31

‘This is the building; they are on the second floor,’ Anya said as she pointed to a brass plate on the wall by the large double doors. Even late at night, they’d been able to find their way with the help of the street lighting. Anya had found herself stopping from time to time to look up at the tall properties with their decorative iron balconies on each floor. Facades were damaged in places and the buildings looked tired, but even so, she thought they had a special quality about them and must have looked magnificent in their heyday.

‘You’d better go first, as the woman knows you. She may panic and wonder what is happening if she sees me at her door,’ Mildred said as she pushed Anya into the building and towards the wide staircase. ‘Wait here a moment . . .’ She checked where two doors in the passageway led.

The inside of the building was as tired as the outside, with chipped plaster and fading paintwork. The wooden balustrade needed attention and a good polish, Anya thought, as she started to climb the stairs. Behind her she could hear Mildred puffing and stopping to catch her breath on each landing. It was evident she still wasn’t back to her usual level of good health after injuring her feet.

‘Perhaps we should wait a couple of minutes before we knock on the door?’

Mildred nodded. They waited until they heard the front door of the building open and close, then footsteps on the stairs. ‘Hurry, in case we are spotted,’ she hissed, prodding Anya in the small of the back.

Anya knocked on Anouska’s door and waited. After a minute, Mildred leant over her shoulder and knocked harder. They heard someone approaching the door from inside.

‘Why Anya, how lovely to see you,’ Anouska said in perfect English, embracing her friend and inviting her inside.

Anya wished they could speak in Polish, but then Mildred would not have understood. ‘This is my friend Nancy; we are travelling together,’ she explained as Mildred stepped forward and shook hands.

‘I’m delighted to meet you,’ Anouska said, although she looked nervous. ‘Please come in.’

They followed her into a large room that looked fit for a king, with plush carpets and stylish furnishings. Ornate gold-framed mirrors hung on every wall. Two matching chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling and tinkled slightly in the breeze coming from double doors that opened onto a balcony. This was a different world from Anya’s life in Ramsgate.

‘You have a very nice home,’ she said politely.

Anouska shrugged her shoulders. ‘It is mine for as long as . . .’ She let the sentence trail off.

‘Please continue,’ Anya prompted her. ‘I would like to know more of your life since we last met.’

‘I will do anything to survive this war,’ was all Anouska said before going to a decorative side table and taking a cigarette from a gold-encrusted box. She lit it with a matching lighter that rested on the table. ‘Do either of you . . .?’

Both women refused her offer.

‘Please sit.’ She nodded towards a long, deep blue velvet-covered sofa that faced into the room.

They sat down, Anya shivering slightly as the night breeze came in through the curtained French windows. ‘You will have to wear something more practical if you wish to travel with us to England,’ she pointed out to Anouska, who was still wearing her evening gown.

‘I have a travelling costume and sturdier shoes; it will not take me long to change. May I ask who else will be with us?’

Anya opened her mouth to answer as Mildred cut in. ‘It does not concern you,’ she said in a sharp voice, which shocked Anya. ‘However, we leave in ten minutes, so please hurry.’

Anouska didn’t reply, but fixed Mildred with a brief stare and then left the room.

‘That was rather pointed,’ Anya scolded Mildred.

‘There’s no time for pleasantries. Besides, I don’t trust her as far as I can spit,’ Mildred replied, getting to her feet to check the room.

‘What are you . . .’

‘Sshh,’ Mildred put a finger to her lips as she crept towards the heavy curtains that covered the entrance to the balcony. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small pearl-handled revolver and held it in front of her.

Anya was wide-eyed as she watched Mildred; this was completely ludicrous. Whatever was Mildred up to? She felt she should say something, but then decided to humour her friend for now and kept quiet.

Mildred reached out and quietly grasped the edge of one of the curtains while pointing her gun at whoever she expected to be on the balcony. ‘Come out with your hands up,’ she said loudly, at the same time pulling back the curtain.

Anya gasped as one of the German officers she’d seen at the banquet stepped forward with his hands raised high above his head. ‘Do not shoot,’ he said. ‘I am unarmed.’

‘Over there. Sit down,’ Mildred hissed as she waved her gun, directing him to a desk and chair not far from where Anya was sitting.

‘But I am armed,’ a suited man said, stepping through the door Anouska had passed through minutes earlier.

Fear gripped Anya’s stomach. Who was he? She’d seen him recently . . . Of course, he had been seated beside Anouska during the banquet. Was this her father or her husband? It was hard to tell, with them being so similar in age. This man was wearing a black dinner jacket with his bow tie undone; his tall frame, slicked-back silver hair and high cheekbones gave him a sinister air.

‘Get over there, both of you,’ he snapped at Anya and Mildred, indicating that they should move to stand in front of a large fireplace. ‘Throw your gun to the floor,’ he said to Mildred, ‘and no tricks.’

‘What is going on? Anouska, where are you?’ Anya called out, fearing her friend was in danger but showing no fear of the man holding the gun.

‘Shut up,’ the suited man said, waving the gun in Anya’s direction. ‘My wife will come out when I tell her to,’ he snarled.

So this is the husband, Anya thought. He wasn’t quite the weak, elderly man she had imagined him to be and didn’t look at all sickly. She’d expected him to be bent over his plate, having his food cut up for him and being spoon-fed by a nurse. She gave a cynical smile, causing him to bark at her: ‘What do you find so funny?’

‘You are not what I imagined you to be when Anouska told me she’d married an older man.’

‘As if I care what you think; you are just another Polish peasant girl.’

‘Who came from the same village as your wife,’ Anya spat back at him. ‘At least I married a man who is fighting for his country.’

‘Shut up, before your brave husband is standing over the grave of his wife,’ he snarled. ‘Anouska, are you ready?’ he called over his shoulder. ‘The train to Berlin will be leaving soon.’

Anouska appeared at the bedroom door, dressed in a tailored black travelling ensemble with a leather clutch bag and matching shoes. ‘Will these shoes do for the journey?’ she asked her husband. ‘Or there are the ones I left on the bed . . .’

He turned to glance into the bedroom and she snatched the gun, shoving him through the door and quickly turning the key in the lock. ‘You,’ she said, waving the gun at the German officer, who was watching the scene unfold with barely concealed mirth. ‘Don’t move.’ She stepped sideways towards the windows, keeping her eyes on the man, and tugged at the plaited silk ropes holding back the drapes. Throwing them towards Mildred and Anya, she instructed them to tie him up securely.

‘What about gagging him? He may shout for help.’

‘No one is likely to hear him.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Now, let’s get out of here before my father gets home.’

‘Now I am confused. I thought you wished us to help you and your father escape from enemy-occupied France?’

Anouska’s expression was one of contempt. ‘He is as bad as the rest of them; he as good as sold me to the highest bidder. First the old husband, and then the Nazi bastards who would keep him in riches until the war was over. If they are to lose the war, and God I hope they do, then he will use anything he can to wheedle his way in with the Americans or the Russians.’

‘Not the English?’ Anya asked.

‘Who knows?’ she smiled. ‘He has skills that these countries require, and they will pay handsomely; I don’t wish to be involved any more. That is why you must take me with you. I can pay you well for my passage and my keep once I am in London,’ she said, opening her jacket and patting a thick fabric package wrapped around her waist. ‘I have waited a long time for this day.’

‘Then we must hurry,’ Mildred said, going to the door of the apartment.

‘Not that way; my father will be here any moment. He is a creature of habit. We must jump.’ Anouska nodded towards the balcony, tucking the gun into the waistband of her skirt.

‘God, this is going to kill me,’ Anya swore as she sat on the balcony and lowered herself over the edge. On a count of three she let herself drop to the ground, her fall broken by the shrubbery that surrounded the building. ‘It is not too bad,’ she called up to Mildred. ‘Do as I did, and you will be fine.’

Mildred landed with a grunt and lay still among the shrubbery for several moments before Anya helped pull her away in case Anouska fell onto her prostrate body in the dark.

‘Are you injured?’ Anya whispered.

‘No, just winded. My old body won’t allow me to do much of this kind of thing without complaining.’

Anouska jumped after them, throwing her shoes down first. She stood up and straightened her skirt, pulling the shoes back on. ‘This way,’ she whispered, leading them away from the building’s main entrance. ‘We must be careful in case my father is nearby.’

They walked in silence until they were some distance away; then Anouska paused and looked at Anya. ‘Where do we go?’

Anya looked to Mildred, who shrugged her shoulders. ‘We need to find Domino. He’s the one who knows the way back to our rendezvous point.’

Anya was exhausted and her head was throbbing. She hadn’t slept well since their arrival in France and she had been working hard all evening. ‘The last time I saw him was when he walked with me and Natalie to the banqueting hall. I thought they’d be waiting for me when I left, but there was no sign of them. That’s why I went back to our lodgings alone.’

‘Then we go back to the hostelry and we wait,’ Mildred said, looking around to get her bearings. After a couple of minutes she took a compass from her pocket and pored over it, eventually giving a satisfied grunt. ‘This way,’ she pointed as the two women fell in step behind her.

‘She grunts a lot,’ Anouska said.

‘She certainly does,’ Anya agreed.

The women walked on in silence, glancing back now and then in case they were being followed. They stayed close to the sides of buildings, not wanting to be challenged for being out after curfew. Anya gave a sigh of relief when she recognized the hostelry where they had hidden away.

While Anya showed Anouska the way to their room up in the eaves of the building, Mildred stopped to speak to the landlord. Their conversation took place in hushed tones before money changed hands and she joined the others.

‘What news of Domino and Natalie?’ Anya asked, noticing Mildred’s downcast face.

‘Nothing of Domino, but Natalie is dead.’

Anya felt sick. ‘How can that be? She was with me earlier this evening, making sure I could see Anouska . . .?’

‘See me – what do you mean?’ Anouska turned to her.

Anya shook her head, unable to explain why she’d been there. She couldn’t help but think she might have alerted the Germans to Natalie by aiding her to identify Anouska. Perhaps it had been when she made a fool of herself in front of Hitler, she thought to herself, before pushing the memory away. She had a job to do so she could get home to her son. She could only pray the news about Natalie was not true.

‘I just wanted to help you,’ she said to Anouska.

A smile crossed Anouska’s face. ‘And you have. But tell me, who is this Domino, and why is he important?’

Mildred didn’t speak for a moment before shrugging off the question. ‘Just a French person who helped us.’ She fell silent as there was a knock on the door. It was the landlord, bringing them a tray of food. Again he whispered quietly to Mildred before she thanked him and carried the tray into their room. ‘Tomorrow, people will help move us towards the coast. For tonight, we eat and sleep. Anouska, you may have my bed and I will sleep in the armchair.’

‘No, you can have my bed; you need to regain your strength,’ Anya insisted, and would not be swayed however much Mildred argued.

Later, as she tried to sleep in the lumpy horsehair-stuffed chair, Anya thought about John Bentley and prayed he had not perished at the hands of the Germans. She would never again be able to look Flora in the eye if it turned out that John had met his fate while helping her. She thought hard about where he might be. She replayed the memory of him walking with her to the banqueting hall before handing her over to Natalie. The last thing he’d said to her had been, ‘I’ll be close by in case I am needed.’ But he hadn’t been there when she needed him. What had happened?

She looked over at the two women who shared her room. Moonlight was coming in through the window and outlining their beds. Mildred seemed to be sleeping soundly, with the occasional snore coming from below her blanket. It was Anouska who caught Anya’s attention, slipping silently from her bed and moving towards the one small window, her movements smooth and catlike. For a moment Anya wondered if she might be sleepwalking, and held still as she watched rather than risk waking her; Anouska had been through so much, it was not surprising if her sleep was affected.

Anouska stood looking out for a few minutes, as if she was seeking something or someone, before raising her hand and then turning to go back to her bed. She stopped close to Anya – so close, Anya could hear her soft breathing and smell the lingering echo of her perfume. She froze, still not wanting Anouska to know she was awake, before giving a silent sigh of relief at hearing the bed creak as the woman returned to her slumber.