Page 33 of The Little Liar

“What is it, Sebby?”

“I don’t feel like praying.”

“We pray even when we don’t feel like it.”

“What for?”

“For an end to this.”

Sebastian shook his head. “It won’t end until we die.”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“It’s true.”

Sebastian looked away. “A man today. He was alive, for a minute. I tried to get him back. But they burned him anyhow.”

Lazarre looked at Lev. What was there to say?

“Offer a prayer for that man’s soul,” Lazarre whispered.

Sebastian was silent.

“And pray for your brother,” added Lev.

“Why should I do that?”

“Because we want God to watch over him.”

“Like he watched over us?”

“Seb—”

“Nico was working for the Nazis, Papa.”

“We don’t know what he was doing.”

“He was tricking us. He was lying!”

“He never lies,” Lazarre said. “They must have done something to him.”

“Why do you always standupfor him?”

“Seb, lower your voice,” his father whispered. He touched his son’s shoulder. “You must forgive your brother. You know this.”

“No. I’ll pray if you want. But not for him. I’ll pray for something else.”

Lev sighed. “All right. Pray for something good.”

Sebastian thought about all the good things he could pray for, all the good things he wanted but could no longer have. A hot meal. A day of sleep. The freedom to walk out the gates of this hellhole and never look back.

In the end, as young men often do, he prayed for his heart’s desire.

He prayed to see Fannie one more time.

Nights of Hay

The woman who found Fannie by the river was a plump Hungarian seamstress named Gizella, whose husband, Sandor, had been killed two years earlier in combat.