Hearts of Resistance
Page 30
Sophia held out her hand across the table and Hazel squeezed it, but it was Rose who looked like she needed the comfort, her shoulders shaking as she bravely, openly cried in front of them without turning away.
‘I’m so sorry for your loss, Rose. Truly I am. We both are,’ Hazel said. ‘I didn’t mean to exclude you. It must be so hard for you to hear about us and—’
‘Don’t say it,’ Rose said, dabbing at her cheeks. ‘It’s enough to see you both happy, to see that you’re loved. I had years with Peter, and it’s enough for me knowing that he would have wholeheartedly approved of everything I did. He would have been in awe, but he also always knew how brave I was, that I wasn’t afraid to stand up for what was right or share my opinions.’
‘Must have made for interesting dinner party conversations, then,’ Sophia said with a giggle. ‘What in the world did his friends think of him, having such an outspoken wife?’
Rose sipped her champagne as they waited for her response, and Hazel did the same, taking a small sip of hers.
‘It did and they couldn’t stand me! But, Sophia, I’m so pleased that you found your Alex. You deserve to be loved and to get your chance at happiness with him.’
‘I wish the end of the war had been different for you,’ Sophia replied, her voice low.
Rose squeezed Sophia’s hand as Hazel watched on. ‘So do I. But I married a man I loved and he treated me with so much love and respect that no man will ever live up to his memory. But don’t ever think I’m not bursting with happiness over you both!’
‘Truly?’
‘Look who I have,’ Rose said, pointing to Francesca. The little girl had fallen asleep, her head tucked into a deep cushion on the sofa, her pretty little mouth open as she slept. ‘She’s my reason for living now. She makes every day worth getting out of bed for, every demon worth facing.’
‘Our men fought that war, on the ground, day after day,’ Sophia said. ‘My own countrymen, my own father, fought against everything I believed in.’
Hazel held her hand tight across the table, listening to her friends talk.
‘But it was what we did that won the war, I’m certain of it. Our networks and our people undercover in France, we changed the outcome, and we need to be so proud of that.’
They were thoughts Hazel had already had, things she often pondered in the early hours of the morning when her husband was fast asleep beside her. If she hadn’t helped, hadn’t been part of their amazing network of men and women, maybe she wouldn’t have had a safe bed to sleep in at all.
‘Shall we toast those in our networks who didn’t make it?’ Rose asked.
Sophia held up her glass of champagne, and they clinked them gently together. ‘To the fallen,’ she murmured.
Hazel held up her own glass and smiled before taking a sip. ‘Can we all promise one thing?’ she asked. ‘Can we all meet, every year, here or somewhere equally wonderful?’
‘We’ll meet here every year, no matter what,’ Rose said firmly. ‘But next time you must bring your husbands, and in years to come, your children, too.’
‘Then it’s a deal,’ Hazel said.
‘We’ll be here. Absolutely, we’ll make it every year, no matter where we are,’ Sophia agreed.
They all sat in silence for a moment, before Hazel cleared her throat. ‘To us,’ she said, holding her glass high.
‘To us,’ the others said in unison.
This was right; being together, celebrating their highs and mourning their losses. Hazel was certain they’d be friends for ever, until they were old ladies sitting in their rocking chairs, laughing and whispering about the things they’d done when they’d been young enough to risk it all. She laughed and smiled through her tears at her friends. After everything they’d been through, nothing could be more perfect than tonight. Nothing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the most amazing things about this book is that so much of it is based upon fact. Of course, Rose, Sophia and Hazel are all completely fictional characters, but the truth is that any one of them could have been real. During World War II, so many women stepped up into roles that women had never dreamed of doing before. The women who were recruited by the SOE in London, or those in France recruited by the Resistance, were incredibly capable, brave women, and the work they did most certainly had a huge impact on the eventual outcome of the war. They were highly trained and determined to make a difference, and they will for ever be remembered for their bravery. Many didn’t make it back home, but their contributions to the war will live on for ever. There is still a lot of secrecy around much of the work they did, but there is enough to piece together just how incredible each and every one of those undercover women was. In the words of wartime leader Winston Churchill, their task was to ‘set Europe ablaze’.
When I talk to young women and girls about writing, I always tell them something I was constantly told during my high school years: girls can do anything. We can’t do everything at once, but we can do anything we set our minds to, and this feminist fact was as true during World War II as it is today. I hope that you feel as empowered reading this book about my brave Rose, Sophia and Hazel as I felt writing it!
I had tears in my eyes reading the true accounts of the undercover female agents in France, for so many of them did the most amazing things and were killed so young. Others managed to survive through luck as much as skill, and I’ve tried to successfully balance this story with heartbreak as well as hope. It was one of the hardest stories I’ve ever created, but in many ways it has also been the most rewarding. Some days I had to walk away from my laptop to pick up my children from school, haunted by the scene I was working on, or by the research I’d just completed. But as much as the stories haunted me, they also made me hungry to tell the tales of my fictional characters, no matter how tough the creative journey.
As with all my books, I have a very small but important group of people to thank. First of all, thank you to my readers for buying my books. I read every email, every review, every mention I’m alerted to on social media, and I thank you for taking the time to read my stories and correspond with me.
Thank you to my incredible team at Amazon Publishing – I’m so proud to be published under the Lake Union imprint. Sammia Hamer, Emile Marneur, Bekah Graham, Victoria Pepe, Katie Green and Jessica Gardner, thank you for being such a fantastic team. I always know I’m in great hands with you all in my corner, and there are many more people involved behind the scenes there too.
I’d also like to thank Laura Bradford, who has been my agent for seven years now, and will hopefully be my partner in the publishing world for many more years to come.
My days at home as a writer are very solitary – except when I’m surrounded by my children and trying to work of course! But the quiet times are made less solitary thanks to my daily writing partner, Yvonne Lindsay, and daily emails from fellow authors Nicola Marsh and Natalie Anderson.
And finally to my most important support crew . . . my family. I am so lucky to have a job that allows me to work full-time as well as parent full-time, and even though it feels like an impossible juggle sometimes, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Although without an amazing mother and husband to help me at every step of the way, the juggle might just be impossible!
I love hearing from readers, and I personally respond to every email and social media message. I also enjoy chatting to book clubs, so if you want me to Skype into your book club meeting or answer questions, please do contact me through my website, www.sorayalane.com.
While you’re reading this book I’ll already be busy at work on my next women’s fiction title, so don’t forget to follow my author page on Amazon to be alerted of my next release!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2014 Carys Monteath
Soraya M. Lane graduated with a law degree before realising that law wasn’t the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction, and her h
istorical novel Voyage of the Heart was an Amazon bestseller.
Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four-legged friends. When she’s not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.
For more information about Soraya and her books, visit www.sorayalane.com or www.facebook.com/SorayaLaneAuthor, or follow her on Twitter: @Soraya_Lane.