Page 105 of Daughters of Paris

Curfew was drawing close.

‘I need to finish tidying up,’ Sébastien said. ‘Laurent, will you walk Fleur home? Colette is staying with me tonight.’

Laurent smiled at her. ‘Of course.’

‘I’ll take the glasses,’ Fleur said and followed Sébastien.

‘I’ve made my decision. I can’t give up what I’m doing, not even for Colette. I’m sorry,’ she said once they were alone.

‘I thought that would be your answer,’ Sébastien said, dropping his eyes. ‘I think you are probably right. Thank you for even considering it.’

‘You were speaking about something serious, weren’t you?’ Laurent said as he left Fleur at the bookshop door a while later. ‘You don’t have to tell me, of course, but if you’d like to unburden yourself…’

He left the sentence hanging. Now she had made her decision there was no reason not to tell him. His reaction was unexpected.

‘He really asked you to give up important work for the war to be a chaperone? Incredible! That girl will have no chance to become the woman she could be if everybody cossets her. You do enough already for her.’

Fleur’s cheeks grew warm. ‘She’s my friend and she’s pregnant. Besides, she keeps my accounts in order and sews neater repairs than I do. It’s fair. Besides, I said I’m not going to stop.’

He gave a wry smile and leaned in towards her. ‘Which makes me happy, of course. But what do you want, Fleur?’

‘I want to do it.’ She looked at him, loving the intensity in his eyes. ‘I’ve never had the luxury of not working. I can’t imagine it. Colette’s mother drifts around her salon all day entertaining equally superficial women. Even if I could do that, I don’t think I would like to.’

Laurent took her hands between his. ‘You are a good woman, Fleur – the finest – and I hope one day you will learn to be a little more selfish than you are. Good night and thank you for all you do.’

He kissed her cheeks and slipped away. She resisted the urge to stand in the street hoping he would look back.

What she really wanted was him, but whatever was keeping him from acting on his clear attraction was a mystery. She had to be patient and hope that mystery would be solved and resolved eventually.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

October 1942

‘I’ll take the ring and the bracelet and give you the cloth in exchange.’

The woman behind the counter at the Credit Municipal crossed her arms and stared Colette down. Colette bit back her retort that the exchange was far from fair. The bracelet and ring were both silver with small chips of emerald inlaid, and the fabric was thick cotton in a dull mustard colour, but she could not afford to argue.

She was rapidly growing too large for most of her clothes. She had let out what she could, but needed more and sewing from scratch was much cheaper than buying. There was a queue growing behind her of men and women waiting to exchange or surrender their possessions and she heard a couple of irritable comments directed at her.

‘Agreed.’ She handed over the jewellery and took the bundle of cloth. As she exited the line, she kept her head high. There was nothing to be ashamed of in what she was doing. The system had been going on since the seventeenth century in this very building. It worried her how few pieces of jewellery she had left to sell though. She had given all of her previous maternity clothes away in England, never planning to need them again and not wanting the reminder of her shameful secret. Now she wished she had kept some.

She hoped in vain that Fleur or Laurent would produce another parachute soon. It was one of the jokes that the four friends shared. When one, or both of them, weren’t off doing whatever clandestine work they were given, Fleur and Laurent often spent their evenings in Café Morlaix, keeping Colette company while Sébastien worked. They never spoke of what they did but knowing that there were men and women actively working to sabotage or defeat the Nazis gave Colette hope that it would not last for ever.

The four of them had built up quite a repertoire of card games, all played with stakes of imaginary future riches. Colette currently owed Laurent seven thousand francs. Fleur, less cautious in her bids, owed him nineteen thousand.

‘I’ll collect my winnings one day,’ he promised Fleur with a laugh, leaving Colette to speculate what form of payment he would choose. It was blatantly obvious to Colette that they were falling in love, so why was Laurent so insistent that nothing should happen between them? Colette didn’t know him well enough to ask and Sébastien flatly refused to become involved.

‘I hope Laurent doesn’t expect you to ever pay the debt with real money,’ she commented as she and Fleur walked around the market one morning before the sun had even risen. The earlier they arrived the better bargains they could get, but money was always tight.

‘I’ll offer to darn his socks and shirts,’ Fleur said, grinning. ‘I have more time now I don’t have such a large house to clean.’

Colette stopped and looked at Fleur. The women never really spoke of their previous life. ‘Do you prefer living like we do now?’

Fleur paused her examination of a basket of potatoes that looked green and consequently were cheaper. ‘Of course. Even though it’s a struggle with money, we have our own lives. I couldn’t do what I do so easily if I had to find excuses of why I wasn’t coming home some nights.’

‘I think I do too,’ Colette said, selecting a couple of bunches of herbs. ‘Certainly the part about not having to explain to my mother where I spent the night.’

She concealed a smile as her breasts twinged. Sébastien, unlike Laurent, had no reservations about carrying on a love affair. Making love with a large bump in the way was tricky, but they both agreed that accommodating it was a challenge both of them enjoyed.

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