What would happen, she wondered, if these men, her countrymen, who spoke her language, discovered who she was? She had no doubt that it would be something terrible. She would certainly be removed from Bonnemort and from Madame Ariane, who was her only link with Maman and Papa. If she were taken away to one of the camps that they used to speak about with horror in Clermont Ferrand, how would her parents find her when the war was over, as Madame Ariane promised it soon would be? The threat lay in Sabine, whose power over her, absolute since her arrival, was now made immediately dangerous. Even the most trivial act, interpreted as disloyalty, could arouse Sabine’s bullying, a subtle combination of sulking, denial of friendship, taunts, threats and sly physical persecution. Now these trials, which she had lived with daily, seemed nothing in comparison with denunciation to the Germans.

When Sabine understood that Madame Ariane was to dine with the officers, she exploded with rage. Suzie could not work out whether she was infuriated because her stepmother was being awarded a privilege which should somehow have gone to her, or whether, by sitting at table with the German officers, Madame Ariane was collaborating.

‘Well watch them, to see what’s going on,’ Sabine decided. ‘We can’t,’ Suzie objected, in alarm. ‘We’re not allowed to go into the house. We have to stay in the tower.’

‘She just says that, so we shan’t see what she’s doing.’

‘No, no, the officer said …’

‘You understood what he said?’

‘Yes,’ Suzie admitted reluctantly.

‘That’s good. We shall understand what they say as well as see what they do.’ As always, Sabine’s will overpowered Suzie’s.

It was not difficult for them to enter the house from the upper storey of the tower, to creep down the stairs and to hide. It was made easier when they discovered that the batman had prepared the dinner table in the blue salon, which had a gallery. Sabine led Suzie up the spiral staircase while the servant was out of the room. At eight o’clock they were lying flat on the floor of the gallery, with a God’s-eye view directly onto a round table laid for three.

They heard footsteps and the major and lieutenant entered, preceded by Madame Ariane. The major took Madame Ariane’s usual place at the head of the table. She sat on his right and the lieutenant sat opposite her, with a view out of the window. There was silence while the batman placed in front of each of them a bowl of thin vegetable soup. Sabine nudged Suzie as he stood back and wiped his thumb, sticky from the soup plate, on the seat of his trousers. Suzie resolutely refused to look at her, keeping her eyes fixed on the three figures below them. In that way she might prevent Sabine from starting an irresistible burst of giggling that would risk everything. Sabine did not understand that these were not people who would punish a childish prank with a reprimand.