Francine & Margot ✓

Prologue

1934

Two eight year old girls, raised in the same city in France, sit together in a tree. It seems as though it has always been this: the two of them, together.

One hardly remembers her parents hurriedly taking her away from her birthplace, changing their last name and forging papers, running away from their greatest fear - all in the name of protecting her. Before the fight has even truly begun, they know they are unsafe. Instead of all this, her earliest memories seem to be filled only with her parents playing piano.

The other has been French as long as she remembers - a beautiful girl with fair features and a Protestant bloodline. The only imperfection her family holds is a severe lack of money.

But none of these things matter - the two of them sit in a tree. Francine is afraid, and only climbed up because Margot promised her she would be safe. Margot is smiling at her red-faced, doe-eyed companion.

Later, they are having a sleepover together at the reluctant allowance of Francine's parents. When the earliest hours of a dark morning begin, they climb into bed next to each other, Margot wearing a spare pair of Francine's pajamas. They giggle and share a small kiss - innocent, soft, full of life and hope.

They spend many evenings this way, and find a comfortable place by the beach where they laugh and talk and grow together. The kisses they share are hesitant and few, but each is as precious as the most rare gem.

• • • ♡ • • •

1939

Years later, the girls are fourteen and the world is on the brink of war. Francine's family has decided that she will simply continue her education in the confines of their paranoid home, and they travel all over Europe so that she can perform her music on piano. The Chancellor, a man by the name of Adolf Hitler, catches wind of her abilities. She must travel everywhere and wonders if she will ever return home - if she will ever be with her friend on the beach again.