all go down there and poke around, don’t you think? Go on, Sébastien, you know you’d love to do that.’
Sébastien shrugged one shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t say no,’ he admitted.
The group around the table were absorbed in the map for a moment, tracing the routes of the long-forgotten tunnels; then Odette said happily, ‘We were saying to Sébastien, it’s wonderful to have Arielle’s granddaughter here, running the shop.
I can’t wait to see it open again. Another generation of the family keeping the bookshop alive!
I hope you’re good at reading stories – I loved Margot’s storytime, and my kids loved Arielle’s. ’
Lucy swallowed, glancing quickly at Sébastien. She really didn’t want to disappoint them and tell them she was selling the shop, not right now with so much excitement in the air.
Anouk nodded keenly. ‘Absolute queen.’ She grinned. ‘Loved her.’
Sébastien leaned one elbow on the bar as Galette pottered over.
He scratched the dog’s broad head and said, ‘Honestly, Lucy, I had so many teachers when I was a kid who couldn’t get through to me.
I’m dyslexic and the more I couldn’t make sense of the books, the more frustrated I got.
’ He smiled and admitted, ‘Gran got Arielle involved and I don’t know what it was, but she just got it.
She was patient, but she didn’t take any crap, and she really helped me.
I won’t pretend to be a big reader, but she got me straightened out.
I was halfway to being kicked out of school before she and Gran made me their project. ’
Odette nodded. ‘Arielle wanted everyone to love books as much as she and her mother did. When you bear in mind the Nazis even burned books in our village square, it’s no surprise – and I’ve always been curious about their book club.
They were resisting in their own small way against the Germans, I know that much.
But I don’t even know what books they read. ’
‘They read books that were banned,’ Coralie explained. ‘That’s what my mum told me, anyway. Books the Nazis had burned. And they shared them with other people, so they wouldn’t be forgotten.’
Anouk gave an approving nod and murmured, ‘How cool is that?’
Lucy smiled. She’d had an idea.
‘Let’s bring the book club back!’ she announced. ‘All of us, the descendants of the women who were the original Resistance Book Club, who risked so much. Let’s get together and read the banned books, just like they did!’
‘Oh my God!’ Anouk exclaimed. ‘Yes!’
Odette and Sophie beamed.
‘Absolutely!’ Sophie replied. ‘See, you’re Arielle’s granddaughter all over!’