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‘Oui, mais oui, oh, yes!’ I stuttered, a bit too hysterically, and everybody frowned at me I handed both photos back – the one that will break Julie and the one that could save her ‘Give therapher, cool and neutral ‘Good, it will make less trouble for me if some of the prints are produced on time’ I am so – just dead humbled by the risks everybody takes, the double lives they all lead, how they shrug and go on working ‘Noe take your picture, Mademoiselle Kittyhawk’
Maman made a fuss over rapher took three shots and began to laugh
‘Your s, Ma’m’selle,’ he said ‘In France, we do not like these identity cards Your face must be – neutral, oui? Neutral Like the Swiss!’
Then we all laughed, a bit nervously, and I think I ended up glaring I do try to ss I know about being undercover in ene the ‘Double Tap’
Can’t begin to say how htto his wife, good ones, well-ave to rateful I started to blub again The poora prettier dress! Mahoarm and thick the slacks are with the other She worries about rapher and h they were sharing a pint in a pub But he said it in English, so that I could understand it, and no one else would
‘Kittyhaon’t s she doesn’t use anyway’
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I hate hianiser, the keystone of this Resistance circuit I know et me out of here But I still HATE HIM
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The photographer gave Paul an embarrassed chuckle – lance to see if I got it – but of course I was blubbing away in Mae French farmhouse embrace and looked like I probably hadn’t heard And I pretended that I hadn’t because it was rapher properly than that I tackle Paul
HATE HIM
After the photographer left, I had to go and have another target practice session with Paul He STILL doesn’t keep his hands to hiunpoint, even with Mitraillette watching – doesn’t let them stray, but just leaves the He must kno un But he obviously thrives on danger, and despite my violent dreams I don’t really have it in me Expect he knows that too
The last weekend in every month Maman is permitted to kill a specially authorised chicken so she can produce Sunday dinner for half a dozen Gestapo officers Because of Etienne being local his faularly, and of course the Nazis know the food is better on the farm than in town I spent the whole three hours of their last visit gripping htly that four days later h the slats in the barn wall I could justMercedes-Benz where they left it parked in the courtyard, and got a gliht on the ot back in
It was La Cadette, the little sister, who told me about the visit La Cadette is really called Amélie Seems a bit daft not to write the family’s names now, as the Nazis are so familiar with them anyway But I’ve come to think of the Thibauts as simply Maman and Papa, and I can’t think of Mitraillette as Gabrielle-Thérèse any more than I can think of Julie as Katharina The fa when the Nazis occupy their kitchen – she appears to have a head full of feathers, but utterly charms the visitors with her fluent Alsatian German Everybody likes her
They try tocivilian clothes, though they all defer to the Gestapo captain as if he were the King of England Both Mitraillette and her sister agree he’s dead scary – cal without consideration About the sae as Papa Thibaut, the farmer His subordinates all live in terror of him The captain doesn’tto Aift every time he comes This time it was a matchbook embossed with the crest of the hotel they’ve taken over for their offices – C d B, Château de Bordeaux Amélie has passed it on toin here!
They start with drinks The nac, La Cadette serving, Mitraillette sitting aardly in a corner with the sullen Gered everywhere as the captain’s secretary/valet/slave-girl – she’s also their driver Doesn’t take cognac with thethe captain’s file folder and gloves and hat during all the sreat big ugly lump on his forehead over his left eye – quite fresh, a purple bruise with a bloody dent in the centre, still swollen La Cadette was all over him with sympathy, Maman and Mitraillette a bit ot it – well, his little sister did dare, but he wouldn’t tell her – he was also thoroughly e irl too
So La Cadette turns to the captain and asks, ‘Does Etienne spend the whole working day scrapping with people? He ht as well be back in school!’