‘I was there to help my aunt and uncle with the harvest for a few weeks. I never saw my cousin.’
‘So, you never saw your cousin. You don’t know who Marcel Reynard is. You’ve never heard of the Blacksmith circuit. Is that right?’
‘Yes. That’s right.’
‘You have two more cousins, Odile and Rachelle. Sisters of Gaston. That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘At this very moment, my comrade is speaking to them.’
I wanted to vomit. I wanted to scream out ‘NO!’ To demand they leave my cousins alone. I knew Rachelle would be strong, but dearest Odile– she wouldn’t be able to withstand any form of interrogation. Even though she knew nothing, the Gestapo wouldn’t necessarily believe her. I blinked back the tears that threatened to betray my impassiveness, but it was impossible. ‘They know nothing either,’ I forced myself to say.
‘Come now, Nathalie, don’t cry. If what you say is true, then no harm will come to them. They will be safely tucked up in their own beds this evening.’
He walked around to the other side of the table and sat down in the chair. Leaning back, he crossed one ankle over his other knee and took out a packet of cigarettes and lit one. Then he tossed the packet across the table towards me.
I didn’t move.
‘You don’t smoke or you don’t want to take a cigarette from a German officer?’
‘I don’t smoke,’ I replied.
‘Wise girl.’ He drew in a lungful of smoke and exhaled slowly. ‘You see, I do know you’re wise so you’d be very wise not to keep any information from me. If you care about your cousins, especially the young one, then you will share any knowledge you have. That would be the wise thing to do.’
‘I don’t have any information to share. I don’t know anything,’ I insisted. ‘I don’t know where Gaston is and I don’t know anything about the Blacksmith circuit.’ I wanted to sound confident and non-confrontational. I didn’t want to come across as weak, as if I was scared and was trying to hide something. I tried for a different tack. ‘I know you arrested my brother Edgar, but I had no part in whatever he was involved in and I do not condone what he did. He was a fool, and he broke my mother’s heart.’
Kranz cocked his head. ‘Doesn’t do to break a mother’s heart.’
‘If I could have stopped him, then I would have done,’ I continued, warming to this distorted version of events. ‘I would not have let him leave.’
‘Is that because of what might happen to him or because of your political beliefs?’
I didn’t hesitate when I told my biggest lie to Kranz. ‘Because I believe France will have a better future under German rule. Because I believe in the ethos of the Third Reich. Because I am sympathetic to the cause.’ I wanted to bite off my own tongue for such lies. I quelled the nauseous sensation in my stomach and I begged a silent forgiveness to all those who had already died at the hands ofles Boches.
Kranz raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that so?’
‘Yes,’ I replied firmly. ‘That is why my father continued to run his shop for as long as possible. That’s why you and the other officers frequented the family business. It’s not just because my father is, of course, the finest tailor in the city. Another reason my brother’s treacherous actions broke my mother’s heart.’
Oh, how I wanted to cry at the words leaving my mouth.
Kranz gave me a speculative look. He put his feet down and leaned towards me on the desk. ‘How do I know you’re not lying?’
I hesitated before I replied. ‘You don’t know.’
Kranz threw his head back and laughed out loud, before looking back at me again. ‘You are a funny one,’ he said, amusement still in his voice. ‘I don’t know if you’re stupid or brave.’ He stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray. ‘Just how devoted to the cause are you, I wonder?’
I maintained my steady gaze at him. Several silent and heavy seconds passed between us. I certainly wasn’t going to offer to prove myself in any way. This was Kranz’s game, not mine.
‘I know,’ he declared, looking very pleased with himself. ‘You give me some information on the Blacksmith circuit and if this matches up with the information your cousins give me, then I’ll allow you all to go free.’
‘But they don’t know anything,’ I said, with a nonchalance I didn’t feel. ‘It would be impossible for me to prove anything. My cousins know nothing.’
‘And that implies that you do.’
‘It implies that I could find something out,’ I corrected, still feigning an indifference despite my heart racing with fear at the prospect of Odile and Rachelle being held to ransom.
‘I’ll tell you what I want. I want the British operative who is running the Blacksmith circuit. I want you to arrange a meeting with him. Of course, I shall be part of the reception committee.’
