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but had hoped she might be wrong.
    Pierrot said nothing; simply kicked a few pebbles with the tip of his right shoe and watched as they tumbled down the bank and disappeared beneath the surface of the water. ‘Can I go back to the dormitory?’ he asked.
    Adèle nodded, and as he walked back across the gardens, he knew that her eyes were watching him all the way.
    The following afternoon Pierrot and Josette were taking a walk through the grounds in search of a family of frogs they’d encountered a few days earlier; he was telling her about the letter he’d received that morning from Anshel.
    ‘What do you talk about in your letters?’ asked Josette, rather intrigued by this idea as she never received any mail.
    ‘Well, he’s looking after my dog, D’Artagnan,’ replied Pierrot. ‘So he tells me all about him. And he lets me know what’s going on in the streets where I grew up. Apparently there was a riot nearby. I’m quite glad I missed that, though.’
    Josette had read about the riot for herself a week earlier, in an article that declared that all Jews should be guillotined. But then more and more of the newspapers were carrying articles condemning the Jews and wishing that they would all just go away, and she read each one intently.
    ‘And he sends me his stories,’ continued Pierrot, ‘because he wants to be a—’
    Before he could finish his sentence, Hugo and his two pals, Gérard and Marc, appeared from behind a cluster of trees, carrying sticks.
    ‘Well, look who it is,’ said Hugo, grinning as he rubbed the back of his hand against his nose to wipe away a long stream of something disgusting. ‘If it isn’t the happy couple, M. and Mme Fischer.’
    ‘Go away, Hugo,’ said Josette, trying to brush past him, but he jumped in front of her and shook his head, holding his two sticks in a X shape before him.
    ‘This is my land,’ he said. ‘Anyone who walks through here must pay the forfeit.’
    Josette sighed deeply as if she couldn’t believe how annoying boys could be, and folded her arms, staring directly at him but refusing to give ground. Pierrot held back, wishing they had never come out here at all.
    ‘All right then,’ she said. ‘What’s the forfeit?’
    ‘Five francs,’ said Hugo.
    ‘I’ll owe it to you.’
    ‘Then I’ll have to attach interest. Another franc for every day you go without paying.’
    ‘That’s fine,’ said Josette. ‘Let me know when it hits a million and I’ll get in touch with my bank to make the transfer to your account.’
    ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ Hugo said, rolling his eyes.
    ‘Cleverer than you, that’s for sure.’
    ‘As if.’
    ‘She is,’ said Pierrot, feeling that he’d better say something or end up looking like a coward.
    Hugo turned to him with a half-smile. ‘Standing up for your girlfriend, are you, Fischer?’ he asked. ‘You’re so in love with her, aren’t you?’ And then he made kissy noises in the air before turning and wrapping his arms round his own body while running his hands up and down his sides.
    ‘Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look?’ asked Josette, and Pierrot couldn’t help but laugh, even though he knew it was not a good idea to provoke Hugo, whose face went even redder than usual at the insult.
    ‘Don’t get smart with me,’ Hugo said, reaching out and poking her shoulder sharply with the tip of one of the sticks. ‘Just you remember who’s in charge around here.’
    ‘Ha!’ cried Josette. ‘You think you’re in charge? As if anyone would ever let a filthy
Jew
be in charge of anything.’
    Hugo’s face fell a little and his brow furrowed in a mixture of confusion and disappointment. ‘Why would you say something like that?’ he asked. ‘I was only playing.’
    ‘You never play, Hugo,’ she said, waving him away. ‘But you can’t help it, can you? It’s in your nature. What should I expect from a pig but a grunt?’
    Pierrot frowned. So Hugo was a Jew too? He