CHAPTER SEVEN
January 1941
A baby! It was nearly all that Charlotte could think about. What a lucky child to be born into a home with a loving mother and father, where the parents were allowed to work. Her own home life had been greatly disrupted by her father’s recent situation.
“Those Nazi bastards,” Papa said on a snowy night in January as Charlotte sat huddled with her parents around the kitchen furnace. Fuel was scarce, and they were burning an old dining room chair. It had been stored in the closet near the front door for occasions when they might have guests, but Charlotte supposed that wouldn’t be happening for a while.
“Reuven, your language,” Maman said, casting a glance at Charlotte.
“It’s okay,” Charlotte said. “I know many bad words.”
Her father fixed her with a glare. “Well, you should not. You are a lady.”
“And yet you curse in front of her all the time,” Maman pointed out.
Papa sighed and looked away. “It is the time we are living in. One cannot help but become emotional.”
“This is not the first time we’ve endured desperate circumstances,” Maman said.
Maman and Papa exchanged looks, and Charlotte knew they were thinking about the Great War. Maman had lost two brothers. Papa had lost his twin, Michel. All had fought for the French army.
“I know,” Papa murmured softly, squeezing Maman’s hand.
Charlotte knew she had promised Ruby that she wouldn’t reveal her secret, but in the heavy silence, something made her blurt it out. “Madame Benoit is having a baby!”
Maman and Papa both turned to stare at her. “Madame Benoit?” Maman asked.
Charlotte knew she’d made a mistake by saying something, but there was a sparkle in her mother’s eyes now that hadn’t been there before. “Yes,” she mumbled. “But it is supposed to be a secret.”
“Oh my.” Papa looked worried. “But how will a baby survive in the midst of all this?”
“They are not Jewish,” Maman reminded him.
“I suppose. But still, to bring a child into a war . . .”
“It will end soon,” Maman said.
Papa shook his head. “It will not end until all of France has become German. And when that happens, we will not be here to witness it.”
“Why?” Charlotte interjected. “Where are we going?”
Her father turned to her, an almost dazed expression on his face. “We are not going anywhere, my dear Charlotte.” He wouldn’t meet her eye. “Of course we are not going anywhere.”
CHARLOTTE WORRIED CONSTANTLY THAT RUBY would know her confidence had been betrayed, so when she saw her standing on the terrace on a frigid morning in late January, she rushed outside to confess.
“I told Maman and Papa about the baby,” she said, her words tumbling out. “I’m so sorry. I know it was meant to be a secret.”
Ruby turned to her with a weary smile. Her cheeks were sunken, her face drawn, and she was too tightly bundled in sweaters and overcoats for Charlotte to see whether her belly had grown. “Oh, Charlotte, it’s fine. I would have told them myself whenever I next saw them.” Ruby took a sip from a steaming mug. “How are your parents? I haven’t seen them in more than a month.”
Charlotte looked down. “They are fine, thank you.” The truth was that they were anything but. Papa was barely sleeping. At night, he pored over his account books and slammed his fists on the table. And Maman had slipped deeper into a depression that Charlotte didn’t understand. Maybe when Ruby’s baby came, it would bring Maman back to life. Ruby’s own mother was all the way back in America, so surely Ruby would need Maman’s help.
Ruby studied Charlotte for a long time, giving Charlotte the distinct feeling that she could see right through her. After a while, she smiled sadly. “And how are you, Charlotte? Is school going well?”
“I suppose. Although my only friend, Micheline, left for the south with her family three weeks ago. Papa says that even if I feel lonely now, I must hold my head high and pretend I don’t hear the things the others are saying about Jews.” Before Ruby could begin to feel sorry for her, though, Charlotte changed the subject, blurting out the question that had been weighing on her mind. “And Monsieur Benoit? He is very happy about the baby too?”
Something flickered across Ruby’s face. “Oh, yes. I think he will make a wonderful father.”
Charlotte nodded, but before she could say anything else, she heard her mother calling for her from inside. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I must go to school now.”
“Of course. I’ll see you later, then. And, Charlotte? Whenever you feel lonely, remember you have me for a friend.”
Charlotte couldn’t shake the conversation with Ruby all morning. She sat through her teachers’ lectures with her mind whirling as she replayed the look on Ruby’s face again and again. Her words about Monsieur Benoit making a wonderful father had sounded like a lie, but how could they be?
Then again, Monsieur Benoit was a bit of a mystery. Charlotte sometimes felt guilty, because Ruby had made a point of calling Charlotte her friend, but Charlotte hadn’t been completely honest with her. Wouldn’t a friend tell another friend that her husband was keeping secrets? She knew only that late at night when she couldn’t sleep, she sometimes heard Ruby’s husband whispering to people in the hall outside her door. Once in a while, there were movements too, shuffling, scraping, clicking sounds that didn’t make sense.
Now that Ruby was going to have a baby, Charlotte knew that she must find out what Monsieur Benoit was up to. It was the least she could do. Ruby had called her a friend, after all. So that night, after her parents were asleep, Charlotte crept out of bed and into the parlor. She felt fiercely protective of her neighbor all of a sudden, and as she sat in the darkness, waiting, she realized it was because of the look in Ruby’s eyes when she’d talked of Monsieur Benoit that morning. Charlotte didn’t understand what it was, exactly, but she knew something was wrong.
The hours ticked by, and Charlotte fought off the urge to fall asleep. By two-thirty in the morning, she began to think that she was being a fool. She had just gotten up to return to bed when there was a noise in the hall. She gasped and tiptoed to the door to look through the small peephole.
It was Monsieur Benoit! He was dressed in a dark overcoat that glistened with snowflakes. He had just come in from the cold, long past the curfew, and now he was standing in the hallway—crouching, really—and breathing hard. Charlotte stood as still as she could, but she had to stop herself from inhaling sharply a few seconds later when the front door to the building opened a crack. There was a noise on the stairs, and then there was a shadowy figure standing just outside Charlotte’s door.
“The bird flies at night,” the person said softly, and Charlotte was startled to realize that the voice belonged to a woman. Had Monsieur Benoit taken a mistress? While Ruby was pregnant? Icy anger coursed through Charlotte’s veins.
“Only through the storm,” Monsieur Benoit murmured back. It made no sense at all, but at least it wasn’t the amorous reply of a man to his paramour.
“Here,” the woman said, producing a small parcel from beneath her cloak and thrusting it at him. “Be careful.” And then she was gone again, down the stairs and out into the snowy night.
Charlotte remained as still as a statue in the silence that followed. For a long time, Monsieur Benoit just stood there, clutching the parcel and staring at the front door. It was almost as if he was expecting someone else. Then, finally, he seemed to snap out of his trance. All at once, he was a flurry of motion, unwinding the strings of the package and pulling out its contents, which, in the darkness, Charlotte could barely see. But it seemed to be a collection of men’s clothing, a tin of something, and a few fat sausages. What on earth?
Just when Charlotte thought the night couldn’t get any stranger, Monsieur Benoit stepped to the blank wall opposite his apartment, looked around, and pressed on one of the panels on the lower right side. This time, Charlotte couldn’t contain her gasp as a small door slid open and Marcel slipped inside. There was a hidden compartment in the hall large enough for a man? A moment later, he reemerged, his arms empty, and touched the wall again. The door slid closed and Monsieur Benoit looked furtively around once more before entering his own apartment, which Charlotte could see clearly because her doorway sat in the corner of the building, overlooking the whole hall.
Charlotte wanted to venture out to test the hidden door for herself, but if Monsieur Benoit heard her, she would certainly be in trouble. So she resolved to wait until the next time she saw him leave at night. She would learn then what secrets he was hiding, and she’d tell Ruby when the time was right. That’s what a true friend would do.