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‘Easy peasy,’ she said, and laughed, and it was

Oh Julie, wouldn’t I know if you were dead? Wouldn’t I feel it happening, like a jolt of electricity to my heart?

Amélie has just seen an execution at the Château de Bordeaux Château des Bourreaux is what everybody calls it now – Castle of Butchers The kids here get Thursday off school instead of Saturday, and Aone into Ormaie with a couple of her chums to a cheap café they like, which happens to be at the end of the lower lane at the back of the Gestapo building A in the caféand noticed a crowd gathering in the lane – being kids they piled along to see as going on – turns out those bastards had got a guillotine rigged up in their rear courtyard and were executing people –

The kids saw They didn’t knoas going on or they’d have never gone to look, A and they saw it SAW IT HAPPEN She has been sobbing her heart out all evening, iirl killed and Airl had been a few years ahead of Amélie and had already finished – what if it had been Beryl? Or Beryl’s sister? Because that’s what it’s like, schooluillotined as spies I didn’t understand before – really didn’t understand Being a kid and worrying that a bo that the policeelse entirely I haven’t words for it Every fresh broken horror here is so I just DIDN’T UNDERSTAND until I caht, before the Depression, we had a holiday in Paris – I remember bits of it, we took a boat trip on the Seine, andthe Mona Lisa But the thing I remember most is how Granddad and I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower We took the lift up, but alked the whole way down, and on the e stopped at the First Stage and we could see Gran standing in the park beloearing a big new hat she’d bought that , and aved at her – she looked so posh, all alone in the Champ de Mars, that you’d have never known she wasn’t French herself She took a picture of us and though ere so far away and tiny you can’t see us in the picture, I knoe are there And I ree, and Granddad bought old chain as a souvenir, and I still have it, back hoo What is happening to us?

Ma A kitchen table, Mitraillette and I taking turns holding her tight and exchanging horrified glances over her head She won’t stop talking I only get every third word or so Mitraillette whispers a rough translation –

‘Il y en avait une autre – there was another Il y avaient deux filles – there were two girls – La Cadette et ses amies n’ont rien vu quand on a tué l’autre –’

They didn’t see the second girl executed It was tor this inforht there together, tied to each other The second had to stand and watch as they butchered the first – so close, they made her stand so close that Amélie said the blood spattered on her face Then they closed the gates Over the courtyard wall Aain and that hen they left

The second girl was Julie Certain of it There can’t be another petite blonde in a pullover the colour of autu held prisoner in the Ormaie Gestapo HQ Amélie saw her

But I don’t believe they killed her either I just don’t believe it I keep thinking of those pictures of the pilot They must have shown Julie those pictures by now, and perhaps she thinks I’m dead But I’ht look like she’s dead, but she’s not They’ve got a reason to fake her death now, since Georgia Penn talked to her this week and they need to re-establish their – supremacy or whatever, their control over what everybody knows or doesn’t know That captain/commander must be in trouble – he went behind his superior’s back to let Penn in Perhaps he’s been told to kill Julie But I think he’s just as likely been told to stage her death, so she disappears again Sharing cognac with her and sending her to the guillotine in the same week? I just don’t believe it

I WANT TO BLOW THAT PLACE APART

Planes go over alht – there are so for the Germans and launch sites here in France that they are desperate to put out of action They won’t drop a bomb in thecivilians They have hit the railway junction here and had a go at the factories to the north of the city though I don’t think Ornificant manufacture apart from umbrellas But the RAF won’t bomb the middle of the city It’s why Julie was sent here, so we could get at it fro to avoid hitting them – no one feels safe The Aht People panic when they hear the air-raid sirens and dive for shelter just like we did back in the Manchester Blitz But nothing ever hits the centre of Orreat big blast to wipe out the Castle of Butchers I want that evil place to go up in flames I want it so badly it hurts Then I remember that Julie is still inside

I don’t believe she’s dead, I don’t believe any of their bluff and lies and bullying threats I don’t believe she’s dead and I WON’T believe she’s dead until I hear the shots MYSELF and see her fall

Another Nazi Sunday dinner at the Thibauts’, 28 Nov Had totheot an older man! You would not believe how fast she works It is a friend of Papa’s driver, she o They go out together every Sunday And so her eyes, ‘It’s not right, not right for such a young girl, he’s twice her age But what can I do to stop her? She’s not es, so I have to give her Sunday afternoons – and she’s of age I just hope she’s careful, doesn’t get herself in trouble …’