A Coming Evil (16 page)

He cringed, but finished his thought. "What if we make it look like something else? Bring some jars of fruit in here...?"

"But they'll be suspicious of the curtains," Lisette said. "Why would..." She stopped at the thought: Why would anybody want a room that was totally dark?

"What?" Gerard asked.

"You bring the children up the hill," she told him. "I'll meet you there and you can show us where the caves are."

"What will you be doing?"

"Making this room look like a darkroom. Never mind, there's no time to explain. Believe me, it will work."

"It's too dangerous," he said. "What if the Germans come while you're still here?"

She knew that. And if she thought about it, she wouldn't be able to move at all. "I can do this faster if the little ones are out of the way. Take them to the hill. I'll join you there."

Gerard hesitated, then he nodded.

She was about to tell him that if she were delayed, they should go on to the caves without her. But that made her think of what it was that would be happening if she
were
delayed, and that made it hard not to leave right then and there with them, which would be the end of Aunt Josephine, and besides, if she hinted that something might happen to her, she had the feeling Gerard just might pick her up and drag her away, which, again, would be the end of Aunt Josephine. "Go," she said. "I'll join you."

And to show that she knew what she was doing, she ran up the stairs ahead of them. She heard them heading for the back door as she went down the hall to Uncle Raymond's study.

A false start already, she thought, as she shifted the flashlight to her left hand. The first thing she should have done was see to getting a light so that she could use both hands. But for now she grabbed up both his cameras, hanging the one with the strap around her neck and carrying the larger one. She managed to tuck a box of photographic paper under her arm and held the red cloth for the light between her teeth.

Back downstairs, she left the photographic equipment in the secret room then went to Uncle Raymond's work area. She had to climb onto the workbench to reach the utility light, but it was worth it, for the extension cord reached all the way back. She hung it on the edge of the one shelf Aunt Josephine had left up, the one where she kept the blankets. Then she started loading the shelf with what she'd brought.

Two more trips and she had everything. She turned off the light, draped the red cloth around it, and picked up the blankets and diaper and water bottle. She left the door open so nobody would notice there was no handle.

The blankets and diaper she stuffed into the chest of out-of-season clothes, and the water she put into the kitchen cupboard. She ran back into the study to rearrange a few of the pictures of Cecile so there wouldn't be an empty space.

Had the children made the beds? Lisette hoped so. She had never found the story that she and Cecile had been playing convincing, but her heart was beating so hard it hurt, and she couldn't bring herself to stay any longer. At least there were no dishes in the sink.

Taking the flashlight with her, she ran outside and nearly tripped over Softy, who was bleating insistently and obviously needed to be milked.

"Later," Lisette promised.

Someone had taken the time to close the barn door. Gerard, she realized. All he'd had on his feet had been Uncle Raymond's socks and he would have gone
back to get his boots before heading off for the woods and the caves.

She looked up the hill. Of course they'd had more than enough time to make the climb, and they'd know better than to stay at the edge where they could be seen.

Still, she hesitated at the barn, wondering if Gerard had hidden the rest of his clothes and, if not, what the Germans would make of his fourteenth-century outfit. Should she—

But she heard a low, familiar rumbling: a car engine.

Lisette ran.

At the top of the hill, Lisette looked back. Two cars with red and black swastikas were in the driveway and seven German soldiers were standing by the back door. Four of them were facing her direction, but she couldn't tell for sure if they'd seen her.

Stop being an idiot,
she told herself. Of course they'd seen. At least they hadn't shot at her. Yet. She ran in among the trees before they changed their minds.

A hand grabbed her arm near the elbow, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. The hand moved to cover her mouth, but after her startled squeal, she'd already recognized Gerard.

She pulled his hand down. "They saw me," she
hissed at him so the others—just beyond him—couldn't hear. All she needed was for them to panic again. At least Rachel had stopped crying and was only fussing.

Gerard gave a quick nod to indicate he'd heard, but he didn't answer. He just gestured for everyone to follow.

They came out of the woods at a different place from the spot where Lisette had looked down on Maurice's house. Here there was a long, narrow crack in the face of the cliff and Gerard headed for that.

Lisette looked back the way they'd come, sure that they'd left a trail of broken branches and footprints that anyone could follow. Next to her, Louis Jerome looked back, too, and said exactly what she was thinking: "If they can see where we came through the woods, they'll know exactly where we've gone."

"There is more than just one cave," Gerard said. "You could spend days in here and not see it all."

If you had enough food,
Lisette thought, but she didn't say it. She turned on her flashlight and Cecile turned on hers.

They had to walk single file, sideways, for several meters, then the crack opened up into the first cave.

"Where now?" Lisette moved her flashlight in an arc around the cave. There were several openings that looked big enough to pass through. She even shone the light on the ceiling, but just as she started to move the light back down to the floor, there was a rattle of pebbles from overhead and directly behind her.

She whirled around as something—she had the impression it was the size of a small German officer—launched itself at her face. She got her arm up just in time, and claws raked across her forearm.
That
told her what it was before her eyes could focus.

"Stupid cat!" she yelled, which was foolish, considering the circumstances.

Mimi gave her usual throaty growl, probably calling her a stupid human, and streaked away down a tunnel no bigger than herself.

Lisette's arm was bleeding, but there was no time to fuss over it.

Gerard chose a tunnel that was bigger than the one Mimi had used, but they all had to duck, except for the twins and Etienne.

The tunnel divided in two. Gerard led them down the section that was taller but narrower.

After several turns and a general impression of heading down, Lisette heard water. The next cavern they came to had a huge pool.

"The far wall," Gerard said, "comes just below the surface of the water. You can walk out about halfway or so. He glanced at the younger children skeptically. "Then we'll have to swim the rest of the way. Who knows how to swim?"

"I'm a wonderful swimmer," Cecile announced.

"Me, too," Etienne said.

Lisette judged the distance and nodded.

Louis Jerome shook his head
no.
The twins just stared at Gerard.

"All right," Gerard said. "Those of us who know how to swim will help the others."

"What happens when we get to the wall?" Lisette asked.

"It only goes about this far under the water." Gerard held his hands apart about as tall as the twins.

This was sounding worse and worse. The younger children were beginning to give each other panicked looks.

Lisette, who could swim but not very well, said, "So we have to hold our breath, dive into the water, pass under the wall..." Gerard was nodding. "For how long?"

"About a fifty-count."

"
Fifty?
" Even assuming counting faster than seconds, she'd never make it. "Gerard."

"I can help you," he said. "Halfway beneath the wall, the floor comes up and you can walk out to the other side. The water there..." He was indicating waist high. Which was still taller than the twins.

"What about the baby?" Etienne asked.

"Babies know how to hold their breath under water," Gerard said.

Cecile added, "Everybody knows that."

Lisette started to object again, but Etienne cut her off. "What about the baby?" he repeated more loudly.

"
I'll
take the baby," Gerard said. "The baby will be fine."

"You're going to kill the baby!" Etienne protested.

Gerard looked at Lisette as though expecting her
to convince Etienne. "I don't know," she started, "isn't—"

"You're going to kill the baby!" Etienne was shouting.

"Stop it," Cecile said. "The Germans will hear you."

Etienne got even louder. "You're going to kill the baby!"

Gerard stooped down in front of him and took his arm. "I would do nothing that would harm the baby," he said.

"Nobody
wants
to hurt a baby." Etienne was still shouting, but now he was crying, too. He yanked his arm away from Gerard. "My Maman didn't
want
to hurt
our
baby. Those things happen."

The last was obviously something he'd heard adults saying. The rest made no sense. Lisette stooped down also, shoulder to shoulder with Gerard. "Etienne, hush, quiet now. What are you saying?"

"When the Germans came to
my
house." He was still shouting, though not quite so loudly.

"What happened when the Germans came to your house?" Lisette asked. "Shh. Quietly now."

Etienne wiped his hand across his nose. "We hid in the attic," he said. "In the clothes chest. Me and Maman and my baby brother that we hadn't had a chance to name yet."

Lisette put her fingers to her lips and Etienne's voice dropped to a normal level. "We could hear the Germans coming up the stairs and the baby started to
cry. Maman said, 'Hush, little baby; hush, little baby,' but he kept crying and the Germans kept coming, and Maman put her hand over his mouth so they couldn't hear him crying, but he kept crying and we knew the Germans would hear him, so Maman held him real tight to her"—Etienne put both hands up to his chest to show how—"and the baby
didn't
know how to hold his breath."

For a long moment they just stayed there, looking at each other, listening to Etienne cry. Then Lisette pulled him in for a hug, being careful not to hold him too tight. She could see Gerard over Etienne's head.

"We'll go another way," Gerard said.

They had to go back part of the way, to one of the other tunnels that they had passed. And as they went back, they heard the approaching sound of hobnailed boots on the stone floor.

Gerard motioned for quiet, but everybody had heard already and they were walking on tiptoes and breathing as quietly as they could. Lisette was holding Rachel, and Rachel seemed to enjoy the moving around. For the moment.

Gerard ducked into a tunnel they had to crawl through.

It was difficult to crawl while holding Rachel, but the tunnel was short, and as soon as Gerard got to the end, he turned back around to take the baby from her
arms long enough so she could get through the last, narrowest bit.

Once they were all through, Gerard motioned for them to sit. He pointed at the flashlights Etienne and Louis Jerome were now holding, and the boys turned off the switches.

In the total darkness, Lisette felt that the stone walls and ceiling were closing in on her. She thought of the hugeness of the hills and she thought of all that rock collapsing on her, smothering her, crushing the air out of her till she slowly died. Or it might happen so fast she wouldn't even know it. She could be dead in less than an instant. Something touched her shoulder and she jumped, but it was only Gerard. He put his mouth to her ear and whispered, "Breathe through your nose."

She realized how loud she'd been and she put her hand over her mouth to make sure she didn't forget again. She stretched her legs out to feel the wall and sat tall so that her head touched the ceiling. Not that that would keep the stone from crushing her, but at least she would know it was coming.

And all the while there was the echoing sound of the boots, and then she could hear voices, closer and closer. She didn't understand German, but she could recognize the note of complaint in the voice that muttered constantly; and the other one—that obey-me-I'm-the-one-in-charge voice that was barking short orders: "Look here. Check there," she imagined.

The boots and the voices must be on the other side of their tunnel, but there were two sharp angles, so they couldn't see the Germans' light. Rachel started to squirm, not liking the dark and the stillness and Lisette's tight grasp.

Don't cry,
Lisette mentally begged, frantically rocking her.
Please don't cry.
She imagined Etienne and his mother and his baby brother huddled in the clothes chest, except that in her mind his mother looked like
her
mother, and the baby was
her
brother, François. She leaned forward to give Rachel's face desperate, distracting kisses.
Don't cry.

It must have taken the Germans all of five minutes to pass by and then move out of hearing, but it felt like forever.

After the last echoes of their passing had died away, Gerard whispered, "Do the lights come back on?"

There were two flares of brightness.

The walls, Lisette was happy to see, were exactly where they were supposed to be, and Rachel was contentedly sucking on a strand of Lisette's hair.

Gerard was already on his feet. "Careful," he warned. "There's a drop."

Just beyond where they had stopped, the floor ended as abruptly as though it had been cut off. Etienne pointed his flashlight over the edge.

Gerard leapt down before Lisette had a chance to see the bottom. He skidded but didn't fall on the stones underfoot. He'd jumped about twice his
height. One by one, they got the children down, the older ones going last to help the smaller ones. Lisette was the very last. She sat on the edge with her legs dangling. Gerard reached up as she reached down, and she felt, all in all, that it was a fairly elegant jump. She looked into his eyes and thought what a terrible thing it would be to die at this point in her life.