sorry,’ she said, after a moment or two, ‘it must have been
very distressing for you.’
Francois only sighed. ‘How does she know about
Claudine and me?’ he said.
‘Blomberg,’ Beatrice answered. ‘He was here again
yesterday. He must have told her.’
Francois’ face showed nothing of the anger he felt at her
reply. He could hardly believe he had been so stupid as not
to have realized Blomberg would tell Elise. ‘Must have told
her?’ he said shortly. ‘Weren’t you listening?’
Beatrice coloured slightly. ‘I was listening,’ she said, ‘but
there does tend to be rather a lot of whispering, and
perhaps,’ she looked away, ‘my hearing is not quite as good
as it was.’
Francois let it go at that, and soon afterwards took himself
off to a hotel for the night. His continued presence at the
house would only cause Elise more distress, and he couldn’t
go home because he had lied to Claudine about the time he
was expected in Vichy. In fact he did try telephoning her, but
the lines were down.
He spent a sleepless night at the hotel, turning over in his
mind the painful events of the afternoon. One thing that did
not occur to him, or to Beatrice, was that Elise’s claims
about what was going to happen to Claudine next day should
be taken seriously. They had heard it all too many times
before to pay any attention to it.
Halunke was counting on the telephone lines between
Chinon and Lorvoire not being repaired before tonight.
He’d sabotaged them himself, so that Lorvoire and his wife
couldn’t make contact. If he’d given himself away in the
forest yesterday - if Claudine’s running away like that
meant she knew who he was - it was vital that she didn’t pass
the information on. But it could be that he was imagining
things, that she didn’t suspect him at all. At their meeting in
old Thomas’ barn last night, to finalize preparations for
tonight’s parachute drop, she had seemed perfectly in
control of herself again, and made only a passing reference
to the incident by saying that her nerves had got the better of
her.
He had been expecting her to say that she no longer
intended coming with them tonight - but she was as
determined as ever to be there, which was good. In fact, it
was vital. The Germans knew about the drop, they were
even now making room in the cells for their new prisoners.
Later, one of the prisoners would be shot, someone whose
death would hurt de Lorvoire more than any other so far.
Halunke grinned, and swung himself up over the fence
into the forest. Everything was falling neatly into place.
There was just one further task he needed to perform
before tonight, then he could focus his mind on the real
prize: Francois de Lorvoire’s son and heir.
Claudine hadn’t seen anyone for hours. A little while ago,
driving the vineyard gazogene, she had crossed the Thouet
river for the second time that day, heading west along the
narrow, winding country roads towards Cholet. There were
still another twenty kilometres to cover before she reached the field, just beyond the village of Brossay, where they were going to light the bonfires for the British parachute drop
that night. Already logs, dried bracken, cans of paraffin and
bicycles were hidden in a nearby barn, and now she was
going over the route again to make certain of finding her way
in the dark. Not that she would be alone, but old Thomas,
Yves Fauberg and Armand were counting on her to know
the way. Lucien would lead three others over the route he
-had chosen, and Jacques would bring the remainder of the
party in a small truck he had ‘borrowed’ from a bakery in
Richelieu, complete with a tank of precious gasoline. The
truck would be used later to ferry the parachuted supplies to
a hiding-place known only to Lucien and Jacques. Safe
houses were already arranged for the agents, Armand would
escort one of them to La Roche-Clermault and she would
take the other to St Pierre-a-Champ. Everyone else would
take different roads home.
She looked around her at the sprawling, wide open
plains, and her stomach gave a lurch when she thought how
vulnerable they would be in such unsheltered territory.
Illuminated by the glare of a full moon, too - providing the
weather held out.
Half an hour later, having driven through the village of
Brossay, she passed a disused factory, then started to look
out for the crucifix that marked the turning into a cart-track
which led to the barn, a nearby copse - and the landing
ground. Having satisfied herself that she now knew the way,
she drove straight past the crucifix, crossed herself, made a
silent prayer that all would go well for them that night, and
then set off for home by a direct route.
The roads were almost empty, but a few cyclists saluted
her, laughing at the huge balloon of charcoal gas bobbing
about on the roof of her Renault van. Her progress was so
slow that a couple of them pedalled along beside her to pass
the time of day. She was glad of their company, for it
stopped her, briefly, from thinking about what had happened
in the forest the day before.
She had lain awake all night, thinking about it. The
terrible discovery had taken over her mind, forcing her to
examine and re-examine every coincidence, every strange
glance and every unanswered question. In the end she had
felt as though her head would explode with it. She was
desperate to speak to Francois. He would tell her if she was
simply making a fool of herself over the incoherent
ramblings of an old gypsy, or whether he too could see that
the appalling truth might have been staring them in the face
all the time.
If the gypsy was right, then there was little doubt in her
mind which one of them was Halunke - Lucien would never
have killed his own father. But she didn’t seem able to think
beyond that, for the very idea that Armand, who loved
Francois as a brother, who had been her lover… And yet
better Armand than Lucien, perhaps. What would it do to
Francois if he learned that his own brother … No! None of
it bore thinking about, and she would not think about it any
more until Francois returned.
At last she turned the gazogene off the forest road and into
the drive leading up to the west wing of the chateau. It
looked as if there was something up ahead. She peered
through the trees, trying to force the van to go faster, and
when she came to the end of the drive and saw what it was,
her face drained of colour. Parked right across the front of
the chateau were five police cars.
She leapt out of the car and raced up the steps. As she
burst in through the door she ran straight into Solange.
‘Oh, Claudine! At last! Where… ?’
‘What is it?’ Claudine cried, hearing the shrillness in her
voice. ‘What’s happened? What are the gendarmes doing here?’
‘Oh Claudine,’ Solange wailed, ‘something terrible has
happened! I can’t…’
‘Louis!’ Claudine screamed, and pushing Solange out of
the way, she dashed towards the stairs.
‘No! Stop!’ Solange shouted. ‘It isn’t Louis, Claudine.
It’s Estelle.’ .
Claudine’s relief gave way almost immediately to fear.
She saw again in her mind’s eye Lucien and Estelle standing
together in the clearing outside the cottage. Maybe Armand
had seen them too. ‘What’s happened to her?’ she breathed.
‘She’s been murdered,’ Solange said, crossing herself.
‘Come outside, cherie and I’ll tell you.’
As they descended the steps, Solange said ‘The gendarme are at the cottage. It’s where she was murdered, outside in the clearing. Monique found her.’
‘Where’s Monique now?’
in her room. Celine is taking care of her.’
‘And Jack Bingham?’
‘We’ve moved him to Thomas’ barn for the time being.
Incidently, he regained consciousness this morning.’
While they talked they had made their way between the
haphazardly parked cars and now came to a halt at the top of
the meadow.
‘Tell me what happened,’ Claudine said. ‘From the
beginning.’
Solange turned her face away for a moment, and
Claudine suddenly reached for her hand, I’m sorry,’ she
whispered, it must have been a terrible shock for you, Maman. You don’t have to tell me now …’
‘I do,’ Solange said, it will help me to get things straight
in my own mind. I’ll start with when Monique found the
body, is that all right?’ She took a deep breath, then blinked,
and began.
‘Well, as soon as Monique found the body she ran back
here to raise the alarm. Armand was in the wine caves, so I went straight out to tell him. For a moment I thought he was going to faint, but then Celine came out with some brandy,
and once he had himself back under control he sent me for
Doctor Lebrun, and Celine to the village to tell Gustave to get a message to Lucien. The wretched telephone still isn’t working, you see, and we had to get the American out of the
cottage before the police arrived, and Armand thought
Lucien should take care of that. When I got back here with
the doctor, Armand had disappeared, but we found him at”
the cottage. He was in such a dreadful state, Claudine, it was;
terrible to see. He was crying like a baby, holding her body in his arms and … He was calling her Jacqueline. It was as
though he was reliving the death of his poor wife.’ Using her fingers, Solange wiped a tear from under her eye.
‘How did Estelle die?’ Claudine asked, her voice muted
by pity.
‘It was unpleasant,’ Solange said haltingly. ‘It was a
knife…’ And then, to Claudine’s horror, she said, ‘The gendarmes want to question Monique, Claudine. They think.. They are saying… One of them is outside her
door now. Oh, how can they think she would have done such
a thing?’
Claudine put her arms about Solange and said, ‘The only
reason they want to talk to Monique is because she found the body, Maman. Not because they think she did it. You mustn’t distress yourself like this.’
, Nevertheless, when the gendarmes finally left they took
Monique with them - for further questioning, they said and
Solange went too, unable to let her daughter face the
ordeal alone. Claudine sat with Tante Celine, listening to
the wireless in Monique’s room and waiting for the message
personnel on the BBC that would be their final confirmation
that tonight’s airdrop was going ahead. Just before nightfall,
Armand joined them.
It was strange, Claudine thought, that she felt no fear of
Armand. And yet a voice, somewhere deep down inside, was telling her urgently that she should withdraw from tonight’s I reception committee and let them go ahead without her … I She felt dazed, incapable of decision, as if she was being wept along in a dream. Oh, why did the telephone lines have to be down now? She so desperately needed to speak to Francois. But she would speak to Lucien instead. Somehow if he would find a moment, while they were waiting for the Wane to arrive, to tell him that she now knew who Halunke
The message they were waiting for, ‘Felicity’s grandfather
enjoyed Brighton’, came over the airwaves just after
nine fifteen. Immediately Armand got to his feet. Claudine,!
still sitting on Monique’s bed with Tante Celine, looked up
at him for the first time since he had come into the room.
He smiled uncertainly. ‘I’ll go and see if Thomas and
Yves have arrived,’ he said quietly.
‘Armand.’
He turned.
‘I’m sorry about Estelle,’ she said.
He bowed his head and left the room.
The journey along the same roads Claudine had travelled
that afternoon was untroubled. Thomas and Yves had no
difficulty in keeping up on their bicycles, and the two-hour!
ride passed quickly and in silence. The moonlight seemed dazzling, though the strange shadows of trees and bushes that loomed across the road reminded Claudine of the dark
thoughts sheltering in her mind. The wind moaned across
the maize fields like an eerie extension of her fear, and it was
only now that she was approaching the landing ground-a
long way from Lorvoire, too far to turn back - that she began
fully to realize what danger she was in. What danger they
were all in. If Francois ever found out that she had
disobeyed him …
She turned her bicycle onto the cart track, keeping to the
ridges made by a tractor. The others followed, and in single
file they pedalled between the bushes until Claudine
spotted the final landmark on the brow of the hill. She
jumped off her bicycle and wheeled it over the grass, making
the ascent to the barn with ease.
When they were all inside she said, ‘We’ll start taking the
logs and bracken into the middle of the field. Armand, can
you go and see if there’s any sign of the others? I presume
they’ll be coming from the road over there, just beyond the
copse.’
It wasn’t the first time Armand had been part of a
reception committee, but he didn’t mind taking orders from