by Deborah Carr
Estelle’s heart broke. ‘No, I wouldn’t mind. But I think you should wait a good few years before then, don’t you?’
Hans smiled. ‘I agree.’ He bowed his head slightly and took her hands in his. ‘Goodbye, Estelle. I’m grateful I was lucky enough to spend my war on your farm. Please say my goodbyes to Frau Woods. I believe she might have gone to visit one of her friends.’ He leant forward and gave her a lingering kiss on her cheek that she leaned into before letting her hands go.
‘Goodbye, Hans,’ she said, her voice barely above a whisper, still able to feel the pressure of his fingers on her own. The imprint of his kiss.
She watched him walk away, turning once as he reached the side of the barn to give her a brief smile. She felt as if a hand was squeezing her heart and wondered how different things could have been between them if they had met in peace time.
She crouched down and hugged Rebel. ‘It’s finally over, boy.’ But despite her joy at the war finally ending, Estelle buried her head in the Alsatian’s fur and cried.
Forty-Nine
Estelle
9 May – Liberation Day
Estelle woke early and dressed. She could still barely dare to believe that they were to be officially liberated today. She had hung both her dad’s Jersey flag and his Union Flag from the windows feeling as she did so that she was taking ownership back from the Germans and knew her father would approve of her doing so.
She hurried downstairs eager to step outside into the warm May day and breathe in deeply. Before she reached the back door someone banged on it several times.
‘Miss. Miss.’
She opened the door and smiled at the boy who had caused such upset when trying to steal their chicken. ‘Hello, what are you doing here?’
‘Me mum said I should let you know about the boat.’
‘What boat?’
‘The HMS Beagle, it’s called. It arrived at St Helier Harbour this morning with British soldiers. We’re going to town soon to join in the celebrations. It’s going to be fun. The Red Cross boat is there, too, with more food parcels for us all. Mum said I can have half a bar of chocolate today from it to celebrate.’
She thanked him, surprised to hear that Chantal was being so thoughtful, and went to find her grandmother, who was in her garden sitting on a sun chair, her eyes closed. Estelle watched her relieved to see how relaxed she seemed. It made a pleasant change.
‘Gran, we have to go to town. Everyone’s going to be at the Pomme d’Or at two o’clock and we can’t miss it.’
‘No, lovey, I’m quite happy sitting here thinking about what it’s going to be like when Rosie’s back here with us.’
Estelle couldn’t hide her disappointment. ‘But, Gran, we went through this together and I was hoping to be in front of the Pomme d’Or with you when they hoist the Union Flag. Don’t you want to be there? We’re going to look back on this day and won’t want to have missed anything.’
Her grandmother reached out and rested her hand on Estelle’s cheek. ‘You go for both of us. For me, it’s enough that we came through this and to know that, apart from your dear father, the rest of us survived.’
Estelle thought of Gerard and Antoinette’s husband Paul and hoped it wouldn’t be too long until they discovered when both men would be able to come home. Gerard deserved to come home. To come back to his life. Did he deserve to come back to her, though? After what she had done?
‘Would you rather I stay here with you?’ she asked her grandmother. ‘I’m not sure you should be here alone on such a historic day.’
‘Estelle. Go. Take it all in and then come back and tell me everything that happened. I’m sure Violet will make her way here this afternoon, so I doubt I’ll be alone anyway.’
Gran was right, Estelle realised. Violet would want to celebrate with her oldest friend and would probably come to the farm. ‘Right, I’ll go, then.’ She bent down and kissed her grandmother on the forehead. ‘I’ll see you later.’
‘Enjoy yourself.’
Estelle cycled into town happier than she could recall being in such a long time. Her bike wobbled and she giggled despite almost falling off as the RAF made flypasts overhead. She could hear the crowds before she reached them and spotted the red cross on the SS Vega, which was docked in the harbour. Excitement bubbled through her as she tried to think where to leave her bike. Determined not to miss a single thing, she left it with hundreds of others hoping she would be able to find it again, but not caring overly if she didn’t. As she reached the edge of the crowds she joined in with the singing and dancing, her heart filling with joy.
She spotted Antoinette waving at her and beamed happily to her friend as she made her way towards her. ‘I’ve been hoping to find you,’ Antoinette shouted over the happy voices all around them.
It was two-thirty before she saw the first British soldiers marching towards the Pomme d’Or Hotel. Estelle laughed watching the beaming men being kissed and hugged as they neared the hotel building.
Finally, she watched the swastika flag being lowered and the Union Flag being hung from a balcony on the hotel and joyful tears streamed down her face while Antoinette and others cheered. If only Dad was here with her right now. She wondered if he was looking down on her. Her gaze drifted across to the harbour where he had been killed. So much had changed since then. She had changed and she knew she would never be the same person again.
They were free, finally.
THE END
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We hope you enjoyed An Island at War!
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Don’t forget to leave a review!
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And don’t miss The Poppy Field, another epic historical novel following two nurses in two different centuries bonded by hope and heartbreak.
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You will also love Mrs Boots, a vibrant page-turner set in 1880s Jersey inspired by the true story of Florence Boot – the woman behind the Boots empire.
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Be sure to follow Deborah Carr on Twitter @DebsCarr, on Facebook @DeborahCarrAuthor, and subscribe to her newsletter at deborahcarr.org/newsletter for all the updates on her latest work.
A Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
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Firstly, thank you for choosing to read An Island at War. As someone who was born and lived her entire life in Jersey, apart from eighteen months travelling when I was twenty-one, this book is very dear to my heart.
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Living in Jersey I come across reminders of the five-year Occupation of this island during World War Two every day. There’s a long stretch of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, the coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany as a defence against Allied invasion, running across most of St Ouen’s Bay where I walk my dogs, as well as many other concrete bunkers dotted around the island. Louisa Gould, the shopkeeper who took in a Russian forced labourer, was arrested and deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she died in a gas chamber in 1945, lived and ran her shop down the road from where I live. And I’ve grown up listening to neighbours and other islanders talking about what it was like to live on the island under Nazi rule.
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My paternal great-grandmother, Marguerite Wood, remained on the island despite originally being from Scotland. I discovered her Occupation Registration Card and was shocked to find that she lied about where she was born, as well as her maiden name. I’m not sure why she chose to do this but I’m sure she had her reasons. Nazi officers were billeted next door to where she lived on St Aubin’s Road. I’ve based Mrs Woods, Estelle and Rosie’s gran, loosely on my great-grandmother, especially her quiet determination to ensure her family’s safety. My maternal grandmother, Muriel, who lived through the Blitz inspired Aunt Muriel in the book.
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My father was four when he was evacuated on the last boat out of the island with his mother, brother, and cousin. They lived in London for most of the war and he was evacuated twice more from there
to safer places during the Blitz. My late mother-in-law, Margaret Carr, was also evacuated. She was from Guernsey and was heartbroken to leave the island and her cat with her mother when she was fourteen. She dreamt of being a dress designer and it was her drawings that I now have displayed in my home that inspired me a little with Estelle and her own dreams.
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Being a Jersey girl, I wanted to write a book to honour islanders who lived through those long, difficult five years and who somehow had the strength and drive to survive all that they faced. I wrote this book during the Covid-19 pandemic’s first lockdown and although I thankfully have never experienced oppression, starvation and the fear that the islanders must have faced, I didn’t know, as they didn’t, how long I myself would be separated from my grown-up children who both lived overseas. I was able to use my fear for their safety and dread about how long it would be until I could see them again as I wrote this book.
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I hope I’ve done my fellow Channel Islanders justice and that you, my readers, have enjoyed discovering a little more about this small island fifteen miles off the coast of France. If you ever visit you must go to the Jersey War Tunnels, maybe have a stroll around some of the bunkers you come across along St Ouen’s Bay and Noirmont and maybe if one or two are open during your stay, go inside and see for yourself what the forced labourers, brought to the island during the Occupation, had to build.
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Thank you, once again, for choosing to read An Island at War. If you’ve enjoyed it please consider leaving a short review on Amazon as reviews help other readers discover authors’ books.
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Stay safe and best wishes,
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Deborah
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my amazing publisher and editor at One More Chapter, Charlotte Ledger, whose own family comes from Jersey and whose idea it was to write this book. I was at first unsure about whether I could do my fellow islanders justice in writing a novel set during Jersey’s dark years of the Occupation, but ultimately felt that I should give it my best shot and here it is.
Also thank you to Lucy Bennett for her amazing book cover for An Island at War. I love that it shows Marine Peilstand 3, the MP3 tower at Battery Moltke at Les Landes, where I often walk my dogs.
To my father for his stories about being evacuated with his mother and for the stories he recalls his grandmother sharing with him from her years living in Jersey during the Occupation.
My late mother-in-law, Margaret, for the Red Cross telegrams she and her mother received from their relatives in Guernsey, with her mother’s replies on the back sent months later, as well as Identity Cards from the Occupation and her own dress designs that she worked on as an evacuee.
To everyone who helps keep the history alive from that time including my Auntie Monica and Uncle Alan Le Feuvre, who were both children during the Occupation. To all at Jersey Heritage, especially Senior Archivist, Stuart Nicolle for his help once again, and everyone at the Jersey War Tunnels, the Jersey branch of the Channel Islands Occupation Society and the Channel Islands Military Museum as well as everyone who remembers and tells people’s stories from the Occupation so that others, like me, can discover, to an extent at least, what it must have been like to live in Jersey and the other Channel Islands during that time.
To the Red Cross for all that they did for the islanders during the Occupation from arranging telegrams to delivering desperately needed food parcels and medicines.
Mèrcie bien.
Thank you for reading…
We hope you enjoyed An Island at War!
Do leave a review if so on all your preferred platforms to help spread the word!
Catch up on the rest of Deborah Carr’s unforgettable historical novels below…
In The Poppy Field, young nurse Gemma is struggling with the traumas she has witnessed through her job. Needing to escape from it all, she agrees to help renovate a rundown farmhouse in Doullens, France, a town near the Somme. There, in a boarded-up cupboard, wrapped in old newspapers, is a tin that reveals the secret letters and heartache of Alice Le Breton, a young volunteer nurse who worked in a casualty clearing station near the front line.
Set in the present day and during the horrifying years of WWI, both women discover deep down the strength and courage to carry on in even the most difficult of times.
Get your copy right here!
The Mrs Boots series follows the epic true story of Florence Boot – the woman behind the Boots empire. Jersey 1885: On the beautiful island of Jersey, Florence Rowe lives a quiet life working in her father’s bookshop. Life for the Rowe family is good, but Florence can’t help yearning for more… When Jesse Boot arrives on the island, Florence is immediately captivated by his tales of life in a busy, bustling city on the mainland. For the first time ever, Florence imagines a life away from the constraints of Jersey society, of being someone more than just a shopgirl. Until her parents reveal the shocking news that they will refuse any marriage proposal. Can Florence find a way to be with the man she loves and make a new life for herself?
Be sure to follow Deborah Carr on Twitter @DebsCarr, on Facebook @DeborahCarrAuthor, and subscribe to her newsletter at deborahcarr.org/newsletter for all the updates on her latest work.
You will also love…
In the mood for even more epic historical fiction?
You will love The Last Beekeeper by Siya Turabi, a lyrical historical novel of secret-wreathed forests and starlight whispers set in 1970s Pakistan, where a young boy must choose to follow his head or his heart on an unforgettable journey of family, friendship, and self-discovery.
Get your copy here!
You will also love The Brothers of Auschwitz by Malka Adler, an extraordinary novel of hope and heartbreak following the true story of a family separated by the Holocaust and their harrowing journey back to each other.
Get your copy here!
You will also adore The Voyage of Freydis by Tamara Goranson, which sings the silenced tale of Freydis Eiriksdottir, the first and only woman to lead a Viking voyage across the Atlantic in this tempestuous retelling of an ancient Icelandic saga set at the dawn of the 11th century.
Get your copy here!
Happy reading!
Deborah Carr, USA Today-bestselling author of The Poppy Field, lives on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands with her husband and three rescue dogs. An Island at War is set on the island during the Occupation when Jersey was occupied by the Nazi forces from 1940–1945.
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Her Mrs Boots series is inspired by another Jersey woman, Florence Boot, the woman behind the Boots (Walgreens Boots Alliance) empire. Her debut First World War romance, Broken Faces, was runner-up in the 2012 Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition and Good Housekeeping magazine described her as ‘one to watch’.
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Keep up to date with Deborah’s books by subscribing to her newsletter: deborahcarr.org/newsletter.
www.deborahcarr.org
Also by Deborah Carr
The Mrs Boots Series
Mrs Boots
Mrs Boots of Pelham Street
Mrs Boots Goes to War
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Standalones
The Poppy Field
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