face. Vivi froze in fear. If he picked it up, he would unquestionably feel it was heavy and may wish to investigate. He leaned towards it, but suddenly Terrier was upon it, snatching it up and passing it back to her, smirking. Then picking up her papers, he thrust them at the guard.
‘My girlfriend is so clumsy. If it isn’t bad enough that she packed half her house, I’m the one who has to carry it.’ He leaned forward to the guard, whispering, ‘I think I will find a different girlfriend. This one is hopeless.’
The German, bewildered, studied the pair. Terrier began searching for his own papers, swaying, pretending he was intoxicated.
‘I’m sorry,’ he slurred, thrusting his beret back on his head. ‘We had a little celebration last night.’ He lurched on his feet, continuing to sway, and belched. Disgusted, the guard stepped backwards.
‘Your papers, monsieur?’ he growled, obviously annoyed. But he had already moved on from Vivi and her suitcase.
Terrier found his papers and handed them over, continuing his story just for good measure. ‘At our party last night,’ he said, brushing Vivi’s face as he proceeded to participate in his performance, ‘my woman, she had too much to drink.’ Vivi tried not to reveal her surprise as he tapped her cheek. ‘It has made her a little worse for wear this morning, you know,’ he declared, taking hold of Vivi’s hand, patting it between both of his.
She tried to smile meekly, realising how inept she was at this. The German officer nodded in response and, thrusting back their papers, exited the carriage, slamming the door. And he was gone.
The Terrier sat down in the seat and grinned broadly. Vivi was so overcome she worried she might actually be sick.
‘You look so pale,’ he remarked. ‘Which, I suppose, for someone who also has a hangover is more plausible.’
‘Is that why you suggested it?’ she enquired in a whisper.
‘You looked frightened to death. It concerned me he would suspect something. This way he would not demand any further questions.’
She nodded, grateful for his insight. Even though other guards checked them twice more before Paris, it went uneventfully. After Terrier had passed back her case, Vivi had secured it under her seat. She also kept her papers in her pocket so she wouldn’t have a recurrence of what had taken place previously.
As they continued, she looked across at Terrier as he finished a sandwich Anne-Marie had packed, then lit a cigarette and sat staring out of the window watching the whole of France pass by. Vivi’s heart started to swell as she watched him, she was so grateful for his bravery and resourcefulness. She was trained and knew what to do in combat or as a courier, and how to decode a message in record time, but Vivi realised as she stared over at Terrier there were other skills she didn’t possess: the ability to adapt to unexpected situations as they arose, and his unshakeable bravado. Though she hoped she wouldn’t need them. In another time and place she knew they could be the best of friends and she wanted time to discover that. Vivi suddenly pictured a possible life for all of them after the war when she would come over to visit the siblings in France. They’d all laugh and maybe they would go on a picnic into the beautiful French countryside. They would eat French cheese and drink good, fine red wine and tell tales of the time when they had all been spies.
When they arrived at the Gare du Nord, nothing could prepare Vivi for what it would feel like. The platform was heaving with German officers in their sharp-edge grey uniforms and shiny black jackboots as they barked out orders. Many of them were accompanied by German shepherd dogs gnashing their teeth and straining on thick metal chains that snarled and snapped at the passengers hurrying along the platform, a very successful intimidation technique. The people cowered, with eyes cast down, some apparently refugees judging by the amount of baggage they carried, seeking to escape the horror, but they all scurried along as the German officers kept them moving. As the squeal of the brakes slammed the train to a stop and circles of hot white steam rose up from the tracks and filtered through the open window, the smell of soot and engine oil was suffocating and Vivi coughed. Staring out to the platform, she noted that the look on every face she could see