Brilliance (40 page)

Daniel gathered his camera team together. They had to go through military training like everyone else and then he was given the rank of captain.

Throughout this time Lisette and Marie-Louise became close. The girl marvelled that her birth parents should be so young and lively in their outlook on life when her adoptive parents, much as she would always love them, had been old in their opinions and in their ways. With Lisette and Daniel she felt free to express her views and ideas, however outrageous, such as she never had before.

‘Could I have a part in a Shaw film?’ she asked one night at dinner, looking expectantly at Daniel. ‘I don’t mind being in a crowd and milling about in the background.’

Daniel grinned widely. ‘I don’t think anyone would ever be able to keep you in the background for very long.’ It was his last night at home before leaving for France in the morning and he was in the mood to grant her anything. ‘Lisette is in charge now. If you have her permission to start acting you have mine too.’

Lisette gave a pleased nod. ‘A second generation Shaw actress. I like that idea.’

‘Then my screen name shall be Marie-Louise Shaw!’

The girl saw how she had pleased her father with this announcement. In her heart she was deeply afraid of what he would face in the trenches, for this dreadful war had taken hold in terrible ways. She thought she understood him well enough now to know that he would never hold back with his camera, but would be at the forefront of any charge. Then, if filming proved impossible, he would sling his camera strap over his shoulder to take gun and bayonet to play his part.

Lisette stood with Marie-Louise when the time came for Daniel to depart. A military car had come for him and the driver had jumped out to salute and hold the door open. Daniel and Lisette gave each other a long look. They had made love the previous night with all the passion that the years had never diminished and now he was leaving to face untold dangers in the field of war, his last kiss still warm on her lips.

‘You have to come back to us,
Papa
Daniel,’ Marie-Louise said sternly to hide her heartache that this newfound father was going away. ‘How else can I learn to be a true star of the silver screen without your tuition?’

He smiled. ‘Just try to be as good an actress as Lisette. You can learn more from her than you ever could from me.’

Marie-Louise ran a few steps after the military car as it drew away. Then she came to a halt and continued to wave her farewell to him. Daniel’s last sight of Lisette was of her deliberately holding both arms out to him in the classic way of the heroine in motion pictures welcoming home the hero. It was her own private message to him.