Darkest Longings (75 page)

with him. ‘It is obvious that my wife is less than overwhelmed

by my return,’ he said, in a voice heavy with

sarcasm. ‘Never mind. If you’ll excuse me, Fritz, I’ll go and

see my son.’ And putting an arm round each of their

shoulders, he drew his mother and his sister up the stairs

with him to the nursery.

Blomberg, Claudine noticed, seemed nervous, and could

not meet her eyes. Had she known it, he was remembering the words of one of his fellow-officers. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes, Fritz, if de Lorvoire ever found out how

you’ve been humiliating his wife.’ The problem was,

knowing that the fun would have to stop now made

Blomberg want it all the more. He watched Claudine walk

away, tossing her head at him as she went, and swore to

himself that he would have the bitch yet.

An hour later, Francois came down from the nursery

alone and went outside. Soon afterwards Corinne and

Louis came into the library, and Corinne whispered to

Claudine that Francois wanted to see her in half an hour.

‘He said, take one of the horses, as if you were going for a

normal afternoon ride, and he’ll meet you by the old

fishermen’s huts on the river bank.’

Claudine kissed Louis, much to his disgust, and went

upstairs to change. Within fifteen minutes she was galloping

down over the meadow towards the lower part of the forest,

then ploughing through the trees on her way to the river.

Francois was already there by the time she arrived. He

held out his arms to catch her as she cantered up to him, and

she all but threw herself into them.

‘Why are we meeting here?’ she asked, when he had

kissed her. ‘Why not in our rooms?’

‘Because they might be bugged and we have to talk.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘A quarter to five,’ he said, ‘that gives, us a few hours before curfew.’

‘Do you think they were bugged the other night?’ she

said, aghast.

‘I’ve no idea, but I doubt it. They weren’t expecting me

back until now. God, you’re beautiful,’ he murmured,

running a hand over her hair. ‘Come along, we’ll go into old

Thomas’ hut.’

He led her to one of the huts, set back in the trees. Inside,

as well as the tangle of fishing rods, nets and baskets, there

were two dilapidated armchairs and a damp mattress rolled

up in one corner.

‘No prizes for guessing where Thomas comes for a bit of

peace and quiet,’ Francois grinned, unrolling the mattress

and laying his coat over it.

‘Well?’ Claudine said, sitting cross-legged in front of

him. ‘Did you find Erich?’

He sat down too, and rested his elbows on his knees.

‘Erich is dead,’ he said flatly. Then he reached into his

pocket and handed her a letter. ‘This was waiting for me at

the Bois de Boulogne.’

She opened it, read the one word erich, and felt a cold

finger of dread start to run down her spine. ‘Oh God,

Francois,’ she whispered. ‘I’m so sorry. He was such a good

friend to you. Do you know when it happened?’

‘The concierge at his apartment couldn’t remember the date,’

he said bitterly. ‘All she could remember was that it was before

Christmas. She doesn’t even know where he was buried.’

Claudine sighed, and taking his hand she gave it a

comforting squeeze. ‘You know what it means, don’t you?’

he growled.

She nodded. ‘That he had found out who Halunke was.’

‘Yes. But he didn’t tell anyone, so we’re still none the

wiser. Now listen, has Lucien returned to England yet?’

‘I think so.’

‘Damn!’

‘Why?’

‘When he comes back, I want to see him. I want him to

arrange for you to …’

‘No! I know what you’re going to say, but I’m not going,

Francois. We’re in this together now, and I’m not leaving

you. We’ll find out who Halunke is, and we’ll find out

together. That’s my final word on it.’

‘Well, it’s not mine. You’ll do as I say, damn you, and get

the hell out of here. I don’t want you messing around with

this. Two people have already died …’

‘Ssh!’ she said, cutting him off. Making as little noise as

possible, she got up and went to peer out of the broken

window.

‘What is it?’

‘Nothing. It must have been the horse.’ She sat down

again. ‘Now, you listen to me. I’m coordinating a network

of Resistants here in this area. They, and Lucien, are

depending on me, and I’m not going to let them down. Also,

I’ve been cheated of too much of my married life already by

this vendetta, and I won’t put up with losing any more. I love

you, Francois, I want to be with you, and I’m going to be.

You needed Erich before, which goes to show you couldn’t

manage on your own. Well, now you’ve got me. We have to

work this thing out together. We’d better begin with what

you know, what Erich last told you and …’

‘Claudine, shut up and for God’s sake kiss me.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’d like to know that you’ll do a least one thing I

tell you to.’

‘I’ll kiss you later,’ she said.

He gave a shout of laughter, and just for a moment she

was almost lightheaded with joy. But as quickly as it had

come, the moment passed, and suddenly they were both

quiet again, staring down at the letter with Erich’s name on

it, which was still lying between them.

‘We’d better begin with why I’m here,’ Francois said.

‘Why the Abwehr have sent me back to Lorvoire. You have

to know because it’s going to affect you in a way you’re not

going to like very much. They know there’s a Resistance

group in the area with the code name Jupiter. No, don’t say

anything until I’ve finished. They also know that there are

several local escape-lines taking British pilots to safety, and

that one of them runs through Touraine. The Abwehr want

me not only to destroy the Touraine escape route but to

arrest as many as I can of those involved. The same goes for

the Jupiter reseau.’

‘Oh God,’ she murmured. ‘You do know what you’re

saying, don’t you?’

‘I’m afraid I do. But I don’t want you to tell me anything. I

don’t want to know who’s involved. You’re to tell me

nothing, do you understand? And I can’t promise that I’ll

give you information, either.’

‘But you have to!’ she protested.

‘No! If you act on information I give you, the Abwehr will

know instantly where it has come from. That doesn’t only

put me in danger, it puts Halunke back in action. You won’t

have forgotten what they’re doing to keep me loyal. If I make

one slip, then God knows what will happen to you.’

He turned away as an image of Elise came to his mind. He

had called on her while he was in Paris, and she had been so

pathetically grateful to see him that he had ended up staying

the night. Beatrice had told him what was happening with

the Abwehr officers, and he had known such a murderous

rage that it was some time before he had himself back under

control. He had decided then that he didn’t want her in

Paris any longer, where they could abuse her like that, so he

had made arrangements to move her out some time in the

next few weeks.

‘So remember,’ he said to Claudine, ‘and keep this in

your mind the whole time: I am not only a collaborator, I am

the very worst kind of collaborator. I shall be wearing a

German uniform, and I shall be turning my own countrymen

over to the Gestapo.’

Her face was ashen. ‘You won’t!’ she breathed. ‘You can’t

do it! Francois …’

‘Of course I won’t be doing it!’ he cried. ‘But you have to

believe that I am. Everyone must believe it, even the

Abwehr. Though God alone knows how I’m going to

convince them.’

‘What about Lucien?’ she said. ‘Don’t you think we

should take him into our confidence? In fact,’ she added, ‘I

think we have to. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this, but

the Resistance already has weapons. Not many, but there

could come a time when they start using them …’

‘The FTP are already using weapons,’ Francois butted

in.

‘The Communist Resistants? There you are, then. And

you’ll be one of the first targets for the Resistance in this

area. We - they - hate collaborators almost more than

Nazis. Lucien might be able to tip you off if someone is

planning to kill you.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ he said. ‘In the meantime, there’s

Halunke.’

‘The last time we spoke about this,’ she said, ‘you thought

Erich was drawing the wrong conclusions. But now he’s

been killed … Well, perhaps he was on the right track.’

Francois gazed into her vibrant blue eyes, then looked

down at the torn and faded patterns of the mattress.

‘Francois,’ Claudine said quietly, ‘is Halunke’s identity

tied up with what happened to Hortense de Bourchain?’

His head came up, and she could see that he was both

annoyed and surprised. ‘What makes you say that?’ he

asked.

‘I don’t know. It was just a feeling I had. Has it got!

something to do with her? Is that the line Erich was!

pursuing?’

Francois nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, it was.’

‘Then don’t you think it’s time, chert, to tell me what

happened?’

He stood up and walked over to the door. For a moment

she thought he was going outside, but then he turned back to look at her. ‘I’ll tell you,’ he said, ‘but I still don’t think that’s where the answer lies. I hadn’t seen Erich for some

time before he died, he might have discovered something

else, nothing to do with Hortense at all.’

‘But we don’t know that. All we have to go on is what he

said to you when he came to the chateau. And we have to start somewhere, so it had better be there.’

‘AH right,’ he sighed. He went to sit in one of the chairs.

Running a hand over his jaw and fixing his eyes on the fishing paraphernalia at his feet, he began. ‘Hortense was in love with me,’ he said. ‘She wanted me to marry her, she even went as far as getting her father to speak to mine. My father was in favour of the match; it was eminently suitable,; and as you know, he wanted grandchildren. I was fond of

Hortense, I suppose I did love her in a way. But it was happening at the time your father was introducing me to the Secret Service. I told her to wait, that maybe in a year or two I would be ready to marry her.’

He sighed. ‘Hortense flew into a royal rage at that and told me I was a philanderer. She said we were practically!

engaged already, and I couldn’t treat her like that. Never!

the less, I didn’t see her for three or four weeks. Then she

came to the house in Paris one night when she knew I’d be

there alone and … She was a very attractive woman, she!

wanted me to make love to her, so I did. She said I had to marry her then, that I was honour-bound to do so. It was my turn to fly into a temper and I ordered her out of the house,

She came back the following day, begging forgiveness and promising she would wait for as long as I wanted, provided I

did marry her in the end. We continued to see one another,

though we didn’t make love again. It wasn’t that I didn’t

want to, it was just that I knew she was hoping to become

pregnant so that then I’d be forced to marry her. I didn’t

want to be trapped like that. The truth was, though I did love

her in a way, I didn’t want to be married at all.

‘Over the next year or so, things went from bad to worse. I

tried to stop seeing her, but wherever I went she was there. Then one night, when we were all staying at Lorvoire, she asked me to go outside with her, into one of the caves. She

told me then that she’d been sleeping with Lucien and that

Lucien was in love with her. I made the great mistake of

laughing. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her, it was simply

that her motives were so transparent. And sure enough, she

told me that she would continue sleeping with Lucien if I

didn’t promise to marry her within the month. I told her she

could sleep with Lucien as often as she liked, that as far as I

was concerned she could sleep with any number of men,

and I wished her well.’

Francois paused, and shifted uncomfortably in the chair.

‘It was then that she pulled out a knife. A dagger. God only

knows where she got it, but she had it. She said that if I

didn’t promise, she would kill herself. I tried to get the knife

from her, but she just went crazy. In the struggle she

managed to slash my face, and it was then, in the moment that I let go of her, that she lifted the knife to plunge it into her chest. Again I managed to get hold of it, but as I

wrenched it away from her my hand jerked downwards, she

pushed herself against me, and the next thing I knew I had

stabbed her. I didn’t even give myself a moment for

disbelief, I simply picked her up and ran with her to the car.

All I could think of was getting her to a doctor. As I drove off

Hooked in the mirror and saw my father talking to Armand.

I had no idea how much either of them had seen, but it

hardly mattered at the time. I had to get Hortense to a

doctor.

‘It was her parents who wanted the whole matter hushed

up. They knew what had been going on, and when my father