Page 29 of Daughters of Paris

Delphine nodded. She picked up her remaining case and hatbox. She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know what your father will say when we tell him we have abandoned his car. He loves it so much.’

‘I hope he loves us more and will understand,’ Colette said archly.

‘We can worry about that when we’re home,’ Fleur added.

The three women trudged back to the city, arriving long after night had fallen. The streets were silent and dark. The skeleton of a city with no flesh. No beating heart. Nevertheless, it was Paris, and it was home. Whatever happened next, Colette would rather be there than anywhere else in the world.

Chapter Nine

‘They are staying in our hotel!’

Josette Lucienne sounded hysterical.

‘They just came in and commandeered it. Every room! And they aren’t paying either.’

The sound of her wailing had brought Fleur rushing from the dining room to the hallway. Colette stood in the doorway with a look of bewilderment on her face.

There was no need to ask who ‘they’ were. A glance at the calendar told her the date was June the twenty-third. It was hard to believe it was little over a week since Paris’ remaining citizens awakened to the harsh, German-accented voice broadcast through loudspeakers on military lorries that crawled through the streets. The proclamation was seared on Fleur’s memory.

The city was now under German control. A curfew would be in place from eight that night. There was to be no resistance. Citizens should stay in their homes.

Fleur and Colette had ventured out when the need for fresh food had made it necessary. Checkpoints had been set up in roads the women had previously crossed without a second thought and the sight of soldiers in German uniforms openly carrying weapons had made her want to run home and hide.

Sophie patted her sister’s shoulder. ‘Papais beside himself andMamanrefuses to leave her room.’

‘Coffee?’ Fleur mouthed to Colette who nodded eagerly.

‘We’ll go into the garden.’

Fleur went into the kitchen and set the percolator on the stove alongside a pan of milk. She sat on a stool and listened to the comforting, ordinary sound of the water spurting and bubbling through the grounds inside the pot. She took a deep breath, savouring the aroma of brewing coffee and trying to concentrate on normal things. That way the constant feeling of sickness might eventually ebb.

Colette and Josette were sitting together on the patio when Fleur stepped outside with the coffee. Sophie was pacing up and down on the grass, smoking.

‘Will you join us?’ Colette asked.

Ordinarily, Fleur would have declined. She never felt she had much in common with Colette’s wealthy and glamorous friends, but now she wanted to hear what Josette had to say. Any news about what was happening in the city was worth having. She fetched a fourth cup and Colette poured, adding only a splash of warm milk where once she would have mixed her coffee equally.

‘They say there is going to be a shortage of coffee,’ Josette said gloomily. ‘I do hope not.’

‘I am sure the Germans will ensure supplies still reach the city now they are here,’ Colette said.

Fleur reached for the sugar spoon then tipped back half. It might be wise to try weaning herself off sweet coffee. ‘Do you imagine that they will share their coffee with us? They fired on women and children who were trying to leave Paris. They will not give a damn about whether or not we have coffee. Or anything else.’

The other women blinked and Fleur was taken aback by her own vehemence. ‘Perhaps you will be fortunate enough to still get it in the hotel,’ she said in a calmer voice.

‘Tell us about the hotel,’ Colette prompted.

Josette’s cup rattled as she placed it in the saucer. ‘It isn’t only ours. It’s every hotel in the city.Papahad no choice. An officer appeared three days after the city fell and tookPapainto the office.’

She squeezed her hands together, though they still shook.

Sophie took a drag on her cigarette and exhaled loudly. ‘Mamanthought they were going to arrest him. He had said something loudly in the dining room a few weeks ago about still offering rooms to Jews. She thought someone might have informed the authorities. He came out and told us that the hotel has been requisitioned as accommodation for the army. They are in every bedroom, eating in the dining room, sitting in the salons. We cannot escape them.’

‘Oh, I am so sorry,’ Colette said. ‘Would you like to come and stay with me for a while? I’m sureMèrecould find you a room. She could turn over her salon perhaps. The chaise is very comfortable.’

Fleur grimaced. Delphine had not left her bed since they had arrived back after the long trek home from the aborted escape. It had placed an added burden on both girls.

Josette sniffed and sat up straighter. ‘No, I shall make the best of things. In any case, some of them are quite polite. They keep asking Sophie and I where the best places are to go dancing, how to see the art in the Louvre, which is the best architecture.’

---