to Vivi, but the man gripping her arm shook her so hard that she bit her tongue, her mouth filling with the metallic taste of blood. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ he shouted at her. ‘And where’s your other friend? We were told there were three of you.’
Claire shook her head. ‘She’s not here. She left.’ Thinking fast, she said, loudly enough for Vivi to hear, ‘She went out one day last week and never came back. We don’t know what’s happened – perhaps you can tell us, monsieur?’ Defiantly, she looked him in the eye.
He raised a black-gloved hand and slapped her cheek, hard. ‘We ask the questions and you give us the answers. I hope you are a quick learner, mademoiselle, otherwise you’re going to make things a whole lot worse for yourself. And for your friend, here, too.’
Tears ran down Claire’s face, their saltiness mingling with the blood in her mouth, but she pressed her lips together and refused to cry out. She heard a crash from Vivi’s room and craned her neck to try to see what was happening, but the man pushed her into her own room and slammed the door, barking, ‘Stay there until I say you can come out.’ She heard his footsteps crossing the hallway as he went to join his colleagues.
Desperately, she cast around for something she could do to distract them from Vivienne. Could she create a diversion? Lead them away? Go and get help? For a second, she wondered whether she could squeeze through the tiny window and escape across the rooftops, but even if she could get out she knew that she couldn’t leave Vivi, the friend who had sat by her bedside, soothing her in the aftermath of her nightmares, calming her fears.
It had become clear that Vivi held a key role in the network and that she must have been passing on crucial information to the Resistance, but she’d never suspected that Vivi had a wireless receiver hidden in her room. What other secrets was Vivi party to? Her close relationship with Monsieur Leroux could be the downfall of the whole network. Claire trembled as she thought how many lives were at stake.
All at once, Claire knew what she needed to do. She had to try to stick with Vivienne, to help her stay strong and not divulge what she knew. Together, they had to hold out for twenty-four hours, that’s what they’d been told. Mireille would be able to alert the others. It was up to Claire and Vivienne to buy them the time to cover their tracks. Wherever they were going, she was determined that they would go there together.
Quickly, she started pushing as many warm clothes as she could into a bag. Then she jumped with fright as her bedroom door was kicked open again. ‘Well done, mademoiselle, I see you have had the foresight to pack for a little holiday,’ sneered the officer. ‘Well, let us see how you like our departure lounge on the Avenue Foch.’
The other two were already marching Vivi down the stairs as the man pushed Claire out of the apartment. She hurried to try to catch up with her friend, dropping one of her gloves as she went. She tried to pick it up but he gave her another shove, sending her sprawling headlong on to the next landing. Again, she felt the vice-like grip of his fingers as he pulled her to her feet and forced her to continue onwards down the stairs and out into the Rue Cardinale.
A black car was parked there and Claire found herself bundled into the back, next to Vivi. She shot a glance at her friend’s face. One eye was swelling, beginning to close, but otherwise she just looked deeply shocked. Claire felt for her hand and squeezed it. ‘I’m here,’ she whispered, echoing the words Vivi used to say when Claire’s nightmares woke them both. ‘Everything will be alright.’
Vivienne turned to look at Claire then, as if only just registering her presence for the first time. Her eyes were glazed with fear, but she focused on her friend’s face and nodded once. Then she gave Claire’s hand a squeeze in return and they held on to each other tightly as the car sped through the streets of Paris, heading west.
Harriet
Shocked by the knowledge that Claire was arrested and taken to the Gestapo headquarters for questioning, I’ve been reading some reports that I’ve found online about inherited trauma. There’s no doubt