“Let’s view this as a question of science,” Wade says, a little lighter now. “My theory is that Eddie and I can get on just fine this week if we bend some of your rules. If the experiment is a failure, we’ll dismiss the theory and I’ll admit we need to do things your way. Maybe I’ll understand a little better why you’re so rigid about how his routine works. Okay?”

“I feel like I might not have a choice.”

“Well, Ally Michaels,” Wade sighs, and he cups my face in his hands to stare down at me tenderly. “One way or another, we will all survive. You, me, Callie...and yes, even Edison.” He bends and kisses me gently, then rests his forehead against mine. “I love you.”

Despite the tension between us, despite the distance in these recent years—I know that Wade loves me, and I know that I love Wade. Sometimes I also kind of hate him, but mostly, I love him. That’s marriage sometimes. That’s just the way it is; the years can’t all be kind, because life isn’t always kind. We’ve been in a rough patch—a very rough patch—but I know we’re still walking on the same path. I nod slowly, and a smile breaks over his face.

“I love you too,” I whisper, then I kiss him hard. “I love you so much Wade, and I always will. No matter what else happens in our life, please don’t ever doubt it again.”

“Come to bed,” he whispers, tugging at my hand as he turns away.

Last night, that very same suggestive tone felt like a burden and it made me furious.

Tonight, I can’t wait to reconnect with him, and I’m glad to let him lead the way.

CHAPTER 20

Alina

It was completely dark when the hesitant knock came at the door, and I held my breath when Father opened it. Tomasz stood on the stoop, his tattered hat against his chest, his eyes downcast.

Mama pushed Father out of the way, then she grabbed Tomasz by the shoulders and she held him away from her, staring at him in horror.

“Tomasz Slaski!” she gasped. “You are skin and bones. Sit.” She clucked her tongue, then pushed him toward the table. “What have you been doing with the bread I’ve been sending with Alina? Not sharing it all with our Jewish brothers and sisters?”

“My friend’s wife had a baby...” he said weakly as he sank into one of the chairs. “I have been giving her every mouthful I could spare.”

“That stops today.” When he didn’t react, she rested her hands on his shoulders again, this time to shake him a little. “Do you hear me, young man? You will be no help to them if you do not eat yourself first. From now, you let me fatten you up a little. I’ll show you the cellar shortly and you can see the rich bounty we have to share.”

Tomasz shot me a glance, and I stifled a giggle at the mixture of joy and bewilderment on his face. Sometime later, once he had a belly full of soup and egg and bread and even a few shots of vodka that my father furnished him, Tomasz climbed down into the cellar to take a look around. I sat at the edge of the dark space. He looked up at me, amused.

“You blackmailed me into coming here, now you won’t come down to visit my palace?”

“I will,” I admitted, then I shuddered. “But the darkness scares me. I don’t know how you will bear it all day.”

“Darkness is just like sleep,” he shrugged. “And anything has to be better than sleeping in a tree like a squirrel.”

“Are you very upset that I forced you to come?” I asked him hesitantly. He sighed, and ran his hands through his hair.

“It is hard for me to answer that right now. I’m compromised because it’s warm in here and I’m a little drunk and the mattress is so comfortable and my belly is so full...” he said with a reluctant smile, but the smile quickly cleared and concern took its place. “I am grateful to you and your parents, but I will never forgive myself if this turns out to be a mistake.”

“Will you stay in tonight?” Mama called to him, from the other side of the living room where she was making up her own bed. “You could do with one good night’s rest.”

“It would be better if I didn’t,” he called back. “Most of my friends would be okay for a day or two—but not Saul and Eva. The farmer hiding them does nothing more than required to collect his gold and Eva so badly needs the food.”

“I made a loaf of bread yesterday—you can take everything that is left, and a whole jar of jam from last season, and I’ll boil you some eggs...but only if you sleep. We will set the alarm, and you can go and be back before the sun comes up.”

Tomasz took a few steps up the ladder, until he was standing beside me. He seemed almost overcome with emotion—his eyes wide and his jaw set hard.

“Thank you, Mrs. Dziak,” he said roughly, then his gaze shifted to my father, who was warming his back by the fire. “Thank you, Mr. Dziak. For your courage. Your generosity. Your kindness toward me.”

“But for the damned war, you’d be our son by now,” Father said stiffly. Tomasz reached for my hand, and he squeezed it.

“One day,” he whispered to me, then he smiled and my heart skipped a beat. “One day soon, my love.”

“Sleep while you can, Tomasz,” I whispered back. “We can talk tomorrow.”

* * *

We had to maintain a militant schedule now that Tomasz was in the cellar. He’d leave the house just before my parents went to bed—taking with him whatever food Mama offered him, and he’d return in the morning, usually just before dawn. As he came back to the house, he or Mama would wake me, and I’d spend some time talking with him in the cellar. While I was down there, Mama would make breakfast and, because she was there to keep watch, we’d leave the latch open.

Even with the light from the windows in the upstairs, I never got used to the darkness of the cellar. Every single time I climbed down the ladder, I’d feel sick to my stomach at the darkness and the musty, dusty scent. We would sit on the makeshift bed and Tomasz would wrap his arms around me to help me through the panic of it—then we’d leap away from one another guiltily whenever we heard Mama walk near to the opening.

We talked about so many things in those weeks. We talked about the agony of the separation we’d survived, and we daydreamed about our future. Now that there were no secrets between us, Tomasz told me all about the work he was doing and his fears for his friends.

“Some farmers do this only for the money, and I wish we were not so desperate as to use those people,” Tomasz told me. “The man hosting Saul’s family makes me very nervous indeed. We want to move them from that house as soon as I can, but it’s just so difficult to find suitable places.”