20.
Thursday, September 5, 1940
"Gerard," Lisette whispered, afraid to break the spell by speaking out loud. "Gerard." She took his hand, the hand that several times had passed through her like a shiver, and twined her fingers about his.
Slowly he raised his head. He looked from their clasped hands to her face.
She put her other hand against his chest. Halfway between a laugh and a sob of relief, she asked, "Can you feel it?" But lest he think she meant only could he feel her hand, she took his free hand and placed it where hers had been. "Can you feel your heart beating?"
He took a deep, shuddering breath. Then he pulled his hands free of hers, but only to throw his arms around her and hold her close. She was afraid she was going to start to cry, and she bit down hard on her lip to prevent it.
That was when she heard a noise from outside that sounded like someone was crying.
Gerard heard it, too. He was already loosening his grip on her when Lisette heard Cecile calling: "Lisette! Lisette!" It wasn't whining; it wasn't anger. She woke up and couldn't find me, Lisette thought. She's frightened. In fact, Cecile must have been looking for her outside, for her voice wasn't even coming from the direction of the house, but from across the lawn. "Lisette!"
Even still in the barn, with Gerard helping her to her feet, Lisette could hear Cecile's great ragged breaths as she returned, running, from wherever she'd been looking.
"Lisette!" Cecile sobbed.
What could have happened? Lisette wondered, and thought immediately of Louis Jerome, spreading panic. She opened her mouth to say "I'm here." But before she had a chance, Cecile screamed: "Germans!"
"Cecile!" Lisette shouted. She ran to the open doorway and saw Cecile poised with her hand on the porch door. From within the house there was a commotion, the sound of little feet running. One look at Cecile's frantic face was enough to convince Lisette of her sincerity.
"They're at Maurice's house," Cecile gasped. "They're coming."
Lisette glanced in that direction, but from this angle the wooded hill stood in the way.
"They're coming!" Cecile screamed at her before doubling over with great racking coughs.
"Easy," Gerard said.
Lisette hadn't even been aware of his coming out behind her. She gasped, remembering their question that had never been answered: What if two people of two different ages saw him at once? For the moment Cecile wasn't seeing him; her eyes were wild and unfocused, and he still looked thirteen. Run, Lisette wanted to warn him. Hide.
"Easy," Gerard said again. He took Cecile by the arm. If Lisette had realized what he was about to do, she would have warned him against that, too. But he took her by the arm, and his hand did not pass through. However, it had happened, he was well and truly there, and as solid as they. He drew Cecile in close the way Lisette had done with him. "Easy." The way he might have calmed a skittish horse.
Cecile took a deep breath. She was either going to howl hysterically or be all right. She looked right up at him. "Who are you?" she demanded.
"Gerard d'Arveyres."
Lisette was watching him, and there was not a flicker of change. Could it be, maybe, that she and Cecile each saw him at her own age? But that was unlikely. Cecile had her head tipped back to look him in the face. Whatever it was that had caused him to come back to life—whether it was her summoning him that first day or talking to him day after day, or caring about him, or whether it was nothing at all to do with her but something about the alignment of the stars or whatever it was, he seemed to have settled into a thirteen-year-old form.
Either the fact that he was so much taller than Cecile or that Lisette had not gasped and fainted must have let him know that his body wasn't going through any strange changes. "How far away does this Maurice live?" he asked.
"One house away," Lisette said, pointing. "If Cecile took the shortcut through the fields and they're in cars on the road, they're about two minutes behind her." He didn't know about minutes. How could she rephrase that to let him see how little time there was?
But Cecile was shaking her head. "No,"—she was still panting from her run—"they radioed for help."
If that meant from Sibourne, that gave them about fifteen to twenty minutes. "What happened?" Lisette demanded.
"We couldn't find you. We looked all over the house and then I thought you'd probably gone up that hill the way you keep doing."
Lisette spared a quick glance for Gerard.
Cecile said, "But I thought how you were sick last night and I was worried, so I went to Maurice's place for help. But when I got there, there was a car in the driveway with a German soldier sitting in the driver's seat. I could tell he was only the driver, because he was just sitting there filing his nails, which meant that he was waiting for something or somebody, so I sneaked around the side and got between the bushes under the window and I peeked in."
"Cecile!" Lisette gasped. "You should have come right back here."
Cecile started crying.
"Did they see you?" Lisette asked.
But that must not have been it, for Cecile was shaking her head. "It was those two officers from town who kept whistling at Maman and following her around. They were bothering us the day I went to town with her, and she said they'd been doing it before, too. Today they were standing on the upstairs landing yelling at Maurice and his wife. They must have pulled them right out of their beds because they were still in their nightclothes. The soldiers were saying that Maman was always buying too much food and who was she buying it for? Maurice said that she sometimes shopped for them, since Madame Maurice is in a wheelchair and can't get around, and that Maman always has nieces and nephews staying with her for a week or so at a time. But they didn't believe him. They said that she must be keeping Jews. Maurice said no, she wasn't. And then..." She was taking gulping breaths of air again.
Very gently, Gerard said, "And then..."
"Then they moved Madame Maurice's wheelchair right to the edge of the stairs. And they said, 'Is she keeping Jews?' Lisette, they were going to push her off! Maurice begged them not to and they kept asking, 'Is she keeping Jews?' and finally he said he didn't know, maybe. And they said, 'If she's keeping Jews, where would they be?' And they pushed the chair so that it was half off the top stair and if they let go, it would fall. And Maurice said that many of the old houses have a secret room in the basement."
Lisette gave a cry of frustration.
Gerard was watching her.
"They'll find them," Lisette said, remembering what she'd guessed last night, about the work camps. It wasn't fair that her parents were in Paris and Aunt Josephine was with Uncle Raymond and that she was the one left in charge. "If they know to look in the basement, they'll find them."
"But there isn't anyplace else to hide them," Cecile said.
"The caves," Gerard said.
"What caves?" Lisette and Cecile asked simultaneously.
Gerard pointed to where the little wooded hill met the limestone cliff beyond. "My brother and I spent a great deal of time exploring when we were growing up."
There was no time for further questions.
Lisette ran into the house and got the flashlight from under the sink. Gerard took a step back from her and made a sign of the cross when she flipped the switch, but she didn't have time to worry about that. "Long live France!" she started shouting as she raced down the stairs.
The children must have been frightened by her shouts, or by the sounds of Gerard and Cecile thundering down the stairs behind her.
"Long live France!" she yelled, pounding on the door. "Get out of there now. The Germans are coming and they know where to look."
The door opened a crack and Lisette used her hand to push it open all the way. "Move," she commanded. "Gerard knows where you can hide."
Anne was whimpering. Rachel, perhaps feeling the tension from her brother's arms, had begun crying. They looked at Gerard with big, frightened eyes.
And Gerard was lo
oking at the gas mask covering Etienne's face with much the same expression.
Not now, she thought. "It's science, not magic," she told him. Then, to the children, again: "Move!"
Finally the words seemed to sink in. But in the seconds it took them to file out, while Lisette pointed her flashlight into the room behind them, she realized this plan wouldn't work.
"Wait," she said.
Cecile looked ready to panic again. "What?"
Lisette indicated the blackout drapes carefully tacked onto the walls. "If they find this room, they'll know."
"So what," Cecile demanded, "if we're in the caves?"
"So they'll wait for us to come back. And your mother will walk right into the middle of it, never suspecting."
Gerard was touching the drapes as though he'd never seen or felt anything like them. Which he probably hadn't. "Can we take this down?" he asked.
"Not easily," Cecile said. "It took my mother two days to get it up."
Louis Jerome said, "What if—"
"Louis Jerome!" Lisette shouted at him.
He cringed, but finished his thought. "What if we make it look like something else? Bring some jars of fruit in here...?"
"But they'll be suspicious of the curtains," Lisette said. "Why would..." She stopped at the thought: Why would anybody want a room that was totally dark?
"What?" Gerard asked.
"You bring the children up the hill," she told him. "I'll meet you there and you can show us where the caves are."
"What will you be doing?"
"Making this room look like a darkroom. Never mind, there's no time to explain. Believe me, it will work."
"It's too dangerous," he said. "What if the Germans come while you're still here?"
She knew that. And if she thought about it, she wouldn't be able to move at all. "I can do this faster if the little ones are out of the way. Take them to the hill. I'll join you there."
Gerard hesitated, then he nodded.
She was about to tell him that if she were delayed, they should go on to the caves without her. But that made her think of what it was that would be happening if she were delayed, and that made it hard not to leave right then and there with them, which would be the end of Aunt Josephine, and besides, if she hinted that something might happen to her, she had the feeling Gerard just might pick her up and drag her away, which, again, would be the end of Aunt Josephine. "Go," she said. "I'll join you."
And to show that she knew what she was doing, she ran up the stairs ahead of them. She heard them heading for the back door as she went down the hall to Uncle Raymond's study.
A false start already, she thought, as she shifted the flashlight to her left hand. The first thing she should have done was see to getting a light so that she could use both hands. But for now she grabbed up both his cameras, hanging the one with the strap around her neck and carrying the larger one. She managed to tuck a box of photographic paper under her arm and held the red cloth for the light between her teeth.
Back downstairs, she left the photographic equipment in the secret room then went to Uncle Raymond's work area. She had to climb onto the workbench to reach the utility light, but it was worth it, for the extension cord reached all the way back. She hung it on the edge of the one shelf Aunt Josephine had left up, the one where she kept the blankets. Then she started loading the shelf with what she'd brought.
Two more trips and she had everything. She turned off the light, draped the red cloth around it, and picked up the blankets and diaper and water bottle. She left the door open so nobody would notice there was no handle.
The blankets and diaper she stuffed into the chest of out-of-season clothes, and the water she put into the kitchen cupboard. She ran back into the study to rearrange a few of the pictures of Cecile so there wouldn't be an empty space.
Had the children made the beds? Lisette hoped so. She had never found the story that she and Cecile had been playing convincing, but her heart was beating so hard it hurt, and she couldn't bring herself to stay any longer. At least there were no dishes in the sink.
Taking the flashlight with her, she ran outside and nearly tripped over Softy, who was bleating insistently and obviously needed to be milked.
"Later," Lisette promised.
Someone had taken the time to close the barn door. Gerard, she realized. All he'd had on his feet had been Uncle Raymond's socks and he would have gone back to get his boots before heading off for the woods and the caves.
She looked up the hill. Of course they'd had more than enough time to make the climb, and they'd know better than to stay at the edge where they could be seen.
Still, she hesitated at the barn, wondering if Gerard had hidden the rest of his clothes and, if not, what the Germans would make of his fourteenth-century outfit. Should she—
But she heard a low, familiar rumbling: a car engine.
Lisette ran.
21.
Thursday, September 5, 1940
At the top of the hill, Lisette looked back. Two cars with red and black swastikas were in the driveway and seven German soldiers were standing by the back door. Four of them were facing her direction, but she couldn't tell for sure if they'd seen her.
Stop being an idiot, she told herself. Of course they'd seen. At least they hadn't shot at her. Yet. She ran in among the trees before they changed their minds.
A hand grabbed her arm near the elbow, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. The hand moved to cover her mouth, but after her startled squeal, she'd already recognized Gerard.
She pulled his hand down. "They saw me," she hissed at him so the others—just beyond him—couldn't hear. All she needed was for them to panic again. At least Rachel had stopped crying and was only fussing.
Gerard gave a quick nod to indicate he'd heard, but he didn't answer. He just gestured for everyone to follow.
They came out of the woods at a different place from the spot where Lisette had looked down on Maurice's house. Here there was a long, narrow crack in the face of the cliff and Gerard headed for that.
Lisette looked back the way they'd come, sure that they'd left a trail of broken branches and footprints that anyone could follow. Next to her, Louis Jerome looked back, too, and said exactly what she was thinking: "If they can see where we came through the woods, they'll know exactly where we've gone."
"There is more than just one cave," Gerard said. "You could spend days in here and not see it all."
If you had enough food, Lisette thought, but she didn't say it. She turned on her flashlight and Cecile turned on hers.
They had to walk single file, sideways, for several meters, then the crack opened up into the first cave.
"Where now?" Lisette moved her flashlight in an arc around the cave. There were several openings that looked big enough to pass through. She even shone the light on the ceiling, but just as she started to move the light back down to the floor, there was a rattle of pebbles from overhead and directly behind her.
She whirled around as something—she had the impression it was the size of a small German officer—launched itself at her face. She got her arm up just in time, and claws raked across her forearm. That told her what it was before her eyes could focus.
"Stupid cat!" she yelled, which was foolish, considering the circumstances.
Mimi gave her usual throaty growl, probably calling her a stupid human, and streaked away down a tunnel no bigger than herself.
Lisette's arm was bleeding, but there was no time to fuss over it.
Gerard chose a tunnel that was bigger than the one Mimi had used, but they all had to duck, except for the twins and Etienne.
The tunnel divided in two. Gerard led them down the section that was taller but narrower.
After several turns and a general impression of heading down, Lisette heard water. The next cavern they came to had a huge pool.
"The far wall," Gerard said, "comes just below the surface of the water. You can walk out about halfway or so. He glanced at t
he younger children skeptically. "Then we'll have to swim the rest of the way. Who knows how to swim?"
"I'm a wonderful swimmer," Cecile announced.
"Me, too," Etienne said.
Lisette judged the distance and nodded.
Louis Jerome shook his head no. The twins just stared at Gerard.
"All right," Gerard said. "Those of us who know how to swim will help the others."
"What happens when we get to the wall?" Lisette asked.
"It only goes about this far under the water." Gerard held his hands apart about as tall as the twins.
This was sounding worse and worse. The younger children were beginning to give each other panicked looks.
Lisette, who could swim but not very well, said, "So we have to hold our breath, dive into the water, pass under the wall..." Gerard was nodding. "For how long?"
"About a fifty-count."
"Fifty?" Even assuming counting faster than seconds, she'd never make it. "Gerard."
"I can help you," he said. "Halfway beneath the wall, the floor comes up and you can walk out to the other side. The water there..." He was indicating waist high. Which was still taller than the twins.
"What about the baby?" Etienne asked.
"Babies know how to hold their breath under water," Gerard said.
Cecile added, "Everybody knows that."
Lisette started to object again, but Etienne cut her off. "What about the baby?" he repeated more loudly.
"I'll take the baby," Gerard said. "The baby will be fine."
"You're going to kill the baby!" Etienne protested.
Gerard looked at Lisette as though expecting her to convince Etienne. "I don't know," she started, "isn't—"
"You're going to kill the baby!" Etienne was shouting.
"Stop it," Cecile said. "The Germans will hear you."
Etienne got even louder. "You're going to kill the baby!"
Gerard stooped down in front of him and took his arm. "I would do nothing that would harm the baby," he said.
"Nobody wants to hurt a baby." Etienne was still shouting, but now he was crying, too. He yanked his arm away from Gerard. "My Maman didn't want to hurt our baby. Those things happen."
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