The Girl in the Blue Beret - Bobbie Ann Mason [42]
“I REMEMBER A CAT at your cousin’s barn,” he said now to Pierre and Gisèle. “Félix.”
“Félix!” said Gisèle. “I remember old Félix. He was a smart cat!”
“We were pals,” said Marshall.
“Why would I remember that cat?” Gisèle said, puzzled. “There were so many.”
“I must return to school,” Nicolas said, glancing at his watch.
“I remember you in short pants and a necktie, rushing off to school,” Marshall said.
Pierre stood to embrace Nicolas. “My son is a great success,” he said. “He is school principal.”
“He was my professor and translator in ’44,” Marshall said.
“Your French, Marshall!” said Nicolas. “Now you know our language.
You have learned well. Please allow me to help you in any way possible while you are here. Au revoir, Marshall!”
Nicolas drove away, and Gisèle directed Marshall to a divan in the sitting room.
“Make yourself at home,” she said.
16.
MARSHALL SPENT THE AFTERNOON REMINISCING WITH PIERRE and Gisèle. Some retirees might play golf or sit on the porch, but he would drink wine in a French home with people he knew in his youth.
He ventured, “I know that you were out at night on important missions when I was hiding here.”
Pierre grinned. “It’s good the Germans were not as observant as you.”
“I will show you his medals,” said Gisèle, jumping up and rushing from the room.
The medals were framed under glass—the Medal of Freedom, the Légion d’Honneur, the Medaille de la Résistance, and the Croix de Guerre.
Marshall examined them while Pierre fetched another bottle of wine. After he had poured the wine, he began, in a disjointed way, to gather his memories.
“I don’t get to speak of it often,” he said. “You perhaps know that I was the chief of our group here, and I kept the arms for all the secteurs of the region.”
“In your house here?”
“Oh, no, no. Gisèle would never permit that. No, a neutral place. We planned the sabotages, and everyone involved had to have invincibility—how do you say in English, innocence?”
“Deniability?” Marshall said, thinking of Watergate.
“Oh, the sabotages we planned against the boches! Every day we did the telephone lines. On several occasions we blew up the railroad tracks—and the canal locks.”
“And the alcohol distillerie,” Gisèle said.
“Yes. And the bridges on the highways, as well as those across the river. After you left here, we accelerated our clandestine activities, anticipating the débarquement of the Allies.” Pierre sipped his wine and was silent for some moments. “But after the Allies arrived on June 6, things grew worse—open combat with the boches. When the Allies came to Normandy, you understand, the boches were in panic for their marvelous Reich. I delivered all the arms to the secteurs and asked my men to leave their jobs and be prepared for widespread action against the enemy. More than ever, our efforts were necessary. This became very bad, for the Gestapo was on alert against all Résistance activity. This was especially hard for me, for many men came to the house and I had to be ready.”
“We received a warning,” Gisèle said.
Pierre had to go underground, to a friend’s house, seven kilometers away, for fifteen days, while Gisèle and Nicolas stayed at home. Gisèle was certain Pierre would be arrested.
“And you comprehend what this would mean,” Pierre said. Grinning, he drew his finger across his throat.
“But I was careful. I was thinking up here.” Pierre touched his forehead. “I was a step ahead of the boches. They were strangers here, but I knew the place. I knew what they might do next, where they might go.”
“He said that again and again, until I maybe believed it,” Gisèle said.
“You and Nicolas were my eyes and ears, too. You did your part.”
“I remember Nicolas and his reports,” Marshall put in. “Always busy.”
Gisèle, twisting her hands together nervously, said, “You will never know this ordeal, Marshall.”
“It turned out well, chérie!” Pierre said.
“I was happy to shelter the aviateurs. The rest was horrible.”
Pierre acknowledged the dangers, but then he laughed.
After his period underground, he was given another assignment—to