Excerpt

Claire said a silent prayer. She had long ago abandoned her faith – what loving God would have allowed the Nazis to partition France? – but the childhood habit provided her a faint whiff of comfort.

She could hear footsteps outside the barn, and the occasional whine of a dog. The military police patrolled regularly, looking for Jews trying to escape to Spain.

A weak flashlight beam played across the center of the barn, but the men outside clearly didn't want to approach any closer to the skunk spray Etienne had spread in the doorway.

Their leader muttered a curse and ordered his men back. "No human could survive that stench."

No normal human, Claire thought as she listened to the retreating footfalls. But desperate people were a different matter. And her charges were among the most desperate.

Agonizing minutes later, Etienne whispered an all-clear, and the small band emerged from their hiding places, taking the wet cloths from over their mouths.

"They will return in two hours," he instructed the refugee as he lit a small lantern. "Take only what you can carry, and be ready to leave in ten minutes."

"Wear everything in layers," he added. "It is the best way to carry extra clothing, and you will need it all when you reach the mountains."