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A few days later, Jack and Lizzie visited Marguerite in the café. When they sat down, she came over and took their order. Then she looked from Lizzie to Jack expectantly. ‘Well?’ she said.

Jack raised one dark eyebrow. ‘Well, what?’

She leant over to wipe the table and whispered, ‘Lev wants to know if you have a message for him.’

‘He is keen,’ Jack replied, his face cracking into a smile.

‘Of course he is. We need your help,’ Margarite said. ‘We can’t just let these lunatics take our country. They’re going to hand it over to the Nazis on a silver platter, and our children will be raised speaking German.’

The pain was evident on her face.

Lizzie touched her hand and said in a low voice. ‘We understand, but don’t say more now.’

Marguerite’s eyes shone with gratitude. ‘I have a message for you from Lev.’

Jack’s head jerked up. ‘You’ve been at our table too long. Continue your duties and when you bring our coffee, give it to us then.’

Marguerite nodded and bustled off to another table.

Lizzie looked at Jack. ‘Things are heating up.’

‘They are indeed. It always takes a while, but once you find the right people, it moves like lightning.’

‘It’s exciting to build this from the ground up.’

They spoke in hushed tones and Jack held Lizzie’s hand as if they were swearing their devotion to each other, not discussing how to build a deadly network that would outwit the Vichy regime.

Lizzie leant over to kiss Jack, so anyone watching them would think they had nothing on their minds but their mutual obsession. ‘I’m beginning to understand why Val said being a married couple is such an effective cover.’

‘Good, maybe now you won’t insist on ditching me to pursue your solo reconnaissance,’ Jack said, his eyes full of amusement.

‘I don’t know about that,’ Lizzie said.

Marguerite returned with two steaming cups of coffee and a small pastry Jack had ordered for Lizzie.

‘This is one of my favourites,’ he said, placing the plate in front of her. ‘What’s the message?’ he prompted, without looking at Marguerite.

‘Lev has been asked to organise the escape of a downed airman,’ she said, making a show of tidying her hair, whilst barely moving her lips.

Jack raised his cup to his mouth. ‘Where is he?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said, smoothing down her apron. ‘He said to meet him at the usual place this afternoon if you can help.’

Marguerite took off without looking back and that was the last they saw of her that day. She’d accomplished her task, and the other patrons kept her busy until they left.

‘What a mysterious one she is,’ Jack said.

Lizzie murmured in between bites of the pastry. ‘This is delicious, you’re right. Here,’ she said, holding up her fork for Jack to take a piece.

They stayed at the café a while longer, as if they had nowhere important to rush off to, and when they finished their coffee and cake, they stood in a leisurely fashion and walked away at a measured pace without making eye contact with their messenger.

‘Our first agents are in play,’ Jack mused, as they walked hand in hand across the Place du Capitole.

‘It’s a great start,’ Lizzie said. ‘I find it disconcerting we can move about here as though there isn’t a war on. It’s very different from Paris or Reims.’

‘It is an unusual situation, given our proximity to the occupied zone,’ Jack agreed, raising Lizzie’s hand to his lips and kissing her palm. ‘The whole thing is odd, and I think it might get a lot weirder before we’re finished.’

They approached the Café de Paris and entered. It was dimly lit, and the smoke formed an acrid smog. It took a while for Jack to locate Lev, who sat alone in a different corner from last time. Jack steered Lizzie towards the table.

‘You remember my wife, Madame Dubois?’ Jack asked, indicating Lizzie with a flourish.

Lev stood and shook Lizzie’s hand. ‘A pleasure to see you again, madame.’

‘Oh please, call me Isabelle. There’s no need to be formal.’

Jack pulled out a chair for Lizzie and she sat down. ‘What will you have?’ he asked.

Lizzie said she’d had enough coffee for one day and would have a juice. And Lev asked Jack to tell the barman, the same again, for him.

Jack went to organise the drinks at the bar and Lev turned to face Lizzie.

‘How do you like Toulouse?’ he asked.

Lizzie said she found it charming and was enjoying it so far.

‘It must be quite an experience to live in the chateau.’

Lizzie agreed it was and told him she’d not lived so grandly before, and it took a bit of getting used to.

Their conversation tailed off until Jack returned and put the drinks on the table. ‘I see you two are getting acquainted.’

‘Indeed. I take it Marguerite gave you my message, and this isn’t a serendipitous meeting,’ Lev said, cutting through the small talk.

‘You are correct. Whilst serendipity is a miraculous thing, I prefer not to depend on it.’

They chinked their glasses and smiled like old friends meeting for a catch up. ‘Santé.’

‘Tell me about the man,’ Jack said, dropping his voice and looking at Lev.

‘Actually, I’ve now discovered there are two of them. British. They were shot down and are making their way here.’ Lev tilted his cigarette pack to Jack, who took one, and Lizzie declined with a gracious smile.

Lev lit his cigarette and exhaled. ‘Then we’ll need to get them to Marguerite’s contact who will arrange to take them across the Pyrenees.’

‘That sounds like the beginnings of a plan,’ Jack said.

‘Every day they stay in the same place, the risk of being discovered increases. It’s not as dangerous as in occupied territory, but we have our share of traitors and informants here, too.’

‘So I understand,’ Jack said, encouraging Lev to continue.

‘It’s quite a way from where they are now to Toulouse. They will move by night and rest and hide out by day.’

‘Alright,’ Jack said. ‘Makes sense.’

‘What do you need from us?’ Lizzie said, thinking it was time Lev understood she wasn’t just an arm attachment.

Lev cast an admiring glance at Lizzie that wasn’t lost on Jack, but he couldn’t blame him for being impressed.

‘That’s a good question, Isabelle. It’s the tricky bit, I’m afraid.’

Jack’s eyes locked on Lev’s. ‘Tell us. There’s no time to beat around the bush. If we can help, we will.’

‘I don’t have a suitable place to hide them here. When they arrive, we will need to get them out of the way immediately and have them lie low for a few days, in case anyone spotted and reported them on the way.’

‘If someone reports them along the way, we will already have a much greater problem,’ Jack said.

Lev shook his head. ‘Many of the Vichy police are new to the job and are amateurs. They are keen but lack experience, which plays into our hands. Just because they are seen doesn’t mean they’ll be arrested. And of course, there are some who will do the right thing and look the other way.’

‘Right, so where can we hide them? How about a friend’s farmhouse?’ Jack asked. ‘You must know a lot of locals.’

‘Unfortunately, many of my friends have had to leave France, and the others can no longer afford to live where they used to. They don’t have houses suitable for hiding anyone.

There is a sympathetic farmer who sheltered some Jews the authorities were searching for, but he told me that was the last time.

They nearly caught them, and he said it’s too dangerous. He won’t risk it again.’

Lizzie had a vision of the Sterns on the run and wondered if it may have been them. She shook her head and drank her juice. Thousands of Jews had escaped and were trying to escape France as more harsh statutes were introduced. It could have been any family.

The thought of the Gestapo catching them filled her with dread.

Those dear children had stolen Lizzie’s heart in Paris.

The Jew hunts throughout Europe were like something out of a never-ending nightmare, and each time she went back undercover, and heard the latest developments, she was shocked anew.

Lev knocked back the rest of his drink in one shot and his eyes flickered from Lizzie to Jack.

‘There’s only one solution I can think of at such short notice.’

‘Well, don’t keep us in suspense, man,’ Jack said. ‘What is it?’

They studied their new agent’s solemn expression.

Lev cleared his throat, and said quietly, ‘The chateau is the perfect place to hide them whilst I prepare their forged identity papers, and we arrange the details of their escape.’