needs it.’ As she reached the door, she asked: ‘How did Cosimo do?’
‘All right, I think,’ said her father. ‘He drove the cart and acted as lookout. He was even able to help loading up the vehicles.’
‘I knew he wouldn’t let us down. It will be good for him; he needs to have his mind taken off Elena. He still feels so guilty.’
The flour and other provisions made a big difference to their daily life. For a few days at least, the family went to bed with relatively full stomachs. But one evening, Giacomo returned to the apartment, just as Sara was feeding her family in the kitchen. ‘Is my daughter here?’ he asked. He looked wild and panicky, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
‘She’s in her room,’ Sara replied.
Giacomo hurried down the corridor and flung open Livia’s door. She was sitting at the desk, working.
‘Thank God you’re here,’ he said.
‘Why, what’s happened?’
‘The Fascist police have found the hideouts.’ He sank down on the edge of her bed.
Livia sat down next to her father and put her arms around him.
‘The house where we had the weapons stored has been discovered. They got everything – all the new supplies, plus the rest of the weapons we’ve been storing for some time. They even took the printing press.’
‘Was anyone arrested?’ she asked.
‘Yes, everyone there was rounded up. Five or six people.’ He put his head in his hands and groaned.
‘How did you get away?’
‘I wasn’t there; I had a meeting with a client this morning. Someone found me just now and told me what had happened.’
‘How did they know where we were keeping everything?’ asked Livia.
‘I can only assume that we’ve been infiltrated.’ He looked up at her, tears in his eyes. ‘Someone has betrayed us, Livia.’
‘Who would do that?’ she asked. ‘Do you know?’
‘I’ve been asking myself that question ever since I found out. Who among our recruits is working against us? I just don’t know. But no one is safe anymore. I wonder if we should get out of Florence.’
‘And go where?’ she demanded.
‘We could go home – you and me.’
‘Papa, this is not like you. You never give up. Besides, how could we leave now? I have to report to Villa Triste every day and if I don’t turn up, they’ll come here and search for me. Then they would find the family. I can’t do that to them. We must stay here, and carry on with our work.’
‘No, please stop your work, and lie low for a while,’ Giacomo implored her.
‘Well,’ she said calmly, ‘we can stop planning operations, limit the number of airdrops perhaps, but surely I must go on transmitting and sending information. They need us now more than ever.’
He shook his head. ‘I think we must stop everything.’
‘No, Papa,’ she insisted, ‘I won’t do that. I’ll be all right. Why don’t you go home and see Mamma, and leave me here?’
‘No, Livia, if you stay, I must stay with you. But if they associate me with the weapons haul and come searching for me, you’re to give me up, you understand? You must say you know nothing.’
‘How could I do that?’ she asked.
‘What did you say to Cosimo? What’s the sense in both of us being arrested?’
The following morning, Livia reported, as usual, to Villa Triste. She felt slightly anxious when she signed the register. As always, she thought of Elena and whether she was still there… somewhere in the building.
‘May I leave now?’ she asked the guard.
He nodded mechanically and she began to relax slightly. Perhaps they hadn’t yet connected her with the haul of weapons. Just then, a man in black uniform came into the waiting room. Livia recognised him instantly – the slightly squashed face, the mean dark eyes. It was Mario Carità himself.
‘Signorina, come with me please.’
She followed him down the dark corridor, her heart pumping. She was shown into a small room, similar to the one she had been interrogated in before.
‘Sit there,’ he said, pointing to a hard chair in the middle of the room.
She sat down uneasily. ‘I can’t be too long,’ she said boldly. ‘I have to get to university.’
His thin mouth formed itself into a sneer, as he dragged another chair across the floor. It sounded like chalk being scraped on a blackboard. He sat down opposite her, his legs apart, and leant forward.
‘I thought we should have a little chat,’ he said. ‘I think we have a friend of yours in here.’
Livia’s heart