Chapter 37
Silently, we all filed back down the stairs and into the small room.
‘Lord, they’re starting work already,’ I said, kicking myself for not realising that was why they had the plans when we saw them outside. ‘The Nazis move quickly when they want to.’
‘Is there another way out?’ Archie asked.
Frances shook her head. ‘Not as far as I know, but I guess there’s no harm in checking.’
We all put our bags down and went out into the main part of the basement, spreading out and checking everywhere for another way out.
It was quite eerie down there. The brick walls were cold and thick. In some places they were damp with green algae growing on the moist surfaces. In the corners it was dark and hard to see where the room ended.
‘I can’t imagine staying down here for days and days,’ said Lara as we went together – because neither of us was brave enough to go alone – down a little dogleg at one end of the room.
‘Well, chances are they’ll find us in no time, if they’re using the basement to store their booze,’ I said bluntly. Then something caught my eye. ‘Hold on, is that daylight?’
My heart lifted and Lara and I hurried towards the glow of light we could see.
Up above us was a small iron grille – for ventilation, I assumed.
It was about a foot high and maybe three feet wide.
But it was high up; too high for me to reach even on tiptoes.
In fact, I thought it would be too high even for Henry – who was the tallest among us – to reach.
‘Archie?’ I called. ‘Come and see this.’
He followed the sound of my voice and appeared round the bend.
‘Daylight?’ he said, in satisfaction. ‘Well done.’
He topped his head right back, staring up at the grille. ‘It’s a long way up, though. Henry!’
Henry appeared too.
‘Lord, that’s high,’ he said. ‘Shall I see if I can get up there?’
‘It’s worth a go,’ Archie said. ‘We could use those crates of books.’
Overhead we heard footsteps and some voices. We all stopped talking for a second.
‘It’s risky,’ said Henry.
‘So is staying in a basement with no food and no water,’ Archie said. ‘Or banging on the door to be let out and facing Nazis, who no doubt would shoot us on sight.’
I swallowed. ‘We have wine.’ I was trying to sound light-hearted, but I knew things were bleak.
Henry made a face. ‘Let’s see what we can do.’
Together we all went into the main part of the basement and quietly – horribly aware of the Nazis above our heads who could appear downstairs at any time – we explained what we were going to try to do.
‘There are enough of us,’ said Sylvie. ‘We can move the crates and climb up to the grille.’
‘Hopefully,’ said Henry. He didn’t sound hopeful. He sounded, if I was being honest, a little hopeless.
‘Do you think this will work?’ I asked Archie quietly. He took my hand and held it to his chest.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But I promise I will do everything I can to get us out of here, safely.’
I nodded. ‘We should move some crates then.’
First we tried dragging them, but the scraping sound echoed round the basement so loudly we were convinced the men upstairs would have heard. We all paused, and waited to be discovered, but nothing happened.
‘Lift them,’ said Henry. But the crates were too heavy.
So we chose the tallest one, took all the books out of it, and moved it – slowly because it was cumbersome and awkward – round the dogleg.
Then we did the same with another, smaller crate, as a sort of step up.
But they weren’t very secure as they were, so we set up a line and passed books to one another to weigh the crates down and make them stable enough for someone to climb up.
It took us hours. Hours. But the thought of staying in the basement for much longer – or coming face to face with a group of Nazis – spurred us on.
Eventually, as the light coming through the grille began to dim with the approach of evening, we had a way up.
‘It’s very narrow,’ said Frances. ‘Can someone even fit through there?’
Henry looked at her. ‘I’m not sure,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m going to go up and find out.’
Sweating from the exertion, and from nerves, we all watched him clamber up, first onto the lower crate where he paused.
‘All right?’ said Archie, who was holding the crate to make sure it didn’t move.
‘Yep.’ Henry pushed his shirtsleeves up to his elbows.
Then he pulled himself up onto the higher crate.
Again he paused, and then he turned his attention to the grille.
He examined it on each side, pushed his fingers through the metalwork and pulled it this way and that, and then turned to where we all stood.
‘It’s cemented into place,’ he said. ‘Stuck firm in the bricks.’
‘Want me to take a look?’ asked Archie.
‘Feel free.’
With a little more effort than it had taken Henry, because he wasn’t so tall, Archie clambered up next to him. The crate swayed precariously, and I steadied it.
Archie and Henry studied the grille and spoke together in voices so quiet that I couldn’t hear what they were saying. But I could tell from their expressions that things didn’t look good.
I felt Lara sneak her hand into mine.
‘Are we stuck do you think?’ she whispered.
I didn’t want to say yes, but I also didn’t want to lie. Instead, I just squeezed her hand.
Henry and Archie clambered back down and we all stood and looked at one another.
‘Well, Henry’s right,’ said Archie. ‘The grille is cemented in place, and the gap is very small. I think Sylvie is the only one who’d get through there and even that wouldn’t be easy.’
‘What will we do?’ asked Lara.
‘We’re wondering if there might be some old tools here in the basement somewhere,’ said Archie. ‘If we can hammer out the grille, we could perhaps remove some bricks too and make the opening bigger.’
‘What if they hear us upstairs?’ I said.
‘We’ll just have to risk it. But hopefully they’ll just assume it’s work being done on a different part of the building.’
‘Fingers crossed,’ I said. ‘Shall we see if we can find anything that could work to hammer it out, then?’
‘My torch has run out, so we might need some candles,’ said Archie. ‘It’s dark enough already and the light is fading.’
‘The candles are almost gone,’ Sylvie said. ‘We will have to wait until morning.’
‘Bugger,’ said Archie.
‘I am so sorry, guys,’ said Frances, sounding quite tearful. ‘You came here to help us, and now you’re stuck here.’
‘We’ll get out,’ Archie said, jovially, though I could tell he was faking. ‘No need to worry about that.’
Overheard we heard some clanging and shouts of goodnight. The men were packing up for the day. Heading home for food and a warm bed. I put my hand on the cold wall of the basement and shivered.
‘How about we all make ourselves comfortable in the little room,’ I suggested. ‘We’ll be warm in there all together, and light what few candles are left and get through the night. Then when the sun rises, we’ll be ready to have a go at knocking out the grille.’
Everyone agreed.
‘And if that doesn’t work …’ Guy said.
‘We’ll come up with another solution,’ I said, sounding quite fierce even to my own ears. ‘We have not come all this way to curl up and die in a basement.’
‘Come on,’ said Frances. ‘I’ll read us all a story.’
We all went back into the little room, arranged blankets and pillows on the floor for us all to sit on, and Frances read us a Dorothy L.
Sayers detective novel, which was really rather gripping.
I sat in between Lara and Archie. My fingers were entwined with his, and Lara rested her head on my shoulder, and I thought that if this was my time to go, I could do worse than going like this.
I was surrounded by people who loved me, and I was listening to a good story.
As the night wore on, Frances put down the book, and we all dozed off.
I woke with a start a little while later as the sound of clanging and bashing filled the basement. The candle had burned down to a stub, but I could see the others were as startled as I was.
‘What the bloody hell is that?’ said Archie, scrabbling to his feet.
‘Are the men back?’ I said, still half-asleep but trying to make sense of the noise. ‘What’s happening?’
‘It’s the middle of the night,’ Henry said, looking at his watch. ‘It can’t be them.’
‘Should we go and see?’ asked Lara. She sounded quite scared.
‘I’ll go,’ said Archie.
‘I’ll come with you.’ Henry sounded determined.
‘Oh for heaven’s sake, we’ll all go,’ I said. ‘We need to stick together.’
Lara, with her sense of drama, paused. ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘If this is it, then I want you all to know that it’s been a real privilege spending time with you.’
‘Lara,’ I tutted. ‘Don’t be so silly.’
‘You especially, Cassie,’ she said. ‘You’re a good friend.’
Suddenly and ridiculously, I felt tears in my eyes. ‘Stop it,’ I murmured, but I gave her arm a little pat, so she knew I felt the same.
Archie crept out into the main part of the basement, holding the short stubby candle up high to light the way.
The clanging and hammering was louder now.
He led the way and we all followed, as the noise got louder and louder.
It wasn’t coming from the stairs though, it was coming from the dogleg where the grille was.
‘Arrête!’ shouted a voice. A cold draft blew through the cellar.
‘French?’ I said to Lara, bewildered and shivering in the cold. She shrugged.
We turned the corner. Archie stopped suddenly and we all banged into one another.
There was a bit of shuffling as we arranged ourselves and then suddenly we could see what was happening.
Up on the wall, where the grille had once been, was a big gap.
We could see men’s legs and boots, and the heads of mallets.
‘Hello!’ called Archie. ‘Bonjour?’
There was a burst of excited chatter in French and then a man’s face appeared in the gap.
‘Bonjour!’ he said.
Behind me, Guy let out a tiny squeak. He pushed past the rest of us and looked up at the man.
‘Alain!’ he said in satisfaction.