Page 45 of The Secret Librarian

Chapter Twenty-Four

Avery

‘I’m sorry,’ Camille gasped, her fingers sliding against Avery’s as she regained consciousness, her eyes fluttering open. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Avery held her tightly in her arms, collapsed on the floor of the shop. There was nothing more she could do other than pray. She was no medic, and Camille’s injuries were beyond her basic first-aid training, but it was heartening to see her with her eyes open and managing to talk again.

‘You have nothing to apologise for,’ Avery told her, trying to smile but failing. Her body kept shaking, and she was terrified, not able to stop her tears even though she was trying so, so hard to be brave.

‘But he wasn’t, he ...’ Camille gasped. ‘Tell James I’m sorry, that I never should have doubted him.’

‘Shhh,’ Avery whispered. ‘James is fine. All I care about is you pulling through this. You need to conserve your energy.’

Camille was gasping now, and Avery’s shoulders shuddered as she tried to stop crying, the pain in Camille’s every breath impossible to ignore. She couldn’t help but think about Jack and how many friends he’d lost when he was overseas, about all the men serving and the horrors they were faced with.

‘How did I miss him? He was right in front of me, he—’

‘Shhh,’ Avery tried again. ‘Please, Camille, just rest. You need to rest.’ I don’t give a damn about anything else now, Camille. I just want you to live. Live, goddamn it! ‘None of it matters anymore.’

‘You’re ... a good friend, Avery,’ Camille murmured as her eyes fluttered shut. ‘You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.’

Avery slumped low over Camille, her tears merging with the blood on Camille’s skin, smeared all across her hands. How did this happen? How was I such a fool that I didn’t see who, what he was?

There was a thump, thump on the door then, sending a shiver of terror through her.

‘Don’t let them in,’ Camille whispered, lucid, her eyes wide. ‘You can’t trust them.’

Avery nodded and kissed her forehead. ‘I won’t let them in. I’ll fight until my very last breath to keep you safe, Camille. I promise.’

But when she peered out from the office, creeping through the store to see out into the almost-dark, her heart leapt. It wasn’t the PVDE, it was James. She dashed through the shop as quickly as she could, fumbling with the key as she hurried to open it for him.

‘James!’ She threw her arms around him, holding him as tightly as she could.

He kept one arm around her and manoeuvred them both inside, shutting the door and locking it behind them before engulfing her in his arms. His mouth was pressed to her neck, his embrace warm and solid as she cried.

‘I don’t think she’s going to make it. I don’t—’

‘Where is she?’ he asked.

Avery took his hand and led him to the backroom where she had Camille on the floor, her head propped up on a blanket she’d found folded in the office and the coat they’d taken from William over her to keep her warm.

‘There was so much blood, and I’ve done my best but she’s .

..’ Avery didn’t even want to say it. She looks like she’s dying.

James. My friend is lying on the floor dying and there’s nothing I can do about it other than watch her slip away.

‘She needs to go to a hospital,’ she said, instead.

Because it was true; if Camille had any chance at all of surviving, she needed proper medical treatment.

‘I know you said we couldn’t, but she’s going to die if we don’t,’ she whispered.

‘Can you see the bullet?’ James asked. ‘If we can get the bullet out, she has a chance at pulling through.’

Avery’s stomach turned at the thought of looking at all that blood again, of touching her friend’s flesh and trying to fish out a piece of metal from inside of her. ‘I couldn’t see it, I just tried to stop the blood and—’

‘James,’ Camille gasped, her eyes suddenly flickering open. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘You’ll have plenty of time to apologise to me another day. Right now, I’m going to get Avery to hold you down and I’m going to try to get this bullet out of you.’

Camille groaned.

‘Avery, we need boiled water, anything that resembles a clean cloth, and something sterile to dig the bullet out.’

Avery’s eyes widened. ‘Do you even know what you’re doing? Do you—’

‘I know enough, and right now I’m the best she’s got,’ he said with a grimace. ‘Can you find those supplies? And we’re going to need a needle and thread. We can sterilise the needle in a flame.’

Avery started to nod her head, unable to stop, her body in shock.

‘We don’t have long, Avery. Every minute counts.’

An hour later, Avery and James sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder, backs against the wall and their knees drawn up.

She’d cried so many tears she was dry, her eyes raw, her skin still covered in her friend’s blood.

All they could do now was wait – to see if Camille would pull through, or perish right there on the floor of the bookshop she loved so much.

‘Do you think she’s going to make it?’ Avery whispered.

James had his head tipped back against the wall, his eyes shut, arms resting on his knees.

Camille’s blood was dried beneath his nails and streaking the skin of his arms. He even had it on his jawline, and if she hadn’t been so exhausted, so drained of every ounce of energy, Avery would have lifted her hand and turned to him to wipe it away.

But instead she just sat, turning her gaze back to Camille, who was lying on the floor still, covered in two jackets in an effort to keep her warm.

‘James?’ Avery asked, her voice husky and sounding like it belonged to someone else.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I want to tell you that she’ll be fine, but I honestly just don’t know.’

Tears filled Avery’s eyes again, just when she’d thought she had none left, but she appreciated him telling her the truth.

‘I’m sorry about what happened, about William, about—’

‘Avery, we’re long past apologies,’ James said, reaching for her hand without even looking at her. He linked their fingers, his hold firm. ‘You’re alive, we’re both here now, that’s all that matters. All I care about is that you’re right here beside me, right now.’

Avery didn’t even have the words to tell him how deeply, truly sorry she was for not believing in him. She’d owed him that, and instead she’d let herself be swayed from what she’d known in her heart. ‘I can’t believe I ever doubted you.’

He pulled her against him, his arm around her shoulders as she nestled closer, placing her cheek to his chest. James was steady.

He made her heart flutter at the same time as making her feel as if she’d found her way home; strong enough to protect her yet soft enough to wrap his arms around her and kiss her under a street light for everyone to see.

She’d fallen in love with James from the night they’d talked at the hotel, blushing under his gaze as he’d teased her for being a librarian, only she hadn’t wanted to admit it.

‘Camille had every reason to suspect me,’ he said.

‘I was feeding William information about the Allies; it’s why I had to leave Lisbon for a while, it was all part of my ruse to draw William in.

I needed him to believe that I was playing the same game as he was, that I was prepared to trade information for my own personal gain. So she wasn’t wrong.’

‘I wish you could have told me, that I’d known something about what you were doing.’

‘So do I, but I couldn’t tell anyone, Avery.

I’ve been closing in on him for months, it’s why I was sent to Lisbon in the first place.

’ He sighed. ‘It’s been a long time waiting him out.

He was clever, I’ll give him that, but we knew someone was betraying us and it only took so long for me to put two and two together. ’

‘How did you figure out it was him? I mean, before tonight, before he tried to ...’ Her voice trailed off. She didn’t even want to talk about what had almost happened to her, what had happened to Camille.

‘I fed him false information,’ he said. ‘Then, just as expected, he told his Nazi friends.’

She was silent as she considered what he’d just told her, tilting her head to look up at him. ‘James, do you think we’re going to win this war?’

‘Yes,’ he said, without hesitation. ‘If you’d asked me six months ago, I might have given you a different answer. But yes, Avery, I very much think we’re going to win this war.’

‘And William?’ she asked, trying to push the thoughts of his crumpled body on the floor outside the hotel room from her mind, hating that she’d been so close to doing something she would regret earlier that night, wishing she’d never gone to his room.

‘It’s been taken care of. That’s all you have to know.’

Avery glanced over at Camille, who still had her eyes shut, and she was thankful she’d passed out before James had pulled the bullet from her side.

But she was worried that Camille might not wake up at all, and that she might never look into her beautiful blue eyes or feel the warmth of her smile ever again.

Avery couldn’t imagine never walking into the bookshop again, or how she’d even stay in Lisbon if Camille didn’t make it.

‘How about you get some rest,’ James said. ‘I’ll keep an eye on Camille.’

She wanted to resist, but she was so desperately tired, and as James’s fingers stroked back and forth against her skin, Avery couldn’t help but shut her eyes. Please be alive when I wake up, Camille. It’s not your time to go yet, you have to stay alive.

‘In the morning I’ll find her the painkillers and antibiotics she needs,’ James murmured, as Avery pressed herself against him and finally drifted off to sleep. ‘We just have to pray that she wakes up.’