Chapter 22

Overcome, Joe let out a laugh, shaking his head.

“Vega?” Novak frowned at him. “What?”

But Joe couldn’t stop laughing at the tragedy of it all.

If Dubois didn’t leave Linhart soon, he’d give in to his passion and ruin himself.

* * * *

Carefully, Joe folded the letter up.

It was done. He’d done the right thing. His message would probably make it to Claudine in time for Christmas, depending on the roads and trains.

Dear Claudine,

Forget about me. Marry someone else. Four years is too long. You’d never ask the same of me. Please, let’s be friends.

Joe

She’d be a free woman by New Year’s Eve. Now he’d cut the last string to civilization, because without news from Claudine, he’d have only his mother’s short and rare letters to keep him informed of the world. But his world was here. Between these four walls. Strange how he could just let Claudine go like this.

Like a tree sheds a leaf.