1960

"Darling? I need you at the counter," Philip Dorr called to his wife. "Could you manage the till for a while? Genie and I need to talk." Philip and Eugénie settled in the flat above the shop where Phil and his wife lived with their two children. Philip made tea.

"Before the war, I wasn't around very much- just home on my holidays, really- but I knew that mum and dad didn't really get on. After the war, everything was different. I came home from the POW camp in France, and suddenly there you were. We became a very close family. Secrets will do that, though, bind people together."

"What secrets, Phil?"

Flashback to St. Gregory in May 1945, shortly after the liberation.

Senator Dorr had just returned to the Senate after a long hiatus; as condition of his release from prison, he had had to give up his job. Angélique Mahy had always managed to keep him informed though, and he was able to serve as an advisor to the incompetent Bailiff LaPalotte in the shadows. His role in island affairs no longer verboten, Senator Dorr was reacquainting himself with what was left of his file cabinets when Angélique burst into his office. "Sir, I have the passenger manifest for the ship that is due this afternoon."

"Is my wife on it?" Felicity Dorr and the other English-born denizens of St. Gregory had been deported to a POW camp in Germany in 1942. In the early days following the liberation, the islanders waited anxiously for news of deported loved ones.

"No, but there's a Brotherson. No first name."

James Dorr rushed down to the port as fast as his bicycle would allow. He paced nervously as the latest boat approached from France.

"Phil!" The senator shouted from the pier as soon as he saw the familiar blonde head emerge from the masses. The two men embraced. Felicity had once criticized James for not showing Philip enough affection, but he more than made up for a life-time of stiff upper lips in that moment.

"How is mum?" Philip asked. James swallowed and explained her deportation.

"I was hoping that you might have news of her." James said.

"Sadly, prisoners aren't the best informed."

"We'll continue to pray for her safe return." James said.

"You came through the labour camp all right, dad? And Constable Jonas?"

"Yes, a little worse for the wear, but after 9 months I was released along with Constable Jonas."

"So the Baron was true to his word." Philip seemed relieved by that news, but his father suddenly had an icy stare.

"Yes. Baron von Rheingarten." James took a moment to compose himself. "Phil, there's something else you should know. I came back from the labour camp, your mother and I were reunited for a time, and…" the Senator couldn't hide a tiny bashful smile… "you have a sister now. Eugénie. Named for Eugène Lasalle."

"Dad, I think that's beautiful."

"She is, just like your mother. Now Phil, you might hear rumours in St. Gregory."

"What kind of rumours?"

"It doesn't matter. Just dismiss anything that you hear that is untoward. And no matter what you hear, always remember that Eugénie is your sister. You'll have to defend her as only a brother can. It broke your poor mother's heart to leave her here, but she wouldn't risk taking a baby to a German prison. Eugénie will need you more than ever if God forbid mummy doesn't come back."

Philip found that whole exchange odd, but didn't ask any more questions as his father was clearly upset. The toddler he met that afternoon didn't look much like him or his father, so he suspected for a time that his family was harbouring a refugee baby. Perhaps her family was Jewish? He thought of the young Jewish woman with whom he had attempted to sail for England. She had dived into the icy water after their boat was sighted by the Nazis. He wished he knew what had happened to her.

Island life resumed some semblance of normalcy on St. Gregory, even if much of it was for show. In June 1945, a royal visit was planned to heal the rift that opened when England left the Channel Islands vulnerable to German attack. Senator Dorr stood near the front of the gathered crowd with his family. By this time, Felicity had returned to them looking more like a skeleton than a woman, but the Dorrs rejoiced at being a family again.

Felicity held on to the pram in front of her as much for her own support as to transport young Eugénie. A passer-by spit in Eugénie's buggy. "Oi!" Philip started to shout at the man to make him apologise to his sister.

Felicity seized Philip's arm and hissed, "don't make a scene, Phil." Philip noticed that his mother was blinking back tears while his father stared straight ahead blindly. It wasn't the first time that Philip had questioned his father's stoicism. Philip knew from his mother's face that there was much more to the situation than not wanting to make a scene in front of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The mystery of baby Dorr followed Philip as he began working in his father's office at the senate. In one particular instance, he and Angélique Mahy had been going over a trade dossier with an increasingly senile Bailiff LaPalotte.

Though Angélique was doing all the work, the Bailiff seemed to dote on Phil. "I hope that you're paying attention, young Dorr, because you could be Bailiff yourself one day, just like your grandfather. Pity that the honour will pass your father by."

"But my father would make a fine bailiff."

"Of course he would; your father works like a dog because he loves St. Gregory. But he has lost the public favour, all because of the changeling, really. Noble man, he is, Senator Dorr."

Once Philip was alone with Angélique, he couldn't help but return to the bailiff's cryptic remarks.

"What do you think that the bailiff might have meant by 'changeling?' Was Eugénie switched at birth? Whose baby is she?"

"Ignore him, Phil, these are the ramblings of a senile old man. He doesn't know what he's saying."

"Maybe so, Angelique, but if there is some reason- true or not- that St. Gregory has turned its back on my father, I deserve to know."

"Phil, I don't like to repeat rumours."

"Please, Angélique. Just tell me." He grabbed her arm.

She lowered her head, ashamed to divulge the secret. "I believe that your mum and Baron von Rheingarten had an arrangement."

"Arrangement?" Philip sputtered, appalled. "Do you mean…?"

"By all rights, the Baron should have had you executed for spying. And your father for trying to help. I believe that your mother saved you both."

"No. You must be mistaken. This is wrong." was all Philip Dorr could muster.

"Phil, your mum was already visibly pregnant when your father returned from the prison camp."

"My mother is not a whore!" Philip stormed at Angélique. He would rather have died than have his mother sacrifice herself for him.

"God, Phil, no. Don't even think about your mother that way! And you can't let on that you know. It would kill her. I hate betraying your mum's secret, Phil. She was kind enough to keep mine."

"Yours?"

Angélique Mahy's voice began to tremble. "You'll probably think me a whore too then, but I fell in love with a German airman. Your mum was the only one who knew. June knows now, but my mum doesn't. Please don't say anything."

"Oh." He paused. "I'm sorry, Angélique."

"No, Phil. Don't be sorry; it's wonderful, just difficult. Bernhardt came through the war. Don't tell anyone- but I'm leaving St. Gregory. Bernhardt and I are going to make our life together in Argentina. He's going there first, to prepare our home. I don't know when I am leaving, but I pray that he sends for me soon."

Philip was stunned; he didn't go home that night. He needed to process all that Angélique had told him. He knew that he should have been executed just like his partner Eugène Lasalle. He thought that the Baron had spared him because they built a wall together, because the Baron had said that Philip reminded him of his own son. But now Philip knew that it was really for the love of his mother that the Baron betrayed his duty.

1960

Eugénie Dorr looked at the card in her hand. "Who exactly is the Oberst Baron Heinrich von Rheingarten, Phil?"

Philip shook his head and sighed. Discovering her origin would be traumatic enough for Eugénie without him spewing hatred for the man who had sired her. Philip checked his rage for Eugénie's sake. "He was the Nazi commandant at St. Gregory. He and several of his men took up residence at Sous les Chênes. He had your namesake, Eugène Lasalle, killed. I should have been killed with him. But… the Baron was kind to Mr. Brotherson. We'd repaired a wall together back at Sous les Chênes. The Baron didn't know that Mr. Brotherson was really Philip Dorr. And I didn't know how much the Baron cared for mum. She intervened when I was caught as a spy; the Baron could have had both me and dad killed. But he spared our lives."

"How do you mean, mum intervened?"

"Mum and the Baron… I believe they were close, especially after Dad and I had gone to prison. It's still hard for me to think about. Best not to imagine mum all alone in a house full of Nazis, right?"

"Oh God, Phil, what are you saying?"

"I don't know, Genie. Mum and dad never talked about it. We should go see them together, in the morning. Stay here tonight."

"No, I am going home!" Eugénie dramatically stuffed a few things into her rucksack and stomped off, slamming the door behind her. He could hear her thundering down the stairs. That girl has an overdeveloped sense for the theatrical, thought Philip.