‘Tell her I follow in the footsteps of my countrymen,’ he said.
On understanding, the woman smiled.
‘I served many of them coffee,’ she replied. ‘They were brave souls. I am honoured to help him. Even if he is going to die.’
This banter continued via my translations, until finally Beatrice put an end to it.
‘We have much to do,’ she told us. ‘Come inside!’
Mo took my arm.
‘You can change your mind at any time,’ he told me. ‘I will not think badly of you, Joelle. This will be a dangerous mission.’
‘I won’t change my mind,’ I replied. ‘I go with you, come what may. Maman told me to be brave. I will honour her words.’
‘Then enjoy your last hours in France,’ he told me. ‘We will breakfast in England.’
And that was my last memory of France. Hidden beneath piles of stinking straw, with only Mo and dung beetles for company, as the cart trundled along frozen lanes, towards the nearest airfield.
‘No one will stop an old lady!’ the woman shouted, as much for herself as us. ‘They do not see me and my horse as a threat.’
She wittered on for the entire journey, perhaps an hour or more. Finally, the cart came to a stop. I heard the old woman dismount and pet her grey and aging horse, before she came around and uncovered us. I brushed the remnants of horse manure and straw from my hair. God only knows how much I stank. I had not bathed in days, and this was a final insult to hygiene.
We had stopped by a copse of trees, next to a dilapidated barn that sat alone, the accompanying farmhouse long gone.
‘You walk from here,’ the woman said to me. ‘Any closer, and I risk alarming the Germans.’
‘Thank you for your courage,’ I told her.
‘Courage?’ she spat. ‘This isn’t courage. You should have heard my husband farting. I survived fifty years of it. That was courage!’
I did not know whether to laugh or cry. The old woman was shockingly unguarded in her words, but she also had real warmth. Yet I was leaving my country, perhaps even to die in the attempt. My emotions were a mess.
‘Take heart, dear girl,’ the woman whispered. ‘You are the courageous one, for sure. I hope you can trick these German dogs and live a long and peaceful life.’
‘And if I die?’
The woman grinned.
‘Then I will drink a toast to your stupidity,’ she joked.
‘And choke on the last drop,’ I told her.
We embraced and then she remounted her cart and left us alone. As I explained our conversation to Mo, he seemed preoccupied.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
He pointed across a field to our left. In the middle distance, I spotted lights and heard the unmistakeable sound of engines running.
‘The airfield,’ he said. ‘They are readying for a night raid. We don’t have much time.’
EIGHTEEN
Darkness provided all the cover that we required. Mo had assumed that the Germans would be too busy preparing their planes to worry about intruders. He was correct. That was what made his plan so ingenious. Gaining entry to a German-controlled airbase was incredibly perilous. And the Germans did not believe that anyone could be that reckless. And yet here we were, hurrying across a frozen field, with only the lights ahead to guide us. Later I would learn of an English phrase that perfectly explained our mission that night. We were fools, rushing in where angels feared to tread.
At the perimeter, we found a ramshackle fence through which we passed with ease. Our enemies were so arrogant that they had not even strengthened their defences. It worked right into our hands. Once on the airfield, we slowed down, and looked for cover. A stack of wooden crates became our first hiding place. From about a hundred yards, we watched the Germans rushing around, the pilots shouting orders to the ground staff.
‘Listen out for guard dogs,’ Mo whispered. ‘If they sense us, we’re doomed.’
‘Okay,’ I replied.
We waited for some time, and adrenaline and fear coursed through my veins. I wanted to shout and scream but held that urge. My left leg began to tremble, and my heart thumped inside my chest.
‘Are you scared?’ I whispered.
Mo nodded.
‘Fear is our friend,’ he replied. ‘It will focus our minds.’
‘How long do we wait?’
Mo pointed towards the planes, and I heard the engines firing up again. The ground staff began to retreat, and the first plane edged away, rolling towards the runway.
‘We must wait until all are airborne,’ said Mo. ‘It won’t be long now.’
One by one, the planes began to leave. Mo recognised them as Messerschmitt Bf 109s. They were grey, with black crosses outlined in white painted on the side and wings, and the Nazi swastika on the tail.
‘They will not fly very far,’ he told me. ‘But they are deadly in the air.’
I counted seven planes taking off at first, and then three more immediately afterwards.
‘Damn!’ I heard Mo exclaim, as my own heart sank.
Far from leaving unoccupied planes behind, the Germans had launched every single one. Mo’s plan was ruined.
‘This is not good,’ he whispered. ‘Let’s see what the ground crew do next.’
The remaining men began to walk back towards an aerodrome about a quarter of a mile further back. They carried lamps and torches with them, although the lights around the runaway remained lit. As their voices receded, Mo told me to wait.
‘I will take a look around,’ he said.
I shook my head.
‘No,’ I insisted. ‘That was not the deal. We go together.’
‘But Joelle…’ he began, only for me to insist once more.
‘If something happens to you,’ I told him, ‘I will be stuck out here alone. We live together, or we die together.’
He relented and told me to follow close behind.
‘In my exact footsteps,’ he said. ‘And if they see us, you run back to the fence, understand?’
I nodded.
‘You don’t look back, you don’t wait for me, you just run.’
‘Yes,’ I replied.
My resolve hardened once again. The thought of my dead parents
