The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

Author:Kate Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

EVE

September 1915

Autumn had barely begun, and already the cold had clamped down like a vise. Lille was a city of two worlds living side by side, the falling temperatures making a demarcation clearer than any line. On one side the Germans, who had all the coal, candles, and hot coffee they needed. On the other side the French, who had almost none of those things. The two worlds had been described as French and German, or conquered and conqueror, but now they were simply cold and not cold.

Eve didn’t notice. She was pregnant, and the thought had driven every other from her mind.

It hadn't been very long, but the signs weren’t difficult to read. Two monthly bloods missed—some women in Lille whispered that their courses now came irregularly due to semistarvation, but Eve didn’t think she was so lucky. She’d grown thin as a wafer, but she still had enough black-market scraps from Le Lethe not to starve. Besides, other signs had been quick to follow: her breasts had begun to feel tender, she was suddenly tired at all hours, and she had to swallow down unexpected shafts of queasiness when a juicy roast passed from the kitchens, or when she had to carry a pungent slab of Morbier in for the cheese course.

Eve was certain. René Bordelon had made her pregnant.

It was a realization that should have driven her to utter despair, but there was no time for that. The Alice Network was busy. French lines in Champagne had been pushing a sustained assault; the German Kommandant and his generals had spoken a good many terse words about it over their coffee. Words Eve reported. She marked hours waiting tables and then marked more hours in René’s bed, at work one way or another at least nineteen hours of every day. She passed information about artillery placements, about casualty lists, about train schedules and supply depots. She was so used to the knife edge she walked that it seemed almost normal; she kept her face and her voice so continuously locked that she sometimes wondered if she had a single spontaneous expression left. She could not panic and fall into despair simply because her body had decided to betray her. She could not.

Eve opened her door that Saturday to Violette, come to stay on her usual round through Lille, and nearly cried with relief. All week she’d had nightmares of Violette getting arrested, now of all times. Eve never much liked Violette, but oh, she needed her.

Violette must have seen some flash of her relief, because surprise flickered behind those round glasses. “You look glad to see me,” she commented, scraping mud off her worn boots. She frowned, adding, “Is there news?”

“No news,” Eve said. “But I need help, and you’re the only one I can ask.”

Violette took off her gloves, rubbing her chilled hands as she looked at Eve curiously. “Why me?”

Eve took a deep breath. “Lili s-s-s—she said you were a nurse.”

“Red Cross, yes. Though not for long.

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