Page 52 of Hearts of Resistance
Sophia shook her head. ‘No. I don’t feel right about something. I’d rather wait until we’re there.’
The other circuit should be well enough equipped to have lookouts. The chateau was legendary, gifted to the Resistance to use by a singer who was an ardent secret supporter. It had housed a great many Resistance members, local maquis who had banded together and put so much of their intelligence to good use. It was they who were responsible for blowing up railway lines and trucks, not to mention getting arms where they needed to be.
They started to walk, quietly at first, settling into a slow but steady pace. Harry was at the rear and she wondered if he’d be the one to get taken out, since he was slower and less agile with his terrible broom-crutch.
‘How far is it?’ Hazel asked, speaking quietly, only just loud enough to be heard.
‘I think we’ll be there in a few hours. Sophia?’ Rose asked.
Sophia turned, rubbing at her eyes, no doubt as weary as Rose felt.
‘I think we’ll be three hours at least,’ Sophia replied. ‘Then we need to keep an eye on the place for at least an hour, see if there are any comings and goings. It might even take longer to ascertain whether it’s safe there.’
Sophia had been there only a few weeks earlier, so if it had been compromised since then? Rose shuddered. It would be doubtful that any of them would survive.
‘We’ll rest again when we get close, and Sophia and I can take turns watching the house,’ Rose instructed, still cautious as she walked, eyes still darting side to side with every step. It was an exhausting way to move, but it was the only way to stay alive if there were eyes on them. ‘Until then, stay alert and keep moving.’
‘What about our legends?’ Hazel asked. ‘Do we switch or stay with being university students?’
Rose glanced at Sophia and then wished she hadn’t. She was in charge now, and she needed to get used to making decisions instead of waiting for orders to be given to her.
‘We stick with our original cover,’ she said firmly. ‘We’re students and this is our friend who’s been in an accident. Although why three students would be traipsing around out here, I don’t know.’
‘We may need to switch covers when we take up residence at the chateau,’ Sophia said. ‘We’ll need to change the way we work when we join up with them. They base the maquis there, the local section anyhow, and it’s not somewhere we’ll stay for too long.’
Rose nodded. ‘We will all do whatever we need to, whatever they need us to do to keep things moving. We’re already making a difference in this war, and we need to create more chaos, more discontent here in France to let the Allies take back control.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SOPHIA
The chateau appeared as it always had to her, serene and quiet. Given how many men could be housed there at any given time, it was amazing that it could look so unthreatening, but right now it looked exactly that. Sophia was lying in the grass, straining her eyes as she squinted at the house. It was a beautiful property, and she imagined that before the war the gardens were always manicured, the home and grounds full of people who were employed to keep it looking perfect.
She pushed herself up and leaned against a tree for a moment, her soft palm pushed into the gnarled trunk. She’d learnt to deal with fear, how to process it and put it aside for the greater good, so when it started to pass through her in waves as she stared at the house, she pushed it down, swallowed it away as if the feeling was simply water.
Sophia liked being reminded of what fear felt like, because it stopped her from being reckless, gave her pause to think about what she was about to do. What she didn’t like was when the feeling lingered. The night she’d left Germany, the day she’d fled with Alex, had been the start of her new life, her life without fear or worry or dread; this new life was about getting what she wanted and doing anything within her power to help the Resistance grow and become even better equipped. In the many months since then, she’d worked alongside so many members of the cause, and from the moment she’d set foot on French soil over a year ago, she’d hardly stopped to catch her breath. When she’d started out, she’d kept her head down and done whatever was asked of her, until she ended up losing the members of her cell and had no other choice but to start working on her own. A few months later she’d been shot, and that’s when she’d ended up with Rose.
Sophia pushed away thoughts of the past and made her way back to the others, who were sheltering under a large tree, all seated in the shade. She was hungry, but now that she’d determined as best she could that the house hadn’t been compromised, she wasn’t going to stop. It was time to move, and fast.
‘Everything looks fine down there. I want us to move in now,’ she said.
Rose’s eyes met hers for a moment. It was as if they could communicate without words now; they’d been working together as a team for so long that it was second nature understanding what the other was thinking, what they needed or wanted to do. She glanced at Hazel. Having a new, inexperienced operative joining them wasn’t something she’d wanted or expected, especially when she and Rose had been so effective working together as a twosome.
‘Sophia, you maintain the lead as we approach,’ Rose instructed. ‘I want us all to stay close, hands clear of our bodies or raised if they need to be to show that we’re not hostile. Remember that these men don’t even trust the locals now, nor anyone unknown to them, because things aren’t as they were. With the Germans all over the countryside and coast, it’s harder to know who to trust, who’s faithful to the new rule or the old.’
Sophia nodded and collected her bag from the grass where she’d discarded it earlier, then placed it over her shoulder as she waited for the others to collect their things. When she saw Harry struggling she went to help him, but Hazel beat her to it. She saw the way Hazel smiled at him, a shy, flirtatious smile that made Sophia want to scold them. Harry might be in pain, but she was certain he’d have caught the look Hazel had flashed him.
‘Get a move on,’ she ordered, glaring at Hazel. She felt a pang, wished she hadn’t been so harsh, but seeing them like that, seeing that look and remembering what that felt like...Sophia shut her eyes for a second, let herself remember, let herself go back in time.
Alex had made her feel like that all the time, even when they’d been teenagers sneaking kisses and holding hands whenever they could.
She inhaled, slowly, imagining him beside her, talking her through what she was doing. He would have loved this, would have been the first to volunteer to do something,anything, to help, and she almost wished she’d brought him with her. There were plenty of Jewish Resistance members, more than she’d ever expected, but then they had good reason to hate the Nazis and want to go undercover to help to bring them down.
‘Why the frown?’Alex would say, stroking her shoulder and tickling his fingers all the way to her chin.‘It doesn’t suit you, looking so cross.’
She’d laugh. He always made her laugh.‘I’ve got too much to worry about.’
‘Don’t waste time worrying about me. You’ve done enough of that already to last a lifetime.’
