do to help. She grabbed the young man’s arm and pulled him onwards, passing the end of the narrow street where the safe house, which had provided refuge to so many escapees over the past year, had suddenly become safe no longer.
In the dusk of the clear Paris evening, Claire had pushed open the tiny square window in her bedroom to allow the evening air to flood in. Soon darkness would fall and she would have to close the window and pull down the blackout blind, shutting out the stars. But now she breathed in the faint smells of coffee and cigarette smoke and listened to the sounds of clinking china which wafted up on the night-time air from the café opposite the end of the road. The streets were far quieter these days since there was very little traffic. Most of Paris’s inhabitants either walked or cycled everywhere. With increasing frequency, clients were sending skirts in to be remade as culottes, which were more practical for wearing on a bicycle whilst still retaining a degree of elegance.
From this height, she couldn’t see the street immediately below, but she heard the key turn in the lock and the front door open and close. She was always anxious when Mireille was out on her own, watching for her safe return, so it was with relief that she heard the footsteps climbing the metal stairs up to the apartment.
She pulled her window shut and drew the blind then skipped into the hallway to open the door for her friend. To her surprise, a tall young man wearing a gaberdine raincoat stood behind Mireille. Claire knew better than to ask questions, so she simply stepped aside and let them in.
The room that had been Esther’s – the room where she had given birth to her baby – hadn’t been used by any of the seamstresses who’d lived in the attic rooms since. Claire and Mireille had always kept the door shut, as opening it would have brought back too many memories, especially for Mireille, who had witnessed Esther’s death when the German plane had dived low to machine-gun the river of refugees fleeing Paris at the time of the invasion. But now they needed somewhere to hide the young Free French soldier for a few days until a new escape plan could be put in place for him.
Claire could see the fear that flickered in Mireille’s eyes – although she tried to hide it and remain her usual calm and practical self – as they discussed their options. They both knew that the capture of the Arnauds by the Gestapo meant that one of the network’s escape routes had effectively been shut down. Claire shivered when she thought of them being taken to the Avenue Foch for questioning. How long would they be able to hold out if they were tortured? Would they be able to avoid divulging any useful information for the first twenty-four hours of their internment, giving the other passeurs time to cover their tracks and allowing the safe houses to be shut down? Would Mireille be the next member of the network to be arrested if the Arnauds gave the Gestapo what little information they knew about her? And if Mireille were arrested, then would Claire be as well? There would be no arguing their way out of things if they were discovered harbouring a fugitive. But it seemed there was no other option: the apartment beneath the eaves was needed as a safe house now.
She and Mireille moved aside the row of mannequins which were being stored in Esther’s old room. Each one had been made to the exact measurements of a particular client, although more and more were having to be put into storage these days as clients disappeared or were unable to afford the soaring prices of couture. As the rooms on the floors below had filled up with dressmaking forms, some of the overflow had found its way to the spare rooms on the fifth floor.
They made up the bed, each donating one of their own blankets, while the young man perched on a chair in the sitting room and wolfed down the heel of bread which Mireille had given him, spreading it with the last scrapings from a jar of rillettes which were more fat than meat.
Although they tried to work quietly, Vivi heard the to-ings and fro-ings and came out of her room to investigate. When Mireille briefly explained what had happened, Vivi