China Blue (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 3) by Madalyn Morgan (top 100 novels of all time TXT) 📕

Sitting by the fire, they drank red wine and listened to the wireless. The atmosphere was subdued. André left after half an hour saying he would be back in the morning to discuss how they were going to get Alain out of German headquarters, after he had organised the distribution of the drop. Shortly after his brother had gone, Frédéric left saying he was going to his room to write a letter to Monique at her grandmother’s house.

In a strained voice, Édith called goodnight to her son, but Claire, in fear of breaking down, dropped to her knees and attended to the fire. Looking into the flames, she heard Frédéric’s step on the stairs. He was humming a tune. As he reached his bedroom door she heard it click open – and a second later it clicked shut. ‘Édith, you can’t let Frédéric find Monique tomorrow,’ she said, leaping up and sitting beside her friend. ‘Losing his fiancée will break his heart, but finding her dead in the river will destroy him. If you tell him she fell from the bridge, he is sure to think she was on her way to see him, and will blame himself for her death.’

Édith Belland thought for some minutes before draining her glass. ‘You are right. Finding Monique – seeing her as she looks now – will be too much for the boy. At dawn tomorrow I will go to see Father Albert and ask him to take me to Monique in his car. We will bring her back to the church. I shall take off her soiled dress and put her in one of mine.’

‘We have money, Édith. Could we not buy a new dress?’

Édith smiled. ‘The dress I am thinking of is cream and made of silk. It was part of my trousseau. It is beautiful, as Monique is beautiful. And I shall brush her hair. Did you find her handbag?’ Claire shook her head. ‘Then I shall take my powder and lipstick – and rouge for her cheeks. I shall make her look lovely again. Then Father Albert and I will lay her in the chapel.’

Suddenly remembering the hair slide, Claire said, ‘I won’t be a moment.’ She ran to the kitchen and took the silver slide from her coat pocket. ‘I found this,’ she said, on her return.

Édith took the slide and clutched it to her breast. Large pear-shaped tears fell from her eyes and she wiped them away with the flat of her hand. ‘It is one of a pair. They belonged to my mother. She wore them on her wedding day, and I wore them on mine. I gave one to Thérèse when she and André got engaged and this one I gave to Monique when she and Frédéric announced… Thank you. I shall put it in the child’s hair tomorrow.’

‘And you won’t tell Frédéric that Monique died at the farm?’

‘No. And I won’t tell him that you and Alain found her.’ Claire was relieved. Frédéric would want to know where and how; details that Claire didn’t want him to know. ‘I shall suggest to Father Albert, strongly, that he tells Frédéric that Monique was found by the railway station. So he will not blame himself for her death. It is sometimes necessary, to save those we love from heartache, not to tell them the truth.’ Édith Belland looked at Claire through tired eyes. ‘I am not sure how happy Father Albert will be about lying, but I do the cleaning at the church, and wash and iron the altar linen as well as his robes. I don’t think he’ll want to lose my services, do you?’ The question was rhetorical. ‘If he wants to debate the moral rights and wrongs of what I ask of him, I shall tell him firmly that Monique and Frédéric are innocent victims. It is German soldiers who are guilty.’ She put her hands up to her mouth and took a sharp breath.

‘What is it, Édith?’

‘Frédéric must never know that Monique’s death was anything to do with the Germans.’

‘But surely he’ll find out eventually. Won’t the authorities want to talk to him--?’

 ‘Why should they? If we don’t tell them they won’t need to talk to him. No! We will not tell anyone. What happened to Monique will stay between you, Alain, and me.’

‘That means the soldiers who killed her will get away with murder.’

‘People are killed all the time, in many different ways, in war.’

‘Killing Monique, having their way with her before they killed her, wasn’t war. It was rape and murder, Édith. They should be punished,’ Claire said.

‘Of course they should, but it will not bring Monique back and it will devastate Frédéric.’ Claire saw fear in Édith’s eyes. ‘He would blame himself, because his fiancée went to the farm and he wasn’t there, and then he would go looking for the German soldiers and… Either way it would destroy him. He is passionate, some would say hot-headed. He acts before he thinks. If he even suspected there had been foul play, he would go after the German soldiers who go to the farm with girls – and he would get himself killed.’ Édith made two fists and crossed her arms over her chest. ‘I beg you, my dear, do not tell him.’

‘Shush…’ Claire put her arms round her friend. ‘If you don’t want me to tell him I won’t.’

‘Promise me that it will be our secret, that you will never tell Frédéric, or anyone.’

‘I promise. Now,’ Claire said, ‘I’ll clear up down here, and you go up to bed. You look exhausted.’ She took Édith’s glass and put it on the shelf above the fire.

‘Tomorrow,’ Édith said, flicking the air as if irritated her. ‘We will wash up tomorrow.’ On the landing outside her bedroom Édith hugged Claire. ‘I shall never forget what you did for