Page 57 of Whispers At Dawn
Jack replied, ‘The contact who gets them into Spain is based in St. Girons.’
‘I know the area quite well from my younger days. It’s at the foot of the mountains.’ Luc pointed to the map and ran his finger along the page. ‘It’s about 100 km from here to there.’
Jack said, ‘God willing they make it safely here. Let’s hope they are in a fit state to resume their journey soon.’
They looked at the map and Jack asked Luc some questions about St. Girons. Then they talked about possible places to hide the airmen.
After some deliberation, Luc said, ‘The safest place is undoubtedly the cellars in the vineyards. That way they’re some distance from the château. Occasionally we have visitors, but we must orchestrate it, so no one goes down there whilst they’re here.’
When they returned to their rooms, Lizzie and Jack readied themselves for bed, exhaustion creeping over them. They lay on the large mattress, curled into each other’s arms, and fell into a sound sleep.
CHAPTER 28
Ahand-delivered letter arrived for Lizzie on the breakfast tray. Jack and Lizzie had agreed it was less suspicious if a woman sent notes to her as if they were friends arranging to meet, in case a letter was intercepted. One never knew in wartime who might be monitoring the mail, even if a boy from the village delivered it.
After the housekeeper left the dining room, Lizzie slit it open with Luc’s correspondence knife, and after she scanned the brief note, she raised her eyes to Jack.
‘Our friend is in the woods,’ she said carefully, referring to Lev but not saying his name in front of Luc.
‘It’s time, then,’ said Luc, lowering his newspaper. ‘How do you want to handle it?’
Jack drained his coffee and turned to face his uncle. ‘Well, we can’t risk smuggling them in during the day. We’ll have to wait until tonight under cover of darkness.’
Luc agreed, ‘There are too many workers from the village roaming around the vineyards at this time of year.’
‘What else does the note say?’ Jack asked Lizzie.
She passed it to him. ‘Some kind of coded message which I presume is to tell us where they are hiding exactly.’
Jack read Marguerite’s note aloud. ‘I’ll meet you in the house in the woods.’
A puzzled expression clouded Jack’s face as he read the words again so Luc could hear. ‘Mean anything to you?’ he asked. ‘How can we know which house?’
Luc nodded. ‘Yes, of course. There are no houses in the woods except for a derelict shack. Only locals would know that, so whoever sent you the note is counting on you asking someone who knows the terrain.’
‘Makes sense,’ Lizzie said. ‘Our contact knows we’re your relatives, so it’s not a terribly big stretch for us to ask you a question like that.’
‘You’d better organise some food to keep them going until we can bring them in tonight. Ask Suzanne for a picnic basket for four. Tell her you’re meeting some friends.’
They thanked Luc and excused themselves from the table, going straight upstairs to the privacy of their rooms to discuss their next move.
‘What else do we need to take for them, apart from food and drink?’ Lizzie asked.
‘There’s no point taking them a change of clothes without knowing their size, and they won’t be cold in this weather. They’ll be wanting to sleep, I imagine, after walking through the night.’
Suzanne prepared them a basket which had become something of a habit lately, so it wasn’t suspicious at all. When Jack returned from working in the vineyards, they often explored areas of the vast estate and took a picnic for lunch.
Most mornings before the blistering heat of the day bore down on them, Lizzie rose early and accompanied Jack or stayed at the house and helped Suzanne. She was delighted to discover they grew abundant crops of fruits in the fields surrounding the vineyards. There were cherries, peaches, plums, apricots,melons, raspberries and strawberries which needed picking. There was plenty to do at the château and although it wasn’t intelligence work, it passed the time in between operations and gave weight to her cover story of being a new wife who had come along to keep her husband company.
The fruit on the trees in the fragrant orchard wouldn’t be ripe until later in the summer, but Suzanne showed her how to make jams from the buckets of fruits they picked in the fields. Lizzie also spent time in the large kitchen, making pies just like she had loved to do with her grandmother in Jersey. Rolling the pastry made her nostalgic for her childhood, when she would stand on a box next to her nan and help her fill pies and crumbles with summer fruits mixture.
A shadow crossed her mind when she thought of her grandparents in Jersey. She wondered if her parents had received another message from them yet. Lizzie felt helpless when she thought of them, and she pushed the thoughts away. She would focus on what she could do right now. Anything else only made her sad and afraid.
Jack and Lizzie crossed the courtyard and cut through the field that was the quickest way to the woods. They decided to give the airmen some time to rest, and it wasn’t until almost 4 p.m. they glimpsed the outline of a small shack through the trees. They followed the directions of Luc’s hand-drawn map, and after crossing a small brook by stepping across large uneven stones, they approached the shack.
Before they could reach the door, Lev appeared from around the back, brandishing a rifle.
Jack whistled to him. ‘We come in peace, friend.’
