Page 50 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

“I’m so glad she died before any of this happened,” she said to Mavis, who came up to visit once or twice a week. She no longer volunteered to help with housework, as the two men kept everything immaculate.

Mavis nodded in agreement. “I reckon you gave her a lot of happiness those last years of her life,” she said.

“We gave her. You too, Mavis. She became very fond of you.”

“God rest her soul,” Mavis muttered. “Louis has me going to church every Sunday now. He’s determined to make a good Catholic of me.

I must say I like the idea of praying to saints.

Louis says God is often too busy, so you can put the call through to one of his workers instead.

It turns out there is a saint for everything—lost items or even headaches. ”

“Is there one to take care of my boys?” Ellie asked. “I worry about them all the time.”

“I reckon you could ask the Virgin Mary herself about that,” Mavis said. “She was a mother who worried, after all.”

“It didn’t stop her son from being killed, did it?” Ellie said.

When Mavis got up to leave, Ellie made up a basket of produce, eggs and cheese.

Mavis shook her head. “I won’t take this for myself, if you don’t mind.

Or I’ll take it for others that need it more.

The Belfonts’ child is not doing well. He had scarlet fever, and now he needs building up again.

So I’ll take them the eggs and maybe some of your goat’s milk?

” She paused, thinking. “You know, I was thinking, maybe we could set up a little food exchange. I’ll handle it .

.. see who needs food in the village and who has extra to spare. ”

“I’m happy to contribute,” Ellie said.

“Well, Louis is already doing this sort of thing—lending tools, fixing things in return for some onions or a bottle of wine.”

“Mavis, you never cease to surprise me,” Ellie said. “If those people at home could see you, the life and soul of Saint-Benet, they’d never believe it.”

Mavis gave a shy smile. “Sometimes I can’t believe it myself,” she said. “It’s having Louis beside me. It makes all the difference.”

And so the village food bank was set up.

Ellie took down cheese and honey and got fish, onions and wine in return.

She wrote to the abbot, not too frequently, and received friendly replies.

There were plenty of storms that battered the front windows and made the palm trees dance, but also plenty of rain that produced good spring crops.

It seemed almost embarrassing to be in this beautiful haven with enough to eat.

From the snippets of news, they gleaned Britain was being heavily bombed and the invasion could happen any day.

Ellie worried about her sons, wished she had some way of writing to them or getting news of them.

Were they even still alive? Colin flying for the RAF?

Would he still think it was quite a lark?

And where was Richard now? She hadn’t heard from either of them in ages since the Germans occupied France.

She also wondered about Lionel. If the Germans came to his part of the world, she was pretty sure he’d cooperate, welcome them, just as long as they left him and his bank alone.

Spring brought blossoms and balmy weather. The first visitors came, including German officers and their wives or mistresses. One of these overheard Tommy and Ellie speaking English.

“You people,” he said in clipped English. “What are you doing here? How did you get out of England? Do you not know you are in enemy territory?”

“But we are French,” Tommy said. “We’ve been naturalized French citizens for almost twenty years.”

“Let me see your papers,” the officer said. Tommy and Ellie produced their identity cards. The officer nodded. “All good,” he said. “You made a good decision to leave that little island. It will soon be a German colony.”

Tommy shot Ellie a warning look that she should say nothing.

“Enjoy your time here,” Ellie said. “The food at the bar is very good.”

In May the first boat came to take visitors to the island, and Ellie was amongst the handful of people who went across. Abbot Gerard looked pleased to see her and embraced her warmly.

“So how is married life treating you?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“I’m sure you don’t approve,” she said.

“On the contrary. I have seen enough of the ways of the world before I entered the priesthood to know that love comes in many forms. I am glad to know you can stay safe.”

“I am enjoying being taken care of,” she said. “We have our first honey, and I’ve been taught to make goat cheese. I’ve brought you some. And the beans and peas are going to be wonderful. So no complaints.”

“But really—you are comfortable with this arrangement?” He looked concerned now. “It is working out for you?”

“Absolutely. They are two very dear men. They treat me well, absolutely spoil me, and they are witty and like to laugh, so very good for me.”

“Then I am glad for you,” he said. “But we mustn’t forget to pray for your countrymen who are getting so badly bombed.

Such inhumanity. There was a time when wars at least had rules.

It was trained army against trained army in a strategic battle.

A certain nobility to it. But to target innocent civilians—we have all become barbarians. ”

Ellie left with a bottle of liqueur, a basket of strawberries and the knowledge that she could come again, once a month, all summer. Life seemed to be more promising.

Also in May came another surprise that made them more hopeful.

The tide was beginning to turn in North Africa where British forces were repelling General Rommel.

And in a surprise move, Hitler had withdrawn his forces from the English coast and had decided instead to attack his former ally, the Soviet Union.

The war was now in the East. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Hitler now had no more interest in France.

Perhaps the occupied zone might soon be opened up again.

Viscount Roland was of this opinion. “I shall be able to go back to Paris soon, I am sure of it,” he said.

“Oh, how I have missed the theatre, the clubs, the Bois de Boulogne. And the food, of course. I hope those brutish Huns have not taken all the good food.” He looked at Ellie.

“You should come and visit once I’m settled.

I have a charming house in the first arrondissement.

Close to everything. Let’s just pray it’s still intact. ”

Then in December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies. This produced renewed hope in Saint-Benet.

“Remember when they joined the fight in 1917,” one of the men said as they sat around at Henri’s bar. “It made all the difference. They have money for new weaponry, which Britain desperately needs. You’ll see—that fiend Hitler will soon be on the run with his tail between his legs.”

In spite of the first victories in North Africa, the German army in France showed no signs of withdrawing from the North.

The Allies were fighting in Crete, the Americans were now conducting bombing raids over Germany, but there was no indication of victory in sight.

Still Ellie felt they were safely hidden in Saint-Benet, until May of 1942.

Then an edict came from the French puppet government that all Jews were now to wear a yellow star.

Ellie sought out Mrs Adams.

“Aren’t you terribly worried?” she asked her.

Mrs Adams shrugged. “I don’t think most people even know that Abe is Jewish, and those that do won’t say anything. He’s not about to wear any ridiculous yellow star. The indignity of it. Who do they think they are?”

“I’m afraid they are in power,” Ellie said. “We hear reports of terrible things being done to Jewish people in the rest of Europe.”

“Not here,” Mrs Adams said. “There are plenty of French Jews, and those Nazis haven’t touched them. We’re in the free zone, you know.”

Ellie said no more, and Abe Adams did not wear a yellow star.

But Ellie noticed that he became less sociable.

She felt he was running a terrible risk, as German soldiers came to stay at the pension during that summer.

Perhaps his being English prevented the Germans from being suspicious of him.

He didn’t look different from any other Englishman.

“Could you make him a false ID card, just in case?” Ellie asked Clive. The identity cards had to list race as well as occupation.

“I could try,” Clive said. “But nobody seems to have noticed he’s not wearing a yellow star, have they?”

The summer passed. The visitors stopped coming, and Ellie let out a sigh of relief. Abe Adams had passed scrutiny, just as she had. There were more Allied victories and it really seemed hopeful that ultimately Hitler might soon be defeated.

Then in November German warships arrived in Marseille.

The announcement was given that the free zone no longer existed.

German tanks rolled down the route nationale to occupy most of the South while the Italian army came into Provence from the east. Clive was quite cheered by this.

“I don’t mind being occupied by Italians,” he said.

“Pour them a glass of good wine, and they’ll be happy. ”

But it was not to be. The Italians stopped short, in the town of Toulon, while the Germans swarmed into Marseille and trickled into Saint-Benet.

The first sign was a German staff car that pulled up at the harbour. An officer in highly polished black knee boots got out and looked around, nodding with pleasure at what he saw.

“You!” he beckoned Henri. “Are there hotels in this place? I wish to billet my men.”

“There’s only the one small pension,” Henri said. “Very simple. Very primitive. We are a fishing village, not a tourist destination.”

“So the only properties here are the ones I can see?”

“That’s correct,” Henri said.