Operation Fortitude by Hilary Green

Author:Hilary Green [GREEN, HILARY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

With time to fill, Kim made a point of getting to know the maquisardes. There were women as well as men, who acted as couriers and also as spies who could go down to the towns around the plateau and return with vital information about German troop movements.

One of Chavant’s most trusted couriers — Genevieve — was based in the town of Villard de Lens.

‘You should come to Villard,’ she said. ‘Give yourselves a day out. Before the war it was a very popular ski resort, and the Hotel Splendide is the best on the plateau. It still manages to hang on to a hint of its former glory. You can get quite a decent meal there.’

‘How would we get there?’ Kim asked. ‘I can’t expect Peter Ortiz to drive us around all the time.’

‘On the bus,’ was the unexpected reply. ‘There’s a bus goes every morning from St Martin to Grenoble.’

‘Even now?’ Kim asked.

‘Why not? For the local people life has to carry on as close to normal as possible. Some of them work in Grenoble. Will you come?’

‘I’ll have to talk to my . . . my partner,’ Kim said. ‘But it would make a change from hanging around here.’

Foxy’s attitude was the same. ‘Let’s go. I’m tired of sitting around waiting for something to happen.’

So early the next morning they boarded the bus along with a crowd of local people — men in working clothes, women carrying baskets, some with small children on their laps. It had snowed again and the sides of the narrow road were banked up with drifts. The route took them down through what they had learned to call the Gorges de la Bourne, one of the many canyons carved out millennia ago by a river, and the road turned and twisted, clinging to its sides. For short time Kim forgot the war and marvelled at the spectacular scenery.

‘Do you ski?’ she asked Foxy, amazed that she had never thought to put the question before.

‘I used to, back in the States,’ he replied. ‘Don’t know if I’ll ever be able to try it again.’

She squeezed his hand. ‘Of course you will. If Nelson could command a ship in battle with one eye, I’m sure he could have skied if given the opportunity.’

He returned the squeeze. ‘Don’t know how he’d have managed with only one arm, though. At least I’ve still got two.’

‘One day, we’ll come back here and ski,’ she said. ‘I bet there are some terrific runs.’

As if to jolt them back into the present, the bus rounded a bend and skidded to a stop. Peering ahead, Kim saw with a shock that they were nose to nose with the first vehicle in a column of German personnel carriers.

‘Dear God!’ she murmured. ‘But there haven’t been any warning.’

‘Sit tight,’ Foxy said. ‘Remember, we’re just innocent civilians going to visit a friend.’

‘But they need to know, back at St Martin,’ she whispered.

‘No way we can do anything about that right now,’ he returned.

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