Daedalus Quartet 4.The Sure Recompense by Richard Townshend Bickers

Author:Richard Townshend Bickers [Richard Townshend Bickers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2015-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

Five

After the misadventure with the Lysander, Roger’s leg had swollen and become inflamed: the result of being forced to cover a long distance too fast, across country and with several falls into ditches and over tree roots.

He had remained immobile for two days and hobbled for the rest of a week. The pain of his injury was made more grievous by Viviane’s absence. The local Maquisards were lying low.

When he felt his leg recovering he disguised the fact by continuing to limp.

Devonshire’s impatience to be off and on their way to Spain had increased since he had seen the British aircraft and talked to its pilot. His first words every morning were “How’s your leg, Rodge?”

The reply was also stereotyped. “Feels a bit better, but I can’t tell until I try walking.”

One afternoon, at last, Viviane turned up at the farm on her bicycle. Devonshire was out working on the land with Laurent and his sons and daughter. Roger was in the kitchen with Laurent’s wife, reading a newspaper while she baked. When he heard the coded knock on the door and Viviane appeared, he was so eager to touch her that he nearly forgot to feign a limp.

The farmer’s wife stopped work as soon as she heard the knock. She stood rigid, looking pale and anxious. Had the Boches learned the secret signal and come to pay a brutal visit? If it was one of the Maquisards, what message did he bring that would again endanger the lives of her husband and sons?

Viviane came in, smiling.

“Yes, Viviane, what is it?”

“Don’t worry. I haven’t brought bad news. I mostly came to see how it is with you and how Roger’s leg is getting on.”

Madame pushed a bottle of red wine and a tumbler towards her. She poured herself a drink and looked questioningly at Roger.

“Yes, I’ll have a coup de rouge with you, Viviane.”

“So, Roger, how goes it?”

“The leg is much better, thank you, but not yet well enough to walk to Spain.”

Madame turned sharply. “You won’t have to walk. Someone will take you by truck and train.”

“I’ll still have to cross the Pyrenees when I get there.”

Madame shrugged.

Viviane winked at him behind Madame’s back. “There’s no hurry. There’ll be another surprise for the Boches soon, and we’ll be glad of your help. And Sid’s.”

“When?”

“In a week or so. I have some information for Laurent. It is up to him to take the decisions and give the orders.”

Madame, who was not a regular church-goer but disapproved of hanky-panky — perhaps all the more because her disfigured daughter was an unlikely candidate for matrimony — spoke tartly.

“He’s in the bottom pasture, hedging and ditching. If you want to get home well before curfew, why don’t you go and speak to him. He won’t be in for hours yet.”

“Come with me, Roger? I’d like you to hear what I have to tell him.”

Roger, with mounting excitement — and the rising (sic) excitement of prospective mounting — stood up. “Of course.”

He and Viviane

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