Darkest Longings (70 page)

realized that he was no longer alone. He turned round. A

sad, crooked smile came to his face. So now he knew who

Halunke was, and his last thought before the bullet tore

through his brain was one of desperate sorrow that he would

never be able to tell Francois.

Claudine was in the kitchen with Arlette, grinding acorns to

make coffee and discussing that week’s menus, when the

door opened and Louis toddled in, followed by Corinne.

‘Maman, we have a surprise for you,’ he said.

‘You do?’ she smiled, sweeping him up in her arms. He

was so like his father now that her heart turned over every

time she saw him. She hadn’t heard from Francois in almost

a year. There had been no news either from Erich von

Pappen, though she couldn’t make up her mind whether

that was good or bad.

For weeks, following his last visit, she had tried to obtain an Ausweis in order to travel to Paris, but her application was constantly refused. What she hoped to achieve once she was

there, she wasn’t sure, for she had no idea where Erich

lived; what she did know was that sitting around at Lorvoire

tearing herself to pieces with worry was serving no purpose

at all. However, in the end she had no choice, because as

Armand pointed out, if she defied the Germans there was

no telling what reprisals would be visited on the family.

With Armand, it was a different matter. Since he had

taken over the selling of the wine he found it much easier to

obtain travel documents, so, only the week before, he had

gone to Paris himself. He was there for five days, by which

time the date on his permit had expired and he was forced to

return to Lorvoire. He hadn’t managed to find Erich von

Pappen.

‘And what is the surprise, cherie?’ Claudine said, swallowing

the lump in her throat and kissing Louis’ cheek.

‘You have to come upstairs,’ he said, frowning and

rubbing his fist over the wet patch her kiss had left.

‘Right now?’

He turned to look at Corinne and she nodded. ‘Yes, now,’

he confirmed. He wriggled to be put down, then held out his

hand to lead her from the kitchen. Claudine gave Arlette a

mystified shrug and told her she would be back.

‘I’ve painted a picture for you,’ Louis told her as they

started up the stairs, ‘but you’re not to keep kissing me for

it.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ Claudine answered, grinning as

she caught Corinne’s eye.

‘But that isn’t the surprise,’ Louis added.

Claudine wondered why he didn’t seem very excited:

giving her a surprise was usually a source of tremendous

glee. This time he seemed, if anything, rather bemused, and

she was more than a little intrigued to find out what was

waiting for her in the nursery.

As they crossed the landing to take the stairs to the second

floor, they passed the door to Blomberg’s room. Claudine

felt a sudden blaze of hatred. Only the night before he had

made her kneel in front of him to polish his boots, then he

had called in Hans and made her clean his too. But that was

nothing to what he had forced her to do the week before. He

had returned from the Chateau d’Artigny very nearly

drooling at the mouth because he had only that day

discovered she was half-English. In graphic detail he tow her then what was happening to other dual-nationals - and!

their children - in the rest of occupied France. Of course,

he said, it was his duty to pass this information to the Gestapo, but as they had become such good friends he was”

willing to overlook his duty in this instance, providing…

He had laughed so hard then that he had started to choke,

so it was some minutes before he was able to tell her the

price of his silence. An hour later she was in the drawing

room, the door was locked, and she was performing for

three German officers, whom Blomberg had invited to

watch the Comtesse de Lorvoire crawl about on all fours,

naked.

She was now deeply suspicious of how much Blomberg

actually knew about Francois and what he was doing, but

she dared not run the risk of defying him until she had

definite proof he was lying, but even then there was now this

added complication of her being half-English. So for the

time being at least she had no choice but to do as he said, but

one day he would pay. He would pay with his life and she

personally was going to take it.

‘There’s no need to look so gloomy,’ Corinne whispered

in her ear, ‘it’s really quite a nice surprise.’

Claudine forced a smile, but she doubted whether

anything short of Francois’ return would cheer her up

today. But she was wrong.

When they reached the nursery playroom, Louis positioned

her in the middle of the floor and Corinne closed the

door. Then someone came up behind her, and put a hand

over her eyes and said, ‘Guess who?’

She spun round, her eyes wide and her heart racing.

‘Lucien!’ she cried, and flung her arms around him. ‘Oh

Lucien, we thought you were dead! We thought, oh, I don’t

know, we thought so many things … Let me look at you!

Oh, you don’t know how good it is to see you! Solange will

be ecstatic. We’ll have to break it to her gently, but even then

…’ Suddenly the smile fell from her face and she looked

from his empty sleeve back to his laughing eyes. ‘Lucien!

What happened to your arm?’

‘Careless of me, I know,’ he answered, ‘but I lost the

darned thing and couldn’t find it anywhere.’

‘But how?’

it’s a long story. I’m just glad it was my left arm and not the right, or I’d be really stymied. Anyway, I’m getting used to it now, I hardly notice it’s missing.’

‘Are you Papa?’ Louis asked, gazing up at him curiously.

Grinning, Lucien lowered himself to Louis’ height and

said, ‘No. I’m your Uncle Lucien. Don’t you remember

me?’

Louis pulled a face, then looked at Claudine. ‘I think so,’

he said. Then turning back to Lucien, ‘Do you know where

Papa is?’

It was Lucien’s turn to look at Claudine. ‘No,’ he

answered.

‘We haven’t heard from him in almost a year,’ Claudine

said. ‘I’ll tell you about it later. First, I’d better go and break

the news to Solange.’

‘No,’ Lucien said, standing up and lifting Louis with him.

We’re not going to tell Grand-mere I’m here, are we,

Louis?’

Louis’ face took on a conspiratorial look and he solemnly

shook his head. Then Corinne took him into her own arms

and reminded him that they had the chickens to feed.

‘We only have two horses now,’ Louis told Lucien, ‘the

Germans took the others. So we keep chickens in the stables

instead.’

‘I see,’ Lucien nodded, ‘that seems to make sense.’

Louis drew back as Claudine went to kiss him goodbye,

but then, relenting, he offered her his cheek on the

understanding that she didn’t make it wet.

‘He’s grown so much,’ Lucien chuckled as the door

closed behind Louis and Corinne, ‘I can hardly believe it

I’m sorry he saw me, by the way, but he happened to walk

out of the nursery just as I let myself in from the bridge.

Gave him the fright of his life, I think. Thank God Corinne

was behind him or he might have screamed. You have

Germans living here, I’m told?’

‘Just the one. And his chauffeur. They’re out all day.’

‘What’s he like?’

‘Don’t ask,’ Claudine said. She sat down on the sofa, and

Lucien joined her. ‘Now what’s all this business about not

telling Solange?’

He glanced at his watch. ‘You won’t be missed?’ he said.

‘No.’ Arlette would carry on without her.

‘All right. I’d better start at the beginning.’

‘Start with the arm.’

He nodded. Then, as if rattling off a shopping list, he

said, ‘I was engaged in the fighting at Abbeville with the

Fourth Armoured Division under de Gaulle. Then the

Germans pushed through, cutting us off from the main

British Expeditionary Force, and I was injured - not

seriously, but enough to put me out for several days. The

next thing I knew I was at Dunkirk, being piled into a

stinking fishing boat along with dozens of others. As we

started into the Channel our boat collided with another, and

my arm, which was hanging over the side at the time…’ He

made a slicing motion with his hand and grinned as

Claudine winced.

‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘we got to England and I was carted

off to hospital, which was where one of de Gaulle’s men

found me. He took me off to London as soon as I’d

recovered, and that’s where I was until January. In January I

sailed back to France with a couple of others, again in a

stinking fishing boat. We made our way to Paris, holed up

there for a while, and now I’m here.’

“Why do I get the impression you’ve missed out the most

important bit?’

Lucien grinned. ‘Because I have. And because I have to

know that I can trust you before I tell you anything else.’

‘And what am I supposed to do to convince you of that?’

‘I guess nothing, because I’m going to trust you anyway. I

have to. The reason I’m here in France is to help organize

an escape route for the British pilots who are shot down or

forced to bail out of their aircraft. It’s imperative that we get

them back to England as quickly as possible so that they can

continue the fight.’

‘And where do I come in?’

‘We need safe-houses for the pilots right the way through

the country down into Spain. We also need couriers to let

the safe-houses know when to expect the pilots. But that’s

only the beginning. We need clothes, documents, guides,

doctors, medication and as much information about the

movement of German troops as we can get. You have

contacts in this area, so does Armand. Where is he, by the

way? Perhaps we should call him in?’

Claudine shook her head. ‘He went to Blois yesterday

and won’t be back until Friday.’

‘I thought he was supposed to be protecting you from Francois’ nemesis?’

‘Life has to go on, Lucien.’

He nodded. ‘Has anyone discovered who Halunke is yet?’

‘I don’t think so. But as I said, we haven’t heard from Francois for almost a year.’

‘What about von Pappen?’

‘He came here a few months ago. Looking for you, as a

matter of fact.’

‘Did he?’ Lucien said thoughtfully. ‘Did he say why he

was looking for me?’

‘No. He just said he was concerned.’

Lucien laughed. ‘Probably thought I’d got myself killed.

Well, we can put his mind at rest now. So what’s all this

about Armand going to Blois?’

‘He travels quite a lot to sell the wine.’ She shrugged.

‘Someone has to, now Francois isn’t here to do it.’

His eyes narrowed as he looked at her, and he wondered

if he should tell her that he knew how in love she and his

brother were, so there was no need to hide it from him. But

he decided not to. She was handling it in her own way, and

now wasn’t the time to be having that kind of conversation.

‘So who’s running the vineyards?’ he asked.

‘Armand. Solange, Monique and I help as much as we

can. But that’s not important. What is important is that

Armand finds it much easier than most to obtain a laissez

passer, or an Ausweis - the documents we need to travel

about the country. So he could be invaluable as a courier.’

‘He most certainly could,’ Lucien agreed. ‘Pity he’s not

here now. I have three airmen at a safe house in La Fleche,

and I need to get word to their next safe-house which is just

outside Loudun. I can’t go myself because I have to return

to La Fleche before curfew to get them.’

‘I’ll go,’ Claudine said, without even thinking about it.

‘You would?’ Lucien exclaimed. ‘That’s just what I was

hoping you’d say.’ And putting his arm round her, he gave

her a smacking kiss on the forehead. ‘You’re a remarkable

woman, Claudine!’

She pulled a face, and extricating herself from his

embrace, said, ‘So, what do I do, and who should I speak to?’

‘First things first,’ he chuckled. ‘You have to think of a

cover-story for why you’re going to Lemere.’

‘Lemere? But I thought you said Loudun?’

‘I did. But we’re introducing a system of cut-outs, which

means you never actually meet the person you’re trying to

contact. That way, if the Gestapo get hold of you you won’t

be able to betray anyone. So, you are to go to the post office

in Lemere and ask to send a long cable including the words

is sick”, then make a fuss about the charge.

That way the postmaster will pay extra attention to your

cable, and when he sees the code he’ll know he has to pass

the message on to the next cut-out point.’

‘But that way I know who my contact is. And he’ll know me.’

‘As I know you,
etc.
It’s not a perfect system, but we’re

working on it. However, if the Germans rumble you and

torture you, which they will if they catch you, you will be able

to tell them only of the post office in Lemere. And if you