Darkest Longings (42 page)

I. Francois, then found herself remembering what he had told

her about Hortense.

Armand sat down and reached for her hands. ‘What are

you thinking?’ he said gently.

She took a while to answer, but finally she said, ‘I was

thinking about a woman called Hortense de Bourchain.

Have you ever heard of her?’

‘Yes,’ he answered, and she thought she sensed him

withdraw.

‘What do you know about her?’ she asked.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

Armand saw that this answer had unsettled her even

further, but he still wasn’t sure what direction her thoughts

were taking.

‘I didn’t believe him,’ Claudine said at last. ‘When he told

me, I thought he was just saying it to try and stop me

marrying him. Then after we were married, I thought…’

She shook her head, as if trying to clear it. ‘I keep telling

myself that if he had killed her, someone would have …’

‘Just a minute,’ Armand interrupted. ‘Are you saying that

Francois told you he killed Hortense?’

She nodded. ‘But if he had, surely it would have gone to

trial? People don’t get away with murder, do they?’

Her eyes were beseeching him for the reassurance she

craved, but as he continued to say nothing he felt her horror

as if it was almost tangible. ‘Did he kill her, Armand?’ she

whispered.

When again he didn’t answer she felt a scream of denial

curl through her gut. ‘He did, didn’t he?’ she croaked.

‘Yes. I saw him do it.’

‘You saw him!’ she gasped. ‘But how? What happened?

Oh my God, I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it.’

‘Ssh,’ he said, trying to calm her.

‘But why?’ she cried. ‘Why did he kill her?’

‘All I know is that it had something to do with Lucien. I

don’t know what exactly, but when I heard them fighting in

the wine cave, I heard Lucien’s name …’

Her mind was racing and her skin was beaded with a cold

sweat. She took a deep breath. ‘You’d better start at the

beginning, Armand.’

He nodded slowly, then letting go of her hands he stood

up and started to pace the room. Her eyes never left him,

following him back and forth as he told her everything he

had seen and heard that night in the wine cave. He even told

her of Louis’ involvement, and his own reasons for not

informing the police.

‘Maybe if Jacqueline hadn’t been so close to giving birth,’

he said, as he reached the end of his story, ‘I’d have acted differently, but I’m not sure. The de Lorvoires are a powerful family, to stand against them alone would have

been madness. Then when Louis told me Hortense’s family

did not want to press charges, it showed me more than

anything else what pressure the de Lorvoires could bring to

bear. But even then I might have done something if I hadn’t

known that a scandal would break Solange’s heart - not to

mention what it would do to Lucien’s career and Monique’s

hopes of marriage … I’ve known that family all my life, I

just couldn’t do it to them.’

She was silent for a long time, trying to take it all in.

Finally she said, ‘Does Francois know that you know?’

‘I don’t think so. If he did…’ He left the sentence

unfinished as he suddenly realized what she was getting at.

‘You think that perhaps he does, that that’s why he’s having

us watched? But why should he be afraid of me telling you

when he’s already told you himself?’

But as she continued to look at him he saw that her mind

was travelling much further than that. As reassuringly as he

could, he said, ‘You aren’t in any danger from him, cherie. He must be only too aware that if he did anything to you, his father wouldn’t stand by him again. Besides, he has no

reason to want to harm you.’

‘So why is he having us watched?’

‘We’re only assuming that it’s him.’

‘But who else could it be?’

He smiled. ‘I’m afraid there are people with some rather

odd sexual habits. It could be one of them.’

She laughed half-heartedly, and got up to put her arms

around him. He held her tightly, stroking her hair as he

mulled everything over in his mind. Then, deciding that

there was only one way to take her mind off her fears, he

took his coat from her shoulders and lowered his mouth to

the most beautiful breasts he had ever touched.

- 16

‘Aren’t you going to say anything? Elise asked, pulling down

the sun-visor and checking her lipstick in the mirror.

Francois took their passports back from the sentry, and

sliding the car into gear, drove across the border into

France. ‘What about?’ he said.

‘I don’t know. The fact that there isn’t going to be a war, I

suppose. I take it that’s why we were in Munich at the same

time as all those leaders - so that you could get your

information firsthand?’

‘We were there for the opera,’ he said, keeping his eyes

fixed on the road ahead. ‘Did you like it?’

‘As a matter of fact, I did.’

‘Good.’

Knowing she was unlikely to get any further than that,

Elise lapsed into silence, and running a finger under her

chin to loosen the ribbon of her hat, she turned to look out at

the passing countryside.

She was managing to hide it well, but she was still quite

shaken by this trip to Germany, not least because of what

she had seen while she was there. Two weeks ago they had

driven to Berlin, and after checking them into a hotel near

the American Embassy, Francois had disappeared for two

days. Elise had used the opportunity to try and make contact

with von Liebermann, as she had been instructed, but it

transpired that he was away. So, with nothing else to do she

had gone shopping, and it was while she was wandering

about on foot that she had come across the bands of young

men who called themselves the Hitler Youth.

Their behaviour had astonished her. She had seen them

kick down doors, smash windows, throw a woman and and

her children into the gutter, and beat one old man half to

death in front of her eyes. Someone told her later that the

victims were all Jews, and though she had no great love of

the Jews herself, she was still sickened by what she had seen.

However, when Francois eventually returned and told her

they were to be guests of Hermann Goering at his forest

lake home of Karinhall, where the Nazi leader was holding a

weekend party to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Edda,

she promptly forgot the plight of Berlin’s Jews in her eager

preparations for the visit.

After Berlin they had headed for Munich, making several

stops along the way, the last at a place called Dachau. There

they met the dashingly handsome Reinhard Heydrich, a

young SS officer who proudly showed them the Death’s

head Unit in training. At first Elise was fascinated by the

strength and fitness of Heydrich’s nubile young men, but

when she was confronted with the ruthless discipline

inflicted on the prisoners in the camp - most of whom were

Jews, Heydrich told her - she was horrified. She stayed no

longer than ten minutes before returning to the car and

waiting until Francois had finished whatever business he

had come to conduct. So far, neither of them had mentioned

what they had seen.

Once in Munich she had settled into their hotel, made

love with Francois in the shower bath, and then, while

Francois was out purchasing their opera tickets, she had

received a telephone call from von Liebermann asking her

to meet him the following day.

She had behaved with extreme caution on her way to von

Liebermann. She had taken a taxi, then a tram, then another

taxi; she had entered a hotel, walked through it, and taken a

third taxi which finally delivered her to her destination. She

was afraid Francois might be having her followed.

Ever since he had first suggested she accompany him, she

had been suspicious. In the past she’d asked on a number of

occasions if she could go with him to Germany, but she had

always met with a point-blank refusal. So why now? she wondered. And why, after what had happened to his wife I and the things he’d said as a result, was he being so exceptionally attentive? Could it be, perhaps, that Monique I had told him about the rape? But she had seen Monique I

before she left, and Monique had assured her she’d said nothing. She had no reason to disbelieve, Monique, for they were now friends again, Elise having promised Monique

that she meant the child Louis no harm. But even if

Monique had relayed to her brother the carefully edited

story Elise had given her - how an old flame had broken into

her apartment and raped her - Elise couldn’t imagine for

one moment that sympathy and concern were behind

Francois’ motive for taking her with him. There was

something else behind it, there must be, and her great fear

was that he must know of her intention to meet von

Liebermann. But the General had assured her that was

impossible, and when she’d returned from her meeting with

him there had been nothing in Francois’ manner to suggest

the least suspicion.

Later, after he had gone out to have dinner with the

French Foreign Minister, she had telephoned Max Helber,

and using the code von Liebermann had given her, had told

Helber who Francois was with. She disliked making these

calls, chiefly because she didn’t know why she was making

them. Oh, she knew what they had told her, that in return

for information they would help her be rid of The Bitch, and

she was more than happy to have them do that for her, but

she wanted to know why the Abwehr were so interested in

Francois. They didn’t trust him, that much was obvious. But

what was it von Liebermann had said? ‘We want only to

make certain that he does not waver from the path.’ The

only path von Liebermann could have been referring to was

his own, the Nazis’, which could only mean that

Francois…

‘As a matter of fact,’ Francois said, startling her with his abrupt break into her thoughts, ‘there will be a war.’

As she turned to look at him, he smiled, and reached out for her hand. ‘But Daladier said …’

‘I know what Daladier said,’ he interrupted, ‘but I can

assure you that our German friends will not be satisfied with

the Sudetenland, and Daladier, Chamberlain, and everyone

else who was at that conference, knows it. In short, ma cherie, to use an American expression, the Allies have just sold Czechoslovakia down the river. The problem is that by

doing it they think they have rescued themselves from the

brink of war.’

‘And they haven’t?’

‘No. Hitler has no intention of stopping at Czechoslovakia.’

He paused, as if uncertain whether to continue, then

puzzled her by saying, ‘If he doesn’t, or even if he does, I’m

sure you saw enough in Berlin - and in Dachau - to make

you share my sentiments.’

‘God help the Jews.’

Again Francois smiled, and bringing her hand to his

mouth, he kissed it. He enjoyed feeding her titbits of

information like that; he was fascinated to see how long if

would take her to work out what he was up to. He was also

intrigued by her meeting with von Liebermann in Munich.

He had no intention of revealing that he knew about it, of

course, and he didn’t know how their association had come

about-though he was fairly sure it had something to do with

the rape Monique had told him about. That was what had

prompted him to take Elise to Germany with him. Once

there, he was convinced she would betray herself somehow,

and she had proved him right.

Elise too was thinking of von Liebermann at that

moment; she was wondering who her new Paris contact

would be. She hadn’t actually seen the man Halunke since

the day he raped her, but just the sound of his voice on the telephone sent a chill of revulsion slithering down her spine.

Von Liebermann had been most sympathetic when she told

him what Halunke had done to her, and promised that her

contact would be someone quite different. ‘I’m afraid

Halunke is not always an easy man to control,’ he had said.

‘In fact there are times when he reminds me a great deal of

your lover.’

As she recalled those words now, Elise turned to look at

Francois. With his hawklike features and long black hair,

he was not an attractive man, though how he compared with

Halunke she had no idea, for Halunke had worn a mask. But

of course von Liebermann had not been referring to

physical characteristics. Well, there might be similarities

between them, but ruthless as Francois could be, Elise

could never imagine him perpetrating such a vicious act of

sodomy as Halunke had visited upon her. Which led her to

wonder if Francois was aware of the designs Max Helber

had on him. Of course, Helber was wasting his time,

Francois would kill him before he allowed Helber’s fat little

hands anywhere near him. But for a moment she almost