Partisan

by Christopher Nicole

  Mihailovic watched Tony’s expression, and gave a thin smile. ‘You are an English officer and a gentleman, Captain. That means you are also an innocent when it comes to how men will act, when given unlimited power over those they regard as inferior beings. I cannot risk your fiancée falling into German hands, either for her sake or for ours. Therefore, as she is here, she will have to stay.’

  ‘That is all she wishes to do,’ Tony pointed out.

  ‘But we have no facility for keeping prisoners. It is not our intention to take any.’

  Elena gasped, and again she tried to open her satchel. But Tony caught her wrist again. ‘Just what are you saying, sir?’

  ‘It is regrettable,’ Mihailovic said. ‘But in our circumstances . . .’

  ‘Sir, if you execute this woman, a loyal and faithful Yugoslav citizen, without any evidence of treachery or even opposition on her part, I shall be obliged to make a full report of the incident to my government.’

  ‘Is that my concern, Captain? You have just told me that your government is not interested in what is happening here in Yugoslavia.’

  ‘My government will undoubtedly convey the facts to your superiors.’

  ‘I have no superiors,’ Mihailovic pointed out.

  ‘You do, you know. There will be a Yugoslav government-in-exile, situated in London. This is what has happened with the governments of Czechoslovakia, Norway, Holland and Belgium, all the countries that have been overrun by the Nazis. There is even an alternative French government to Vichy. In London.’

  ‘Governments-in-exile,’ Mihailovic sneered. ‘I am the government of Yugoslavia, here on the ground, where it matters.’

  Sandrine decided to join the fight. ‘I will report it in Paris Temps,’ she announced. ‘We have correspondents with every newspaper in the world.’

  Mihailovic glowered at her. ‘If you are ever in a position to submit a story to your newspaper again, mademoiselle,’ he pointed out. Clearly he was wondering whether it might not be a good idea to shoot all three of them. But there were too many witnesses. ‘I will consider the matter,’ he said. ‘But for the moment, this woman is under arrest. Put her in the punishment cell.’

  ‘There are three men in there already, sir,’ Zardov said.

  ‘I am sure there is room for one more.’

  ‘If they put me in there I will be raped,’ Elena muttered.

  Tony hesitated. But he reckoned he had gained an initial victory, in that she was to be locked up instead of summarily executed. ‘I’ll get you out,’ he said. ‘You have my word. Just give me a little time.’

  She gazed into his eyes. ‘Do you believe what this man said? About my parents? About me?’

  ‘Of course I do not.’

  He had never been able to lie convincingly.

  ‘Do you love me, Tony?’

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Will we still be married?’

  ‘Just as soon as we can find a priest.’

  Another long stare. Then she gave him her satchel. ‘I will leave this with you,’ she said meaningfully, making sure he remembered that the Luger was still inside, ‘and wait for you to come and get me.’

  ‘Lieutenant,’ Mihailovic said.

  Vidmar stepped forward to take Elena’s arm.

  ‘I am holding you personally responsible for this lady’s safety,’ Tony said.

  Vidmar gulped, and looked at the general.

  ‘The responsibility is mine, Captain,’ Mihailovic said. ‘However, in view of everything that has happened, I think it would be best if you were to hand over your sidearm. It will be returned to you when you next have need of it.’

  Tony unbuckled his belt and handed it to Matovic.

  ‘Thank you,’ Mihailovic said, and turned to face the crowd. ‘This incident is now closed,’ he shouted. ‘Return to your duties.’

  Reluctantly they melted away; Elena had already disappeared.

  ‘What a fuck-up,’ Sandrine remarked in French. ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘We need to think about that,’ Tony said, then realised that Colonel Zardov was still standing beside him.

  ‘I am most terribly sorry about this, Captain.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘General Mihailovic is my commanding officer. Yours too, as long as you remain with us. We must accept his orders.’

  ‘Even if we know they are unjust?’

  ‘It is not our business to consider whether they are just or not. It is our business to obey orders. I would beg you, Captain, not to make it harder on yourself, or the young lady, by attempting to oppose him. Now, get settled in. I will arrange for you to be placed in command of one of our patrols as soon as possible.’

  ‘But you do not intend to undertake any offensive action against the Germans.’

  ‘That again is for the general to decide. But I should tell you that the Germans have issued a proclamation over the radio, warning us – warning all groups which have not yet surrendered – that any attempts to resist their forces, by word or deed, will bring the most severe retaliation upon the civilian population.’

  ‘So you will not fight.’

  ‘It is a grave responsibility. One which your own government may have to face when the Germans land in England.’

  ‘The word is if, Colonel. And I will tell you this: in England we will fight, regardless of retaliation.’

  ‘That remains to be seen. I will send for you when I have something for you to do.’

  *

  ‘Like I said, a right royal fuck-up,’ Sandrine observed. She peered through the door into the little hut. The goat had resumed residence, as had the woman and child. All three of them stared at her with wide eyes. ‘You mean this is it?’

  ‘For the time being,’ Tony said.

  ‘Shit! Where is the toilet?’

  ‘That ditch up the hill.’

  Sandrine looked up the hill; there were several bare backsides to be seen. ‘Shit!’ she commented again.

  ‘Never was a truer word spoken in jest,’ Tony agreed.

  She glanced at him. ‘You think this is a joke? What about Elena?’

  ‘I do not think Elena’s situation is a joke, and I intend to do something about it. But it cannot involve taking on what remains of the Yugoslav army. It may involve getting out of here, though. Do you intend to stay behind?’

  ‘No way.’

  ‘Well, we are going to have to walk. So the first thing we have to do is get your feet into shape. Oh, come in, Ivkov, do.’

  The big man had been hovering in the doorway. Now he sidled into the hut, nodding his head towards the woman and child.

  Sandrine sat on the ground and drew up her feet to peer at them. ‘The swelling is going down.’

  ‘Great. I’ll put on some more of this ointment.’ He knelt beside her.

  ‘I need some clothes,’ she said. ‘Look, my dress is torn . . . here, and here. I think even my underwear is torn. It is certainly filthy.’

  ‘Maybe this woman has something to spare.’

  Sandrine looked at the woman, and then at the goat; her expression said it all. ‘I am also very hungry,’ she said.

  ‘And there is the lunch bugle,’ he said. ‘Perfect timing. I’ll just bandage you up, and then we’ll go eat. Ivkov, you can carry mademoiselle.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Ivkov said. ‘I will carry mademoiselle.’

  Sandrine pulled a face. ‘I would rather you carried me. I think he has designs.’

  ‘We all have designs,’ Tony assured her.

  *

  They took their places and secured their food, which consisted of thick soup with various pieces of vegetable floating in it, and some very hard bread.

  ‘Is there no meat?’ Sandrine inquired. ‘I am starving.’

  The man ladling out the soup merely looked at her. Everyone else was looking at them too, including the other officers and various women who were attached to them. Tony reckoned it was not merely because they were obviously foreigners or because
Sandrine was an intensely attractive woman; everyone knew of the fracas earlier.

  Following the meal, he carried Sandrine on his back – again to the vociferous interest of the spectators – to the prison cell, where after some argument he was allowed in.

  Elena sat on the floor against one wall; her three companions sat against the opposite wall.

  ‘Trouble?’ Tony asked.

  ‘Not yet. I have told them that if they touch me you will kill them all. They believe me.’

  ‘I would go on doing that,’ Tony told them. ‘This woman is my betrothed. I will cut out the heart of any man who molests her.’

  The three men attempted to grin, but did not succeed. Tony supposed that with his three-day growth of beard he looked far fiercer than he probably was, although he was feeling pretty fierce at that moment.

  ‘When are you going to get me out?’ Elena asked, speaking French.

  ‘The moment Sandrine can walk properly.’

  Elena looked at her friend.

  ‘Only a day or two, now,’ Sandrine said. ‘The swelling is going down.’

  ‘Well, I hope they won’t shoot me before then.’

  ‘They won’t,’ Tony said as confidently as he could. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘That I’d like to shoot the whole fucking lot of them.’

  ‘Have they fed you?’

  ‘Was that food?’

  ‘I’ll come back this evening,’ Tony said, and switched back to Serbo-Croat. ‘Just to make sure these fellows are behaving themselves.’

  ‘She is not in a good mood,’ Sandrine remarked as he carried her back to their hut.

  ‘Would you be?’

  ‘I am not in a good mood either,’ Sandrine pointed out. ‘My feet hurt, and I stink. I would like a hot bath.’

  ‘Keep dreaming,’ Tony recommended.

  Ivkov was sitting outside the hut.

  ‘Where are the others?’ Tony asked.

  ‘Her husband came back from patrol. He was very angry to find that his house had been given away.’

  ‘Oh, Christ! You didn’t fight with him?’

  ‘No, no. He had been told this, by his sergeant. But he said his wife would not sleep in the same house as a lot of strange men, and took her, and the child. And the goat.’

  ‘Thank God for that,’ Sandrine said.

  ‘But I think the goat left quite a lot behind,’ Ivkov said, scratching. ‘Apart from droppings.’

  ‘Well, let’s get this place cleaned up as much as possible,’ Tony decided. He sat Sandrine outside the door while he and Ivkov got rid of as many of the goat droppings as they could.

  ‘Typhus,’ Sandrine remarked, now also scratching. ‘We will get typhus, and die.’

  ‘It’s not my intention to hang around here long enough for that,’ Tony said. ‘Now, Ivkov, I have to know: are you with us or with them?’

  ‘Them?’

  ‘These people.’

  ‘They are my people. You never told me that woman was a Croat.’

  ‘I didn’t think it mattered. You are both Yugoslavs.’

  Ivkov shook his head. ‘Croats are bad people.’

  ‘They don’t have too high an opinion of you, either. But you’re all in this together. And now you’re in this with me, and Miss Kostic . . . and Mademoiselle Fouquet . . .’ he said, adding a slice of quite unreal carrot. ‘I have to know if you can be trusted.’

  ‘You are asking me to go against my own people?’

  ‘I am asking you to go against the Germans, which is more than these people seem prepared to do at the moment. And I don’t think they are quite as much your own people as you think. The general would have sent you off to try to survive on your own, had I not protested.’

  Ivkov gulped.

  ‘So if you hang about when I leave, you might not have it so good,’ Tony pointed out.

  ‘You are going to leave?’

  ‘Just as soon as it is possible.’

  Ivkov scratched his head.

  ‘You said you have a brother who lives in a village in these mountains.’

  ‘I believe so.’

  ‘You believe? He is your brother.’

  ‘We do not see each other very often.’

  ‘Surely he comes to Belgrade?’

  ‘Not very often.’

  ‘What is the name of this village where he lives?’ Sandrine asked.

  ‘Divitsar.’

  ‘Ah,’ Sandrine said.

  Tony looked from one to the other. ‘One of you is going to have to explain all this.’

  ‘I think his brother is a Communist,’ Sandrine said.

  Tony turned back to Ivkov. ‘And you are opposed to him?’

  ‘No, no,’ Ivkov said. ‘Well,’ he added hastily, ‘I am not a Communist. But you see—’

  ‘Communism is outlawed in Yugoslavia,’ Sandrine said.

  ‘Ah,’ Tony said.

  ‘And this village, Divitsar, is well known to be a Communist centre. One of our feature writers did a piece on it last year.’

  ‘Does the government know this?’

  ‘They must.’ Sandrine smiled. ‘If they read our paper.’

  ‘But they have done nothing about it.’

  ‘I think they were considering the matter. But to arrest a whole village is a difficult business. Certainly publicity-wise. And now—’

  ‘Now the government is discredited, no matter how you look at it. Will your brother help us, Ivkov?’

  ‘Perhaps. If I ask him to.’

  ‘Will he have a hot bath?’ Sandrine asked.

  ‘Perhaps.’

  *

  Sandrine and Tony slept next to each other, retiring as soon as they had eaten their evening meal. Neither of them undressed. They were both exhausted, emotionally and physically, and were also, Tony suspected, too confused to think about sex.

  Sandrine was an intelligent woman, and had to know that he found her attractive. But then, so did just about every man she met. The question was, did she find any man attractive? Apparently not, according to Elena. Even Bernhard? Tony had often wondered at their relationship. But until Elena’s revelation – if it was true – he had always supposed that Sandrine’s somewhat cold approach to life was because she was intensely feminine. Although he had watched that reserve begin to break down during the disasters of the past few days, he could still believe that her concern had less to do with being in a situation in which mere survival was the key issue, and more to do with the fact that she was filthy, smelt filthy, that her hair was unwashed, and that her dress was in rags.

  Tony was utterly confounded by the events of the day, and hardly less so by their current situation. Quite apart from any danger to Elena – which he felt could be combated by continuing to act the stiff-necked Englishman – there was the camp itself, and the absence, so far as he could see, of any great determination to oppose the invaders. He allowed that he might be misjudging the general, that Mihailovic might be waiting to see just how big an army he could command before undertaking any sort of counter-attack. Nonetheless, Tony would have supposed that the sooner such action was begun the better, before the Germans got a stranglehold on the country. But even more disturbing was the absence of any real discipline or cohesion in this camp, as typified by the lack of any blackout precautions. The valley was a line of fires, which, however necessary for cooking and warmth, was also a beacon waiting to beckon the Luftwaffe.

  Another reason for getting out just as soon as possible.

  Sandrine’s breathing and restless movements indicated that she might still be awake, unlike Ivkov, who was snoring loudly on the far side of the hut. ‘What are you thinking about?’ he asked.

  Her answer was predictable. ‘A hot bath. I think of sinking beneath the suds, of feeling the water everywhere. Oooh . . .! Do you trust Ivkov?’

  ‘I think he needs us as much as we need him.’

  ‘What would you have done if he had refused to cooperate? Had said he was going to tell Mihailovic we were
planning to leave?’

  ‘Well . . .’

  ‘Would you have killed him? Are you that ruthless a man?’

  ‘We’re fighting a war,’ Tony said, not at all sure that he was that ruthless a man. But he had something even more important on his mind. ‘How well do you know Elena?’

  ‘How well does one know anyone?’

  ‘All right. How long have you been friends?’

  ‘We became friends soon after I came to Belgrade. That was two years ago.’

  ‘How did you meet?’

  ‘When I first arrived, I had no place to live, so I put up at her father’s boarding house until I found my apartment.’

  ‘Ah.’

  She rolled on her side to face him, only just distinguishable in the gloom. ‘You are concerned about what that stupid officer said?’

  ‘Well . . .’

  ‘You English,’ she said. ‘You think the world revolves around sex, but you are afraid to come into the open about it. You are a prurient people.’

  ‘I won’t deny that. Are you saying that the boarding house is a brothel?’

  ‘Are you saying that you think Elena is a whore? The woman you are going to marry?’

  ‘No, I am not saying that,’ he snapped. ‘It’s just that . . . well . . .’

  ‘She gave herself to you too easily? That is her way. Has she ever charged you for sleeping with her?’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘There, you see.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘She was not a virgin when she went to you. She has a relaxed approach to life. A continental approach. I was not a virgin when I went to Bernhard.’

  ‘You?’

  He heard her smile in the darkness. ‘I lost my virginity when I was thirteen.’

  ‘Good lord!’

  ‘He sang in the church choir. So did I. He was very handsome.’

  ‘And you were very beautiful.’

  ‘He thought so. Do you think I am beautiful?’

  ‘I have told you that I do.’

  ‘And you like to feel my body.’

  ‘Yes,’ Tony said.

  ‘But you are betrothed to Elena,’ she said. ‘The Kostics do not operate a brothel. But they will let a gentleman take a room for the night, and bring a woman with him, no questions asked as to whether she is his wife or not. I spent my first night with Bernhard there.’