Chapter 58
FIFTY-EIGHT
MARGOT
‘Felix,’ Joséphine whispered as the turret opened and a figure emerged. Lauterborn had his pistol drawn already, but that was nothing compared to the monstrous gun of the tank, which cranked round until it was pointed at the refugees.
Surely they hadn’t come all this way just to lose now, on the shore, with the waves almost lapping against their feet?
‘Chevalier,’ Lauterborn said brightly, as though addressing an old friend. ‘The Juden rat, leading the untermenschen to safety. Or tonight, to their deaths.’ Then he settled his cool gaze on Theo. ‘And my own brother. A traitor to his race.’
Margot gripped Theo’s sleeve. She had never known fear like it. There was no escape. At any moment, Lauterborn could kill them all. Even Isabelle’s young life hung in the balance; Lauterborn wouldn’t stop short of killing a tiny child.
‘He’s a better man than you – a thousand times better!’ Margot shouted back to Lauterborn. If she was going to die tonight, then it didn’t matter what she said. She wasn’t going to die in silence.
‘Blinding you was a mistake,’ Lauterborn sighed, shaking his head. As he did, Theo took Margot’s arm and tried to pull her behind him. From the corner of her eye she saw Agent Corbeau draw a gun from his hip, as Lauterborn said, ‘I should have killed you instead.’
At that moment, two cracks rang out and both of the Lauterborn brothers crumpled. Suddenly the agent named Corbeau was sprinting along the sand towards the tank, where Obergruppenführer Felix Lauterborn was slumped lifeless over the turret.
He sprang up onto the body of the tank and Margot barely had time to hear a metallic clank before he threw himself into the sand and shouted, ‘Everybody down!’
Margot threw herself to the ground. She put one arm round Theo, who was lying so still.
Her tears were falling. He couldn’t be dead, not her Theo, the man she had dared to love.
Her other arm went round Daniel, who still had Isabelle in his arms. She felt Beatrice and Joséphine beside her, huddling close.
The air was torn apart by an explosion that was so loud it vibrated through Margot’s entire body. The sound boomed across the beach and echoed back off the cliffs, returning to them as the stench of burning fuel filled the air.
Margot lifted her head, just enough to see the outline of the tank inside a hellish inferno. Thick, black smoke was rolling towards them and out to sea.
‘Everybody into the boats!’ Corbeau commanded. ‘I’ll have our boys drop a little something on the beach to cover your tracks. We don’t want dead Nazis bringing unwanted questions!’ He approached Margot and asked, ‘Who’s bringing the baby?’
Margot pulled herself to her feet, pausing only to run her fingers through Theo’s hair. Through her tears, she glanced down at his unmoving body, then up at Corbeau.
Something had changed inside her. She’d lost Theo, she’d lost Esther. She couldn’t lose Isabelle too.
‘I’m bringing her,’ Margot said. In a split second, she had decided to go across the sea to an unknown land, leaving behind her friends, her family, her home.
‘You’re going to leave us?’ Joséphine reached for Margot’s hand and whispered, ‘Are you sure, Margot? Your home—’ Then she drew in a deep breath and nodded. ‘We’ll look after everything for you, Bea and I. Until you come home again.’
‘Thank you, Joséphine,’ Margot replied. She hadn’t brought a suitcase.
She hadn’t even washed up before she’d left.
But she knew now, deep in her soul, that this was what she had to do.
‘I know you’ll take good care of the bookshop.
And tell Aunt Sandrine I love her, and all the book club, tell them I’ll miss them so much.
But I have to go – I have to look after Isabelle. ’
Joséphine’s lip trembled but she nodded. ‘We’ll keep the book club going. And the shop and all your things and—’ She pulled Margot into her embrace, holding her tight. ‘And you’ll come home. You and Isabelle.’
‘Goodbye, and take care,’ Margot pleaded. A small voice inside her was telling her to stay, but she had to let go. ‘Goodbye, Daniel. We’ll come back and see you all again one day.’
Daniel dusted the sand from Isabelle’s blankets, then held her to him.
He kissed her forehead and told Margot, ‘Tell her about us, Margot. And tell her that she wouldn’t have been Isabelle if not for the monsters who’ve taken over our country.
’ He stroked one hand over the baby’s hair.
‘Esther wanted to name you Arielle,’ he whispered, as she cooed softly.
‘After her mother.’ Then he told Margot, ‘But we were afraid to give her a Jewish name. We didn’t want—’ Daniel’s voice choked.
‘But they came for us anyway. Even as we tried to keep our heads down, they came for us and killed us.’
‘Arielle suits her,’ Margot said, her voice thick with tears that she was trying to hold back. ‘Esther gave me her wedding ring for your little girl. But would you like to have it? For good luck?’
Daniel shook his head. He kissed Isabelle once more and whispered, ‘Be a good girl for Madame Margot, little one. And know that your mother is watching over you, always.’ Then he held her close one last time. ‘I love you.’
Beatrice knelt on the sand beside Theo’s body as Daniel carefully placed Isabelle in her Moses basket. As she snuggled down with her toys, he took the wedding ring from his own finger and held it out to Margot.
‘Keep it for her. So she knows her father and mother loved her more than life.’ He placed the ring in Margot’s palm. ‘I left a message for you in the music. Just a thank-you to all of the women of your bookshop. When you come home, you’ll find it.’
Corbeau glanced at his watch, then looked up at the planes passing overhead. ‘We need to go,’ he said. ‘It’s time.’
Margot closed her hand round the ring, then carefully put it into her coat pocket. Her fingers brushed against a piece of paper; Theo had given it to her, in case anything ever happened to him. She quickly passed it to Joséphine.
‘Theo gave this to me, just in case… you understand?’ Margot said.
Joséphine nodded. ‘The frequencies,’ she said. Then she told Corbeau and Daniel, ‘I’m your new contact. Cordeval won’t stop resisting.’
Margot knelt down next to Theo, carefully placing Isabelle in her basket on the sand beside him. The baby cooed and fussed, but she had to say goodbye to him, even if he could no longer hear her voice. She touched her fingertips to his cold face. She’d lost him, he—
She looked up and her gaze met Beatrice’s. The girl had stayed beside Theo, and she knew, too.
‘He’s still alive!’ Margot breathed, incredulous. Although he seemed to be hanging on by a very thin thread. ‘Theo’s still alive!’
She got to her feet, holding Isabelle in her basket.
‘Casualty over here! We need him on the boat!’ Corbeau shouted towards the men who were waiting on the shore. The refugees were all aboard the trawler now, their faces illuminated even at this distance by the fire that raged from the stricken tank. Then he told Margot, ‘Come on, time to go.’
Beatrice threw her arms round Margot and sobbed, ‘You look after my little sister, Margot. And when you come home, we’ll have the biggest party ever!
’ She released Margot and pressed a kiss to Isabelle’s forehead.
‘Bye-bye, little Arielle. When you get back to Cordeval, we’ll have the very best adventures. Just you wait and see!’
‘We’ll see you all very soon, I promise,’ Margot said, as if she was boarding the train to Paris, not about to get into a fishing boat that would take them through a sea filled with mines.
As if she wasn’t leaving them all behind in an occupied land.
She turned to Daniel, so quietly courageous; so selfless.
‘Goodbye, Daniel. I’ll look after your little girl as though she was my own. I’ll guard her with my life.’
‘Everyone I help will owe you a debt,’ Daniel replied.
‘Thank you, Margot, from my heart.’ Then he scooped Isabelle from her Moses basket once more and held her close, kissing her hair tenderly.
‘And you, my perfect, perfect girl. You be good and always remember that mum and I love you. Our Arielle, our angel.’ Daniel nestled his daughter gently in her basket again and she blinked up at him, her expression contented.
He wiped his hand over his eyes and pressed his fingers to his lips to blow her a kiss.
Margot felt the chill of tears on her cheeks as she watched Daniel say goodbye to the little girl he’d only just met. His eyes were brimming with tenderness, and she saw pain there, too. He knew, everyone on that beach knew, that he might never see Isabelle again.
Margot kissed her friends goodbye.
She felt as if she was in a dream as she was guided down the beach through the black smoke from the ruined tank.
She headed for the rowing boats, clutching the handles of Isabelle’s Moses basket tightly.
The icy water splashed against her shoes, then she was in the tightly packed rowing boat, Isabelle and her basket across her knees.
Theo lay unmoving on a stretcher in the second rowing boat, the man who called himself Corbeau at his side.
Although he was so pale, so still, Margot clung on to hope.
She loved him, but she knew that wasn’t enough to keep him safe.
He must’ve lost so much blood and there was still the sea to cross before he could get help.
She stared back at the shore as the sailors started to row, each splash of the oars taking her further away from her home and her friends.
A strange country and a new language lay ahead of her; somehow she would have to survive.
Isabelle depended on her now, and the tiny girl grizzled in her basket, which Margot held tightly.
She stroked the baby’s cheek, trying to comfort her, wishing so much that Esther was still alive and that Daniel could’ve taken his wife and daughter to safety in England. Instead, she was all Isabelle had in the world right now.
The figures who were standing on the beach, waving goodbye, were receding, lost in the smoke and the distance.