The Hesitant Hero (23 page)

“I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid you won’t come back.”

“Oh, I’ll come back,” Jolie said with more confidence than she felt. “And then when I come back, you’ll go on a ship, and it will take you far away from here, where you’ll be safe.”

“All right,” Yolande said, but her lips were quivering.

“You help Rochelle take care of Marie.”

“I will.”

“And be sure Damien behaves himself.”

“I always behave myself,” he said indignantly. “You know that, I hope!”

Jolie kissed the girl and put her hand on her head as she stood up.

“Damien, I was just teasing,” Jolie said. “I expect you to take care of things while I’m gone.”

“You won’t be too long, will you?”

“We’ll be back as quick as we can.” She kissed him as well. “Now, you all be good children.”

Tyler walked the two women outside, but Annette quickly
went back inside to retrieve the coat they had forgotten. It was meant to be part of Jolie’s disguise.

As soon as she disappeared, Tyler said, “I wish you didn’t have to do this.”

“It’ll be all right.”

“You take care of yourself, now,” he said. She saw that he was nervous.

“If I don’t make it, I know you will take the children to safety.”

Tyler reached out and took her hand. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it and then imprisoned it in both of his. “I guess this is no time to mention it,” he said slowly in a voice that seemed tight and strained, “but I love you, Jolie.”

She could not speak. She knew that her own heart was somehow tied up with this man who had come into her life so abruptly, but something seemed to turn over inside her heart. She freed her hand and put it on his cheek. “You’re not the man you were when you first came to France.” She put her arms around his neck and pulled his head down. She put her lips against his and held him tightly. When she pulled away, she said, “We will talk when I come back.”

Annette came out of the house holding a coat. She glanced at the two and grinned. “Put this on, Jolie.”

She put it on and followed Annette out into the darkness.

Tyler watched them until they disappeared. He felt something touch his leg, and he looked down to see Yolande standing there. He reached down and picked her up.

“I’m afraid,” she whispered.

“You mustn’t be afraid.”

“Will God bring her back?”

Tyler peered into the darkness and knew that he was asking that same question in his own heart. “Yes, Yolande. He will.”

He could feel the tension in her body. She was so small and fragile that he thought he could feel the beat of her heart. “You mustn’t be afraid,” he whispered again.

“But what if they don’t come back?”

“They will come back. Jesus will help them.”

“Do you think so—really?”

“Yes, I do,” Tyler said and as he spoke, he found that he believed what he was saying. “Yes, Yolande, Jesus will bring them back to us!”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jean Clermont

A thin line of light appeared in the east announcing the coming of the morning. Annette and Jolie had ridden together on Crazy throughout the night, but they could not go quickly in the darkness. Also Annette, being the tougher of the two, soon noted that Jolie was not used to riding, and they had stopped for a rest every two hours.

An hour before sunrise, Annette had said, “This road bears off to the west and will not get us to Deauville. We will have to get back on the main road, but we’re not far now. We’ll be there soon. And so far we’ve not seen any Germans.”

The earth was awakening now from the night’s sleep as the trio trudged along. A small symphony came from overhead as a flight of birds flew over. Jolie looked up and saw them outlined against the sky. They seemed almost like a band of pilgrims headed for a happy shore somewhere in the distance.
I wish I were as certain that all of us would find our way as those little birds seem to be, but then birds don’t have as many worries as people do.

A light rain had fallen some time shortly after midnight, and now the smell of the moist earth rose like incense, thick and sweet-smelling but at the same time musty. In order to rest the horse, the two women were walking now, leading the horse by the reins. The dust of the road underfoot had been settled by the light rain and now was only slightly mushy.

The oversized shoes that Jolie wore were uncomfortable. She had put on heavy socks but still could feel a blister forming
on her left heel. There was nothing she could do about it, so she did not mention it to Annette.

“How long is it that you have known Monsieur Winslow?” Annette asked.

“Not very long. I met him when I was studying in America, and not long ago he came to our village.”

“He came all the way from America just to see you? That’s unusual.”

“He’s a painter, and he wanted to study art in Paris. When that didn’t turn out exactly the way he’d planned, he decided to go farther south and do some painting in the mountains.” Even as she spoke, Jolie knew she was not telling the complete truth. For some time now she had been aware that Tyler had indeed come to see her. She saw that Annette was puzzled by all this, but she didn’t want to make the effort to make it clear to the woman.

“He is not like I thought Americans would be.”

“How did you think they would be, Annette?”

“Oh . . . loud, boastful, selfish.”

“Some of them are.”

“But he’s not. He’s risking his life for those children. It’s not what I expected.”

“But you’re doing the same thing, Annette,” Jolie responded. “I think we find goodness in people if we look for it.”

“That is true. It is also true,” she said with a sharp, bitter tone, “that we find evil in some people whether we look for it or not.”

“That’s the way it has always been. And most of us are not all evil or all holy.”

Annette laughed. “That is what my husband always used to tell me.”

“What is his name?”

“Alain. He always used to say, ‘You want everything to be black and white, but life is not like that. There are many shades of gray in between.’“ She laughed. “Then he would
grab me and say, ‘I’ll leave it up to you to tell me what shade of gray I am right now!’ ”

Jolie laughed. “I think that’s sweet. I know you miss him very much. It must be so hard to have him so far away.”

“I do miss him. I didn’t ever expect to have a good husband for some reason, but he came along and surprised me. I think about him all the time.”

“I’ll be glad when this horrible war is over and he comes back to you. Then you can get on with your lives.”

“That will be a long time, I think.”

Jolie had exactly the same feeling.

As the women came to the crest of a hill, Annette whispered urgently, “Quick, we must hide. There are soldiers ahead!”

Jolie had also seen the truck that was pulled over to the side of the road, and she immediately recognized that the soldiers were German. “It’s too late,” she said. “They’ve seen us. Look.”

One of the men was pointing up at the two women and shouting something to the other soldiers. “It’s too late to run,” Annette said quietly. “Don’t forget you’re a half-wit. Don’t say anything at all—just act your part. We’ll get through this all right.”

Jolie wished that she had as much hope as Annette, but as the soldiers approached them, she let her shoulders slump and tried to put an idiotic expression on her face. The best she could do was to stand there slack-jawed and roll her eyes from time to time. She looked down and saw that her hands did not fit the part. Her face was smeared and begrimed and her hair stiff with dirt, but her hands were clean. She was wearing a long sweater that was too big for her, and now she pulled the sleeves down so that only the tips of her fingers showed. She quickly put her fingertips in her mouth and reached over to smear them with dirt. Before the soldiers were halfway up the hill, she settled into a round-shouldered posture.

“Who are you? Where are you going?”

The sergeant who came up to them was a massive man
with blunt features and fingers like sausages. He held a rifle in his hands, but the other four soldiers who were with him were watching with what looked more like curiosity than anything. They all looked weary and bored with their work.

“I am Annette Fortier, sir. This is my sister Alice.”

“Let me see your papers.”

Annette took a pouch out of the saddlebag and retrieved her papers.

“Where do you live?” he asked after he had studied them. “Close by here?”

“On a farm near Pont-l’Évêque, sir.”

“And your papers,” he said to Jolie.

Jolie knew that if she did not perform well, all would be lost. She made a gurgling sound with her throat and rolled her eyes and then let her jaw sag loosely. She even allowed a little saliva to roll down her chin.

“What’s wrong with her?” the soldier demanded. “Give me your papers, woman!”

“She . . . she has never been quite right,” Annette said quickly. “Let me talk to her.” She bent her head down so she could look up into Jolie’s face. “Alice, give me your papers.” She began to search Jolie’s pockets, complaining loudly.

Jolie began to fumble at the sack that Annette was carrying. She continued making the gurgling sounds in her throat and then somehow managed a creaky giggle that sounded insane even to her!

“What’s she doing?”

“She always wants sweets.” Annette reached into her bag and got an apple. “Give me your papers, and you can have the apple.”

Jolie tried to reach for the apple, and when Annette held it back, she began to sob. “Apple,” she said in a creaky voice.

“Give me your papers.”

Annette continued to ask, and finally she gave Jolie the apple. Jolie ate it with great gusto while Annette continued to look through her pockets. “Where are your papers, you
fool?” Annette searched her thoroughly and then turned to the sergeant and said bitterly, “She’s put them somewhere. I should have known better than to let her carry them.”

The soldiers were watching the whole scene with some amusement. Jolie continued to smack and chew and swallow the apple, holding it with both hands, making as much noise as possible. When the officer stepped forward, she cried out and held the apple in a protective position.

The man spoke to the others in German. They responded by shaking their heads and snickering. Then in rough French he said, “All right. Get on your way.”

With a voice filled with disgust, the sergeant threw Annette’s papers back at her.

“Quick, get on the horse,” Annette said. She helped Jolie get on and then leaped up behind her. She kicked Crazy in the side, and the animal ambled on.

They went past the truck full of soldiers, and not until they were a hundred meters down the road did Jolie start to relax. Her muscles were so tense she felt as if she had been holding some huge weight at bay, barely keeping it from crushing her. “I thought we were gone that time.”

“So did I, but the good Lord was with us.”

“Can’t we go faster?”

“That would look suspicious, but Deauville isn’t far now. We’ll be there soon.” Annette suddenly laughed. “You did well. I think you’ve missed your calling. You should have been an actress rather than a doctor.”

Jolie smiled and shook her head. “I hope I don’t have to do that again.”

****

“Sergeant Dent is back with his squad, Major.”

Major Dietrich looked up expectantly at Lieutenant Scharmann. “Well, what did he report? Don’t just stand there, man!”

“No success, I’m afraid, sir, but—”

“No success? Is that all I can get out of you?”

“We’re trying to cover a big territory, sir. I’m sure the men are doing the best they can. “

“The best they can! These people can’t have vanished into thin air. They’ve got to be
somewhere.
” He waited for an answer. “Well, what did they see?”

“Nothing, sir, worth reporting.”

“I’ll decide what is worth reporting! What did he say?”

Scharmann looked over the paper and read off a list that the sergeant had given him. He ended by saying, “That’s all, sir, except a pair of peasant women.”

“Peasant women? Where were they from?”

“From Pont-l’Évêque, at least one of them. The other looked like she was retarded. She had lost her papers.”

Major Dietrich stared hard at Scharmann. The air was still, and from outside there was a sound of a radio playing somewhere. “I will talk with the sergeant.”

“Yes, sir.” Scharmann was glad he was not the source of the look of lethal fury on the major’s face. That had come to be his almost normal expression. Scharmann followed the major out of his office and said, “There he is over there. I told them they could get some sleep. They were out nearly all night.”

Ignoring Scharmann’s comment, Major Dietrich walked over. The sergeant had his back to the two officers, but when Dietrich’s voice rang out, “Sergeant!” he moved very quickly.

Whirling, his eyes flew open, and he came to attention and saluted. “Sir!” he said.

Dietrich gave him a parody of a salute, then said, “Tell me about these two women the lieutenant tells me you saw.”

“The two women?”

“Do you have a hearing problem, Sergeant?”

“Oh no, sir. Well, they were just two poor women, you know. You see them on the road all the time.”

“What did they look like?”

“One of them was larger than the other, not a bad-looking woman. But the idiot was disgusting.”

“Tell me what she looked like.”

“Why, she wore old clothes that were too big for her—her sleeves came down over her hands just like that. Her face was smeared with dirt.”

“Did she say anything?”

“I don’t think she could talk, Major. She just gurgled, sort of, you know, like an animal.”

“But she had no papers.”

Dent shook his head. “No, sir. The other woman said she had let her carry them and she lost them.”

“What else can you tell me about her?”

“Well, she was all dirty; her clothes were filthy. She had on a pair of old men’s shoes.”

“How old was she?”

“At first I thought she was older, but then I watched her eat an apple. You know how old women’s hands are. Well, this one’s hands were smooth and strong looking.” The sergeant grinned. “If the rest of her looked as good as her hands, I might have been interested.”