Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
H annah rose early and went for a run through the fields surrounding the house to clear her head. She had meant it when she told Lizzie she was pleased to have her staying for a while. Being the leader of a Resistance network made for a lonely life, and although she had become a loner over the years by necessity, she liked Lizzie and enjoyed her company.
The British SOE agent was new to the undercover world, but it was obvious from their first meeting that she would be a real asset to the Resistance. She too was recruited by Jack, which had given Hannah confidence in Lizzie from the start.
As Hannah’s feet relentlessly hit the ground, her thoughts switched to Henry, her fiancé, as they so often did. It had been so long since she’d seen him, sometimes she had trouble visualising his face.
They had fallen hopelessly in love, but their worlds had been smashed to pieces by the declaration of war and they were ripped from each other.
Henry enlisted immediately and flew with the RAF. She was proud of him, but it didn’t make missing him any easier. A normal life was just not meant to be for her. Gradually she had adjusted to the realisation, but sometimes she fantasised that one day they would be reunited, marry and have children like they had planned.
Even the thought of having children made her sad because it reminded her of her family, and how close they had been before insanity gripped Germany and spread like an infectious disease.
Hannah increased her speed, pushing herself for one last sprint. A thin film of perspiration coated her forehead as her muscular frame raced across the field.
When she slowed her pace, she turned down the footpath to the back of the house to the gate she had taken Lizzie through the previous night after they blew up the rail track.
Hannah tried not to think about the devastation the network caused in its quest to crush the Nazi regime. It was better that way. This wasn’t the life she dreamt of as a young girl, but it was the life that had been forced upon her.
Pushing the back door open, she called out to Lizzie to see if she was awake yet. There was no sound of movement in the house, so she went upstairs.
After Hannah washed, she knocked on Lizzie’s door and poked her head into the room when her guest called for her to enter.
‘You’re a sleepyhead,’ Hannah said.
Lizzie pulled herself up in bed and stretched wearily. ‘I think it all caught up with me. I just couldn’t seem to wake up.’
‘You must have needed a good rest. Come down when you’re ready and I’ll make us some breakfast.’
Lizzie’s stomach rumbled on cue, and they both laughed.
Over breakfast, Hannah gave Lizzie details about things in the house and what she needed to know to keep everything running smoothly.
‘You’ve got a ration book?’ Hannah asked after they finished the toast she had prepared for them.
‘Yes, I’d better show you all my papers. London asked me to report if any of the documents are no longer compliant with the latest regulations.’
Lizzie fetched a pile of papers, and they went through them. ‘Here’s my ration book. Does this look right?’
Hannah narrowed her eyes and studied it carefully. ‘It looks fine. I need to go and get changed now. I’ll grab my book, and we can compare them. I got a new one recently.’
Hannah entered the kitchen a while later and declared Lizzie’s papers adequate to pass inspection, and Lizzie noted a few details to pass on to the SOE forgery department.
‘It sounds as though they are ramping up for a huge operation in London. I remember when Jack was a lone wolf long before they set up the SOE.’
‘What was he like?’ Lizzie asked, unable to resist. She had been jealous of Jack and Hannah’s close bond when she first met Jack, but now she was secure in his love for her, and she genuinely liked Hannah. Maybe one day, they might even be sisters-in-law. She didn’t mention that now because no one could know about her and Jack. Not even Hannah.
The warning, Careless Talk Costs Lives, rang through her head. The less everyone knew, the safer for all concerned. You never knew what bit of gossip that seemed harmless enough could inform the enemy of what the Allies were planning.
Hannah stood to clear the plates from the table. ‘What was Jack like? Hmm, let me think. It all seems so long ago now. We were both so young. ’
‘Did you know him by the codename Raven?’ Lizzie probed.
Hannah screwed up her forehead as though trying to conjure the information. ‘I think that came later. In the early days, I knew him as Jack, but we both used various cover names for gathering intelligence.’
‘You have been doing this for such a long time. I’m in awe of what you’ve accomplished,’ Lizzie said.
‘In awe? Oh no, don’t be in awe. I have only ever done what I had to do in the circumstances. It’s never felt like I had any other choice. Other than to roll over and let the Nazis slaughter us. That has already happened to too many defenceless people. I’m not going down without a fight.’
‘You underestimate yourself,’ Lizzie said. ‘What you’ve achieved is more than most would dream of doing, even in these harsh conditions.’
Hannah smiled graciously. ‘I can see you’ve made your mind up, so I’ll take it as a compliment. Thank you.’
‘Tell me about the new operation,’ Lizzie said, itching to know what Hannah had up her sleeve.
‘There’s still some planning to do before I can go in.’ She paused and tilted her head. ‘Oh, I forgot, a message came for you from London this morning.’
Lizzie did her best to suppress her blush, but she felt herself flushing and hoped Hannah would put it down to excitement.
‘What did they say?’ She was thinking of Jack and hoping the message was from him.
‘It was from Raven. He asked you to send him a message at your agreed time this evening so you can test your codes.’
Lizzie fizzed with joy. Jack was eager to hear from her and she would be able to message him on Hannah’s radio using her own codebook tonight. It wasn’t much, but that would be the only connection they had whilst she was in France.
Lizzie tried to act nonchalant. ‘He gave me my schedule for when I need to send a message. Thank you, I’ll do it later. It will be good practice for me to test our system for when you’re not around.’
Hannah said they should go into the city to claim their rations, and they could discuss the upcoming operation on their way. ‘I want to scope out the building where I’ll be working undercover, so it will be great to have you with me.’
They went to get ready to leave, and Hannah reappeared shortly after wearing her brunette wig, and holding a similar one for Lizzie.
Lizzie looked confused. ‘Hold on, I thought the idea was we stick to our cover of me being your sister visiting you.’
‘We will most of the time, but for scoping out the German High Command, it’s better they don’t notice their new employee loitering around outside. I change my hair and the way I dress frequently so people don’t remember me.’
This was a whole other side to tradecraft that Lizzie had barely touched on in her training. Lizzie thought nostalgically of the time in Jack’s flat where she had dressed up for him in various disguises and wigs so they could decide what colour to dye her hair. It was Jack who said blonde would be good because she would pass for Hannah’s sister. He hadn’t mentioned the Resistance operative was a master of disguise.
Hannah showed her how to grip her hair close to her head and then styled the wig for her.
Lizzie looked in the mirror at the new woman staring back. ‘It’s incredible how different I look. Much older, for one thing.’
‘It’s the style. The less we draw attention to ourselves, the better. Unless our goal is to distract the Boche on a mission, you must learn not to attract them. ’
Lizzie was fascinated. Hannah would be her mentor in developing her skills.
‘Here, wear these too. We’ll be the spectacled, frumpy sisters today.’
Lizzie put the thick frames on her eyes and dissolved into laughter when she saw her reflection. ‘I look so old. And not a glamorous old, either!’
‘Good, that’s what we want. No one looking at us, no one remembering us, and no one stopping to talk to us. You look perfect. Let’s go.’
Hannah gave Lizzie a suitably dull brown coat and matching hat to wear. Lizzie assessed herself in the full-length hall mirror and saw she blended into the muted décor effortlessly.
Lizzie moved to take the bicycle she had ridden the night before, but Hannah reached to stop her.
‘No, we use different bicycles and baskets for shopping. Never use the same one for a sabotage mission as you do for your ordinary outings.’
Lizzie followed Hannah, who produced a brown bicycle from under an old sheet. It was equally battered, but this one had a straw basket on the front.
‘The devil is in the detail,’ Hannah said.
‘And of course, it’s brown!’ Lizzie laughed.
Five minutes later, they were on their way. The residue of crisp night frost lingered on the country lane, and the sun gleamed in the pale blue sky.
‘It’s hard to believe on a beautiful morning like this that the world has gone to hell, isn’t it?’ Hannah said as they rode side by side, the glacial air rushing into their faces.
It was true. The countryside wasn’t painted in vibrant shades and draped in colourful blooms like in summer, but it had its own austere winter charm. The trees were naked; the branches stripped bare, and the bark sparkled like delicate spun silk.
They spoke in French and Lizzie practised her Parisian accent. Lizzie remarked she couldn’t detect any German accent in Hannah’s French.
‘That’s just as well, or I’d likely be dead by now. My cover would have been blown. Those lunatics would demand to know what a pious German girl, loyal to the Führer, was doing in Paris in wartime. They expect them to be busy breeding baby Hitlers for the Aryan race. It’s fine for German men to be here, of course, but women should be at home in the Fatherland with their hair in plaits, living a life of the three Ks.’
The contempt in Hannah’s voice was clear.
‘Wait, what are the three Ks?’
‘Kinder, Küche and Kirche!’
‘Hold on, don’t tell me. Give me a second.’ Lizzie stared at Hannah as she pedalled, then scrunched her brow as she sought to translate the words. ‘Children, Kitchen and Church… Is that right?’
‘Exactly. Your accent is good, you know. Do you speak German fluently?’
‘I know enough to get by, but it would need work for me to pass as a native speaker. My mother says I have an ear for languages. I can speak Jersey French too.’
‘German may very well come in useful. Not sure about the Jersey French,’ Hannah said with a wry smile.
‘Jèrriais is the traditional language of the Jersey people. My grandparents think it will die out if they don’t start teaching it to children.’
‘That would be a shame, although I imagine it’s the least of their problems now. If I know anything about the Nazis, they will have already enforced learning German in Jersey schools! They are nothing if not efficient. ’
Lizzie hadn’t thought about that, and the sudden vision of the Nazis storming into her childhood parish school made her shudder.
Hannah said, ‘A French woman who is fluent in German is useful for our operations in France. They are unlikely to rouse suspicion if they have a sensible reason for speaking the language.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind. Do you miss the old Germany?’ Lizzie asked.
Hannah pedalled faster, and Lizzie did the same to keep up.
‘Berlin was my home, but there’s no place for me there anymore. You don’t miss a country that persecutes and murders your people.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Lizzie said. ‘It was thoughtless of me to bring it up.’
Hannah said, ‘Not at all. It’s good to get it off my chest because I rarely get the chance. You can ask me anything.’
They cycled on in silence for a while.
‘Welcome to Paris,’ Hannah said, pointing to the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
‘I was amazed yesterday when I saw it. It seems visible from wherever you are. I had forgotten how large it is.’
Soon they reached the city, and Hannah told Lizzie to follow her. ‘Pay special attention when I tell you where to look. We’re going to check out the Nazi HQ where I’ll be working.’
The bustle of the city struck Lizzie again. The cafés were packed even at this hour and men in German uniforms spilled onto the boulevards, smoking and talking. A sea of green-grey bodies swarmed through the city.
Lizzie spotted a group of Gestapo wearing long leather trench coats, jumping into a black car and racing away. The sight of them froze her blood, transporting her back to Reims in an instant. Thank God they didn’t need to pass them.
‘They are all over Paris picking fights with anyone they can. Be prepared for an encounter at any time,’ Hannah said just loud enough for Lizzie to catch her words.
Lizzie saw a beautifully dressed, elegant woman on the arm of a Nazi officer. She stopped herself from staring, but the sight infuriated her. It was obvious she was French by the way she walked and wore her clothing. Besides, like Hannah said, there weren’t many German women in Paris. Their husbands preferred to keep them hidden away at home whilst they enjoyed the fruits of a lavish lifestyle, far from the fighting and the disapproving gaze of their wives.
High-ranking Nazis spent a sizeable portion of their days feasting with their cronies on the best French fayre and knocking back expensive champagne as if the French population wasn’t teetering on the edge of starvation.
‘Look casually at the building to the right now. The huge one like a luxury hotel,’ Hannah said.
Lizzie snapped herself out of her people watching and turned her head to the pale stone building just to one side of them.
‘Let’s pull over slowly here,’ Hannah instructed.
An army truck almost knocked Lizzie off her seat, and she cursed under her breath. Until she met Val, she’d never sworn. Now she used curse words often, but only to herself or occasionally with Jack.
They dismounted and stood next to their bicycles. Hannah extracted a note from her pocket, and they pretended to be studying the shopping list of basic supplies.
‘That’s German High Command HQ. I’ve found a way in as the personal secretary to the major general.’
‘How do you get the job?’ Lizzie asked.
‘A sympathetic contact in the French administration put my name forward. I was interviewed and accepted on the spot.’
Lizzie knew how terrifying it was to trick a Nazi officer, but this was on an audacious scale. Hannah was not planning a temporary posting where she went in for a few days and then disappeared. To stay alive, the Jewish Resistance leader would need to masquerade as a permanent employee who was committed to the Reich.