Assignment in Brittany

by Helen Macinnes

  Albertine had filled the four crystal glasses. In her nervousness, the bottle neck struck lightly against the rim of one of them, and a thin, clear note shimmered through the still room. The light was fading. The massive furniture stood like black shadows against the white walls.

  Here we are, thought Hearne: two old Breton women, an American who’ll probably go through worse before he’s better, and an Englishman who spends his nights hiding in ditches. What would they drink to?

  It was Madame Corlay who gave the toast, leaning on her cane as she rose slowly and painfully to her feet.

  “To our war,” she said; and no one smiled.

  12

  RENDEZVOUS

  The Corlay farm was asleep. The only light left burning was in Hearne’s room. He sat at the table, his watch in front of him, the diary propped against some books. He had opened it in excitement, but long since the excitement had given way to disappointment, and then the disappointment had given way to exasperation. He turned over another page. Just the same old thing, he thought, just the same old thing.

  May 15. Met E.

  May 20. Met E.

  May 21. Talked with H.

  May 25. Met E. Visit to Paris planned.

  May 29. Talked with H. Meeting at Rennes.

  June 12. Met E.

  Met E...Met E...Met E...

  All the consciously fine writing of the earlier diary had disappeared. Since January 1938 everything had become concise, objective. E. was obviously the beautiful Elise. H... that was something which Hearne could not yet understand. And nothing which he read helped to explain H. Perhaps, thought Hearne flippantly, H. was a brunette, just to complete the circle: Corlay had a redhead in Elise, a blonde in Anne.

  Only once did anything longer than these brief memoranda appear. That was in December 1938, when Corlay had made his first speech. Then he had written: “The audience was small, necessarily, but appreciative. It was a terrific experience to feel them respond. When I admired, they admired. When I hated, they hated. Today they could be counted in tens, but tomorrow they may number hundreds, even thousands.” There had been some other speeches recorded after that, but Corlay had managed to curb his self-approbation. It must have been quite a strain. Once he had noted that he was tired and depressed, but that E. was encouraging. It was shortly afterwards that the trip to Paris had taken place. E. had been there too. There were no more entries about tiredness or depression after that visit to Paris.

  But not all the notes were devoted to meetings with E. or H. Occasionally there would only be a number within a neat circle. Hearne remembered the loose sheets of paper held together with the elastic band, and the numbered map. Something made hard sense somewhere. Even this diary might become interesting if he only knew exactly what Corlay had been doing. His guesses weren’t enough: he had to know. He had to know what Corlay’s game had been. Then either he could stuff the diary and papers back into their hiding-place and forget about them, or—and Hearne drew a deep breath—they might prove to be something much more than interesting.

  Anyway, he consoled himself, he had spent just as useful a day as he would have done lying on his bed or digging in a field. For one thing, he couldn’t have handled that conversation with Madame Corlay if he hadn’t found out more about her son than he had memorised in an English hospital. So nuts and double nuts to Matthews. The trouble with people with cold blue eyes was that they kept floating in front of you with a reprimanding look.

  He strapped the watch on to his wrist thoughtfully. Twenty minutes to ten. Nuts again to Matthews. He wasn’t going to leave this self-imposed job half finished. He had to find out Corlay’s game, and Elise was his last chance for that With a suspicion of a smile, he lifted his pencil and copied Corlay’s writing as carefully as he could. “July 9, 1940. Met E.” He closed the diary and placed it in the drawer.

  And then he unlaced his boots.

  Outside, the stars were dimmed by broken clouds. The young moon was shrouded. There was a smell of rain in the air. Hearne knelt under an apple tree and pulled on his boots.

  He approached the dovecote with a care which would have seemed exaggerated to most people. But Hearne had learned that no care was ever exaggerated: not in this kind of work. When he was satisfied that the surrounding fields were really as deserted as they looked, he advanced through blocks of shadows to the dovecote walls. There he paused, leaning against the curved side of the tower. He regained his breath, his eyes and ears alert. No windows. No sound of any movement. He edged carefully towards the door. It lay open, a black, gaping hole in the rough wall. There was still no sound. Either she was late, or he had credited that line of poetry with too much sense. The half-light of the moon faded behind the thickness of a cloud. He moved quickly into the darkness of the tower.

  The door hadn’t been opened: it lay, torn off its hinges and abandoned, in the middle of the uneven earth floor. He tripped over it in the darkness, as his eyes looked up to the broken roof with its slits of night sky. He regained his balance, and cursed under his breath. And then something moved behind him.

  He turned quickly, and instinctively reached for the shadow which had separated from the blackness of the wall. Then, as his mind caught up with his instinct, he softened his grip. What would have been a stranglehold became an embrace. He heard her gasp, and then there was a low laugh, and her arms were round his neck. Her cheeks were soft and warm. She was wearing the perfume he had noticed yesterday.

  “Bertrand,” she said when she paused for breath.

  “Elise,” he said for lack of anything better to say. From now on, he remembered to think, it was a case of follow-my-leader. He waited for her next move, his face pressed against the fine silk of her hair. He was thankful for the darkness. Even as his eyes became accustomed to its depths, he could only distinguish outlines. That made him feel safer, more assured.

  The tenseness of her body suddenly relaxed. She drew away from him. “Come,” she said, “we have little time. You were late.”

  “It was difficult tonight. My mother was ill and restless. We had visitors this afternoon and they upset her.”

  “Visitors?”

  “Two officers. They wanted to commandeer our house for some colonel.”

  Elise had moved towards a mound of earth banked against the wall; she still held his hand. “How ridiculous... Where is your coat? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten it.” Her voice was half laughing, but only half. The iron hand in the velvet glove, thought Hearne. What was he supposed to have a coat for, anyway?

  “They packed away all my clothes,” he answered. “I’ve had the devil of a time finding things since I got back.” Then, as he saw her hesitating before the mound, he guessed her thoughts.

  “Here’s my jacket. That will do.” He spread it on the earth at her feet.

  “Yes, that will do.” She caught his hand again and pulled him down beside her. She was wearing a thin silk dress and little else under her opened coat. Poor Anne, Hearne suddenly thought: she never had had a chance with Corlay, not one solitary chance against this. “I shall keep you warm,” Elise said. Her voice had lost its edge and was once more good-humoured.

  Warm was an under-statement, Hearne thought. He said, “You’re still as beautiful.”

  She laughed that slow, breath-caught laugh of hers. “But tonight we have little time for your poetry, Bertrand. When I come back from Paris you can tell me how much you love me. But tonight it is business.”

  “Paris?” Hearne hoped his voice was sufficiently dismayed.

  “Yes, tomorrow. That was why I had to see you tonight. That was why I was annoyed when you were late. I must be back at the hotel by eleven. A lot is happening, Bertrand.” There was an excitement breaking through her voice.

  Hearne waited for her to speak again. She rested her head against his shoulder, and looked up towards the patches of cloud and stars above them. He was conscious of the coldness of the night, the warmth of her body, the line of her throat as she watched the
night sky through the gaping roof, the perfume in her hair, the emotion in her voice. His mind was as alert as his senses. He waited.

  “Yes, a lot is happening. And you managed to get back at the right time. Oh, Bertrand, how could you have been so stupid as to get into real fighting?”

  He gave a short laugh. “I couldn’t very well avoid it, could I?”

  “Well, why didn’t you get captured right at the beginning?”

  “That doesn’t always work: there’s often a chap on the other side who shoots first and then questions afterwards.”

  That made her laugh again. “You must tell me what happened. After I get back from Paris. Now—” Her voice was serious, assured, almost commanding. She gives the orders, Hearne judged, and the curve of her waist inside his arm didn’t soften the thought. “Now listen. They are moving into Saint-Déodat. The hotel is already taken over.” She paused for dramatic emphasis.

  “So I noticed yesterday. But what trouble do they expect here? The place has been half dead for years.”

  The interruption annoyed her. “There will be no trouble here, silly. That is why they’ve chosen here. Think of Saint-Déodat’s position. It’s central. It’s a control-point for the whole district. And it’s safe. It’s as safe as—as—”

  “The Bank of France.”

  “This isn’t the time for jokes, Bertrand, not even bad ones.”

  Hearne listened to the sharp edge in her voice, and decided it certainly wasn’t the time. And yet it was difficult to restrain his own particular brand of humour when a young woman took herself so seriously; still more difficult when the young woman was so beautiful as this one. He mumbled what might have been an apology or an endearment, and kissed her hair.

  “From Saint-Déodat,” Elise went on, “the hundreds of surrounding farms and all the villages scattered over this area can be controlled, just as they were by the Church centuries ago.”

  Hardly for the same ends, Hearne thought, as he answered, “But Saint-Déodat may have been central once: now it’s isolated.”

  “Not with a well-made road, and that will be easy for them. It will only be a short detour, really, from the main road in the valley.”

  She was excited: she was making it all sound so very important. Granted Saint-Déodat’s one-time dominance over the district, he could still think of other places which the Nazis would be more likely to pick. Then he realised what she had meant by saying it was safe. Saint-Déodat was safe; for he wouldn’t be the only one to believe it was negligible. That was its safety.

  “The valley?” he echoed, picking up the emphasis she had used on that word.

  “Yes.” The excitement in her voice increased. “The valley— or Dol, to be precise. You don’t believe me? Well, wait until you see the airfields that are being built now all round there. Wait until you see what happens in August, what the results will be by September!”

  “By September?” He kept his voice casual.

  “Yes!” The nonchalance in Hearne’s voice sharpened her tone. “Yes, Bertrand. By August the fifteenth the Germans will be leaving us here. Britain will be under attack. By the middle of September Great Britain will be finished.”

  Hearne kept silent.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked impatiently.

  Hearne said, “I’m thinking that the time is short. I haven’t seen many Germans about Saint-Déodat, so far.”

  “I don’t think you need worry about their efficiency. The plans are all ready, the preparations have begun. In fact”—Elise’s voice was a mixture of amusement and sarcasm—“in fact, Monsieur Corlay, the army is arriving the day after tomorrow.”

  The army...the army... And she didn’t mean masses of soldiers by that, either. She meant the army as opposed to the other branches of the invasion horde. The military element was still to come: the day after tomorrow, she had said. The hotel was already taken over by a handful of soldiers and some officers responsible for the billeting of the troops who were still to come. He suddenly wondered if there were any other types of Nazi at the hotel: Gestapo or Military Intelligence, for instance.

  “Just who are in the hotel now?” he asked casually, and the answer this time stiffened him.

  “We are.” She could no longer hide her sense of triumph. “We are.” She tightened her hands on his wrists until they were numbed. She raised her head from his shoulder and tried to see his expression through the darkness. “What’s wrong?” she asked suddenly. He kissed her, and his thoughts were cold and bitter and completely realistic at last. Corlay was no Breton nationalist, or if he had been one, he had been side-tracked by a very beautiful body. He wondered what the correct answer should be. What would Corlay have said? The kiss ended.

  “What about me?” he asked.

  She regained her breath and her hands went up to her hair to arrange it.

  “That was what I am coming to...At present you are to ignore the hotel. You’ve got to concentrate on your meetings: we are in no danger now, of course, but for the sake of results it will be wise to keep them secret from the Bretons. I’ll send you a list of future dates and places, where you can discuss your progress with the men from the other districts. Then you will also have nationalist meetings, which you are to pretend to keep secret from the Germans. In that way, you’ll get more response from the Bretons. The idea is that Brittany will be separated from France, and we’ve got to get the people to accept it. That is why you must keep our real meetings secret, so that our connexion with Germany won’t be recognised, and then the nationalist meetings, which we shall encourage, will have some chance of success. If we work it properly, we’ll have them accepting this Breton National State as the thing they have always wanted. There will be a German Governor, of course. I hear that Weyer will probably be chosen. And there will also be a Breton National Committee. And you, of course, will be the delegate from this district.”

  She laughed, and struggled free from his grip. “I thought you’d be pleased. Don’t hold me so tightly, Bertrand, you’ll bruise me. I’ll be able to tell you more when I get back from Paris.”

  “Wish I were going with you again,” Hearne said, and mentally thanked the diary.

  “Not this time, my love. Later, perhaps. We’ll see. And now I must get back to the hotel. Hans is arriving tonight.”

  “Hans?”

  “Now don’t start all that silly jealousy again. Hans has been a good friend—to both of us. Who do you think was responsible for getting you into this new National Committee?”

  “How long is he staying here?”

  “The hotel is his headquarters for the next few weeks, until we get everything nicely organised and co-operative. He’s got to go to Paris too, of course.” Her voice was too casual, but the kiss she gave him was meant to soothe any doubts. “And one more thing, my sweet, have you still got those lists?”

  Hearne remembered the map, and the list of names and addresses, and the connecting numbers. He said; “They are safe.”

  “Good. I’ll leave a note for you at the hotel tomorrow with my aunt. I’ll give you the corrections to that list. Most of our men are still intact, but one or two of them were stupid enough to get killed.”

  “Perhaps they surrendered to men who shot first, and asked questions afterwards.”

  She laughed and lifted his wrist to see the illuminated face of his watch.

  “You know,” she said, “I do believe carrying a gun has made your hands bigger.”

  “All the better to hold you with.” Hearne hoped the strain in his voice would pass for emotion.

  “Five minutes more,” she announced. “Bertrand, do you love me as much as ever?” Her emotions were like a bathroom fixture: hot, cold, to be turned on at will.

  “As much as ever I did.”

  “Am I still as beautiful? You haven’t forgotten all your pretty speeches, have you?”

  “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” That at any rate was true. There was a pause. She was waiting. “Yo
ur eyes,” he began, “are like the crystal depths of a sunlit pool. Your hair...” He remembered enough of the verses he had read in Corlay’s note-book: that helped him to improvise for the rest of her anatomy. One hour ago he would scarcely have imagined such cold objectivity possible. He felt a sudden relief as he realised he was safe from Elise; and it was she, herself, who had saved him. The iron hand in the velvet glove, he thought again. She could flutter those black eyelashes, turn that profile, lift those breasts: it would all be an interesting and aesthetically satisfying performance. But the hand was iron, and the velvet glove was wearing thin. Her mind was carefully calculating. Her heart was self-possessed. She might have just as well admitted that she was an incurable leper, with festering flesh concealed under the skilful drapery of her silk dress.

  He looked at the shadow of upturned face. “You beautiful bitch,” he said to himself, and helped her to rise to her feet. The stipulated five minutes of love was over.

  They halted at the doorway. The arc of moon was fitful, but the light was stronger than it had been inside the dovecote. Once again Hearne was glad that the inside of the tower had been so dark.

  “Don’t come over the fields with me,” she said. “It will be better for our plans if you seem to have no contact at all with anyone living at the hotel. It is only for a week or two. This Breton National Council and separation from France will probably be an historical fact by the end of July. That’s our aim.” She added a smile to sweeten her command.

  Hearne looked disappointed. “But there’s no one to see.

  “You know this place. It’s all eyes and tongues. Guess who followed me part of the way here? Kerénor?”

  “Kerénor?” Hearne remembered the: limping man’s animosity. A lot of things were being explained away tonight.

  “Yes, the stupid fool that he is. We have nothing to fear from him now. We can deal with him if he doesn’t behave.” She paused, and then mimicked Kerénor’s voice. “‘What are we fighting for? Comrades, do not be deluded by an imperialist war.’ Yes, his days of usefulness are over. Either he now co-operates, or—” She changed her voice again. “Good night, darling. It has been lovely to see you again.” Hadn’t it just, he thought. He let go both of her hands slowly.