Page 50 of The French Wife

‘Perhaps,’ Madame Lalouche said, doubt in her eyes. ‘Now, do you want a quiche for your lunch as usual, my dear? I have some very nice mushroom ones today.’

That afternoon, as Amélie typed away at the council minutes, she couldn’t stop thinking about the Lalouches and the dark shadow over their future cast by the occupation. They weren’t the only ones in St Marie who would be affected either. Several of the itinerant workers who helped out with the grape harvest each autumn were also Jewish. Some of the men had been called up to the army in 1940 and were now prisoners in Germany, but others who had somehow escaped the draft were still living in the vicinity. Had they also received a visit from a policeman telling them to report to the mairie to register?

She asked Monsieur Gilles about it when he came upstairs from the police station. He shifted in his seat and looked uncomfortable at her question.

‘Ah, yes. Untersturmführer Glock asked me to supply him with a list of all the Jewish residents in the area a week or so ago, and since then my officers have been visiting them to ask them to come register at the mairie. It’s just a formality, you know. Nothing to worry about.’

Amélie wondered briefly why she hadn’t been asked to type the list, but she knew that several of the police officers who worked downstairs could type quite proficiently with two fingers, and Monsieur Gilles might well have thought the matter was too sensitive for her to be involved. He was probably aware that Bruno employed Jewish workers.

‘What about all the Jews who’ve been rounded up and put into camps? Or even deported?’ Amélie asked him. ‘Is that going to happen here?’

Monsieur Gilles exchanged glances with Monsieur Colbert.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘But we have to do what our German masters tell us to now. We really don’t have a choice but to collaborate with them.’

‘And I’d advise you not to question their policies in front of them, madame,’ Monsieur Colbert said through his customary cloud of smoke. ‘Don’t let them hear you talking like that, or you will immediately be under suspicion.’

Amélie didn’t reply, but returned to her work, disgusted by the attitude of these two men with whom she’d worked for years. She’d thought they would have more backbone than to just capitulate without a word of protest.

At the end of the day, after both Colbert and Gilles had left the building, Amélie was packing up her typewriter when she heard the door open. Looking up, she saw Hauptmann Bauer enter the room and her heart skipped a beat. She felt her cheeks grow hot, remembering their last awkward encounter.

‘Ah, Madame Garnier,’ he said, approaching her desk. ‘I’m glad you’re still here.’

‘I was about to leave, I’m afraid,’ she replied. ‘If you have work to give me, could it wait until tomorrow?’

‘I didn’t come about work,’ he said. ‘I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come to my lodgings to see the painting I’ve done of the medieval bridge. I completed it earlier in the week and I’ve started another one of the abbey. Just the outline of course as yet.’

‘I need to get home, I’m afraid,’ she said, avoiding his gaze. It wasn’t an excuse; she realised she would have loved to see the painting, spend some time with Bauer. ‘I have to prepare supper for the workers.’

‘Oh, of course,’ he said, disappointment on his face.

And then she remembered. Bruno, Marcel, Tomasz and Lili had gone to Toulouse, which was around a hundred and fifty kilometres away. It could take hours of queuing and waiting around at the prefecture to get their new identity papers and it was very unlikely they would be back yet. The other workers, and Ivy and Henri, wouldn’t mind waiting a little longer for their supper, she was sure.

‘Actually,’ she said, brightening, ‘I could be a little late home this evening. I can’t stay long, though.’

His face lit up in a smile. ‘So you can come?’

‘Yes. But as I said, just for a short time. I’ll get my coat.’

They walked side by side across the market square, past the tanks and armoured vehicles, the troops marching up and down to the guttural shouts of their officers in the fading light. Mist was rolling up from the river, billowing through the ancient streets, giving the little town a mystical feel. As they headed down one of the narrow, cobbled roads that led from the square to the river, the gongs on the abbey chimed the half hour, adding to the magical atmosphere.

‘Where are you staying?’ she asked as they walked.

‘At Madame Argène’s,’ he replied. ‘On the river.’

‘Madame Argène’s?’ she asked, stifling a laugh. Madame Argène was the woman who’d shouted at her when she’d delivered the news that a German officer would be lodging with her.

‘She’s a tough lady, I know,’ Bauer said, raising an eyebrow. ‘But an excellent cook. And I’m very lucky. My quarters are in a separate building and she’s quite happy for me to use it as a studio too.’

‘Actually, I hope you don’t mind, but I’d prefer it if she didn’t know I’d visited,’ Amélie said as they rounded a bend and began to walk beside the river. She was sure Madame Argène wasn’t above gossiping around town about her lodger’s visitors, particularly if they were married French women. She suddenly had cold feet about the visit. Perhaps she shouldn’t have agreed to come.

‘Don’t worry, I have a separate entrance in the side street. She has her shutters closed in the evenings and won’t know you’ve been.’

They walked past the front of Madame Argène’s cottage, which was indeed closed and shuttered for the evening, past the little shop where Amélie had bought lunch the previous week and turned up the side street next to it. Just beyond the shop was a gated archway.

‘It’s here.’ Bauer stopped in front of the gate, which he pushed open and held aside for her.

They went through into the darkened courtyard, then he led Amélie up a set of stone steps to the front door for an upper room. Once inside, he closed the shutters and pulled the curtains across before switching on the light. Amélie looked around at a neat but comfortable room, with a door at one end, which she presumed was the bedroom.