by Jan Harvey
‘Promise me you’ll send for me?’
‘I promise.’ He pulled on his boots and held each side of her face with his hands. ‘I love you.’
Claudette looked at Daniel as he began to wake up, she could see Keber’s face in his. He greeted her with a big smile and said, ‘Mama.’
Chapter Forty Seven
Matt seemed to listen for some time to what Samuel said before translating for me, which was irritating. Samuel’s wife smiled at me sweetly as we both listened. Eventually, Matt turned to me and said, ‘Samuel’s parents knew Claudette, they were at school together and his father led the network. He was called Yves and she was Giselle. The Cell operated out of Vacily, but some of them went to Paris, including Claudette. She didn’t come back straight after the war, it was seven years later, she was looking for Yves. She wrote to her friend in the village asking to be told when he returned.’
‘Where had he gone?’ I asked. Matt relayed my question.
The answer was that he had gone looking for his wife. ‘She was pregnant with Samuel and as the wife of a wanted Resistance Fighter she was in real danger of arrest. She was trying to reach her parent’s house in the Auvergne, they had a farm high in the hills and her mother was a nurse. She never arrived and Yves went to find out what had happened to her. The Vichy Police had arrested her and used her as bait. Yves unwittingly walked right into the trap, they imprisoned and tortured him. The Resistance rescued him when he was being transferred to a prison camp and he was able to get Giselle and Samuel’s brother, Louis, to the Auvergne.’
‘So why did Claudette come back to Vacily?’ I asked.
‘She wanted to see Yves, to connect with him again. Samuel says they were very close and also she needed to visit her parents’ graves. They were killed when the Allies invaded. She never saw them again after she left for Paris.’ Matt translated again for me.
‘When did they come back, Samuel’s family?’
‘Five years after the war finished. Samuel’s father was very seriously injured during the war when he was tortured, and it had made him very nervy and unsettled for a long time.’
‘What happened to Claudette?’
Samuel must have guessed what I was asking, his eyes dipped and his wife stopped smiling. ‘She was shot by a tramp. No one knew anything about it, she was found in the land behind the washhouse. It was very upsetting for the village and doubly so because of course, after all, she was a war heroine, a terrible end.’
‘So no-one was brought to account?’
‘Seems not,’ said Matt. Samuel and his wife looked very upset and he kept apologising. Matt asked a question and they both shook their heads. The murder had not been in the national media. There had been a lot of lawlessness after the war, people tried to hide as much as they could. The tramp was never found, though he was seen around the town from time to time for years after the war.
‘No wonder Freddy couldn’t get over what had happened to her,’ I said. ‘What a dreadful thing, poor thing.’ I felt desperately sad for them both, Claudette and Freddy. ‘Does he know why she used the name Madeleine March?’
Matt asked the question but Samuel shook his head.
‘I suspect that’s all there is to know,’ said Matt. ‘She died here and Freddy was orphaned, so he tried desperately to connect with his Dad. Poor lad. Samuel began talking, waving his hands excitedly. Matt cocked his head to one side like a dog trying to understand as the French was coming thick and fast. ‘It seems that Samuel’s brother, Louis, lives in London and he has something he’s been holding onto for Freddy. He didn’t know how to get in touch with him but, naturally, he’s been looking for Claudette Bourvil’s son.’
‘Does he have any idea what it is?’
‘Some personal effects, I think, and a letter, she had given it to Yves.’
‘We need to get hold of whatever they are,’ I told Matt with urgency, ‘I need to bring this all together for Freddy.’ Matt was already typing Louis’ address and phone number into his phone.
Chapter Forty Eight
There was a barricade at the end of the road. When Claudette stepped out to look she realised the German guard posted outside had gone. Eva’s body had been removed weeks before, but the piece of red and gold cloth still lay against the kerbside black with street dirt, a fading memory of her.
Bella and Sophie had been picked up the day before by a German car, their hats perched on the backs of their heads, gloved hands waving goodbye. Claudette watched them go from Lilia’s bedroom; it was the last time she saw a German come near the house.
She took Daniel down to the kitchen and sat him on the rag rug in front of the fire. Jacques was sitting reading a notice from the Collaboration. ‘Shits, all of them,’ he was saying, shaking his head. ‘Even now they are trying to convince us to fight with the Germans.’
‘I can’t believe it,’ said Claudette.
‘The Resistance is gathering strength and about to be boosted by the French Forces. The problem is we have no arms, but there are still going to be huge repercussions. We have the Boches on the back foot, where we want them running scared.’
‘Madame Odile is not back,’ said Claudette, ‘Do you think she’d desert us?’
‘No, I trust her and I know she has her life invested in this place. I can tell you with certainty that she’ll be back. But she has to be back soon because the train workers are going on strike. I can’t see her hitching a ride from Reims on the back of a donkey cart.’
‘I’d be surprised if there was a donkey still alive in Northern France. Everything has been eaten.’
‘Talking of which, Madame F. has gone out looking for food, there is hardly anything left to eat.’ Jacques lit a cigarette, ‘And my stomach thinks my throat is cut.’
‘And Perrine?’
‘I haven’t seen her since yesterday. I have my doubts she’ll return, everyone is being called on to build barricades.’
‘Is Marie around?’
Jacques raised his eyes towards the ceiling. ‘She’s in bed, not well. I suspect she’s hungry too.’
‘You once told me not to trust her, why?’ Claudette asked.
‘Her father has been working with the Vichy Government all this time. I doubt that she spies for him, but you never know.’
‘The papers I gave you, the ones Keber passed to me, did you hear anything?’
‘They were the minutes of a meeting outlining plans to destroy Paris on Hitler’s orders. The new general in charge has been tasked with obliterating the city if the Boches have to capitulate. Now, it’s down to us to protect her and to try to convince him otherwise.’
‘And is it going well?’
‘Too early to say, but the Allies are within striking distance.’
There was a sound of the door slamming upstairs and they both looked up. The footsteps were familiar, it was Madame Odile. She looked tired. Her hair was done in a simple plait as if she had had no time to do anything to it, her lipstick had worn off, leaving a red rim around her lips.
‘It is like a living hell out there, debris and barricades everywhere, people fighting each other, one Parisian pitted against another. The Germans have executed Resistance members in the street, now they plan to starve us to death.’
‘Would you like some tea?’ asked Claudette. ‘We have a bit left.’
‘Thank you, Françoise, I am exhausted. Are there any clients in?’
‘We have had no one for days, not since you left,’ said Claudette. She passed Daniel the last biscuit. He sat sucking on it, looking up at Madame Odile. She took a seat and rested her hand against his cheek. ‘And, something else, Bella and Sophie have left.’ Madame Odile shrugged her shoulders, she was resigned to hearing such news.
‘The sentry has gone, that’s good news’ said Jacques quickly.
‘D
oes that mean Keber has gone too?’ said Madame Odile, fixing her eyes on Claudette.
‘I think so,’ she said, handing the tea to her boss.
‘I can’t keep you here, either of you,’ she said flatly. ‘And I can’t pay you, that’s the truth. I can keep you safe behind these walls, I think, but I won’t make promises I can’t keep.’
‘I have to stay,’ said Claudette. ‘This is where Fritz can find me afterwards.’
‘You don’t have to stay, I can pass any messages to you,’ Madame Odile suggested, but one look into her eyes assured Claudette that no messages would find her.
‘I’ll stay, and look after Daniel for you,’ she said, picking up the little boy.
‘I’ll stay too,’ said Jacques. ‘But I might need to go at any minute, it depends on what is happening.’
‘Well, not me!’ exclaimed Madame F, who had appeared without anyone noticing. She held up a brace of ragged and bloody pigeons. ‘This is all I could get in the whole of the city, people are eating rats.’ She laid the birds on the table. Daniel stretched out to touch them, nearly unbalancing Claudette. ‘And I bought them from a little boy. I’m sorry everyone, Madame, but I cannot stay here any longer.’
‘What do we do now?’ asked Jacques as Madam F bustled away to pack her bags. She was talking to herself about how everyone would starve to death before the Allies reached the city.
‘I have no idea,’ said Madame Odile. ‘I really have no idea.’
Chapter Forty Nine
Hat was sitting beside me on the window seat, her hands wrapped around a mug of tea. The house had been sold to a builder who had bought it to convert into flats. The furniture had all gone, and we were waiting for the estate agent to arrive so that we could sign over the key.
‘I am so happy about you and Matt, at least something good has come from all this, and the story is intriguing too, but Freddy’s poor mum – no wonder he couldn’t think about it, he had nightmares about her right until the end, you know. I often had to go to him in the night. It must have been a random act, someone just killed her in an opportune moment, is that what you think now?’
I nodded. ‘Looks like it.’
‘Have you contacted Louis?’
‘I’ve left a message and written to him but he hasn’t come back to us, I’ve told him everything I know.’
‘And what now?’ said Hat. ‘Have you got work?’
‘I’m doing bits and bobs for Matt, and a company in Oxford wants a website, so I’m alright.’ I felt downbeat, something felt wrong, but nothing I could verbalise.
‘Thanks for everything.’ She reached across and squeezed my hand. ‘I simply couldn’t have managed without you, or Matt, for that matter, you’ve both been brilliant.’
‘When are you off?’ I asked. Losing her to Brighton was so hard.
‘At three. Jon and I are having lunch with some friends from Banbury, in Elwell, and then I’m off.’
‘So this is goodbye?’
‘I’m afraid, finally, it is.’
I felt the emotion gushing up inside me, it was uncontrollable. I began to cry. Hat leapt up and pulled me to her. ‘Oh honey, don’t cry, you can come and visit, please don’t, you’ll set me off.’ She hugged me tightly. ‘I promise everything will work out, you and Matt, your work, it’s just you’ve become too involved with Freddy’s story.’
‘I feel like I’ve met his mother, seen what she went through, only to hear that she died like that, and so young.’ I sniffed.
‘Most of those poor people died a horrible death, my love, there’s nothing we can do for them now except appreciate and remember what they did.’ Hat kissed the top of my head. ‘Come on, cheer up.’
‘I’m not sure about Matt,’ I blurted, completely out of the blue. ‘I can’t tell you what it is but I don’t feel right.’
Hat’s eyes widened with surprise, just when she thought it was all going so well for me. I felt I’d let her down when she said, ‘Tell me you’re kidding.’ She even sounded a little irritated.
‘The thing is I met this lovely man, Theo, in France. I can’t get him out of my mind. His flat, his books, his gentleness, I want someone like him and yet Matt is so lovely.’
‘Do you know what?’ she said, pouring us both another cup of tea from Freddy’s old chipped teapot. ‘I think you haven’t had time to get to know each other, and you come with built in reservations, don’t forget. You’ve been so wrapped up in Claudette and what has gone before, you need to start again, date in the conventional way. Take it from there.’
‘I’ll miss you, Hat,’ I said. ‘And your wise words.’
‘Well, do come and see me soon.’ I understood finally that she was ready to go, she wanted to move on.
The doorbell whirred in its usual staccato way and the sound echoed through Freddy’s house for the last time.
Chapter Fifty
Claudette was sleeping with Daniel, he had tucked himself between her body and her arm. A strip of grey light filtered through the gap between the curtains, cutting a slice across the bedroom. She slid out of bed and went to wash her face, but the water puttered from the tap and died. They had all been worrying about this and now it had happened. There was a low growl in her stomach; it was hunger, she hadn’t eaten for twenty-four hours straight, and now there was no water being fed to the house.
There was a knock on the door, she pulled on a silk robe and opened it. ‘The Allies have arrived, they have marched on Paris,’ said Jacques excitedly. ‘De Gaulle is about to march down the Champs -Élysées, come and see!’
‘No, I can’t leave Daniel alone and it would be too much for him to go out.’ She turned to look at the little boy who was awake and watching them both.
‘Fair enough,’ said Jacques. ‘But it’s a day we’ll all remember. When I’m out I’m going to try to get us some food.’
‘I would eat a rat,’ she told him. ‘I’ve never been so hungry in my life.’
She put on the blue dress Nannette had given her and dressed Daniel in a little sailor suit Madame Odile had bought him in Reims. The ladies were in the salon, they were complaining about being hungry, and how were they supposed to make any money now? Babette held out her hands to Daniel and he toddled towards her. ‘Look who’s walking! Bless him, he’s looking really happy at last.’ She swept him up into her arms. Claudette watched her, Babette looked happy too amid all the chaos, the hunger and the uncertainty.
‘Are you leaving?’ Freya asked.
‘No, I’m looking after Daniel, for Lilia,’ Claudette replied.
‘And of course no doubt you’re waiting for the return of your Boche.’ Pollo was sitting on the sofa, her hair thin and unwashed, the chestnut colour now almost all a dusty pink. Hair dye had not been available for weeks. Claudette didn’t acknowledge her. ‘He won’t come back,’ Pollo said. ‘He will be in Berlin by now, shagging German whores.’
Claudette bit her lip. ‘He won’t,’ she said. ‘He’ll come back for me.’
‘Yes darling, you keep telling yourself that,’ Pollo scoffed. ‘They’ll all come back and marry us and we’ll all have lovely blue eyed babies called Herman and Gelda.’ They all laughed.
‘I bet Bella’s pregnant already,’ laughed Freya. ‘By two different men, as well!’ They roared laughing and Claudette couldn’t help but join in with them, because where Bella was concerned anything was possible.
‘When will we get food?’ asked Monique. ‘I’m going to die if we don’t get fed soon.’
‘Jacques has gone to find something. He says de Gaulle is marching down the Champs-Élysées right now, the Germans are gone.’
‘Really?’ said Babette. ‘Shouldn’t we go and watch?’
‘It wouldn’t be safe,’ said Claudette.
‘It’s over now though, isn’t it?’ said Moniqu
e. ‘I mean the Boches are gone, we can go back to how it was before, can’t we?’
‘In your dreams, honey,’ said Pollo. ‘We’re called Horizontal Collaborators, we have a lot to fear out there.’ There was a long silence, Babette chewed on her lip, they all looked frightened. ‘Madame Odile will know what to do, we just have to wait, she has all the right contacts. It’ll be all right.’
Daniel waddled towards Claudette and held out his arms to be picked up. She hugged him, he was lighter and much thinner, she had run out of food for him too.
Jacques was back later that day brimming over with excitement. ‘It’s over, the Americans are here and the French army is with them, marching in the same uniforms, can you believe it? They have brought food too.’ He held up a bag of tins. ‘Hot Dogs and Bully Beef, and coffee!’
‘We need to tell the ladies, they are all starving.’ Claudette looked through the cans thinking how unappetising everything looked in spite of her being so hungry.
‘Feed Daniel first, make sure he’s all right, and then we’ll share it out.’ Jacques patted the little boy on the head. ‘Poor little sod.’
It was days later, just after Madame Odile had left the house to meet with a friend, that they came. The hammering on the door could be heard from Lilia’s room. Claudette was lying on the floor with Daniel, they were playing with Indian ornaments from the shelves. She leapt up and looked out of the window. There were people in the street looking up at her. They were chanting ‘Whores, whores, whores.’
Below, the window in Eva’s room opened and Jacques leaned out with his rifle pointing down at the door. ‘Away, all of you, or I will shoot!’
‘Shoot your own?’ One of the men in a grey cap shouted up to him. ‘Traitor!’ and he started to barge the front door with his shoulder. Claudette grabbed a bag from Lilia’s wardrobe and stuffed Daniel’s toys and napkins inside. She wasn’t even thinking what she needed, she grabbed anything and everything.
