Page 1 of The Secret Librarian

Prologue

The woman they called Little Rabbit stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband, their backs pressed against the rough bark of the tree. Her breath was ragged, her chest heaving from running, but she forced herself to stay silent. Their lives depended on neither of them making a sound.

Hugo’s hand found hers, his fingers catching against her knuckles, and when she glanced at him, she found his eyes in the almost-dark and held his stare. Someone had betrayed them, and now they were being hunted like animals as they hid in the forest.

Her body began to shake, and she gripped Hugo’s fingers with hers as wind whipped through the trees and made the leaves tremble around them.

We’re going to die.

As much as she was prepared to sacrifice anything for the cause, she’d never imagined it might happen like this, and as shouts began to echo, the sound of voices coming ever closer, she couldn’t stop thinking about the other lives that would now be lost. The family they’d been waiting to evacuate, the documents sewn into her pocket that would now never be used .

.. She blinked away angry tears. That family would be shoved into a cattle cart, sent on a train to certain death, when freedom had finally been within their grasp.

Children ripped from the arms of their parents, lives shattered in an instant with no one left to save them.

Hugo leaned in close then, his lips whispering against her ear, so close she could feel them touch her skin.

‘We have to run.’

She shook her head. ‘If we run, they find us,’ she whispered. ‘They’ll know where we are.’

‘If we stay hidden here, they find us,’ he murmured back. ‘We have to go. This might be our only chance to escape.’

She stared at him, his eyes pleading with her as she slowly, eventually , nodded, knowing that he was right. But it didn’t make the prospect of running any less terrifying.

Hugo silently lifted the edge of his shirt to show her the pistol in his waistband, and she nodded again.

It was only one gun against many but it was something, and it might make the difference between them staying alive or not.

She also knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

They’d both been trained to fire a gun, and she had every confidence in his ability to shoot to kill.

‘When I say go, you run. Don’t look back and don’t wait for me. You have to go.’

‘I’m not leaving you,’ she whispered.

He shook his head as she gripped his fingers tightly in hers, forcing her to let go when he pulled away.

‘ Now! ’ he urged.

She sucked in a breath and then pushed off from the tree, moving as fast as she could.

She could hear Hugo running just behind her, but she could also hear the ever-louder, urgent shouts of the men looking for them, and nothing could have prepared her for the sound of shots whirring through the forest and knowing that she and Hugo were their target.

‘They’re going to kill us!’ Her words were a soft cry as she stumbled over a branch and then righted herself, as more cracks of gunfire echoed around them, the enemy closing in. They’re actually going to kill us!

It was then she realised that Hugo wasn’t beside her.

Hugo was no longer running with her.

Her feet slipped on leaves as she turned, and a scream caught in her throat when she saw her husband’s body crumpled on the ground, barely a few paces away.

‘Hugo!’ she gasped.

She ran back, dropping to her knees and leaning over him, her hand to his cheek. But Hugo was still. His eyes looked past her, and when she held her fingers to his neck to check his pulse, when she lowered herself to feel his breath against her cheek, she knew. There was nothing.

Hugo was gone. Shot dead in the forest, trying his hardest to protect her and get her to safety.

The shouts were more urgent now, the voices clearer, louder still, and she gasped back her tears and reached for his pistol, scrambling to her feet and forcing herself to leave him as another shot echoed out, this time aimed at her and ricocheting off the tree beside her.

He would have told me to go. There’s nothing I can do for him now.

She could hear him screaming at her in her head, knew what he’d say if given the chance. ‘You need to run!’

Her eyes blurred with tears as she fired behind her, once and then again, hoping it would buy her some time, before running as fast as she could.

Part of her wanted to die in the forest with Hugo, to surrender to the gunfire behind her and end her life with the man she loved so fiercely, but another part of her was already burning.

Another part of her was on fire, ready to find whoever had betrayed them and hold Hugo’s pistol to their head.

His life had been extinguished as if it meant nothing, but he meant everything to her.

I just have to reach the safe house.

If I survive that long, I’ll be able to find out who did this and make them wish they hadn’t betrayed us.

The sound of dogs barking spurred her on, her legs covering the uneven ground as fast as they could, even though, inside, her heart was breaking.

I have to run for Hugo.

I have to survive for Hugo.

I have to live for the beautiful family who trusted me, and who will now never live to see another day, because someone we trusted betrayed us .

‘He’s dead, Benoit!’ she cried as she pushed the door shut behind her, her legs giving way while she slid to the ground against it, chest heaving, fighting to catch her breath. ‘We were betrayed!’

Benoit ran to her, falling to his haunches and taking her hand. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that they were waiting for us. Someone told them where we’d be,’ she gasped, her lungs on fire as she fought to expel the words. ‘They shot him down in the forest and I had to leave him.’ She fought against her tears, but it was impossible. ‘I had to leave him there.’

‘They saw you?’ Benoit asked, standing up and pacing back and forth, agitatedly running his fingers through his hair. ‘You think they know your identity?’

She nodded, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees when she started to tremble again. Every time she squeezed her eyes shut she saw him lying there, on the forest floor. Saw herself running away from his body as if he meant nothing to her, leaving him behind.

‘I’m so sorry. You know how much I cared for him, how much I care for both of you, but if you’ve been compromised ...’

‘I have to go,’ she said for him, her voice barely sounding as if it belonged to her.

Benoit didn’t need to tell her – she knew how dangerous the situation was.

She didn’t have time to grieve; she needed to keep moving while she still could, make sure that the rest of their cell remained secret, if it hadn’t already been compromised.

‘You still have the papers?’

She sniffed back tears and wiped her eyes, before reaching into her coat pocket and picking at the lining with her fingernails.

It took her a moment to work on the stitches, but eventually she’d opened it enough to pull the papers through.

She stared down at the documents, the weight of what she was holding not lost on her, and she felt a now familiar burn of anger deep inside.

Those forged visas were supposed to mean freedom for the family she’d been going to meet.

They were supposed to signal a new beginning for them; a new life.

‘I want to know who betrayed us,’ she said, raising her eyes to look at Benoit. ‘Someone we trusted double-crossed us and gave our location over to the Nazis, and I won’t stop until I find out who that person was.’

Benoit blinked back at her, as if he were trying to decide whether or not to tell her something.

‘Benoit?’ she asked, wiping beneath her cheeks and holding his gaze.

‘We’ve received information in recent weeks from British intelligence, in the last few days even,’ he said. ‘But the chance of them double-crossing us seems implausible. What would the British have to gain by betraying those fighting for the same cause? The British are our closest allies.’

‘Who was this intelligence from? A spy? A British soldier hiding in France?’

‘He was an SOE operative,’ Benoit said. ‘I know nothing more about him, I wasn’t the one to trade information with him, but if they knew where to find you tonight ...’

‘Then they might well know the location of our safe houses now, too, and where I live,’ she finished, silent as she listened for noises outside, for any indication that they weren’t alone. Their eyes met. ‘I know,’ she said.

‘We need to go,’ Benoit said, taking the documents from her and holding a match to them. ‘I want to find out who did this as much as you do, but right now, we have a network to protect.’

She watched as flames licked across the paper, before forcing herself into action. He wasn’t wrong. Hugo would want them to stay focused on the work they were doing. He would want her and Benoit to do everything in their power to stay alive.

‘Where will you go?’

‘I’ll find somewhere to hide, and then I’ll alert the others,’ he said, reaching for his coat and shrugging into it, before going to the corner of the room, lifting up a threadbare rug and removing a couple of floorboards.

‘I had these identity documents and visas prepared for you when you first joined. I don’t know whether they’ll hold, but they’re better than nothing.

You’ll see I used your first name, but created a false surname for you. ’

She watched as he slipped a document of his own into his pocket after passing her hers.

‘Change your hair colour, cut it short, do whatever you have to, to make yourself unrecognisable,’ he said. ‘You need to make your way somewhere safe and start a new life.’

‘But ...’ Her voice trailed away as they both went still, ears pricked, hearing a noise outside that sent a wave of panic like a lightning bolt through her body.

Benoit pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

‘Without you, countless families would still be hiding in France or captured by now. Because of you and Hugo, they have a chance at a new life. Don’t forget that.

’ He paused. ‘But the work you’ve done puts a target on your back, and you know what the Nazis will do to anyone helping Jews to Portugal. ’

She blinked at him, knowing what he was trying to tell her, but no matter how many families they’d saved, she knew it would be the one they hadn’t been able to help that would forever haunt her, imagining what had become of them.

Blaming herself for their downfall. She was also acutely aware of what would happen to her if they caught her.

‘Find your way to Lisbon,’ Benoit said. ‘You’re the one on the run now, Little Rabbit. It’s time to save yourself.’

‘And once I’m there?’

‘You can help France in a different way. We’ll send more refugees as soon as we can, and you can help them there. Any messages I need to send, I’ll send with them,’ he said. ‘Besides, Lisbon is full of spies. You’ll find a way to be helpful to the cause. I know you will.’

He walked quickly across the room then and opened the door, and she waited for him to give her the all-clear signal as he peered out into the darkness.

When he lifted his hand and gestured for her to go, she did, hurriedly touching his shoulder on the way past. They’d worked together for more than a year, she trusted Benoit with her life, and yet there was no time to say goodbye, not properly.

But in that one touch they both knew what the other meant.

Just as she knew how hard he would take Hugo’s death, even if he wasn’t showing it now.

Benoit would never forgive himself for allowing a double agent to infiltrate their network.

‘Until we meet again,’ she murmured as she left, before hurrying into the darkness and praying that she’d have enough time to change her appearance before she was found.

Because one thing was for certain – those men would never stop searching for her now that they’d seen her, and she didn’t want to think about what they’d do if they found her.

She would do everything Benoit had suggested – change her hair, her clothes, the way she spoke; anything that would help her slip into Portugal without detection.

And she would find a way to continue her work – she would never stop fighting for France and the Allies.

Just as she would never stop searching for who had betrayed them.

Tears slipped down her cheeks then, leaving her skin wet.

She walked quickly across the road, her collar raised and her head bent.

Hiccups of emotion caught in her throat and she wrapped her arms around herself as grief rose in her chest, fighting against the sobs inside, too afraid to make a noise.

How will I ever live without you, Hugo?

We were supposed to spend the rest of our lives together. We were supposed to have a family, to open our restaurant once the war was over and be surrounded by children. We were supposed to grow old together.

Now she was fleeing the country she loved, the country she’d fought so hard for, just like the countless refugees they’d dedicated the last two years to saving.

A widow instead of a wife.

Then the sound of a single gunshot rang out in the otherwise-silent night air, and she began to run.