He had the gut that one. It was Clateau, the butcher of Barbizon, lord of the meat cleaver and the damp-ended fag. He’d been out hunting rabbits with his ferret. The nets he used would be at his feet so, too, the sack in which there could well be six or seven furry little bundles, who knew? This guy was very good. Superb! And he knew it.
But had he seen or heard us? With Clateau, you’d never know. Pretty soon, he was gone and I was in Tommy’s arms, but briefly.
The cave was found by first entering another, then squeezing through a narrow fissure into yet another cave, near the roof of which was a ledge that led to the final and bigger one.
I had the feeling that Nini had shown this to them, for she’d been there before, as I had, so long ago it seems. Me, I had to admit I was a little jealous of my sister, even though on his second visit, it was myself and the children who first brought Tommy there.
He shone his torch over things, and I can still remember drawing in a breath, still remember him saying, ‘The Raphael, those two Renoirs of your husband’s, the Dürer Madonna and Child, Lily. That Gobelin tapestry. Everything we stole from the Jeu de Paume as well.’
‘The Giordano?’ I asked. My fingers trembled on the rough boards of the crates that were stacked on a ledge against one wall. The place was good and dry, the roof of the cavern just above our heads.
‘Everything Göring bought at your house.’
‘Everything?’ This I couldn’t believe, but Tommy was so pleased with what they’d done, he was grinning from ear to ear.
‘Katyana, Lily. When she left the party, she hitched a ride in the lorry. There were only two men to handle all that loot. Can you imagine it? She insisted on sitting between them, and when they reached the rendezvous, she jammed a pistol into the driver’s ribs and told him to stop. Nicki and the others took care of things while I walked those two men down the road a piece. We switched the crates, substituted stuff we’d bought in flea markets. Bric-a-brac, chipped enamel, and plaster busts of Napoléon … Göring? Did the Reichsmarschall really buy this stuff? Just think of the look on their faces when they unpack those crates!’
Tommy thought it a huge joke. ‘Explosives and guns, Lily. I told those two that’s what we were after. They were so scared, they drove like mad to the station at Avon and loaded everything on to the railway truck and never said a thing about being held up. They both thought we were the ones who’d been fooled!’
‘And when the switch is discovered?’
His grin vanishes. ‘Look, I’m sorry, but we were strapped for a place to hide everything, and Nini suggested we use these.’
Nini … ‘She’s very pretty, has a gorgeous cul, n’est-ce pas?’
The torch was still in Tommy’s hand. The crates all bore the Nazi eagle and numbers, and it was frightening to be standing among them, yet I was jealous of my sister and I wanted … My God how I wanted him.
‘The Nazis are stealing everything they can get their hands on, Lily. What Hitler and Göring don’t buy, others do. They’re all competing with one another. Generals, high-ranking Nazi officials, art dealers-crooks. We can’t let it happen.’
He was really serious. ‘I’ve brought you a little something. It’s at mother’s, in the loft under the hay.’
Tommy nodded. He knew what it was, but said, ‘Nicki’s gone to Switzerland. He’s really worried about Katyana, and so am I. After she left us, she took the train south. She was hoping to cross the Swiss frontier, but that’s not easy anymore. One needs a guide. I …’ There was much sadness in his look. ‘If they do make it, they’ll try to set things up so that we can get this stuff out of here before someone finds it.’
A fortune. ‘You’d better seal the entrance. Some stones, bushes, old branches, and logs, anything to hide the cave that leads here.’
He hesitated, then said, ‘That’s why I came back but now … Lily, what were the Germans after today?’
‘Someone saw you and reported it.’
He took a candle from a pocket and, lighting it, fixed it to a ledge and sat down to lean against that wall and look at me. ‘Schiller?’ he asked. ‘Have they already opened those crates we substituted?’
I had unbuttoned my coat. ‘Schiller was recalled to Berlin, so something important must have come up.’
‘Then they know we made the switch, and the hunt’s begun. I seem always to be bringing trouble down on you. I don’t mean to, Lily. London made a deal with us. In return for helping them with information by wireless, they agreed to get Nicki and me back into France, Katyana convincing them of her usefulness. Janine’s been a tremendous help. We simply couldn’t have pulled it off without her. We needed Luftwaffe stamps and shipping labels for that stuff.’
‘You once asked me about her. Now I have to answer: Nini’s too daring, too impulsive.’
‘Perhaps, but London also want us to organize an escape route. Who else could we have gotten to help us set one up?’
‘Are you crazy? Robbery, downed airmen on the run, escaped prisoners of war …’
I still couldn’t bring myself to tell him about Collin. Michèle and Henri-Philippe would already have done, and if not them, then André, but that one won’t have told him how the pilot died. Not André. ‘So, what will you do now?’ I was trembling, couldn’t understand why. It was a nervousness that completely overtook me.
‘Seal up this cave and find my way back to Paris. It’s easier for me there than in the countryside.’
Tommy said Michèle was very well fixed for information at Maxim’s and was acting as a courier. ‘Henri-Philippe is back in the Louvre at his job as a restorer. The Germans have insisted that the work must go on. A lot of paintings and sculptures have been returned, and the museum is now open again. He has access to when the auction sales are coming up and can tip us off.’
Those stamps and labels, were they but a warning of things to come? ‘Is Dmitry working for the Russians?’
‘Probably. Look, we really don’t know. He’s been very useful and can be a lot more now.’
But had the Soviets told him to make himself useful so as to find things out? ‘And Marcel?’ I asked. ‘Me, I want to trust him, Tommy, but there’s still that little something that isn’t quite right.’
‘Marcel’s okay. Is there anything else?’
‘Yes. Me, I’m sorry to have to say this, but you mustn’t trust André.’
‘But why?’
Since I couldn’t tell him about Collin, I couldn’t tell him all of it. ‘Simone. He’s totally devoted to her and to his work. If the Nazis should ever take her, he’ll break.’
There, I’d said it, something I’d been afraid to admit even to myself, even after everything that had happened since. Back then, I knew, you see? I knew and I could have stopped him. Me!
As with Marcel, Tommy said André was okay and that I was not to worry so much. ‘The firm in London will sure be happy when they hear we’ve got this stuff. They’ve a special interest in our work, Lily. Nicki’s determined to get back what’s his and whatever else we can grab, and so am I.’
They’d not take no for an answer. ‘Then the robberies will continue and get bigger and bigger, is that it?’
He reached out, motioned that I was to come to him, but I remained standing with my back to those crates, ‘What if the Germans find these? What if we’re all taken?’
‘Relax. Don’t worry so much. Everything’s going to be fine. Have you missed me?’
I felt my coat as it fell to the floor, still couldn’t take my eyes from him. Candlelight flickered, throwing shadows across the wall, but was there time?
Quickly, I hiked up my dress and tucked it into my belt, kicked off those sabots, and heard them clatter away as my underpants followed and I knelt to one side of him. We kissed. I placed an exploratory hand behind his neck, felt the short curly hairs that were there as he fumbled with his belt, and I knew that his trousers would soon be down and that we’d make love that way, that for a brief moment we’d forget about everything else as we lost ourselves in each other.