Page 81 of The Resistance Book Club

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 heseemed 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.

FIFTY-NINE

LUCY

2025

Lucy’s hands trembled as she unwrapped the book with painstaking care. She could feel everyone’s gaze on her as the old, yellowed newspaper crinkled, revealing a copy ofThe Three Musketeers.

The cover was plain, just text without any pictures. It was like the books Lucy had found in the storeroom that had been published during the war. She opened the cover and saw an inscription inside it for Isabelle:From Mummy and Daddy.

Lucy gasped as a surge of emotion went through her. ‘This is the book that Margot found inside Isabelle’s basket!’ When she turned the page, she found a loose sheet of paper that’d been slipped inside. It wasn’t as yellowed as the book, and Lucy carefully opened it.

She recognised Mémé’s handwriting at once, and, wondering why her grandmother had left the note inside the book, she read it out loud.

In memory of my precious mother, who left this book to me. And when we meet one day in heaven, we can read this story together. All my love, Arielle.

Lucy blinked back tears. She glanced at her father, who had heard every word. Just a small thing, a book that had been wrapped in newspaper and hidden under a counter, and that changed everything.