Darkest Longings (80 page)

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