“I… uh, yes. Foil.” The lieutenant glanced quickly at Victoria to see if by chance she’d interpreted his claim and would dispute it.

Derrick smiled. “Is that so? Good.”

Relief flashed across the lieutenant’s face at the colonel’s friendliness, taking it as evidence that his story had been accepted. His expression turned to horror when the colonel stepped to the swords stacked against the stairwell and took two foils by their pommels.

“Mademoiselle Colbert,” Derrick said softly, his eyes on the lieutenant, “perhaps it would be best that you go upstairs. We will not engage today, but I would appreciate your waiting for me. Also, may I impose upon you to ask my driver to join me in the basement?”

Victoria complied without a word, but at the top of the stairs she heard the whip of a foil tested in the air and the colonel say, “En guarde!”

Less than fifteen minutes later, unruffled, showing no effects of the deed Victoria was certain had been committed in the basement, Colonel Derrick Albrecht reappeared in the salle’s small conference room, where she waited shivering in her bloodied silk blouse, still shaken. The colonel was without his gloves but was wearing his overcoat, which she’d guessed the contest in the boiler room did not call for him to remove. He carried her jacket and coat over his arm. She stared up at him accusingly. “There were no protective rubber tips on the points of those foils,” she said.

“So Oberleutnant Peter Janssen discovered.”

Despite her loathing for the lieutenant, Victoria demanded, “What did you do to him?”

“I did not relieve France of one more Wehrmacht officer, if that is your concern,” he said. He held open her jacket. “I merely taught him a lesson in manners. Come, you must be freezing, and did I hear a murmur of hunger earlier? When did you eat last?”

“It is no matter,” Victoria said, slipping into the blissful warmth of her jacket and then her coat. “I am fine. My gratitude for your assistance. Now all I require is to get to my hotel.”

“Without your laundry? I assume those were your delicates hanging on the line?”

“Oh, yes, there are those. I’ll just go get them…”

“That is not necessary. Karl is folding them now. They’re dry. He’s married and therefore knows the finesse required to handle such items. He’ll take them to the car.”

“No—no, really, Colonel,” she said, understanding his meaning. “You are kind to offer a ride, and again I am so grateful for your appearing when you did, but I am quite all right now. The metro is not far, and the walk will do me good. I can get to my hotel on my own.”