“You don’t really mean to take the children,” T said.
“Papa, I want to stay with you,” Luki whispered.
Edouard too wanted to believe the French wouldn’t take children, but the French could be more German even than the Germans. And a small part of him wanted to keep Luki with him, no matter where he went. But if they were taken to a camp, the children would be sent with the women. Luki would go with T or Nanée or Jacqueline, although none of them were Jewish—surely they wouldn’t be sent to camps.
Nanée said to the commissaire, “Varian and I are American. I’m afraid you might be sorry to have taken us when it comes down to it. And surely our word that these young children and their parents have planned no nefarious Communist plot against Pétain ought to be good enough?”
“It will be only for a short while,” the fat little functionary insisted, a lousy liar.
“Do you have children yourself, monsieur?” T asked.
The man looked to Peterkin, holding T’s hand, then to Luki in Edouard’s own arms.
“Madame Breton has a daughter who is at school, you say?” he asked Nanée, too awed by the beautiful Jacqueline to address her himself, apparently. Then, looking to Gussie, “And the boy is hers too?”
Gussie looked surprised, as if he didn’t realize how young he looked, nor that he was as fair and beautiful as Jaqueline. That did explain why they hadn’t asked to see his papers.
“I will allow Madame Breton to stay with the children,” the commissaire said, chancing a smile at Jacqueline.
Nanée said, “But T’s son and Edouard’s daughter—”
“Madame Bénédite must come; she works at the Centre Américain de Secours. And monsieur is a refugee. I’m sure Madame Breton can attend to the children until you return.”
Edouard hugged Luki to him.
“I want to stay with you, Papa,” she repeated.
“I know. I want to stay with you too, my love,” he whispered, stroking her hair. “But it won’t be any fun. You’ll have a much better time here with Madame Breton and Peterkin and Aube.”
T was similarly soothing Peterkin, and Madame Nouget had emerged from the house to help, leaving Rose and Maria cowering inside.
Edouard whispered to Luki, “Maybe Pemmy and Joey will arrive today. Maybe the queen has already sent them. They’d like you to be here to greet them.”
“But the last time, you said you would come the next day.”
He hugged her to him, choking back his grief. “I know,” he managed. “I know.”
Luki began sobbing, and Edouard nuzzled into her neck.
“I love you, Luki,” he said.
She began wailing then, “Don’t leave me, Papa! Don’t leave me!”
He could not do this again, and yet he had no choice.
“I love you more than anything,” he said, nodding for Jacqueline to take her, as Madame Nouget was taking Peterkin from T. “I love you to the ends of the earth.”
She clung so desperately to him that he had to peel her hands from his neck and hand her, kicking and screaming in terror, over to Jacqueline, who wrapped her up as if in a straitjacket as he hurried away. Even the guards saw they had to let him go ahead if they were really going to put Luki through being separated from him again.
He could still hear her screaming as he hurried to climb into the paddy wagon, to get out of her sight. The others followed, the commissaire at the last minute remembering Varian’s briefcase. Damn. They waited in the back of the van as the officer who’d taken Varian upstairs was sent to fetch it. He returned and handed the case to Varian, who tried to hide his surprise. Was this inadvertent or intentional? There were friends of their effort everywhere.
The officer closed the door, the metal click solid and final.
“Don’t worry,” Varian said. “When Danny gets word of this, he’ll get us released somehow.”
Nanée opened the briefcase, retrieved André’s incriminating manuscript, and stuffed it under her blouse, against her back, where it was caught by the waistband of her slacks and well hidden under her coat.
“If it comes to it, I’ll find a way to dump it at the police station,” she said as they headed down the long driveway.
The van pulled to a sudden stop. Some kind of skirmish was going on. A moment later, the back of the van opened, and Danny was pushed inside.
Edouard took a single photograph before the doors slammed shut again.
“Lena advised me to come back to the chateau,” Danny said. “I thought she said so I wouldn’t be arrested.”