As soon as Gisele had left, Marjie instructed that they strike camp.
‘Where are we going?’
‘I think we should move west towards the Pyrenees, Louis.’
‘It is where we should have gone in the beginning. The mountains will give us more protection, but back then it was the terrain of the communist freedom-fighters and there was a lot of aggravation between us. But since the British agents have united us and we all work together now, I don’t see any objection.’
‘Thank you, Louis. Now, there’s a lot to carry, but we can only take a backpack each.’
André spoke then, taking charge. ‘First, we must roll the tents; and you, Marjie, must dismantle the radio. Then we must destroy everything that has been built here, and scatter it so that we leave the area looking as if it is untouched.’
‘It is still too much for so few of us to carry. I’ll go to my father’s farm and borrow a tractor and trailer. I will bring some straw bales to hide everything beneath.’
‘That’s excellent, Louis. Well, let’s get to work. There’s not much daylight left, and André and Ethan will have to leave by eight to pick up the truck to collect Gisele.’
André had told Marjie that they kept a small, old truck stored at one of the safe houses. If challenged, the two men would pass themselves off as workmen whose job it was to clear ditches. They would say they had to be in Perpignan early in the morning. Once on the border with Spain, Gisele would be on her own. She, and all those who lived close by, had sneaked through on many occasions when they were youngsters. Marjie remembered her brothers doing it once and having a wonderful adventure. They’d caught the train to Perpignan and then followed a mountain route to Spain. She felt confident that Gisele would be in Spain by tomorrow morning.
By noon the next day Marjie and her companions had reached a safe house, very near the mountains. Here they had agreed to wait for André and Ethan to join them. Marjie couldn’t wait to hear that Gisele was safe.
Setting up the radio, she contacted HQ. When she deciphered the message that came back, her heart banged loudly in her chest. Sibbie was safe. Arnie would be informed of their new camp and instructed to make contact. No mention of Paulo, but then he wasn’t an agent, so maybe they wouldn’t give any details of whether or not he was all right.
Thank God. Now all I want is for Arnie to come and tell me that Paulo, too, is safe.
Within an hour André turned up. His face was ashen. Marjie stared at him. ‘What’s happened? Where’s Ethan? Is . . . Gisele all right?’
‘I want to speak to you in private, Marjie. Please come with me.’
Marjie felt sick to her stomach – something had gone wrong. Please don’t let it involve Monty.
Once they were out of sight and earshot of the others, André said, ‘Gisele’s in the truck. She is responsible for the death of Ethan and is a traitor to our cause.’
‘What? No. No, André, tell me it isn’t true. What happened?’
‘When we neared the Spanish border, someone fired a shot at us, which hit Ethan and killed him. I stopped and a man came out from behind the rock the shot was fired from, shouting to Gisele to jump off the back of the truck. He had his gun trained on me. I ducked, set the truck in gear and raced towards him. He disappeared behind the rock and I turned the wheel violently, just missing the rock. Gisele fell backwards and must have banged her head. It knocked her unconscious. I drove like a madman, swaying all over the road, trying to miss the shots he fired at us. When I had gone a good few kilometres, I stopped to check on Gisele. She was coming to and didn’t make any sense. I tied her up. I brought her back here, because we must make her talk. We must know who her accomplice is, so that we can deal with him. Everything is at risk.’
Shocked to her core, Marjie frantically racked her brain for a solution. She’d made a mistake, she knew that. If the real traitor hadn’t been her brother, then she would have dealt with the whole situation differently. She should have done, for she knew how powerful love could be. She should have known that sending Gisele back to Monty would give him time to manipulate her, using Gisele’s feelings for him. But she had trusted Gisele.
‘What do you think we should do, André?’
‘We need to know who her accomplice is. Louis will get it out of her. He is sadistic, he’ll make her talk.’
Taking a deep breath, Marjie took the most difficult decision she’d ever taken in her life. ‘I know who it is.’
‘Marjie?’
‘I told you before that I did – well, in a non-specific way – but I made a mistake. I should have told you. I just couldn’t handle it, and I wanted to wait for Arnie.’
‘He left you in charge, Marjie. Yes, you should have told us. You must tell us now, so that we can deal with the traitor.’
‘Oh, André . . . it’s—’
‘Marjie, you’re crying. Oh, Marjie darling. What is it? Do you know him well?’
The endearment, and André taking her hands, undid her completely. Her sobs racked her body as she thought of her mama and papa, of Freddy and Randie. How could she ever face them again, if she had to order the death of their son and brother – her own dear brother?
She didn’t resist when André pulled her to him, but clung to him for support. ‘Oh, André, help me. Help me!’
‘I will, my darling. I am here for you. We’ll work this out. Is it someone you love?’
Unable to reject André’s love, Marjie didn’t pull away from him. At this moment he was her rock. ‘Yes . . . more than life itself. I tended him when we were children, watched out for him, covered up his naughtiness, often taking a telling-off for him. I adored him, and still do. It – it’s . . . Oh, André, it’s my darling brother, Monty.’
‘Good God! Monty?’
‘Yes. He wrote to me. Gisele brought the letter to me yesterday. Oh, André, I think he traded all of us for his own freedom. He used Gisele. She’s always adored him and hung on his every word, and she is now in love with him. What happened tonight, she wouldn’t have wanted. I’m sure of that. She probably told Monty where she was going, and he got out of her when and how. Gisele wouldn’t have set an ambush – Monty would have done that.’
‘But for what purpose? I mean, if he wanted Gisele, he could have stopped her rendezvousing with us. Unless . . . Marjie, there could have been Germans waiting for us ahead. But Monty chickened out, where Gisele was concerned, and thought to get her off the truck before we reached the real ambush. Not good thinking on his part, as we were hardly going to go on without her.’
Composing herself, Marjie thought about this. Monty was never the brightest boy – but such thinking was stupid, even for him. But then, she knew Monty. Knew him well. ‘André, knowing Monty, I think he wanted to stop working as a traitor. I wouldn’t put it past him to have bargained with the Germans to deliver freedom-fighters to them, in exchange for his own safe passage to Spain, but then, as you say, to have had a change of heart and rescued Gisele. He probably hoped to kill you all in the process as he would have been afraid that you would betray his actions if the Germans did capture you.’
‘But what of Gisele? She has to be disposed of. She knows too much, Marjie. We have no choice.’
‘No! Oh, André, no, please. There must be another way. Think about it. Gisele has known Monty all her life, she is in love with him and had no reason not to trust him. He had been through hell and had escaped. He asked her about Paulo as he said he wanted to join the Resistance. How could she know it was a trick? And so she told Monty where Paulo was, and about me and his father. Then she told him about his father being air-lifted out, and that he must hurry if he wanted to see him. Gisele has done nothing that all of us wouldn’t do, but for our training. Remember, she hasn’t had the benefit of that.
‘We must save her, André. We must. She’s just a young girl, and she has put her life on the line for this cause almost every day, bringing supplies and vital papers – weapons even. She organized the stealing of everything that was needed. The cause has used this young girl, and she rose to the challenge. We cannot order her death because of this one time she’s made a bad judgement. The fault is that of the cause, for not training Gisele in clandestine methods. She has done everything using her own wits. That let her down when she fell in love.’
‘You’re right, my love. But . . .’
Now that she was in charge of her emotions, the endearment sank into Marjie’s conscious thinking and she pulled away from André. ‘I’m – I’m sorry, André, please don’t call me that. I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression. I needed you as a friend, a very dear and trusted friend. I’m so sorry, I—’
‘No, no, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t . . . I mean, I misread you coming to me. Please forgive me. I love you, you know that. I love you so deeply, Marjie, that I don’t know how I am going to live without you, or how I am managing to live so closely to you, knowing that you don’t – and can never – love me back.’
Marjie didn’t know what to say. She looked away.
‘Forget it. Please, Marjie. Let’s concentrate on the problem we have, and forget I ever showed, or talked about, my feelings for you.’
It wasn’t easy. Marjie wanted to say that if she had never met Wills, she could have seen herself falling in love with André, but she knew that wouldn’t help, so she turned the conversation back to Gisele. ‘Yes, that’s best. I thank you for the honour of what you’ve just said, but we do have to forget it, if we are to carry on working together. And at the moment we need to find a solution to the problem of Gisele.’
‘While Monty is alive, she represents a great danger to us. To save both us and Gisele . . . I’m sorry, Marjie, but we have to kill your brother.’
Pain shot through Marjie’s heart, but she knew he was right, and she had to agree. But how could she? Oh, Mama, Papa, help me.
‘Marjie?’
She nodded, and as she did so, she drew in a gasp of air that rasped her throat. ‘May God – and my family – forgive me, but yes, André, it has to be done.’
‘Oh, Marjie, I’m so sorry. I wish I could help you, or that there is another way, but there isn’t. What about Gisele?’
‘She stays here until we can get her to Spain. Please, André, help me in this. I cannot bear for such a brave young girl as Gisele to lose her life for what my brother did to her.’
‘Yes, I agree. But what about the others? When they hear what happened, they will want Gisele dead.’
‘Then we must not tell them. Where have you left the truck?’
‘A little way down the lane. No one has gone to it, as they would have had to pass by us.’
‘Good. You go and set Gisele free, and I will tell the others you were stopped by a checkpoint and weren’t believed. That you were shot at, and Ethan was killed. I will tell them that you have Gisele, but didn’t want to bring her back in, because of the mood they showed towards her before. I will tell them that anyone who lays a finger on her will be shot; and that you now know who the traitor is and are dealing with him.’
‘On my own?’
‘I know that’s difficult, but . . . Well, I don’t want everyone to know who it is. Most of them do know Monty.’
‘I’ll go to the communist camp and tell them that I know of a traitor and where he can be found. I will tell them that he is known to us, so it is difficult for us to kill him. They will do it, and we won’t know anything about it.’
‘Yes, that is best. Oh God, I can’t believe I’m saying that about my own brother. I can’t bear to lose Monty. I want to see him. I want—’
‘No, Marjie, you must be strong. Don’t think of him as your brother, but as a traitor who didn’t care if you were killed or not. A man who set the Germans on his own kin – and on Paulo, his faithful friend. And who could even have killed his own father; Monty couldn’t know the plane would be on time – what if it had been late?’
‘And all to ingratiate himself with the enemy. But despite knowing all that, André, the pain of what I’m agreeing to is unbearable.’
When Arnie contacted them later that day to say he was on his way, Marjie and André decided that the group would stay on at the safe house until Arnie arrived. His message was short, but did include an update: ‘Sibbie all right. Paulo still very sick. Plane lifting them tomorrow for UK. Pray for Paulo.’
To Marjie, this was all too much. She bent her head and wept as she’d never done before. She wept for her mama and papa. Forgive me. Forgive me. Oh God, I want to be with them, I want to be home. And she wept for Sibbie and Paulo. I feel so alone, so alone. I miss you, Sibbie. And, dear Paulo, please get better – please! But most of all she wept for Monty, who was so dear to her. Why, Monty? Why? I love you so much – I don’t want you to die. Why did you do it? What makes you like you are? Oh, my precious brother, forgive me, and help me to forgive you.
Arnie looked haggard when he eventually arrived. It had been a long trek, as he explained. ‘The first twenty miles I rode pillion on the back of one of the communist freedom-fighters’ motorbikes, then I did a good few miles by rail, posing as a businessman, and finally in the back of the van of a market gardener – a contact at one of the safe houses I stayed in. I feel smelly and very tired.’
They all gathered to greet him. ‘There’s a room in the house, Uncle Arnie,’ Marjie said. ‘I’ve slept in it for the last couple of nights, but I want you to have a proper bed. I’ll bunk in the barn with the men.’
‘You won’t, young lady. I’ll decide who sleeps where, now I’m here. I only put you in charge in my absence, you know.’ Arnie laughed as he said this, and although it was difficult for Marjie even to smile, she did manage a small one.
‘You look tired, Marjie. What’s wrong?’
‘Oh, nothing.’ She and André hadn’t yet told the others about Monty, and Marjie never wanted to. They’d had a fight on their hands over Gisele, but in the end the men had accepted that she was staying until they could arrange to take her to Spain.
With Arnie cocking a knowing eyebrow at her, Marjie told him, ‘I do have something on my mind that I need to tell you about, but I haven’t been sleeping well since I heard about Sibbie and Paulo. I’m so glad they’ve been taken back to Britain. But so worried for them, and about them.’
‘My dear, you have to accept that things don’t look good for Paulo. Both of them were horribly tortured, but Paulo had limbs broken and suffered internal injuries. Neither of them gave in. But they were being taken to the Gestapo, who are known to extract information using horrendous torture. We saved them from that, but whether we are too late with Paulo, I’m not sure. He’ll get proper treatment in England, so it is possible he will live, but I am very afraid for him.’
‘Can we have a minute alone, Uncle Arnie?’
‘My dear. What is it? You’re crying!’
Brushing her tears away, Marjie took Arnie inside and asked the farmer’s wife, Madame Dupret, where they could talk in private. Madame showed them into her best room.
‘Non, Madame, I am very dirty.’
But Madame wouldn’t hear of Arnie using any other room. ‘You are zee most important man. I cannot treat you like you are less so.’
When Madame had left, Arnie asked, ‘Why does she look on me like that?’
But Marjie couldn’t answer. As soon as the door closed on them, she turned to Arnie. ‘Oh, Uncle Arnie, help me – help me.’
‘My dear Marjie. What is it?’ His arms opened to her and she went into them, so grateful for the warmth and love of his hug.
Once she’d controlled herself, she told him all that had happened, finishing with the worst news in the world. ‘They’re . . . they’re going to kill Monty, and I sanctioned it! I put a death sentence on my own darling brother. Oh God! Oh, Uncle Arnie, help me.’
Shock held Arnie silent for a moment. He stared down at her. ‘My God! Why didn’t you ask me?’
‘I couldn’t. I dared not use the radio and, in any case, how can you explain all that over the air? I tried to deal with it by getting Gisele away, and waiting for a decision from you, but Monty acted again.’ She told him about the failed trip to take Gisele to the border with Spain. ‘Oh, Uncle Arnie, Gisele hasn’t been well since. I – I’ve kept her away from the others, as I’m sure they would kill her.’
‘Where is she?’
‘She’s in an attic room; it’s a sort of makeshift guest room. I told Madame that Gisele has a fever that is infectious. I have a key, so that no one can get to her, and I look after her. I think she’s concussed and could have cracked her skull in the fall.’
‘Oh, Marjie, this is awful. But, my dear, you have done the right thing in ordering that Monty be dealt with, and in moving camp. There is no alternative. I’m shocked about Gisele. And, well . . . Oh, I don’t know. This is a stinking mess.’
‘She’s so young, Uncle Arnie.’ Marjie laid out the case for Gisele as she had done to André, reminding him of Gisele’s work for the cause, and how she thought Gisele innocent in it all – trusting someone she’d known all her life and was deeply in love with. ‘Please, Uncle. It is enough that my darling Monty pays the ultimate price, but not Gisele, too – she doesn’t deserve to.’
‘I understand her part, and we are at fault. We took all she could do for us and never trained her in how to deal with anyone – even those she knew – wanting information. Of course she knew that, if caught, she would face torturous interrogation and certain death. But, as you say, Gisele is courageous and she accepted that. And, I believe, she would rather die than give us away intentionally.’
‘Thank you – thank you so much. And you agree that it is possible the Germans may have known the source of Monty’s information and that, once they lose Monty, Gisele will be a target for the information they can no longer get through him?’
‘Yes, I do. But if we are going to save her, it is vital that we get her to her aunt’s in Spain as soon as possible. However, if you are right in your suspicion about what is wrong with Gisele, then we need a doctor. The communist groups are well organized and have recruited doctors of the same persuasion to join their cause. I’ll see about Gisele getting help. Did her parents know she was leaving?’
‘Yes, it was all arranged very quickly, and they probably think she is in Spain now.’ Talking about the practicalities of what was going to happen to Gisele had distracted Marjie from her grief, but once she felt happy that Arnie was on the same side as her, where Gisele was concerned, pain flooded back into her. ‘I’m so relieved, for Gisele; but how am I going to cope with what I’ve done to Monty? How will my mama and papa, and Freddy and Randie, ever forgive me? How am I going to live with myself? Oh, Uncle Arnie, I can’t bear it all.’
‘It is a terrible burden, Marjie, my dear. But you must look at what you will have achieved, not at what you had to do. You have stopped someone who informed on our comrades and caused their deaths, and the capture of Sibbie and Paulo – and Monty may yet have killed Paulo. Monty is someone who would have sacrificed André, and who killed Ethan. Someone who wouldn’t have been allowed to stop there, as the Germans wouldn’t have let go of such an asset. They would have wanted more, and Monty would be able to give it, or could have done. He might eventually have forced Gisele to give information about our supplies, our positions, everything; and that wouldn’t only be disastrous for us, but for France, too. At the moment we are the only hope for the French people, and we have much work to do to disrupt the Germans’ ability to transport armoury, tanks, military men and, not least, the poor Jews to the extermination camps.’
‘I know. Thanks, Uncle. I just wish it made me feel better.’
‘Nothing can do that, my dear. It is a terrible burden for you to shoulder. But listen to me. I love Monty like a son, and this is breaking my heart, too, but your decision is the one I would have taken. I am sanctioning it, and therefore I am taking responsibility for it.’
Marjie couldn’t speak. Some easing of her conscience settled in her, at these last words of Arnie’s, and she knew that with him by her side, there might be a chance to make her family understand, although there wasn’t anything in the world that could really help her. How could there be?