Claudine. ‘Is it all right if I smoke a cigarette?’ he said.
‘Do you normally?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then carry on.’
Yves and Thomas were already filling their arms with
firewood, and Claudine took off her bicycle basket and
began to stuff it full of leaves. Francois’ thick leather gloves
were hampering her, so despite the bitter cold she tugged
them off and pushed them into the pocket of her black
sheepskin jacket. She was wearing two pairs of knitted
stockings beneath her jodhpurs and fleece-lined boots, and
the black woollen hat Armand had given her was pulled
snugly down over her ears, covering her hair.
Just as they were leaving the barn to make their first trip
across the field, Armand came back. ‘The others are
arriving,’ he said quietly. ‘Lucien’s with them.’
And at that moment Lucien appeared from under the
trees. He ran quickly towards them with three others in his
wake; he greeted Claudine with a kiss, then they set about
helping to build the bonfires.
By the time they heard the distant rumble of a truck, all
the hard work had been accomplished and Claudine’s
hands and face were tingling with the cold. ‘At last,’ Lucien
muttered. ‘What kept him?’
‘But we don’t know if it is Jacques,’ Armand warned, and
at once they all took cover, behind the bonfires or in the long
grass at the edge of the copse.
It seemed an eternity before, with a crashing of gears, the
truck finally came round the bend, and Claudine could feel
the damp seeping through her clothes. ‘It’s him,’ Lucien
said, as soon as it came into view, ‘tell him to leave it there in
the lay-by.’ And not bothering to wait, he ran back to the
bonfires.
As the truck came to a halt Claudine dashed over to it,
told Jacques where to park, then took him and the four other
men to the barn, where the bicycles they would need later
were waiting. She recognized them all, but knew only their
codes names.
‘Antoinette,’ one of them whispered, ‘this bicycle has a
puncture.’
‘Oh no!’ Claudine groaned. ‘What are we going to do?
Well, never mind, one of you will have to go back in the
truck with Lucien and Jacques.’
Outside, the wind was picking up, clouds had scudded
across the moon. Claudine was freezing, but there was so
much adrenalin pumping through her veins that she hardly
noticed.
It was just as they finished dousing the bonfires with fuel
that Armand heard the drone of an aircraft. Everyone
stopped to listen. At first Claudine heard nothing, then after
a while she too heard the distant hum.
‘Quick!’ Lucien said, pulling matches from his pocket
‘Get them alight!’
Within minutes the bonfires were ablaze, roaring like
thunder and shooting sparks far into the sky. The whole
party withdrew to the shelter of the trees to watch. Surely no
one could fail to see the bonfires, Claudine thought
fearfully; not the pilot, and not the Germans either.
‘Don’t worry,’ Lucien whispered, seeing her taut face in
the firelight. ‘It’s always like this.’
At that moment Yves, unable to contain his excitement,
yelled, ‘Look! There it is! The plane!’
And as they all turned their faces to the sky, the nose, then
the wings, then the tail of a Whitley bomber emerged from a
cloud to glide magnificently across the face of the moon.
Claudine’s heart flooded with emotion. To think that
something like this could happen as a result of a peculiar
system of dots and dashes and cryptic wireless messages was
so amazing as to be miraculous.
‘Here they come,’ Armand murmured - and tiny, barely
distinguishable black shapes began to fall into the sky. A few
minutes later the first parachute ballooned, then another
and another.
‘Cat magnifique!’ Thomas exclaimed.
‘Shut up!’ Lucien hissed suddenly. ‘Listen!’ Then they
all heard it, Jacques’ voice screaming, ‘Les Boches! Les
Boches!’
‘Quick!’ Lucien yelled. ‘Run! Everyone run!’
He dashed towards the truck, but as Claudine made to
follow, Armand caught her. ‘This way!’ he shouted. ‘Keep
away from the road!’
Black figures were darting in every direction as the Resistants tried to escape. Before Claudine had time to argue, Armand was dragging her across the field, past the
bonfires towards the open countryside. They were running
into the wind and the ground was full of pot-holes, but every
time she stumbled Armand pulled her up and forced her on.
The cold night air burned in her lungs, and she thought of
the agents, even now parachuting down from the sky,
helpless and abandoned.
Suddenly it was as though the whole world had been lit
up. Armand hesitated and both threw a quick glance over
their shoulders, only to be dazzled by the headlights
pursuing them.
‘Merde!’ Armand growled. Then, spotting a clump of
bushes a few feet away, he pushed Claudine towards them.
She dived in, tearing her hands and face on the brambles.
Armand gave her another quick shove, and she was through.
He followed, hauled her to the ground and half-covered her
with his body. They were in a ditch, thick with mud and
rainwater. Claudine’s hat had vanished and her hair was
trapped beneath Armand’s arm. The pain of it was
excruciating, but she didn’t dare make a sound. The left
side of her face was submerged in the icy water, all she could
do was twist her neck just enough to be able to breathe, and
hold herself there. She could feel Armand’s heart pounding
against her shoulder, and tried to concentrate on counting
the beats, but the pain was agonizing. Through the bushes
she could see the bobbing headlights of the German jeep
coming towards them. The roar of the engine grew to a peak
and she could hear someone shouting above the din, telling
them to come out.
‘Don’t move,’ Armand muttered.
With her eyes almost bursting from her head, Claudine
watched the lights come straight at the bushes. This was it,
they’d been caught, and God only knew what lay in store
now…
‘I don’t believe it,’ she heard Armand gasp. ‘They’ve gone
right past us.’
She lifted her head, and at last Armand shifted his weight
onto his other arm, freeing her hair.
‘Look, they’re going… They think we’ve gone into the
village,’ he said.
But the words were hardly out of his mouth before they
saw that the jeep was turning round. It was heading back
towards them.
‘Got your gun?’ Armand said, grabbing his own from his
jacket. ‘Then use it!’
But before she could even get her hand to her pocket, the
jeep suddenly sped towards them, veered off at the last
minute and came to a halt. Then the world was plunged into
darkness as the headlights were turned off. There was a
deathly silence. Then, as Armand cocked the trigger of his
gun, there was a deafening explosion that seemed to echo on
for ever.
It was several seconds before either of them pulled their
faces out of the water, then Claudine tried to get up.
‘What are you doing, for God’s sake?’ Armand hissed,
snatching her back.
‘Armand, we don’t stand a chance. That was a machine
gun.’
‘We are waiting!’ a voice sang into the night.
‘We can’t give ourselves up, Claudine,’ Armand moaned,
and she suddenly realized that he was shaking all over. But
before she could speak there was another volley of machine
gun fire. The bullets splattered into the swamp behind
them.
‘If we don’t go now, they’ll kill us with that thing,’
Claudine hissed.
‘I’d rather that than be tortured,’ Armand responded, his
voice twisted with fear.
‘Pull yourself together!’ she spat. ‘You shouldn’t… Oh
my God!’
Armand followed the direction of her gaze. Poised on the
edge of the ditch, no more that three feet away, was a pair of
gleaming black jackboots.
Claudine started to look up, but before she had raised her
head more than an inch Armand was dragged from on top of
her. She started to roll over, going instinctively for the gun, but
someone caught her by the hair and heaved her to her feet.
She was on the point of slamming her foot into his shins when
she became aware of the gun digging into her back.
‘Let go of my hair!’ she hissed.
The grip tightened for an instant, then the German threw
her forward onto her knees. She turned to look at him, but
he pressed the gun hard against her temple. There was a
dull thud, and turning back she saw Armand stagger
forward, groaning in agony. His assailant stood over him, the butt of his rifle still brandished. His uniform and status Claudine recognized only too well, it was the same as
Francois’, but his face was unknown to her.
‘On your feet!’ he barked at Armand. Then nodding to
the officer standing behind Claudine, he said, ‘Check her
for weapons, then bring her to the car.’
It was only then, as she glanced about her, that Claudine
realized they were completely surrounded. Where so many
Germans had come from she couldn’t imagine, but as they
were jostled about in the jeep on their way back to the road,
she could be in no doubt that the whole time they had been
building the bonfires and waiting for the aircraft, they had
been watched. And once the parachutes had started to come
down, when it was too late to stop them, the Germans had
struck. And the size and accuracy of their operation could
only mean that someone had told them about the drop long
before tonight.
They were driven to a lorry which was waiting out on the
road beside the crucifix. Shivering and soaked to the skin,
Claudine was shoved inside. She fell against the step as she
got in, and a hand reached out of the darkness to help her.
When she looked up, she saw to her dismay, that it belonged
to Thomas.
‘Is Armand with you?’ he whispered.
‘Yes.’
‘Then no one’s got away.’ ‘Not even Lucien?’
Thomas shook his head. ‘He’s here. He’s unconscious.’
And looking down beside Thomas, Claudine could just
make out Lucien, lying pale and still on the floor.
A few minutes later the rear flap of the lorry was snapped
into place, and they started to roll down the hill.
It was then that Claudine experienced the first stabbings
of real terror. Immediately she thought of Francois. Which
was she more afraid of, she wondered: what Francois would ;
do to her when he found out, or what the Gestapo would do when they questioned her? A silly grin spread across her face. It was such a preposterous thought that it made, her giggle, and the German officer sitting beside her threw her a nasty look. She tried to stifle it, but without success, and this time the officer told her to shut up. But by now the entire
lorry was filled with the sound of her screaming, brittle
laughter, and it was evident to everyone on board that she
was on the edge of hysteria.
A sharp crack on her skull brought her reeling back to
reality. As the blood trickled down her face she suddenly
remembered what torture had done to Francois’ body, and
dimly she wondered if she would be able to tolerate the pain
that lay in store for her.
By the time dawn broke Celine had to admit to herself at last that something had gone terribly wrong. She had waited throughout the night for Claudine to return, but in vain, and
when she cycled down to Liliane’s cottage an hour after
daybreak, her worst fears were confirmed. Gustave was
mere, trying to comfort the old lady. He was able to tell
Celine everything.
And now Celine had not only to break the news of Claudine’s and Lucien’s arrest to Solange, she had to get word somehow to Francois. But she didn’t know where he
was staying, all she knew was that he was somewhere in
Vichy. And even if she did manage to find him, what could
he actually do? Claudine, Lucien, Armand - they had all
been caught redhanded.
It was not until she was cycling back up the drive to the
chateau that she suddenly thought of Beavis. Her heart gave
a leap, and immediately she turned her bicycle round and
. started back to the village. Gustave would know how to get a
message to London, and if she could somehow make
contact with Beavis, then maybe - just maybe - he could
find a way of getting to Lorvoire. Celine didn’t stop to think
of the difficulties involved, nor of how Beavis would be
putting his own life at risk if he did come; all she knew was
that in order to rescue Claudine and the others Francois was
going to need all the help he could get.
‘Ah, Max, there you are,’ von Liebermann said, as Helber
walked into the General’s room at the Hotel Louis XV in
Vichy. ‘Did you make contact with Blomberg?’
‘Yes, General. My brother-in-law informs me that
everything went according to plan. De Lorvoire’s wife and
her Resistance group are all in custody.’