Page 43 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

Even though she told herself it was all for the best, grief continued to consume Ellie by day and plague her dreams at night.

Memories of holding Jojo on her lap, having her nestle against her shoulder, felt like a physical wound.

Mavis and Dora were concerned for her. They quietly packed up all of Jojo’s things and stored them in a trunk where Ellie wouldn’t see them.

But Ellie kept the stuffed dog and slept with it, hugging it to her.

Tiger, the cat, also sensed her mood and curled up beside her on the bed or on the lounge chair.

The loss was like a hole in her heart, and she dreamed, night after night, of the little girl being hit or abandoned by the roadside.

It was awful to feel so powerless. As she lay, unable to fall asleep, she’d go over and over the scene in her mind, wondering what she could have done to have reached a different outcome.

If she had offered them money to go away?

But then they’d know she had money available and might come after her.

And Yvette was the child’s mother, she told herself.

Maybe she would love Jojo and treat her well. She tried to believe this.

On the first Sunday of May, the ferry boat showed up as usual to take visitors to the abbey.

When Ellie went to board, she found the quayside crowded—some trippers newly arrived from the north and curious to see the abbey, others to check on sons and brothers and yet others to buy what produce they could from the monks to preserve for a potentially barren winter ahead.

Ellie found herself holding her breath as the boat neared the island.

She so wanted to see Abbot Gerard again.

She wanted to hear his comforting voice and was sure he’d have words that would help sooth away the hurt she was carrying.

But apart from a brief nod and how-are-you pleasantries, she never got a chance to speak to him.

It seemed that someone was claiming his attention every second, and she boarded the boat back angry and frustrated.

“Well, there goes our escape route,” Dora said as she turned off the radio. “The Germans now hold the Channel ports. If we wanted to leave here, it would have to be Spain or Portugal.”

“I don’t speak Spanish,” Ellie said, “And I don’t agree at all with how Franco has behaved against his fellow countrymen. And I don’t want to start all over again. I think we have to hope that we live in a small village and nobody would be interested in us.”

It seemed this might be true. Visitors arrived from the rest of France, earlier than usual, some fleeing from Paris and the North, hoping they’d be safely far away from conflict, as they were in the last war.

Henri and the Adamses were happy they had more than enough customers.

Ellie sat at the piano, trying to remember pieces she had known by heart, her fingers stumbling with lack of practice.

She’d have to see if the doctor’s wife had music she could borrow.

She had hoped that the music would soothe her but found that the tunes she remembered were loaded with indescribable longing.

She threw herself into work, tending to the chickens and goat, which she continued to milk even though she and Dora did not care for the taste of goat’s milk.

She planted as many vegetables as possible, coaxing the tomatoes and lemon tree back into production.

One day Mavis came out to help her, finding her putting up strings against the trellis for the beans and peas.

They were quiet for a while, then Mavis said, “I’ve been waiting to tell you this, but there never seems to be a good time. ”

Those echoed Lionel’s words when he announced his intention to divorce Ellie. She looked up sharply. “What?”

Mavis gave a little smile. “Louis has asked me to marry him. He wants to make sure I’ll be taken care of if it comes to being a French citizen.”

“Oh Mavis,” Ellie said. “I suppose I’m happy for you.”

Mavis had gone pink. “He asked me quite a while ago, but I didn’t like to leave you in the lurch. But now you don’t have all that extra work with the baby I thought it was the right time. I’ll come over and help you with the house and the chickens ...”

“Mavis, you don’t have to. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Of course I do,” Mavis said. “You’ve given me a whole new life. You’ve let me be happy for the first time ever. I can never repay you for that. And I wouldn’t want to just walk away, but Louis is a good man, and I think I could be happy with him.”

“I think you could, too,” Ellie said. “Well, God bless you. When are you planning to do this?”

“As soon as possible now,” Mavis said. “I thought you and I might go into Marseille and see if I can find some fabric to make a wedding outfit. Oh, nothing daft like a long white dress, but something special. Something to celebrate when everything around us is gloom.”

“Yes,” Ellie said. “Good idea.”

Dora gave her blessing right away. “I am delighted for you, my dear,” she said.

“If any of us deserves happiness, it’s you.

You’ve spent your life taking care of other people.

Now it’s your turn.” And she gave Mavis a nice amount of cash—“for your trousseau, if people still have trousseaus in wartime.”

So Ellie drove Mavis into Marseille, and they picked up some pale-blue silk dotted with flowers for the dress and some white silk for undergarments, because, as Mavis said, “I wouldn’t want to show him my flannel bloomers.

” And some heavier fabric for a smart suit.

Then they added shoes and a handbag. Mavis stared at it all in wonder.

“I ain’t never seen such lovely things in my whole life.

I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve them. ”

She went to work, sewing feverishly. The result was most satisfying, and she stared at herself in the mirror.

“Blimey. If Reg could see me now,” she said.

“He’d realize what he lost, poor bugger.

I suppose I can feel more charitable towards him now.

He was a soldier in the trenches. He must have seen plenty of things that unsettled him and made him how he was. ”

Ellie also bought herself a new dress and hat, plus a hat for Dora, because she feared there might be no new clothes for a long time. On June 14, the German tanks rolled into Paris. Everyone in Saint-Benet listened to the news in stunned silence, then wept and embraced.

“Those English soldiers let us down,” one of the men said. “They ran for the coast with their tails between their legs and abandoned us to the Germans.”

“At least they lived to fight another day,” Ellie replied. “Better than all being killed or taken as German captives. Everyone expected the Maginot Line to hold.”

“Those Nazis had been planning this for years,” someone else added. “They’ve been rearming secretly while we were caught unprepared—both of us. France and England.”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do now,” the doctor’s wife said. “Let’s just hope that they are only interested in the industrial north, and we have nothing for them down here.”

It seemed this was going to be true. France was to be divided into the occupied zone in the north and the free zone in the south.

Everyone listening on the radio heaved a sigh of relief.

The free zone was to be governed by the new French government—puppets put in place by the Germans.

Nobody approved of this, of course. “But they will have the interests of the French people at heart,” was the common sentiment. “They’ll do their best for us.”

Mavis’s wedding happened a few days later at the village church. Mavis not being Catholic had presented a problem, but she had to swear that she would raise any offspring in the Catholic faith. She thought this hilarious. “At my age,” she said. “That would be another miracle.”

Dora and Ellie were her attendants. The church was packed, as Louis was a popular figure and everyone wanted a chance to celebrate.

Henri managed to get his hands on a young goat and it was roasted on a spit outside the bar.

Everyone brought items for the feast—fruits, cheese, bread and wine.

One of the men brought his accordion. There were toasts, ribald comments, much laughter, then singing and dancing.

Ellie sat silently, observing as the celebration went on around her.

Mavis, her face alight with joy as she danced with Louis, then with one of the fishermen after another.

Dora, her eyes sparkling as she clapped to the music.

Ellie’s eyes moved to Nico, sitting with his mother in the shade, smiling.

As if he sensed his eyes on her, he turned to look.

Their eyes met. He winked. For a moment she thought he was going to come over and ask her to dance, but he didn’t. She felt absurdly disappointed.

Ellie saw Dora flagging about ten o’clock and drove her home, but she stood out on the terrace listening to the music and laughter. Dora came out beside her.

“Who would have thought it was our little Mavis who made the whole village forget the tragedy of war?” Dora said.

Ellie continued to stare out into the darkness. “I hope we’re doing the right thing, Dora,” she said. “I hope we won’t regret not going back to England.”

“I think we’re going to be all right,” Dora said. “We’re in the free zone, and if anyone invades us, it will be the Italians. They are so easy-going that I can’t think they’d be brutal invaders. We’d offer them some wine and cheese and be their friends for life.”

Ellie had to laugh. “Oh Dora,” she said. “I hope you are right.” She put a hand on the old woman’s shoulder. “I am glad you’re here.”

Dora placed her own hand over Ellie’s. “You have been a great blessing to me,” she said. “I want you to know that this has been the happiest time of my life for many, many years.”