The House by the Lake by Ella Carey Read Free Book Online Page B

and turned her face toward the breeze. Nadja sat on one of the wooden slatted seats up at the front of the boat chatting with her friend Sascha.
    When the boat pulled up at a small jetty on the edge of the town, Max turned to Isabelle and asked, “Would you like to walk with me? I’d love to show you the town, if you’ll allow me.”
    “That sounds perfect,” Isabelle said with a smile.
    “I’d like to take Isabelle for a walk,” Max announced to the group while the crew tied the boat to the moorings. There was a pretty park behind the rocky foreshore, and narrow streets led off into what looked like a medieval Swiss town.
    “Go ahead,” Virginia laughed. “Unless you think you need that chaperone, honey.” The American girl looked arch.
    Isabelle felt herself blush, but she just shook her head.
    The crew helped Isabelle, Nadja, Sascha, and Virginia off the boat. Didi and Jo were off next, scampering down to the water’s edge.
    “We’ll be back in time for lunch,” Max said, following everyone else off the boat.
    A sense of disappointment fluttered through Isabelle. She didn’t want to come back for lunch. She would much rather spend the whole day with Max. But that was ridiculous. She said goodbye to Virginia.
    Virginia waved back. “I’ll be here in the park with Nadja and Sascha. We’re going to have a delicious talk.”
    Virginia did not seem at all put off by Nadja’s cold manners. Isabelle wondered whether her new American friend was fazed by anything at all.
    Max held out his arm for Isabelle. “Shall we?”
    Isabelle slipped her arm into his. When she did so, she realized that she was feeling as she never had before.
    It would have been easy to become lost in the cobbled streets of St. Prex. Many of the gabled houses were covered in climbing greenery, their window boxes a riot of summer colors. After half an hour of wandering and easy conversation, Max offered to take her to a café for a glass of something cool.
    But he seemed hesitant, watching her as he waited for her to respond.
    What was he looking for? Did he expect her to be embarrassed at the idea of sitting alone in an unfamiliar café with an unfamiliar man in a foreign country? The truth was, she didn’t feel any sort of embarrassment at all. Oddly, she felt more at home here than she often did in Paris.
    “So,” Max said, his blue eyes crinkling at their corners as he offered her a seat under the verandah of a charming café. “Now you know my family.”
    Isabelle waited a moment. She wanted to ask about his parents. But this was always a sensitive subject. The war . . . his father.
    But Max seemed to sense her thoughts. “My parents are hosting . . . guests this summer. Well, of a sort. My father did not want to leave the men who are staying with us for the month of August. They are from the training camps south of Berlin.”
    “Oh,” Isabelle said. Training camps. The idea made her feel like shuddering. “That must be interesting for you—to have them there, in the house.”
    Max chuckled. “What a diplomat you are. My parents have their . . . political views. There are movements in Paris too. But I’m sure you’re aware of that.”
    Isabelle tensed. The Communist and Fascist uprisings in Paris earlier in the year were still fresh in everyone’s minds. But she couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live in a country where alternative political parties were banned, let alone protests. Hitler had just given himself absolute power. She had read about the SS’s efforts to destroy all opposition within the Nazi party in June. It was impossible to know what to say.
    There was a silence.
    “My parents want me to join the Nazi party,” Max said. “But if Hitler is capable of ordering the SS to kill men who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him, how can I think of joining them, let alone allowing people like my younger brothers to join his cause? People are saying it was necessary—that in order to move forward,