Page 41 of Hearts of Resistance
PART TWO
FRANCE, 1944
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ROSE
‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
She watched as Hazel looked up, eyes like saucers. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf.
‘I feel like I have!’
They both laughed and Rose passed her old friend a cup of chicory coffee, hoping she wouldn’t mind the taste of the substitute blend. It was nice to have a brief moment with Hazel. It had taken them hours to get back to her house, and Sophia had left them almost immediately to join Josephine and provide assistance after receiving word that there were allies scheduled to fly overhead.
‘So you’ve been here all this time with Sophia?’ Hazel asked, her brows furrowed. ‘Was it you who recommended me for the job?’
Rose nodded. ‘I managed to make my way here after Peter died. It seemed like the best place for me, even though it’s crawling with as many Germans as Paris is.’ She paused, taking a sip of coffee as she tried to warm up. ‘I met Sophia under trying circumstances, but we’ve made a good team since then. We’ve been together almost six months now.’
Hazel had her fingers wrapped around the cup as she stared back at her.
‘I was asked some time ago, once I’d proven myself, if there was anyone I thought was suitable for a similar role,’ Rose explained. ‘I mentioned you, of course. You were the only person I knew well enough to trust.’
‘Dare I ask if you had another radio operator before me?’
Rose smiled. ‘You’ve obviously heard about the mortality rate.’ She shook her head. ‘You were supposed to be joining my brother’s cell, actually. He and his wife are working for the Resistance, too, and their cell has been short on a good operator.’
‘Sebastian?’ Hazel looked surprised.
‘I know he’d love to see you again.’
‘Is he all right? Why didn’t I join them?’
Rose steeled herself, setting her cup down. She’d become better at keeping her emotions in check, so much calmer than before. Peter would have laughed – he’d been so used to her flying off the handle. ‘We’re not sure what happened, but we think someone my friend Josephine works with was captured, and another from their cell, so everything is in a state of chaos right now.’
Rose was quietly worried about her brother. He’d been supposed to arrive the day before with other members of his cell, but when she and Sophia heard word of the captures, she knew he’d have decided to lie low. Or else something had gone terribly wrong.
‘I can’t imagine, I mean...’ Hazel took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘Training is one thing, but actually being here is completely different.’
Rose sighed, seeing the light in her old friend’s eyes, how excited and full of anticipation she seemed. It made her feel one hundred years old in comparison, or maybe she’d simply seen and been through too much. Perhaps she’d had that same light when she’d first told Peter what she wanted to do, how badly she wanted to help.
Rose finished sipping her coffee, liking the almost too hot burn as it slid down her throat and warmed her stomach. It was the quiet moments like this she relished now – the times of doing nothing that might have bored her in the past but now seemed like a luxury. It was what she was looking forward to most when the war was over.
‘I know I’ve said it all in letters already, Rose, but I am so sorry about Peter,’ Hazel suddenly said, taking her by surprise by changing the subject so abruptly. ‘He was a good man, and from everything you said a lovely husband, too, and I want you to know how truly sorry I am, and also how grateful it made me that I attended your wedding all those years ago.’
Rose felt hardened to it now, after everything that had passed, as if she’d steeled herself so much against the pain that now it didn’t hurt her. Until she was alone at night, in bed, trying to sleep.
‘Thank you. I think perhaps it will hit me again once all this is over.’
Being helpful and joining the local Resistance had given her a purpose, something to wake up for every morning. As had looking after Sophia and nursing her back to health. They’d been through a lot together in the months since Sophia had almost bled to death outside her house. There had been so much else to do, so much to think about, that Rose had managed to push thoughts of Peter away.
It was her lost baby who haunted her the most, who played through her memories when she most wanted solitude.
‘We might not be staying here long,’ Rose said, pushing thoughts of her child away. ‘We’re operating right under German noses, and we’ve been working here for months. If we stay much longer they could find us or, worse, the locals will have to pay for what we’ve done.’
‘What do you mean?’ Hazel asked.
‘You don’t want to know,’ Rose said, her voice so cold she hardly recognised it. ‘But let’s just say that when the Resistance disrupts them in ways they don’t like, they find a way to make the locals suffer as penance.’
