Ben’s heart was in his mouth, and Lotti’s too, as he brought the Sparrowhawk alongside the convent’s rickety jetty. It was a lovely place, the river slow and lazy and fringed with trees, with dragonflies skittering over the surface and house martins flying low to drink. But it was also the place where the search for Sam on the water ended, and the search on land began.
They had not realised, until they stepped ashore, how safe the little narrowboat made them feel.
‘The dogs should stay,’ said Clara. ‘We don’t know if they’re welcome.’
‘The captain said they were good women,’ protested Lotti.
‘That doesn’t mean they like dogs.’
No boat, no dogs … Ben and Lotti suddenly felt very exposed, but they walked side by side with quick determined steps along a path which led from the jetty to a faded door in a high wall. It opened with a creak when Ben pushed it, and the travellers stepped inside.
They found themselves walking in long grass in an overgrown orchard. On their left, a row of apple trees showed advanced signs of blight, and when the house came into view they saw that several of its shutters were broken, and that unchecked ivy grew thickly on the walls. And yet despite this, there was a solidity to both house and orchard, as if the breeze rustling through the trees and the ivy were whispering, times have been hard, but we are still here …
‘It will be all right,’ Lotti whispered to Ben. ‘I have a good feeling.’
A bench had been placed by the back door, which was open, and from inside the house came the sound of a woman singing. Clara stepped forward, calling out a greeting in French. Immediately the singing stopped. An elderly nun came to the door wiping her hands on the apron she wore over her grey habit, and introduced herself as Sister Monique.
‘And you are the English travellers!’ she said, with a smile.
‘We are,’ said Clara, with a surprised laugh. ‘But how did you know?’
‘There was a telegram,’ said Sister Monique. ‘From a capitaine.’
Clara blushed. ‘Captain de Beauchesne?’
‘Yes, perhaps. I did not see it myself. But the Reverend Mother said that when you arrived, we were to bring you straight to her.’
A little bewildered, the travellers followed Sister Monique out of the kitchen and down a passage to another door which led them into a pleasant parlour with views over the orchard, where a tall, stately woman wearing the same grey habit as Sister Monique rose to greet them and introduced herself in careful English as Mother Julienne, and asked how she might be of assistance.
The Reverend Mother listened attentively as Ben and Lotti told her of their plans. When they had finished, she joined her hands together as if in prayer, and looked at them thoughtfully. She was a kind woman but known for her plain-speaking, and for always telling the truth.
‘It will not be easy,’ she said. ‘To find a person missing for so long, after such a war as this … it is almost impossible. But you must know this already. Here is what I can do for you. There is a mission house in Buisseau, closely affiliated to ours. Sister Monique stays there sometimes when she goes to Saturday market. I will give you a message to take to them. You may stay there while you conduct your search, and they will help you.’
‘Thank you,’ said Ben. He spoke calmly but his heart was hammering. ‘We’ll leave immediately. How do we … how does one get to Buisseau from here?’
‘The railway station at St Matthieu is four kilometres away. Sister Monique can take you in the pony cart. You may leave your boat at the jetty; it will be quite safe. You will all be going?’
‘The puppies,’ said Clara. ‘Someone ought to stay with them. Lotti …’
‘Absolutely not,’ said Lotti. ‘I’m going with Ben.’
‘It would be better if you went with an adult,’ said the Reverend Mother. ‘Buisseau, that whole area – it has suffered much.’
‘I want Lotti,’ said Ben. ‘It doesn’t work if we’re not together.’
He and Lotti stepped closer to each other, until they stood shoulder to shoulder facing the two women. Looking at them, Clara and the Reverend Mother had the same feeling that Henri de Beauchesne had experienced on the Sparrhowhawk, of seeing a small, efficient combat unit.
An hour later, after a quick lunch, Lotti, Ben and Federico left for the railway station. Clara stayed behind to look after the Sparrowhawk and the puppies.
*
How strange, thought Ben as the train pulled out of the station, that after all they had been through, this last stage of the journey should be so straightforward. He spent the train ride with a local map borrowed from Sister Monique spread over his knees, tracing and retracing the route between Buisseau and the river. His breathing was short and painful. Three miles, about an hour’s walk from the station at Buisseau, and he would see the last place where Nathan had been alive, and he would speak to the farmer he had stayed with, and he would ask where exactly the survivors of the bombing had been taken and maybe, maybe, tomorrow they would find Sam.
He tried not to think about what it would be like, out there close to where the bombs had fallen.
Lotti, sitting beside him with Federico on her lap, heard Ben’s shallow breathing and watched him trace the map, and thought, Please, please, please let it work.
It was mid-afternoon when they got off the train. As the Reverend Mother had warned them, Buisseau had suffered in the war. The station was dirty, its platform still being rebuilt after suffering shelling. On the main square, there were gaps where once there had been houses, and several shops were boarded up, with FOR SALE signs stuck to the boards. But in the south-west corner, Lotti glimpsed a café terrace … Was this where she had once stopped with her parents on their way to Armande and drunk pineapple juice?
She thought of the sycamore-shaded square in Calais where she had sat with Ben, remembering the time Papa had bought her a secret cake.
How would pineapple juice taste now?
Lotti longed to find out, but she was also afraid … And anyway, Ben did not want to linger, and right now she was here for him. They did not even stop at the mission house to leave their rucksacks, but set out immediately towards the river, following the map.