He nodded. “An excellent idea.” He glanced at the boys, then looked at her and smiled. “I won’t be long.”
Diana watched him walk on along the bridge, then disappear down the steps at the other end.
Suppressing a contented sigh, smiling to herself, she turned her attention to the children.
True to his word, Toby wasn’t long at all. After finally tiring of watching the shunting, the boys had only just realized he’d left for the station when he reappeared and walked to join them.
Eagerly, Roland asked, “Where are we going to this time?”
Toby grinned. “To a town called Cuneo. To reach it, we go south to Novara, then southwest to Torino, then turn directly south to Cuneo.”
“Will we be on the train the whole way?” Bryce asked, confidently taking Toby’s hand.
Toby smiled at him. “On a train the whole way, but not the same train. We’ll have to change trains at Novara, which is our first stop. Then we’ll be on one of the main-line trains for the rest of the journey.”
In a group, they turned toward the hotel, and Evelyn took Diana’s hand, then looked up at Toby. “Will we be sleeping on the train again?”
“Not this time.” Toby glanced at the children, clustered around him as they neared the steps down to the gardens. “Our train will leave here first thing in the morning, and our train from Novara leaves there before midday. I imagine we’ll stop for a short time in Torino, and we should arrive in Cuneo by late afternoon.”
“So it’s just one day more on the train?” Roland asked.
Toby confirmed that was the case, and they went down the steps to the neatly clipped grass and set out for the hotel.
As they walked along one of the garden’s gravel paths, Roland asked, “Why Cuneo?”
Diana glanced at Toby; she’d been wondering that herself.
Roland, too, looked at Toby. “Is that where we get on a ship?”
His expression relaxed, Toby shook his head. “No. Cuneo is well inland. From there, we’ll hire a coach and drive across the border into France and down to the coast of the Mediterranean and follow that around to Marseille. That’s where we’ll find a ship to take us to England.”
The boys took a moment to absorb that, then Roland said, “That means that by the time we reach England, we’ll have traveled by carriage, train, cart, rowboat, and ship.”
When the children looked up at him, Toby grinned. “Indeed. By the time we reach England, you’ll be experienced travelers—more experienced than most.”
That notion clearly pleased the children.
Diana looked ahead. “We should get back and tell Helga the news.”
“Yes!” the trio chorused.
As they rushed ahead, Diana looped her arm in Toby’s, leant close, and murmured, “Earlier, you said we would be going to Genoa to find a ship.”
Toby dipped his head toward hers. “That was my initial intention, and I’m hoping that Heinrik also assumed I would head that way, at least at first. And while I hope he’s now halfway across France on his way to the Channel ports, I’d rather not chance any accidental encounter, which is one of several reasons why, for us, heading to Marseille is now the preferable option.”
The hotel loomed before them, putting an end to the exchange, and Diana and Toby continued in their roles of mama and papa through a familial afternoon tea and dinnertime, and she couldn’t help but register how smoothly and effortlessly they all now played their parts.
While she was tucking Evelyn into bed and thinking of how deeply ingrained the elements of their charade had apparently become, Diana realized that their behaviors were no longer adopted masks or constructed façades but rather a projection of who they each wanted to be.
They were still pretending, but it was pretense on a different level. More the trying on of a role—like trying on a glove to see if it fitted—rather than a role assumed to deceive others.
Once Evelyn’s breathing slowed, Diana peeked through the connecting door into the adjoining room and found it dim and silent, with both boys curled under the blankets, quiet and still. She closed the door and hesitated, then after noting Helga getting ready for bed, too, Diana opened the corridor door and stepped outside.
She glanced around and located Toby standing in an alcove at the end of the corridor. He was facing the other way, apparently looking at the lake through a large window.
She walked down the corridor and joined him.
He glanced briefly her way, then returned his gaze to the dark waters of the lake.
