In This Hospitable Land by Lynmar Brock Jr

Author:Lynmar Brock, Jr. [Lynmar Brock, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2011-04-25T22:00:00+00:00

Late winter lay about La Font with the cold, sometimes snowy, broken by occasional warmer days in which clouds from the west broke open to reveal bright blue skies. Every now and then a gentle softness breezed in from the Mediterranean forcing bitter Atlantic air north. But even when new-fallen snow melted quickly, the ground remained frozen. Would this winter never end?

Denise and Geneviève swiftly settled into constant work and worry. They took comfort in Albertine’s assurance that the greater part of the local gendarmerie was friendly, sympathetic, and resistant to distant authorities. But official orders wending their way from Mende to the post in Le Pont-de-Montvert and then on to Vialas came directly from the Gestapo, making them impossible to ignore. Thanks to secretaries sympathetic to the Resistance, most times the police knew before the orders were sent out and did their best to help the intended victims.

Unfortunately, the treacherous, devious, merciless Milice thugs acted on behalf of the Gestapo independently of the police. So the postman kept Geneviève and Denise abreast of the Milice’s latest movements by hinting and winking and starting sentences he never finished.

They also got the idea from him that the Resistance was daily becoming larger, better organized, and more reliable. Old-timers at the café agreed, insisting the enemy weakened as the resisters—newly dubbed “Maquisards”—grew stronger and more numerous.

Overwhelmed by their tasks and fearful of their fate the Freedman sisters still did their part to fight the Fascists by listening to the BBC each night after the children had settled down to sleep. Denise faithfully remembered what she could—say, the fighting in Tunisia with von Arnim’s Panzer attack on British positions at Majz-al-Bb, or Montgomery’s assault on Rommel’s position along the Mareth Line—and then passed it along to the postman as André and Alex had done.

Denise and Geneviève were now barely distinguishable from the other hardworking women of the Cévennes who also suffered from the enforced absence of their men. Denise was particularly struck by what Geneviève had become capable of doing and putting up with.

“I don’t mind the smell of the animals anymore,” Geneviève told Denise one day in early March, “not even the goats. Maybe because now we all smell pretty much the same.”

But neither could get used to not hearing from their husbands.

“I should be stoic and bite my tongue,” Geneviève complained, “but you’re my sister and I have to tell someone: I’m constantly worried about Alex. André too, of course.”

“The postman says they’re safe.”

“Too vague,” Geneviève keened. “If only he could tell us where they are.”

Before Geneviève could upset her too, Denise said, “What we don’t know we can’t reveal.”

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