Winter Roses (29 page)

‘Do you think I could accept what you are offering and then
leave
you?’ He flushed angrily.

‘Yes, because we would be sharing the same pain. I’ve had a long time to think this out, Yves. We must control our lives, if war is not to win.’

‘Very well. Now I have two things to ask you, Caroline. First, do you know what it was that I was to discuss with Luke this afternoon?’

She shook her head.

‘I had taken a selfish decision – as it seemed to me,’ he continued. ‘Seeing you again this morning, I knew I would not have the strength to cut myself off from you completely again. There must surely be some way that Captain Rosier could work with you, even though Yves Rosier is not free to love you. Then you announced your excuse for being here – and do not blush, it was an excellent excuse no matter that I realised it was not the only reason for your presence. Have you heard of The White Lady, La Dame Blanche?’

‘No.’

‘Good. It’s the new name for the remnants of Captain Cameron’s network in Belgium, which had broken down because of Olivier Fabre. We knew there was a traitor somewhere, but weren’t sure it was him. That was why Sir John invited him at Christmas, and why Henri and Luke were also present. In fact there were two traitors, and Fabre was one of them. We have been disregarding his reports, which were faked, and feeding him information to take back to the Germans. A dangerous game, and one we must now stop.’

‘If only George was here,’ she couldn’t resist saying. ‘He always wanted to catch a spy.’

‘Your brother?
Cara
, I am glad he is not.’

‘So am I. I couldn’t tell you how much I love you, then.’

She heard a sharp intake of breath, then his arm was round her. ‘As I love you,
cara
, and if we were alone as we were that night, I would show you how much.’

‘Life
is
a poem, then.’ She was deeply content. ‘“Christ, that my love were in my arms/And I in my bed again,”’ she
quoted. ‘A schoolteacher once changed the And to Or. That is not the same thing, is it?’

‘No,
cara
, it is not. So let me tell you the rest of my story instead, since it will be part of our future. The new leaders of La Dame Blanche, who are fortunately unknown to Fabre, have offered their services to rebuild the organisation, provided the British Secret Service backs them from Holland.’

Caroline tried to concentrate. ‘That’s Captain Landau, isn’t it, in Rotterdam?’

‘Yes, I have great faith in the plan, and I shall liaise between Captain Landau, British GHQ Montreuil, and London, and King Albert and his intelligence staff. Luke is coming to join me to liaise between Folkestone and London. We will need an assistant, and I was going to suggest selfishly to him that it should be you, in the hope he would agree.’

‘He’d better.’ Caroline was dizzy, overwhelmed with joy.

‘Now I must come to the second matter.
Cara
, now you know that we may still be loving companions, please consider whether it is wise to let me love you as a man loves a woman, knowing what will happen when the war ends?’

‘Wise? I can’t answer that. But I want it, oh yes, so much.’

They sat in the Cafe de la Flottille by the Grand Canal, watching the sparrows peck at crumbs and Parisians enjoy the sunshine just as though there were no such thing as war. Yves ordered wine, remarking that coffee seemed inadequate for a birthday.

‘How jealous Percy would be,’ she laughed.

‘He is a lover?’

‘No. He’s our
sommelier
!’

‘The Rectory has hidden depths.’

‘It has one cellar which usually holds the six bottles of wine Uncle Charles sends us each Christmas, one inch of medicinal brandy, and Percy’s home-made wine for the tennis-match punch.’

‘I remember.’ He took her hand across the table. ‘Caroline, I should tell your parents.’

‘No,’ she replied instantly, for she had half expected this. ‘It would hurt them. Yves, I know my own mind.’

‘Then let us begin to walk up that long avenue,
cara
.’ He was looking at her with love in his eyes.

‘I shall ask you to kiss me once more, as I did at Christmas.’

‘And I shall obey.’

She was deliriously happy. Joy was bubbling out of her like champagne. She was Caroline Lilley, she loved and was loved, she was twenty-five and she had come home at last.

I am grateful to Sara Short and Neville Gomes for their enthusiasm and careful work on this novel, and as always to my agent, Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Literary Agency, for her gentle steering of its passage. My thanks are also due to Jane Wood for her editorial advice and push-start to the Ashden Rectory series, which includes
Winter Roses
. I am also grateful for help received from Marian Anderson, Norman Franks, Martin Kender, Mary Lewis, the Imperial War Museum, and among written sources Christopher Andrew’s
Secret Service
, and Captain Henry Landau’s
Spreading the Spy Net
and
All’s Fair
.

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A
MY
M
YERS
was born in Kent, where she still lives, although she has now ventured to the far side of the Medway. For many years a director of a London publishing company, she is now a full-time writer. Married to an American, she lived for some years in Paris, where, surrounded by food, she first dreamed up her Victorian chef detective Auguste Didier. Currently she is writing her contemporary crime series starring Jack Colby, car detective, and in between his adventures continuing her Marsh & Daughter series and her Victorian chimney sweep Tom Wasp novels.

T
HE
S
EASONS
OF
W
AR SERIES

Summer’s End

Dark Harvest

Winter Roses

Songs of Spring