Her Forgotten Promise by Corin Burnside

Author:Corin Burnside [Burnside, Corin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2023-04-18T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Claire

Now I had learnt so much more, thanks to the letter and Aunt M opening up about her life during the war, it was satisfying to make headway with Agnes’s story. The basic information was readily available, which in a lot of ways made me sadder on Aunt M’s behalf. Seventy years of believing her love was dead or missing and yet I had uncovered her movements back then with a few days’ research.

I knew where Agnes was posted to, and the chapter about her in the book on SOE women gave me the name she used while in France – Célèste Sarraute. There was lots I didn’t know yet, but if I kept digging, surely there must be more I could discover.

I couldn’t find any evidence of her capture or execution, which was some relief. But there was no indication she’d returned to England either, so I didn’t feel much further forward in knowing what happened to prevent her returning to Aunt M. It was a frustrating process, but also a satisfaction in every tiny piece of information I uncovered. The notebook I jotted everything down in was filling up.

I researched as much as I could about the Pyrenees region and the war in that area. It was part of Vichy France, and being on the border with Spain, there were numerous escape routes over the mountains. The terrifying ordeals undergone by people in some of the accounts of escapes were sobering. I found myself wanting to see the mountains, appreciate what they were like in reality – not just read about them in a book. With time to fill, visiting the town would be a good way to keep my mind off Andrew and Helen.

Once Aunt M had recovered some of her strength and I was less worried about her, I sat her down and told her everything I’d discovered.

She was outraged.

‘So, there were other young women who did the same as Agnes – just disappeared into thin air?’

I nodded. ‘Their next of kin were told, but no one else.’ I understood her anger. What if someone I was close to suddenly went missing without a word? It seemed unconscionable. ‘Did you ask Agnes’s family if they knew where she went? If they were the only people she could tell, they must have known, don’t you think?’

‘Her mother died not long after I met Agnes, and she was estranged from her father, had cut all ties. Didn’t I tell you that, already?’ Aunt M said. I nodded. She frowned. ‘I did contact him – her father – I looked his name up in the telephone directory. I rang every Christopher Kerr in London until I found him, and said I was a friend of Agnes. He admitted they were estranged – he didn’t even know she was missing.’

‘Gosh, Aunt M – you should have been a detective. That was good thinking.’

She shrugged. ‘I was so worried, and I thought they might have been notified if she’d been killed in an accident or something like that.

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