Suzie would listen to the adults’ conversations to learn what she could of the Germans’ activities. When they first arrived Henri had hoped that they would be recalled immediately, because of the Allied landings in Normandy. All the other units of the SS tank division stationed in the region were being moved north to repel the invading Americans and British. Reports reached them of the tanks lumbering through the countryside and the clashes that followed, but their Germans made no preparations to move and the hope died. They realised that this unit, of the young, the old, the wounded, had been left behind; were with them indefinitely.

Which was worse, she asked herself. Living under Sabine’s power, or the Germans’? Once Sabine’s moral domination over her was assured and Madame Ariane’s influence defeated, Sabine had developed new lines in tyranny. The possibilities of physical terror were opened up by Suzie herself.

The summer of her arrival at Bonnemort was hot. Days of relentless sunshine were broken intermittently by nights of storm. Every evening the children would take the cliff path to the lake to swim. For Suzie this was one of the first and worst ordeals of living at Bonnemort. She did not know how to swim and was terrified of the water, of the way it seemed to rise up to envelop her, however hard she tried to keep her head above the surface, of the way it seeped, stinging and choking her, into her eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth. She was squeamish, too, and although the water was kept pure by the ceaseless, invisible flow that filled the lake from the spring and drained it to the river, she disliked the idea of sharing it with fish and waterfowl.

Madame Ariane was a formidable sportswoman. Suzie had turned the pages of her photograph albums, which portrayed her before the war, swimming, sailing, skiing. For her it was natural that the girls should ride and swim, even if other sports were denied them. She familiarised Suzie with the water and the strokes she must make to master it. Then she suggested that Sabine should help her practise. Sabine herself had only learned to swim the previous summer, also taught by Madame Ariane.

She had been an apt pupil and now spent hours swimming up and down, or perfecting her diving. She was delighted to take over as teacher.

Immediately she discovered the difference between her own boldness in the water and Suzie’s timidity. She would manipulate Suzie’s fear, using it to punish or threaten, whenever she wished. If she wanted to please Suzie, she would help her, or even better, leave her alone. When they pulled themselves out of the lake, their woollen costumes drooping with the weight of water, Suzie would be filled with relief that she had survived the afternoon without drowning. However, when Suzie was in disgrace for some imaginary act of disloyalty, Sabine would use her power to terrify her, jumping into the pool, diving beneath her, seizing her legs to pull her under. She enjoyed the exercise of power and extended her rule, bit by bit, creatively, to demand all kinds of acts of physical daring. Her cruelty was not applied every day. Suzie came to recognise threatening situations and did what she could to evade or postpone them. Sometimes they could not be avoided.