Nanée suggested that Allen open the package himself, so it was he who pulled Pemmy from the box. When little Joey fell from the stuffed kangaroo’s pocket, startling him, it was all she could do not to laugh. Varian too, judging from his expression.
“It belongs to a young girl I was traveling with,” Nanée explained, staying with the truth.
Who brought it? She had no idea. Also true.
“How do we know it isn’t being used to smuggle something?” Allen demanded.
“In a child’s toy?” Miss Palmer said.
“You’re welcome to examine the poor, overloved kangaroo and her baby,” Nanée said, “to see if you can find any seam that has been tampered with.”
Allen scowled. “I have a train to catch. Miss Palmer, you can deal with this.”
As Nanée, Varian, and Miss Palmer watched him go, even Miss Palmer seemed relieved. Nanée picked up the joey from the floor and offered it to the woman, who declined to take it.
“I’m sure the child it belongs to will be very glad to have it,” she said.
Nanée hesitated. “Do be careful here, Miss Palmer. Not everyone in Marseille is well-intentioned.”
Varian wasn’t about to disclose to Allen and Palmer their secret routes, the places they hid refugees, or how they converted Nanée’s dollar contributions into francs. Nanée could see that. He would transition to these newcomers the legitimate work of providing assistance to refugees in the limited ways Vichy allowed, while his own people continued the work of getting refugees out of France from Villa Air-Bel.
Nanée left Varian with Miss Palmer and went to find Captain Dubois, who was incensed that anyone working at the CAS had been arrested in the roundups. And why hadn’t they contacted him for help? She rode with him back to the boat, but waited onshore. A few minutes later, Danny emerged. He had no more idea why he’d been kept than any of them had as to why they’d been arrested in the first place.
“Just Vichy efficiency,” Nanée said.
Thursday, December 5, 1940
VILLA AIR-BEL
Luki held Pemmy up, then Joey, for Papa to kiss good night. They were all tucked under the warm covers, Papa just finished reading to them from the letters he’d written her even when he couldn’t send them.
“Now, Pemmy,” Papa said, “you keep Luki company, and don’t let her lose another tooth for a few minutes. I have some things to talk about with Mr. Fry.”
Luki nodded. “About going to America.”
“Yes.”
“Together.”
Papa looked the way he did when he was making up his mind. “Together, yes.”
“And we’ll go on a train?”
“We’ll leave on a train. We might have to walk some of the way. And we’ll be on a boat for a long time too.”
“America is very far away.”
“Yes.”
“It’s where the angels live.”
“The angels?”
“Tante Nanée lives there, except she lives here now. That’s what she told me on the train. This is her house. We’ll go on the same train?”
Papa went quiet in that way that always made Pemmy nervous.
“Yes,” he said finally, “this time we’ll leave on the same train.”
“We could take the train Tante Nanée and I rode. It had a whole big bed, and a place to sit, and our own toilet. Will she come too?”
“Nanée?” Papa stroked her hair.
She closed her eyes, his hand gentle on her forehead. She touched Pemmy’s forehead the same way, so she would feel warm and cozy too.
“Would you like that?” he whispered.
Would she like Tante Nanée to come with them? She was afraid both that Tante Nanée wasn’t an angel and that she might be, that she could fly her to Mutti, but then she would have to leave Papa behind.
She whispered, “I wish Mutti could come with us.”
Papa pulled her close. Luki could feel him crying even though he didn’t make a noise.
She whispered, “Do they have dreaming logs in America?”
Papa put his hands on her cheeks and looked right inside her, the way he did when he was sad and she was sad. He kissed her cheek, then, and he whispered, “We’ll find a dreaming log there.”
Friday, December 6, 1940
VILLA AIR-BEL
The damned police had taken the cow. Nanée was glad to be again sleeping in her own bed, eating meager rations, and soaking in the zinc tub, but without Madame LaVache’s milk, there wasn’t food enough for the children. Danny and T decided they’d have to send Peterkin back to Danny’s mother in Juan-les-Pins. The Bretons might do the same if they had family to send Aube to and didn’t need to have her nearby when their American visas came through. It would not be an issue for Luki. That boy-guard had made a mistake and kept Danny rather than Edouard, but the Marseille police had taken down all of Edouard’s information in the roundup. They knew he was here at the chateau, and if the Gestapo weren’t on to that fact yet, they would be soon.