The Room on Rue Amélie

by Kristin Harmel

  “I was afraid of that.” He jerked his head toward the bedroom. “Why don’t you go talk to her? I’ll listen for anything suspicious in the hall. When you’re done, I’ll head back to the closet.”

  Ruby nodded. “Thank you.”

  “No, thank you. If I’d been on the streets last night, I surely would have been rounded up too.”

  Tomorrow, Ruby would do more to find out what she could about Charlotte’s parents. But for now, all she could do was try to bring a bit of comfort to a girl who was far too wise to be soothed by empty promises of a future Ruby couldn’t guarantee.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  July 1942

  By Sunday, Charlotte knew her parents wouldn’t be coming home anytime soon.

  “They’ve already been sent to Drancy,” Ruby told her gently that morning. “Laure has spoken with a few people who saw them just yesterday. They’re in decent spirits, sweetheart.”

  Charlotte nodded, trying hard not to cry. She wanted Ruby to confide things like this in her; and she was afraid that if she broke down, Ruby would revert to treating her like a child. “Where will they go from Drancy?”

  Ruby hesitated. “There’s still a chance they’ll be released. But I don’t want to get your hopes up. Realistically, they may be headed east, to a work camp.”

  “A work camp,” Charlotte repeated flatly.

  “Your parents are both healthy. It will be difficult for them, but there’s every reason to expect that they’ll be fine.”

  But nothing was fine anymore, and Charlotte was certain Ruby knew that as well as she did. The world had changed overnight.

  When Ruby had explained the idea of drawing up false papers to identify her as Ruby’s adopted daughter, Charlotte had begun to cry. Ruby had pulled the girl into her arms, explaining over and over again that it was only a ruse, that it was just to protect her until her parents came home, which would surely be soon. But Ruby had taken it wrong—that wasn’t what Charlotte was crying about. She was sobbing because she knew it was a dire measure, one that Ruby wouldn’t take unless she truly believed Charlotte was here to stay. And there was a part of her that was crying because she knew how lucky she was to have found a home—even under such strange and terrible circumstances—with the bravest woman she’d ever known.

  “I won’t be replacing your parents,” Ruby had said firmly as she embraced Charlotte. “Not at all. I would never try to do that. But from now on, Charlotte, I hope you know I’m your family too.”

  “But won’t I be putting you at risk by staying?”

  “No.” Ruby’s answer had been firm.

  “What about the escape line? Can I help you with it now?”

  “Absolutely not. I don’t want you involved.”

  “But—”

  “No, Charlotte. It’s too dangerous.”

  Samuel had departed a day earlier, leaving just past dawn with Laure. And Ruby had left at noon for a meeting with some of the others on the escape line, leaving Charlotte at home by herself for the first time since the roundups.

  She was walking around the apartment in a daze, trying to imagine how this place could ever feel like home, when there was a knock at the door. She froze. What if it was the police? Then again, perhaps it was a pilot seeking refuge. Maybe she could prove to Ruby that she was capable of helping after all. She tiptoed across the room and peered through the peephole.

  She saw a boy around her age, maybe a year or two older, standing in the hall. He had black hair and wore ragged clothes, and despite the fact that his face looked young, he had the broad shoulders of a man a decade older.

  Charlotte took a step back, unsure of what to do. He didn’t look like he could be working with the police, but he wasn’t a pilot either; he appeared too young—and too comfortable in his grimy outfit. She was about to turn away when he knocked again.

  “I can hear you in there, you know,” he said through the door. His accent was most definitely French, and his voice was deeper than she’d expected. “I mean you no harm. I have a delivery for Fleur.”

  Ruby’s code name. Charlotte knew that much from the eavesdropping she’d shamelessly done on her neighbor over the last several months. So was this boy a part of the escape line?

  “Please just let me deliver my package, and I’ll be on my way,” he said when she hadn’t moved.

  Charlotte still wasn’t certain that it was the right thing to do, but she suddenly had a desperate urge to be face-to-face with this stranger. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

  For a moment, they just stared at each other. She could see the questions in his green eyes. He was wondering who she was and what she was doing here. But was he searching for something else in her face too? She found that once she had locked gazes with him, she couldn’t look away; he had the kind of eyes that looked too bright for his face—for any face, in fact.

  “Good day,” he said, breaking the silence. “I’m looking for Madame Fleur.”

  “She’s not here. But she’s my cousin.” Charlotte could scarcely believe she’d just said that. It was part of her new cover, of course, but it felt like a betrayal of Maman and Papa. “I can take a message, if you like.”

  The boy studied her, one corner of his mouth curling up slightly. “I see. Well, then, please tell your cousin that I’ve delivered your papers. Forged them myself.” He held up an envelope.

  Charlotte’s cheeks grew hot. He knew she’d just lied to him. “You forged them?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  “But how old are you?” Charlotte realized right away that it hadn’t been a polite question.

  “Fifteen.”

  “Oh.” She felt silly for asking and didn’t know what to say next.

  “I learned to forge from my dad,” he said finally. “But he’s dead now, so I had to take over. I’m pretty good. Take a look.”

  Charlotte took the envelope from him and slipped the papers out. She didn’t know what birth certificates and adoption papers were supposed to look like, but these appeared very official, with stamps and seals and everything. “Nice work,” she said, trying to sound like she knew what she was talking about.

  His smile widened a bit. “Thank you.”

  “Maybe—maybe I could help too.”

  He looked confused. “You want to forge papers?”

  “No. I mean, maybe, though I don’t know that I’d be any good at it. But I want to do something. I’m tired of just watching things get worse and worse and not doing anything.” If Ruby wouldn’t let her help, maybe this mysterious boy would.

  He studied her for a minute. “How old are you?”

  She drew herself up to her full height. “Nearly fourteen.”

  “Are you brave?”

  “Oh yes.” She wanted to believe it was true. After all, she hadn’t broken yet.

  The boy searched her face again. “Well, I suppose you could be useful. Let me talk to some of the people I work with. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Really?” She could scarcely believe it.

  “Why not?” He shrugged, then turned to go.

  “Wait!” she called after him. “You didn’t tell me your name.”

  “It’s Lucien.” He held her gaze for a moment. “The papers say you’re named Hélène. But who are you really?”

  She hesitated. “Charlotte. But I’m not sure I’ll ever be her again.”

  “Charlotte’s a beautiful name. But so is Hélène. Whoever you decide to be, I’m glad to know you. I’ll see you again.”

  And then he was gone. Charlotte stared after him as he disappeared down the stairs of their building, confused by the way her heart was still pounding and the fact that her face felt like it was on fire.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  July 1942

  News of the massive roundups in Paris had reached England, and Thomas was worried. He knew how much Ruby cared for the girl who lived next door, and every time he closed his eyes, he imagined Ruby throwing herse
lf between the child and the barrel of a Nazi soldier’s gun. Ruby wouldn’t let something happen to Charlotte without putting up a fight, but what did that mean? And what guarantee was there that either of them was still alive anyhow?

  He knew he should be worrying only about his own missions, but each spare minute somehow belonged to her. He had signed up for this fight, had even derived some enjoyment from his time in the cockpit. Ruby, on the other hand, hadn’t asked for any of this; she’d fallen in love with the wrong person and had found herself in the middle of a war. He wondered if she had continued to harbor pilots after he’d gone, but no other pilots from his squadron had returned after being shot down, so there was no one to ask.

  Today, he was returning from a mission over eastern France after escorting a fleet of bombers. He let down his guard for a second, just as they passed Dunkirk, and thought about how Paris lay almost directly to the south, just over 150 miles away. It was a distance he could cover quickly in his Spitfire. What would happen if he made a ninety-degree turn to the south and simply disappeared over the horizon? It was a nice fantasy, but of course he knew exactly how it would end; he’d get shot at as he approached Paris and probably die in a fiery explosion in the sky. No thank you.

  And so he forced himself to refocus. He had to survive if there was to be any hope of seeing her again. And he wouldn’t live through the war if he was daydreaming every time he flew over the Continent.

  The cliffs of Dover came into view, white and gleaming, as Thomas made his way back across the Channel, and when he turned toward his home airfield, he tried hard to focus on what lay immediately ahead instead of on a future he couldn’t control. For all he knew, she hadn’t given him a second thought after he left her apartment.

  As the landing strip came into view, Thomas opened the cockpit hood, reduced his airspeed to 140 miles an hour, and prepared for landing. Undercarriage locked. Propeller functioning normally. Flaps down. He made a wide turn, reducing his speed further, and then he brought her down safely, easing the long nose in and bumping a few times along the runway before bringing the plane to a stop. He taxied off quickly to leave room for others to land behind him, and once back in dispersal, he cut the engine and turned the instruments and radio off. Another successful flight under his belt.

  He had just returned to his room and was about to get dressed for an evening at the pub with Harry, who’d promised to buy the first round, when there was a knock at his door. He answered quickly, but instead of Harry standing there, it was the squadron adjutant, a man named Fred Horn. “Clarke? I’m afraid something has happened.”

  “Sir?” Thomas’s mind immediately went to Ruby, but that was crazy. He certainly wouldn’t be notified if anything happened to her. But who else was there? He was a man without a family. “What is it?”

  “It’s Harry Cormack, I’m afraid,” Horn said, his eyes downcast. “He didn’t come back today.”

  Thomas felt his heart drop to his knees. Harry? Again? “Do you know his status? Where did he land?”

  “I’m afraid I’m not being clear enough. Some 109s caught up with him over the Channel.”

  Thomas felt a heavy weight settle on his chest. “Did anyone see him go down?”

  Horn nodded. “There was a whole mess of 109s out there, complete chaos. But Wellesley and Newton both saw him go into the water on fire. Had a couple of boats out in the area after the crash, but no sign of survivors, I’m afraid.”

  Thomas felt a wave of hopelessness wash over him. Harry was one of the best pilots he knew. A swarm of German 109s shouldn’t have been too much to handle, unless he was severely outnumbered or one of them got very, very lucky. Even then, wouldn’t Harry have tried to bail out? “Any evidence of ejection?” Thomas asked.

  “It seems his plane went into the water intact.” Horn looked away. “No indication of attempted escape.”

  “Damn it.” Thomas pounded his fist against the door.

  Horn was already backing away. “Anyhow, Clarke, I just thought you should know.”

  “Yes. Right. Thank you.” Thomas closed the door and crossed the room to his bed. He sat down heavily, dazed by the news. Could Harry really be dead? Just like that? He couldn’t understand why he was so shocked. After all, this was the sort of thing that happened nearly every day. No pilot was guaranteed a safe return. Hell, no civilian was either. Just look what had happened to his mother.

  It was so senseless. There were days that Thomas felt on top of the world as he soared above the clouds, but other days, especially as he crossed over France, he wondered what it was all for. Someone would win the war one day, whether it was the Allies or the Krauts, and then all those lives lost would feel as if they’d been taken in vain. And what if Britain wasn’t triumphant in the end? Would that mean that Harry and Oliver and Thomas’s mother had died for nothing? What if Ruby was lost in the end too, swallowed into the gaping hole of German aggression?

  And so, just before he sat down to write yet another letter—this one to Harry’s parents—Thomas found himself on his knees, praying for his friend’s soul, for his own mother’s soul, for an end to the fighting, and for the strength to play a role in bringing this war to an end. But most of all, Thomas found himself pleading with God that Ruby would stay safe and that one day, fate would deliver him back to her door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  August 1942

  “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” Aubert was standing outside Ruby’s apartment, which was, in and of itself, alarming. He wasn’t someone who just stopped by.

  “Are you sure you should be here?” Ruby quickly hustled him inside before anyone saw him.

  “I’m an old friend of your husband’s, coming to check on you, if anyone asks. But this couldn’t wait.”

  “What’s the news?” For a fleeting second, Ruby imagined that he was going to tell her Thomas had been shot down. But that was crazy, wasn’t it? How would Aubert know such a thing? And even if something had happened to the British pilot, why would anyone inform her? He probably hadn’t given her a second thought after returning to England.

  “It’s about Charlotte’s parents,” Aubert said, lowering his voice.

  Ruby closed her eyes for a moment. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She couldn’t. But she had to. “What is it?”

  “They’ve both been sent to a camp in Poland.”

  “Already?”

  “Drancy is overrun. They’re moving people out as quickly as they can.”

  “But I thought we were working on getting them out.”

  “The best we can hope for now is that they’re treated humanely wherever they go.”

  “What will I tell Charlotte?”

  “I think she’s stronger than you’re giving her credit for.”

  Ruby stared at him. “How would you know that? You’ve barely spoken with her.”

  “The boy who delivered her papers? I’ve known him since he was very small, and though he’s only fifteen, he’s an integral part of our operation. He met Charlotte, and he spoke very highly of her resolve to help us.”

  “Aubert, she’s just a child.”

  “So is Lucien. But war makes us all into something different. It has changed you, hasn’t it?”

  She looked away. “I won’t allow it, Aubert. I’m responsible for her.”

  He glanced over her right shoulder. “Perhaps it won’t be up to you.”

  Ruby turned, following his gaze, and saw Charlotte standing there, staring at them. “Are you here about my parents? What’s happened to them?”

  “They’ve been deported,” Aubert said, watching her face. “To a camp in Poland.”

  “Charlotte—” Ruby began, taking a step toward the girl.

  But Charlotte held up a hand to stop her. “How can I be sure they’re alive?” she asked. “How do I know you’re not just trying to give me false hope?”

  Aubert looked her in the eye. “Because, my dear, war is no time to deceive the people we are supposed
to trust.”

  “You hardly know me. You can’t possibly trust me.”

  “Lucien said you were brave.”

  Ruby could see color rising to the girl’s cheeks. “He doesn’t really know me either.”

  “But he’s a very good observer of people,” Aubert said. “And he told me he felt you were strong and bold.”

  “He said that?” Charlotte looked startled.

  Aubert nodded. “Look, Charlotte, we have a few sources inside Drancy. By all accounts, your parents have been treated relatively well so far.”

  “You’re certain?” Charlotte asked.

  Ruby hated to hear how hopeful Charlotte sounded, because for all his posturing about honesty, what if Aubert was just saying what he knew the girl needed to hear? There was a part of her that wanted to believe him, but there were too many questions. What were the Germans doing with all the people they were shipping east?

  “As certain as possible. Now,” Aubert said. “The next order of business. The two of you must move to a new apartment.”

  Ruby and Charlotte exchanged looks. “What?” Ruby asked.

  “We feel that Charlotte staying here with you creates a serious problem. The neighbors know who she is; you won’t be able to pass her off as a cousin if you stay. All it takes is one person to report her in exchange for a few ration cards. You would likely be arrested; and heaven forbid you have a pilot staying with you at the time. The line would be exposed. We can’t risk that.”

  “But . . . what if pilots can’t find me at my new address?”

  Aubert looked confused. “Of course the contacts who send them to Paris will simply direct them to your new home.”

  “Yes, of course,” Ruby mumbled, her eyes stinging with tears she knew she couldn’t cry. How would Thomas find her if he ever made his way back? But protecting Charlotte was a thousand times more important, and Ruby knew that she didn’t have a choice.

  Aubert was watching her carefully, as if he suspected what she was thinking. But he couldn’t possibly. “We’ve found you a place near the Arc de Triomphe, across the river.”