The next day, they meet again and walk a little way in the shady woods. Stefan tells her that he understands why she feels adrift now. For once she feels him trying to be frank with her. He tells her that the stories he told her the previous day were true, but – and here he stops for a while and Laura sees that he is gathering his strength to be more open than ever before – it was only when Stalin died that the authorities became flexible enough to respond to Edward’s request to make contact with her. Laura takes this in, and recognises that her status as the appendage, the wife, quite outside the grand narrative, will never change.
Stefan tries to bring her back to him. He tells her that Edward has been impatient for news of her; he repeats that he wants to see his daughter, and he reassures her that he is not drinking much. Again, Laura cannot tell what is truth, what is a story concocted to persuade her. In the end she falls silent, and lets him talk through the instructions he has been sent to give. She takes notes in her mind, just as in the old days.
In three days, he says. They will keep a tail on her all the time; two men who will alert her if there is any danger. She will drive to Lausanne and from there take the train to Zurich; from there she must take the Arlberg Express, but she must leave it at the Austrian town of Schwarzbach St Veit, where she will be met by a driver. He has her ticket ready. Here it is. Rosa will need no ticket. Just like Edward, Laura must leave on a Friday, and she must give an excuse to Mother and her friends about where she is going so that nobody is alerted until Monday. Just like Edward, she will be taken quickly across the border. Just like Edward, she will be able to prepare one telegram, to be sent once she is across.
‘What if I can’t do it?’
‘If you think someone has broken the secret, you must try to alert our men. Thread a scarf through the handles of your shutter on your bedroom window. We’ll wait a fortnight, and then try again here at the same time.’
As she drives back along the lake to Geneva, Laura is thrown forward into what it will be like for everyone if she goes. To her surprise she realises that she feels excited by the prospect. It is childish, she thinks, like the adolescent who says how sorry you’ll be when I’m dead, but she cannot help thinking of how Alistair, Sybil, Giles, Amy – all the people who made their own judgements, who dismissed her and patronised her – how they will finally know. She thinks of Valance, and is filled with elation when she thinks of winning at his game, of pulling out from under his nose. She thinks of a woman she has not seen for many years, who might read the headline in the newspaper, and might remember an eager girl on a transatlantic crossing, and might recognise the twisted journey she has taken, and why she lied to her and left her so many years ago. She knows she should feel sad about Mother and Archie, and even Ellen, and Winifred, who have stood by her all this time, but at the moment she is unable to think of them. As she thinks of the future, they seem to blur and recede.
Now, she clatters up to the apartment with a little more energy. She hears the telephone ringing as she puts her key in the door. ‘I’ll get it!’ she calls to Aurore. It is Archie. ‘Thank you for a lovely weekend,’ she says. ‘Yes, I’d love to meet next week.’ When she comes off the telephone, Aurore is telling her about the new playground they have found in the Parc Beaulieu, the other nannies she knows go there, Rosa had so much fun playing with little Marcel. Laura scoops Rosa up, nuzzling her neck as Aurore speaks. She has kept her safe all this time. She is not such a bad mother. She smiles widely at Aurore, thanking her, and tells Rosa she must show Mama the new park soon.
It’s the usual salad and cold meat for supper, once Rosa is in bed, but Laura finds herself humming along to the radio as she is preparing it. She is aware that she must say something to cover her change of mood, her elation and alertness. ‘Mother,’ she says, ‘I’ve been thinking – you are right, it’s time for us to go back home. We can’t stay here forever. I’ve got to start thinking about getting that divorce – it’s been more than two years.’ Her mother is so pleased. They sit a long while over dinner, talking about how they will go back to America and how Tom will help with the divorce, and Laura enjoys helping Mother imagine this new future.