SPOILERS!!!
In Paris Jessica lives with Sara and her family, that is, her husband, Louis, and her daughters, Marie and Frannie. Louis is an actor and owns the smallest theatre in Paris on the floor above the apartment. Sara is not an easy woman, who is always complaining and unhappy. The reason why Jessica is in Paris is to persuade her to go back to England, but Sara refuses. Then she announces she is pregnant.
During this time Jessica meets Sam, a Canadian interpreter in the embassy, and they strike up a friendship. Sara gives birth to a son she calls Joseph, and when rumours that the war is imminent, Sam helps Jessica to get tickets for the train to return to England. Louis is to stay in Paris as he won't desert his country. The day they are to leave, at some poing Sara realises that Frannie is not on the train, and Jessica runs to find her. The train leaves without Jessica, and then Frannie appears, saying that she doesn't want to leave Paris and her dad. Sam is supposed to leave for Canada, but when Jessica calls him, he rushes to the apartment, and he tells her that the plane has gone without him. After that, Sam moves into the apartment, and he and Jessica become lovers.
Even though the war breaks out, Jessica and the others have a peaceful life for a while. Then the Nazis enter Paris, and Louis becomes a member of the Resistance, sheltering German Jews on their way to freedom. Frannie and her friend Henri claim that they are spying on a school friend whose father, a policeman, is a Fascist. When the policeman is murdered, Louis is arrested, and he admits to Jessica that he was part of the plot to kill the man. Louis is then executed the next day.
Frannie and Jessica go to Reims, where Louis's mother, Simone, lives. Jessica just nees a few days to rest, and then Sam appears one day, saying that he is to join the British army, but he has a condition: Jessica needs to remain in Reims. Jessica agrees, and then Sam asks her to marry him. He claims that they don't need a paper, just a commitment. When they go to Paris for Jessica's things, they perform a ceremony with Frannie, Simone, Henri and the actors all as witnesses, and they read their vows to each other. That night Jessica finally tells Sam about Bertie and her children, and Sam is understanding. The next day he leaves, and Jessica, Simone and Frannie stay in Paris. Jessica lied to Sam because otherwise, he wouldn't have gone. Her intention is to keep the theatre alive.
Some time later Jessica discovers that she is pregnant. Even though she knows this is the worst moment to bring a child to the world, she is happy. That same night Henri turns up, saying that her parents and sister, who are Jewish, have been taken by the Nazis.
I am enjoying this part of the book and how Jessica has developed from the weak woman we first met at the beginning of the book.
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