‘No,’ Maman said.

‘Rahel, what would you like to be called?’

‘I like Rahel. I am Rahel.’

‘Suzie,’ Madame de Cazalle said firmly. ‘It’s a Jewish name and a French name. Do you like Suzanne?’

Silence.

Maman said, ‘I like Suzie very much.’

So she became Suzie and Rahel was left with Maman. Madame de Cazalle explained that life was becoming more and more difficult for Jews in France, especially if they did not have French nationality. The German authorities had just announced that in the occupied zone they had to wear a yellow star …

Rahel listened with boredom. Why was it that adults told you things that you knew perfectly well, as if they were breaking terrible news? Life was always becoming more and more difficult for the Jews. Papa and Maman used to talk about it long ago in Paris, and since they left Paris and came to Clermont it was worse.

Maman opened her eyes and made an effort. ‘Rahel, you will live with Madame de Cazalle until the war is over. You won’t tell anyone at all that you are Jewish. And when the war is over, Papa come and find us both and we are all together again. So you are Suzie Ollivier now and you do whatever Madame de Cazalle says. If she says you are to go to mass, you go to mass. You do just what her little girl does. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, Maman.’ Rahel caressed her hand.

‘Promise you will never tell anyone who you are.’

‘I promise, Maman.’

It pleased her mother to speak to her as if she was very young and very stupid. She played this game too, hiding what she knew and what she guessed, because if they did not speak it, it might not be true. But this was spoken and it was about to be true.

She met Sabine for the first time late in the afternoon in the tower room, always known as Madame Ariane’s salon, to distinguish it from the big salon, the little salon, the blue salon, all the other rooms in the enormous house. From the outside its facade seemed to go on for ever; inside there were doors, corridors, rooms without end.

The journey had been long. She had said goodbye to Maman in the early hours of the morning and left without shedding a tear. They took the bus to the station and waited. They sat in the train for three hours. They got out at a country station and waited. They took another train, a stopping one with only two carriages. Suzie hardly paid attention to the changing scenery or their fellow travellers. All the time she thought of Maman alone, with no one to care for her.

At one point Madame de Cazalle said, ‘You will call me Madame Ariane, because there is another Madame de Cazalle where we are going. And Madame Veyrines, her sister-in-law. And you’re going to meet another little girl, just a bit older than you. She’s called Sabine. You mustn’t tell her about Maman and Papa. We’re going to say that Maman is a friend of mine, which indeed she is. My father has known your grandfather for many, many years, so we must be friends. And you must say that Maman is not well, so you are coming to live with us. And remember, you are called Suzanne Ollivier. The olive tree is the sign of peace, so your new name is looking forward to when peace will come.’