“Good,” Gisela said. “I think, then, it is time I return to Austria.”
Audrey nodded. “Thank you for staying so long, and for everything you’ve done for Ilse, and for Daniel. For me. You’ve been a good friend to us all when most would have abandoned the responsibility quite some time ago. I’m very grateful to you.”
Gisela inclined her head. “It is what Friedrich would have wanted. He thought very highly of you, I hope you know. And besides, I have—had—grown fond of Ilse. She was very special to Friedrich.”
His name hung in the empty space between them.
“Are you going to try to learn what’s happened to him?” Audrey asked.
“Yes, of course. I have already made some enquiries, but it is difficult to get accurate information. I think the administration of justice is going to be challenging. It may be years before it is all sorted out.”
“I hope they’ll be fair to him,” Audrey said. “He wasn’t like the others.”
“But he wore the insignia. He lived in a commandeered Jewish home. The version of himself that he put forward to mask his true intentions and sentiments was thorough. It will be difficult for him to prove otherwise, I fear. On paper, he is as guilty as the rest.”
Audrey knew she was right, but it was hard to hear it all the same. She pitied him, knew how it would have felt for him to be arrested and taken from Ilse, unsure of what would happen to her.
“My thoughts go with you,” she said to Gisela. “When you do find him, please tell him thank you. For everything. I’m indebted to you both.”
Gisela managed a smile. “I shall. What is next for you?”
Audrey sighed. “There’s nothing for me here, now. It doesn’t feel like home anymore. I don’t really have one.” She looked over at Daniel. “But I’m going to need help. I can’t do this alone. I have an aunt in England, the only family I have left. I figure that’s as good a place as any. For now, anyway.”
Gisela nodded. “We will all have to forge new paths for ourselves in this overturned world. Find our way. May the stars light your journey, Audrey James.”
Chapter 40
Kate
ALNWICK, ENGLAND | DECEMBER 2010
Audrey, what do you mean?” Kate asks, touching the silver locket in the folds of her cowl neck.
“That is Ilse’s locket,” Audrey says. “My Ilse. How do you have it?”
Kate’s brow furrows. “My parents gave it to me on my twentieth birthday. It has my initial on it, see?”
Audrey’s eyes are wide. “I would know that locket anywhere. Let me see it.”
“What?”
“I need to see it,” she snaps.
“Okay, fine,” Kate mutters, unclasping the necklace and wondering what the hell is going on. She passes it to Audrey, who picks up her glasses from the table beside her chair, perches them on the end of her nose.
Kate watches her examine it, the small oval piece with a scrolled K on the front. “It was a gift,” she says again. “I haven’t worn it since the accident, and—”
“I need to open it,” Audrey says, cutting her off. “What’s inside?”
“Photos,” Kate says. “Of my grandparents.”
“My fingers can’t manage it. I need you to open it.”
“O—okay,” Kate says.
“Don’t give me that face. I’m not senile.”
“Okay,” she says again, and presses on the tiny clasp to expose the inside of the locket. “Look.”
Audrey lets out a deep breath and slouches back down a little in her chair, eyes still on the photos. She runs a hand over her forehead. “I’m sorry, Kate,” she says. “We’ve been digging up so much from the past, I think I’m seeing things that just aren’t there.”
Kate purses her lips, wondering if she should ring Ian. Something is clearly not right. “Should I call someone, Audrey?” she asks. “I think—”
“Wait. Have you ever—” Audrey’s voice cracks, and she sits up a bit straighter in her chair again. “Have you ever taken those photos out? Did you put them inside?”
“No. They were in there when my parents gave it to me.”
Audrey frowns, eyes on the locket, and then she pins them on Kate. “What is—was—your father’s name, Kate?”
“Joseph Barber.”
Audrey stares at her, disbelief and fear and a dozen other emotions flickering across her face, one after the other.
“Audrey, what is going on?” Kate demands. “Tell me! I’m worried about you.”
Audrey holds up a hand, the misshapen fingers trembling. “Are you lying to me, Kate? You said you had stopped lying.”
