Page 61 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

Nico and Ellie climbed the hill to the villa together with his mother.

“What will your husband say about my coming here to live?” he asked.

“Poor Mr Tommy was taken away by the Germans and is probably in a prison camp,” she said. “The viscount betrayed all of us, I’m afraid. You, the abbot and Mr Tommy.”

“The nasty little rat,” Nico said. “Where is he? I’ll knock his head off.”

“He went back to Paris when I threw him out. He did it because he hates Jews, and he thought he could parlay his way back into his chateau. So na?ve.”

“Let’s hope that destiny meets up with him in Paris,” Nico said. “So they took Mr Tommy. How lucky they didn’t take you, too.”

She nodded. “Tommy kept insisting that Clive and I were innocent and knew nothing. He probably did this under torture. He saved us, Nico. We don’t even know where he is or if he’s still alive.”

“Poor man.” Nico paused on the steps, looking down at the village. “So much suffering.”

“But you’re here. And the Germans have retreated. That’s all that matters at this moment,” Ellie said.

Nico stepped through the gate into the garden and stared at the villa.

“I never thought I’d be happy to return to this place,” he said.

“I was so bitter, all those years. But I had a lot of time to think, and I understand now that I had the best childhood possible, running around barefoot, swimming, helping my dad on the boat. If I’d stayed with my real mother, I would have been dragged around from place to place while she performed or left somewhere with a nanny.

And who would have wanted to be part of that world? ”

He looked across at his mother. “And I had the best parents a boy could have. Taught me everything. Cared about me.” He put an arm around his mother and hugged her to him.

Clive had not attended the feast. He told Ellie he couldn’t be present where other people were happy.

Ellie quite understood. She had felt the same way.

He came out of the house, hearing voices, then stopped and stared in amazement.

“Nico? How is this possible? So there are miracles after all. I can go on hoping that Tommy will come back to us.”

That night, after dinner, when Nico headed for Ellie’s bedroom with her, his mother stopped him. “Where do you think you are going? That’s not the right thing to do, my son. You might be fond of her, but you are not married to her.”

Nico looked at Ellie and winked. She blushed.

“But Mama, officially she’s still married to Mr Tommy,” he said. “Even if it was just a marriage on paper to give her an identity card. We have to hope he is still alive.”

“But it’s a sin,” Madame Barbou insisted. “What would Father André say?”

“He’d say it was a miracle that I returned to you. And I’ll go to confession if you like, but tonight I am going to be with the woman I love.” He took Ellie’s hand, led her into the bedroom and closed the door firmly behind them.

Now that Marseille was in the hands of the Free French army, Ellie went with Clive and managed to speak to the Red Cross, asking for news about Tommy.

They were able to find out that he was at a camp called Natzweiler-Struthof, in the Vosges Mountains in the annexed territory of Alsace.

Not one of the worst, according to the Red Cross.

Not known as a death camp, and mainly for French civilians.

So there was hope. They immediately made a package of nourishing foods for him and asked for the Red Cross to deliver it.

Over a month later they received a letter from Tommy, heavily censored.

They read it and cried. He was alive. Able to write.

Nico settled back into life at home. One day he walked through the grounds with Ellie and noticed the lock on his shed was broken.

“Did the Germans search my shed?” he asked.

“They did,” she replied. “At least they opened it. I told them a local fisherman kept his tackle there. They smelled the fishy stink, saw the nets and lines and went away again.”

“You were lucky they didn’t search more.” He went into the shed and pulled aside the pile of fishing nets. Underneath he unearthed a box of rifles and another of grenades.

Ellie recoiled in horror. “We might have been blown to kingdom come,” she said.

“Worse still, you’d surely have been carted off to the Gestapo and deemed to be with the Resistance if they’d found these. I worried about this a lot when I lay there in Corsica. And your car?”

“Is now back in the garage, thank you. They never found it. We hid it well.”

The sound of loud bleating made him look over at the pen. He smiled. “And what’s this? Baby goats? That’s good. All is well again.”

All seemed to be getting better by the day.

The Allies had landed in Normandy the previous June and pushed up through Italy.

The south coast of France returned to its previous peaceful state.

But all was not well. Further attempts to send Tommy a package through the Red Cross were not successful.

And then the news trickled through: the occupants of that camp in the Vosges had been moved to a camp in Eastern Europe as the Allies approached.

A camp called Auschwitz. It was much later that they found that Tommy had not survived the transport there. Clive gave a great wail of anguish.

“I think I knew all the time that I’d never see him again. Oh my poor sweet, kind Tommy. How could they do this to him?”

“I’m so sorry, dearest Clive.” Ellie attempted to hug him, but he pushed her away.

“Where will I go?” he asked. “What will I do?” He looked around him.

“I can’t stay here. There is nothing for me now.

” In spite of Ellie’s entreaties, he went back to the house he had shared with Tommy.

He wanted to be in the place where they had been happy together.

Ellie urged him to take his goat and some chickens with him, but he refused.

“You can’t give up now, Clive,” Ellie said. “Not when we’ve endured so much. Tommy wouldn’t have wanted you to. Keep painting. You have great talent. Paint a memorial to a brave man whom I loved, too.”

He held her then, and they cried in each other’s arms. He did take the cat Minou with him, and Tiger walked around the house complaining bitterly.

After Tommy’s death was confirmed, Ellie and Nico waited a while before they were married. “It’s not the right moment,” she said. “We are in mourning for a wonderful man. Such a brave man. I will treasure him forever.”

“I agree,” Nico said, “but I have grown tired of my mother making me go to confession because we are sharing a sinful bed.”

Ellie looked at him tenderly. “After what the world has just been through, do you think the fact that we love each other counts as sin?”

“Of course not, but you know my mother. Old-school Catholic. Confession every time you have an impure thought.”

“I bet you had to go to confession a lot when you were younger, then,” she teased.

He wrapped his arms around her. “I love you so much,” he said. “I never believed I could be happy again, and now I am.”

“So am I,” she said. “All right, then. I’ll marry you as soon as you want.

But shouldn’t we wait until the war is officially over?

I know the end is in sight and the Germans are gone from here, but we have to remember that there are still people in camps as Tommy was, still waiting to be liberated, and so many people displaced from their homes. ”

Nico nodded, considering this. “You’re right. We’ll get married, but it should only be a small ceremony, as we are still in mourning for Mr Tommy, and Hitler has not yet surrendered.”

She went down to tell Mavis the news and ask if she and Louis would stand as witnesses for them.

Mavis looked at her in disbelief. “A small ceremony with just two witnesses? Are you barmy? What we all need now is a chance to celebrate something. Look how many people in the village have lost a relative or friend. We should learn to be happy again—” She broke off.

“I’ve been happy. I’ve got the best man you could want.

And now you have, too, even though I thought he was a pirate to start with. ”

Ellie laughed. “So you think we should have a proper wedding, then? Invite everybody?”

Mavis nodded. “I do.”

“But shouldn’t we wait until the Germans have surrendered and the war is officially over?”

“Who knows how long that will take? They are stubborn and proud, those Germans. They might keep fighting even though they can’t win. I say let’s be happy now.” She frowned. “Too bad there won’t be any fabric in the stores. I’d like to make you a wedding dress.”

“We can raid Jeannette’s wardrobe again,” she said. My mother-in-law, she thought, toying with the words and the ridiculousness of this. Maybe one day she’d tell Mavis.

“Righty-oh, then,” Mavis said. “Let’s come up and have a look.”

They went through the ballgowns, and Mavis decided on a pale-blue silk.

“There’s enough in that skirt to make you a simple dress,” she said. “They are wearing everything short these days, aren’t they?”

“Help yourself to anything you can use for yourself,” Ellie said.

“Me? I’ve got my own wedding outfit that I haven’t had a chance to wear since,” Mavis said.

The invitations went out. The dress was made, and Ellie and Nico were married in a simple ceremony.

Somehow enough wine was found for everyone, and Madame Blanchet managed to make a cake, although she complained about the lack of butter and eggs.

As the toasts were raised, Nico stood up.

“I would like everyone to raise your glasses to a brave man who gave his life for my wife and me. To Mr Tommy.”

Glasses were raised. To Mr Tommy. The words echoed in the clear air. Clive brushed away a tear. Ellie knew how hard it must have been for him to attend any celebration and that he had only come because of his fondness for her.