Darkest Longings (67 page)

sabotage,’ Claudine protested. ‘Unfortunate, perhaps …’

‘Have you managed to discover who really is doing it yet?’

Claudine shook her head. ‘I thought it might have been

Armand, but…’

She turned, hearing someone call her name, and saw

Janette and Robert Reinberg running across the square

from the river bank, followed by their mother. ‘Ah, seeing

Gertrude reminds me,’ she said. ‘I need some new trousers.

What about you, Monique? Didn’t you say wanted some

too?’

‘I’ll say. The last pair Gertrude made were marvellous.

So comfortable. Does she have any fabric, though?’

‘Let’s ask her.’

But as they walked over to talk to her, they were

astonished to see Florence Jallais come out of her front door

and spit on the cobbles right in front of her.

Both Claudine and Monique were outraged, and seeing

Claudine storm across the square towards her, Florence Jallais

scuttled back into her house and slammed the door, ‘Open this

door now!’ Claudine shouted, banging it with her fist.

‘No, leave it,’ Gertrude said softly. ‘Please, madame?

‘But she can’t do that to you!’

‘I’m afraid she can.’

‘What’s going on?’ Solange cried, bringing her bicycle to

a halt beside them.

Claudine swung round ‘Florence Jallais just spat at

Gertrude.’

‘Oh la la!’ Liliane said, opening the little door in her box

and climbing out. ‘I spoke to her the last time.’

‘You mean she’s done it before?’

‘What’s that you’re wearing?’ Solange asked suddenly,

seeing the yellow badge on Gertrude’s cardigan.

They all looked at it. There was one word on the badge: juive. Jewess.

‘We all have to wear them now, madame,’ Gertrude said,

averting her eyes to hide her misery.

‘By whose orders?’ Claudine wanted to know.

‘I believe, by Hitler’s own.’

Claudine’s nostrils flared. ‘Monique! Solange! Come

along, we’re going to Gertrude’s,’ she ordered.

‘Please, madame,’ Gertrude begged. ‘We don’t want any

more trouble. The children are suffering enough as it is.’

‘I’m not going to make trouble, Gertrude,’ Claudine

assured her. ‘At least, not for you.’

That evening, when Colonel Blomberg returned to the

chateau for dinner, he found the four women already

halfway through their meal. His protruding bottom lip

quivered with fury, but he took his seat silently at the head of the table.

It was as the watery vegetable soup was being ladled into

his bowl that he noticed the badge Solange was wearing. His

eyes narrowed as he looked at each of the other women in

turn. They were all sporting the same badge of bright yellow

card with the word Catholique emblazoned across it.

The meal continued in silence until the women finished

and stood up to leave the room.

‘Madame,’ Blomberg said then, looking at Claudine. ‘I

should be obliged if you could spare me a few moments in

my room later. I will send for you when I am ready.’

Claudine nodded curtly and followed the others out into

the hall.

‘It’s sure to be about our badges,’ Celine whispered,

pushing open the door to the sitting-room.

‘Well, I for one am not taking mine off until Gertrude

Reinberg is allowed to take hers off,’ Solange stated.

The neither,’ Monique said, looking back over her

shoulder at the German soldier stationed outside the

dining-room. It was Hans, the one who generally acted as

Blomberg’s chauffeur.

Claudine didn’t miss the smile that passed between them,

and was glad to think that Monique had won his friendship.

They needed all the allies they could get when Blomberg

resented them so bitterly. Then she shuddered. Having the

Germans in their own home like this, invading their privacy,

contaminating their daily lives, was intolerable.

There was no wireless to listen to now; wirelesses had

been confiscated soon after the occupation began.

Monique, however, had managed to secrete one in her

room, but they listened to it only rarely: the penalty for

keeping a wireless was twenty-one days’ imprisonment.

‘What do you think Blomberg does all day?’ Celine

wondered as she selected a record to play on the gramophone.

‘He goes to the Chateau d’Artigny,’ Claudine answered. ‘It’s been taken over by the Germans since Admiral Darlan left, it’s their regional headquarters.’

‘Oh? How do you know that?’ Monique enquired.

‘Armand followed him,’ Claudine answered simply.

‘But why?’

‘Because I asked him to.’

There was a tap on the door, and Hans, the handsome

young German officer came in. ‘The Colonel wishes to see

you now, madame?

‘Tell the Colonel I will be with him shortly,’ Claudine

answered.

‘But…’

‘I’m going to say goodnight to my son. I will be with the

Colonel shortly,’ she said with deliberation, and sailing past

him, she went upstairs to the nursery.

‘So, you think yourself clever for keeping me waiting?’

Blomberg said when he opened his door to her ten minutes

later.

‘Colonel,’ she replied in a bored voice, ‘running this

chateau keeps me extremely busy and you simply have to

wait your turn. Now, what is it you would like to discuss with

me?’

Scarcely managing to contain his anger, Blomberg said,

‘The badge, madame. Take it off!’

‘There is no law prohibiting the wearing of badges,’

Claudine said coolly.

‘It is a deliberate insult to the Reich.’

‘That I am a Catholic?’ she said incredulously. ‘How can

that be?’

‘I am not arguing with you on this matter! Take it off, or I

shall take it off for you.’

Claudine looked at him with evident amusement, then

calmly folding her arms, she turned to look out of the

window.

He caught her a blow to side of her head that made stars

dance before her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and turned

to look him straight in the eye. ‘Only a coward strikes

women,’ she began - then gasped as he took hold of the

badge and tore it from her blouse. The fabric ripped,

exposing the silk of her camisole underneath.

‘I hope that makes you feel better,’ she said. ‘Now, if you

have quite finished I should like to return to my family.’

‘Don’t you mean your husband’s family?’ he said, as she

reached the door.

His emphasis on ‘husband’ made her turn back. There

was a new glint in his eyes, and she suddenly realized they

were only now coming to the point of why he had asked her

here. ‘I have news of your husband,’ he said, strolling across

the room and settling himself on the sofa beneath the

window. Behind him the sun was setting in a blaze of

orange, and she could no longer see his face. ‘How long has

it been since you saw him now?’ he said. ‘Six months?

Seven?’

‘I have no idea,’ she replied. ‘I don’t keep count.’

Blomberg chuckled. ‘I was told there was no love lost

between you. So I take it you are not in the least interested in

knowing what he is doing - or where he is?’

‘Not in the least,’ she confirmed.

‘Then I shall inform my brother-in-law that the efforts he

has made to keep you abreast of your husband’s career are

wasted.’

‘Yes, you tell him that,’ she smiled, and opened the door

to leave.

‘Oh, no, no, no,’ Blomberg’s voice said behind her, and

immediately the German officer Hans stepped into her

path, indicating that she should return to the room.

Claudine sighed with exasperation as the door closed

behind her. ‘All right,’ she said, folding her arms. ‘You

clearly want to tell me something regarding my husband, so

get on with it.’

‘I must inform you, madame, that this is the last time I

shall overlook your insolence. If you speak to me in that tone

again, it is not you who will suffer but your husband.’

Claudine closed her eyes. ‘As I have no regard for my

husband, or his welfare,’ she said through gritted teeth, ‘you

are wasting your time …’

‘I doubt if your mother-in-law would take that attitude,’

Blomberg interrupted. ‘I heard just the other day that the

fingers of Monsieur le Comte’s left hand have been broken,

and I could not help wondering how his mother would react

to a graphic description of his - what shall we call them? injuries,

and how they were obtained. There are other

injuries too, of course, but I shall save the details for la

Comtesse. Unless you would prefer I didn’t tell her at all. The

choice is yours, madame?

Claudine’s face had paled. ‘You’re lying!’ she hissed.

‘Ami?’

‘I know why you are doing this,’ she seethed, ‘but unlike

you, Colonel, I don’t make threats. I make promises, and

here’s one for you. If you lay so much as a finger on me, I

give you my word I’ll kill you.’

Blomberg laughed. ‘I think not.’

‘Then you’re a fool.’

‘Even if you were able to carry out your promise - which I

doubt - think what repercussions such an act would have on

your family, Claudine.’ He saw how her nostrils flared at his

use of her Christian name, and could not suppress a smile.

‘Oh,’ he went on, ‘and before you threaten me again with the

intervention of General Kahl, I should inform you that I

have now been given sole - and unequivocal - authority to

deal with this family as I see fit. I have no intention of, as you

put it, laying a finger on you; I want only to see you

humiliated, in the way you have tried to humiliate me. You

may start by removing your clothes.’

‘You must be out of your mind!’ she sneered.

‘Madame la Comtesse, your mother-in-law,’ he said,

getting to his feet, ‘is not of stable mind, is she? It would be a

shame, would it not, to unhinge her further for the sake of

your dignity? After all, that is all I require from you, madam. Not such a great price, when one weighs it against the one la Comtesse would have to pay if you refuse me.’

‘You are a disgusting little man!’ Claudine spat.

‘You make things worse for yourself by addressing me in

that fashion,’ he replied smoothly, and with a quick flick of

his wrist he slapped his gloves across her face.

Claudine saw red. Before she could stop herself, she had

twisted his arm so brutally behind his back that she heard

the bones crack.

‘Hans! Hans!’ he squealed, and the door flew open to

admit the young soldier. A gun was pressed between

Claudine’s shoulder-blades, and knowing she could do

nothing else, she let the Colonel go.

‘All right, Hans,’ Blomberg said, purple in the face and

puffing as he massaged his shoulder. A thin film of sweat

had broken out on his skin, and his grotesque bottom lip was

coated in saliva.

Hans went away again, and Claudine knew she had made

a grave error. That Blomberg had had to call for a junior

officer because he had been attacked by a woman would

make him the laughing-stock of the Chateau d’Artigny. But

she refused to flinch as he approached, and when he

grasped the rip in her blouse and tore it right down the front,

she only looked back at him with contempt.

‘Undress yourself, whore!’ he snarled. ‘Do it now, or I shall

instruct my colleagues in Germany to step up the torture of

your husband. And then I shall tell your mother-in-law why I

have been obliged to take that step. I’m sure you can imagine

how she will feel to know that you might have saved him.’

Staring into his eyes with unmitigated loathing, Claudine

peeled away the shreds of her blouse, then unfastened her

skirt, telling herself all the time that her body was merely a

product of nature, that it meant nothing to reveal it. But if he

made one move to touch her, she would break his neck …

‘All right,’ he rasped, when she stood naked in front of

him. He loosened his collar and tried to speak again. ‘Walk

over to the window.’

She sauntered to the window, turned, and walked back

again. Then, remembering that his intention was to humiliate

her, she decided to let him believe he had succeeded.

That way, it might be over sooner.

‘Can I put my clothes back on now?’ she said meekly,

covering her breasts with her hands and crossing her legs.

‘No!’ she answered. ‘Go and stand by the mirror.’

She did as he instructed, forcing tears into her eyes to add

to her masquerade of disgrace.

‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘turn so I can see you from behind as

well as in front. Good. Hans.’

Again the door opened, and when Hans came in and saw

the lady of the house standing naked in front of the mirror,

he quickly averted his eyes.

‘Look at her!’ Blomberg growled. ‘That’s what she’s

there for.’

Hans’s young face was beet red as he obeyed the order

and allowed his pale blue eyes to travel the length of Claudine’s exquisite body. Claudine hung her head in mock shame. She wondered if Hans was clever enough to realize

that this was something he was expected to tell his fellow

officers about.