Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
MARGOT
The heavy door was all that protected Margot and her friends from whoever was on the other side of it in the dark tunnels. The knock came again, this time beating out a staccato rhythm, before a man’s voice whispered, ‘Savant?’
Theo blinked, his mouth opening wordlessly for a second. Then he murmured, ‘It’s Daniel.’
Margot balanced Isabelle on her hip again as she unlocked the door and slowly opened it, her fear still not entirely dissipated.
The flickering candlelight from the cellar lit Daniel’s rugged face.
‘Daniel,’ she whispered, and stepped aside so that he could come in. Isabelle stared at him, as if there was an invisible thread between her and the father she’d never met.
He stepped over the threshold and stilled, his gaze fixed on the baby in Margot’s arms. The determination she saw in his eyes softened and he murmured, ‘My Isabelle.’ Daniel lifted his hand to cover his mouth and a sob caught in his throat.
He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before opening his eyelids and letting his gaze settle on his daughter again.
‘My beautiful little girl,’ Daniel murmured, his voice thick with emotion. He held out his arms and said, ‘I’ve longed to meet you.’ He swallowed down another sob and dashed his hand across his eyes. Then he stepped forward and told Isabelle tenderly, ‘I love you so much, my angel.’
Margot’s heart squeezed as she placed Daniel’s daughter into his arms. If only Esther could have seen this moment.
Isabelle gave a coo of surprise and her innocent gaze roamed Daniel’s face. A wide smile lit up her round face and she gripped his cheek in her little hand.
‘Hello.’ Daniel chuckled. ‘Oh, your mother loved you so.’ He pressed his cheek to Isabelle’s. ‘And so do I.’ Holding Isabelle in a close embrace, Daniel met Margot’s gaze and said, ‘You were there when— I don’t have the words to thank you, Madame. You saved my baby’s life.’
‘It’s what anyone would’ve done,’ Margot replied.
Isabelle looked so tiny in his strong arms. ‘It’s been a pleasure looking after her.
And everyone here has saved her too, over and over again.
I’m so sorry about Esther. She was brave – so brave, right up until the very last. But then I’m sure you know that. ’
He nodded. ‘She was always my strength. She still is.’ He glanced back over his shoulder and when he spoke again his voice was heavy with exhaustion.
‘We couldn’t change the pick-up. It was Cordeval or nowhere.
’ Then he stepped back into the tunnel and turned to say to his unseen companions, ‘It’s safe, you can come in. ’
The seven souls.
Margot watched as a middle-aged woman with flecks of silver in her hair came blinking into the cellar, her eyes full of fear and exhaustion.
She wore a winter coat with the collar half-torn off.
A boy, who looked about eight years old, followed her, clutching her hand.
Then came an older man, wearing spectacles, although one of the lenses was cracked. He had the air of a professor.
More people followed, and Margot had soon counted beyond seven.
There were small children, young men and women, and older people, all the way up to an elderly lady with a stick.
Their faces were grimy, their clothes were torn and dirty.
Some of them didn’t even have winter clothes, and shivered in thin jackets.
There were bruises and old cuts, shoes held together with string.
And fear – which soon disappeared, as Margot and her friends smiled at their unexpected guests. Isabelle’s eyes were round with wonder, her gaze roaming between her father’s face and the people he’d brought with him.
‘Welcome,’ Margot said. She shut the door and locked it securely. ‘Welcome, all of you.’
Beatrice smiled at the children and told them, ‘We’ll look after you.’
Theo stood back as the little group looked around the cellar. He slipped round the edge of the new arrivals and asked Daniel, ‘You’ll be able to get past the beach defences?’
Margot hated the barbed wire defences and wooden poles they’d littered Cordeval’s beach with, along with the concrete gun turret that stared out across the sand.
Daniel nodded. ‘There’s a small blind spot.
Too small, unless you’re desperate.’ Then he looked at the refugees he had saved and admitted, ‘And we’re desperate.
There’s a machine gun nest, but…’ And Theo nodded.
They didn’t need to say more: Daniel would know how to deal with the German machine gunners.
Brigitte had already started to examine and treat the injuries that the internees had arrived with, as Margot edged through the crowd of people back to Daniel and Isabelle. She wondered where he’d been while his little girl was growing up without him.
‘It was such a surprise when Esther told us you were still alive,’ Margot said to him. Isabelle turned at the sound of her voice and gave her a smile, before gazing back at her father’s face. ‘We had no idea that you were in the resistance, or that Esther was either.’
‘She was the intelligence behind Chevalier; the coder… the strategist. I’m just the brawn. I can’t believe—’ He bowed his head and kissed Isabelle’s cheek, then closed his eyes again.
‘You’ve sacrificed so much, Daniel, for the sake of so many people.
I wish Esther was here, but you’ve got Isabelle now,’ Margot said affectionately.
‘You can stay here with her until it’s time to go – get to know one another.
Me and my friends can shelter everyone until you have to leave.
It’s just for a day – they’ll be safe and looked after. ’
Twenty people couldn’t stay in Margot’s cellar, so they decided to send off two or three people with each member of the book club, who were already sharing out the supplies they’d brought among the internees.
They looked so relieved to find people who were willing to take the enormous risk of caring for them. But what else could they do?
‘Daniel, you can stay here with Isabelle,’ Margot told him. ‘If you’d like to?’
‘It’ll be good to rest,’ he admitted. ‘And to spend some time with my girl at last. I’ve got so many stories to tell her about her mum.’
Margot just hoped that it all went to plan. There was so much at stake now, so many lives balancing on a precipice. They had to hold on – just one more day.