1960
James Dorr was waiting for Eugénie when the bus arrived in the village where they lived. Eugénie descended from the bus and didn't see her father for the fog and the tears in her eyes. "Genie!" He called.
"Dad?" She spun around. He held his arms open, and she ran into them.
"Sit down, Genie." They sat on the bench at the bus shelter. "Phil rang. He told me what happened in the shop."
"This Baron." She'd committed the little card to memory now. "Baron Heinrich von Rheingarten. Is he…"
"He is." James answered simply.
"Oh God, dad…"
"Let's go home, sweet Genie. I'll build a fire and we can talk properly."
Flashback to the port of St. Gregory, July 1941
Kathleen Jonas and her family were waiting anxiously at the port. Her husband Wilf had been imprisoned for nine months for trying to help a spy- Philip Dorr- escape to England in his boat, the Little Mary. Wilf was meant to be released and sent home from a POW camp in France. Kath huddled with her son, brother, and belle-mère as a cold wind blew.
Angélique Mahy approached the Jonas family on the quai. "Mrs. Jonas! They said at the Government House that the boat should be on its way with both the constable and Senator Dorr on board."
Sheldon Levesque, Kath's brother and man about town, spoke up. "Well, where is that Felicity Dorr? I've made several supply runs to Sous les Chênes, and I haven't seen her out in the gardens as usual. I don't think anyone has seen her for weeks. If my house were crawling with Nazis I would certainly want to get out more."
Angélique answered, "Mrs. Dorr is unwell today. She asked me to come to meet the senator."
Ada Jonas, Wilf's mother, clucked. "Unwell? What kind of a wife wouldn't wait to greet her husband after nine months? That's not right."
Angélique defended Felicity Dorr. "Be kind to her, Mrs. Jonas, Mrs. Dorr saved your son's life. She interceded with Baron von Rheingarten to spare your Wilf, Phil, and the senator."
Kath Jonas remembered her own ordeal at the hands of the Germans, imprisoned in a Nazi hospital by men intent on proving that she was a promiscuous woman with venereal disease. Being tied to that bed and forcibly examined was tantamount to rape. Kath began to fear that Felicity may have had a similar experience.
"Oh Lord, Sheldon's right! She's been alone in that big house invaded by German officers all this time. Angélique, has the Baron… done something to Mrs. Dorr?"
"No, no, everything is fine!" Angélique protested, in a way that seemed to indicate the opposite.
"But now she has disappeared from view? Angélique, have you actually seen her?"
"Yes, of course, just this morning."
"Angélique, is Mrs. Dorr with child?"
Angélique's look of panic confirmed Kath Jonas' suspicion. "No one must know!" Angélique wailed.
"The secret is safe with us. We will always be grateful to Mrs. Dorr for saving our Wilf."
"Mum! The boat!" young Colin Jonas cried. A vessel had appeared over the horizon and was approaching the port. As soon as they could discern figures on board, the Jonas family saw their Wilf waving. As he came into focus, they saw him smile from ear to ear despite his ordeal.
Wilf would have loved nothing more than to run to Kath's arms, but he was laden by his compatriot who could barely stand. Kath ran to him and propped up Senator Dorr on the other side.
"Good heavens! Senator Dorr, are you all right?" The senator lifted his head in response, but his glassy eyes seemed not to focus.
"Ya cannet tell from his face, Kath, but they beat him up pretty bad 'bout a week ago. They broke the skin and his wounds are starting to fester." His trench coat concealed the bruises, but some blood and pus had seeped through his clothing.
"Aye, fever's set in," Kath said as she held the back of her hand to James' face.
Senator Dorr seemed to register that, so Angélique tried to talk to him. "Sir? Look at me, sir. I'm going to see you back to Sous les Chênes. Mrs. Dorr is waiting for you."
"Felicity…" his voice creaked as his knees buckled. The Jonases kept him from falling.
Angélique looked up helplessly. "What are we going to do? He'll never make it on the bicycle and with the vehicle ban…"
"Leave that to me," said Sheldon with a wink. "Kath, have you got any potatoes? I think I need to make a delivery to Sous les Chênes."
Felicity had been pacing nervously all day since Angélique had left her with the news that her husband should return to her today. Her worry was anything but assuaged when a barely conscious Senator Dorr was delivered back to Sous les Chênes in the back of a pick-up truck by Sheldon Leveque. Sheldon helped Felicity get James upstairs to bed before he took his leave. "Don't worry, Mrs. Dorr," he'd said. "I am good at keeping secrets." Felicity nodded in gratitude.
Felicity gasped with horror when she removed James' clothes. She cleaned and dressed his putrid wounds and stayed with James through the worst of his fever, applying a cool compress and trying to give him water to drink.
"Are you sure that's wise, ma'am? In your condition?" Delphine the maid asked. It was the first time that Delphine had expressed any concern for Felicity's pregnancy, though she had been casting judgmental looks for months. Delphine's loyalty was to the Dorrs and the same maid who didn't want the Nazis to have James' mother's linens wasn't too keen on the current Mrs. Dorr's infidelity.
"He is my husband, for Heaven's sake! And I don't think that being beaten is contagious, though with Flach in charge one never knows."
James told Felicity repeatedly how much he loved her, but she wondered if that would still be true once he was no longer delirious. "Everything will be all right, James." She whispered, though she had a hard time believing it herself.
At last his fever broke. When James awoke drenched in sweat, he tried to sit up to meet his wife at his side but instead he groaned in pain. His eyes focused on the woman sleeping in the chair beside him wrapped in a blanket, blonde hair undone. Even bedraggled with exhaustion, James thought that she had a certain glow about her.
"James?" Her voice was timid as she awoke to his groan.
"Felicity." He whispered back, as she leaned in to mop his brow. "I dreamed of this moment for so long, being home with you at Sous les Chênes." She hung her head in shame and shook it negatively. "What is it, my love?"
She looked at him, her eyes wide with fear as she spoke. "I have betrayed you, James."
"You did what you had to do. You saved my life and Phil's. That's all that matters."
"It's not that simple." Felicity rose from the chair and shed the blanket. As she walked to the fireplace, James noticed her burgeoning belly. She was a very thin woman so her betrayal was unmistakable. She took an envelope from the mantle and crossed the room again. Her hand trembled as she handed the envelope to her husband.
He ran his fingers under the wax seal. This is what he read:
Senator Dorr,
Your wife is an honourable woman. Any stain upon her virtue is my fault and my fault alone. As you are no doubt aware, there have been unintended consequences to my presence here. At Mrs. Dorr's request, I am leaving Sous les Chênes. I will seek to be transferred away from St. Gregory. I plan to initiate a bank account in Switzerland to assure that the child is provided for. I will see that you have access regardless of the status of this war and its outcome. I trust that you will not repudiate your wife and her child.
Oberst Baron Heinrich von Rheingarten
James Dorr handed the letter back to his wife. "Burn this," he commanded despite his weakened state. Felicity hesitated. "Burn it, I said."
Felicity examined the letter in her hand. She knew that the light that Heinrich had cast on the situation was not entirely true. With one last look at her lover's handwriting, she threw the letter on the fire.
She turned to James. "All I can do is ask that one day you might forgive me."
"Leave me now." He said as he rolled his head away from her.
Felicity returned to James' room, around noon with some broth. He turned his head away from her. "Please James, you need to eat something to get your strength back. Then you may proceed to hate me with all your will."
James accepted the first spoonful from her then asked her to surrender the spoon. "I can do this by myself."
"I'll leave you to it then."
Throughout his imprisonment, Felicity's last words to him I love you and I want you home soon had sustained him. He'd repeated them so often in his mind that he'd forgotten his own words to her- you've achieved something remarkable with the Baron, and whatever it took, I understand. He cringed as he considered the ramifications of his words. James remembered another day at the harbour: after the bombing. He'd come looking for Felicity and found her dazed and bloody, but alive. He was so grateful for her life; why did it take a bombing for him to tell her that he wanted her to stay? She told him to hold her; now he wished that he had never let go.
James hobbled into the drawing room later that afternoon like a man who was unsure of where he was and where he was going. "James, you're dressed!" Felicity cried as she put down her knitting and went to him. "You ought to be back in bed!"
"I need some fresh air. It was so stagnant in that prison. Will you walk with me? Guide me?"
She stood up and took his arm. Together, they ambled to the orchard. James seemed to be leading Felicity towards a certain tree stump. The tree had been felled lest it serve as a memorial to Eugène Lasalle. He stopped in front of the tree stump.
"Not here, James. Please."
"Yes, Felicity. I was so foolish to believe that Eugène Lasalle would be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. I caused another man's son to lose his life. It seems fitting that this is where I commit to raising another man's child."
"Oh James, penance?" Felicity wimpered.
"No, redemption." He placed his hand on her middle. "We will never speak of Baron von Rheingarten again. This is my baby, Felicity. Are we agreed?"
"Yes." She wiped away a tear and kissed him tenderly.