Aimee remembered the man with the walking cane and the black cloak. From time to time she looked back and thought she saw his shadow in the shadows.

‘Fifty kilometres to Hirson and Madame Clare’s home,’ Aimee said to Marius after she had looked at the army maps. ‘The enemy are still falling back. It could take us a month to get there. But when we do, there’s someone there to see you safely home,’ she promised.

‘Home,’ Marius murmured.

Chapter Eight: ‘Friendship is tested when bad luck strikes’

Chapter Eight

‘Friendship is tested when bad luck strikes’

6 November 1918: Hirson

The British army moved forward steadily. The Germans were sick and war-weary. Some troops stood and fought. Some threw down their weapons and decided their war was over. All they wanted was the silver hand of peace.

As the British moved forward the two German spies followed. The sight of Sergeant Grimm’s uniform and Father Gaulle’s priestly clothes meant no one stopped them in the fog and fury of war. At last, on 6th November, the German forces were driven out of Hirson and Sergeant Grimm and Father Gaulle rode into the town.

The town had not been damaged. The German retreat had passed through quickly. Grimm and Gaulle went to the town’s best tavern and found rooms before British officers could take them all.

The wind was icy now and the two men huddled around a log fire in the bar room. ‘I asked in the grocer shop and learned this Madame Clare lives in a large house in the woods a mile north of the town,’ Silver Hand said. ‘The house is still empty, except for a gardener and his wife. The grocer says the gardener has had an order from Madame Clare. She’ll be home tomorrow with two new servants.’

‘We can guess who the servants are. Tomorrow they will breathe their last,’ the priest said.

‘The girl and the boy have seen us both. They’ve run away from us before and they’ll do it again as soon as they see us.’

‘Then you’ll have to stalk them like you would a tiger. Hide in the trees and shoot them before they see you. I have a feeling their luck is about to run out,’ Father Gaulle said.

‘You aren’t going to help me?’ Grimm asked.

‘I’ll be with you, as ever, my friend. In at the kill, as the British say,’ he said coldly.

Daisy seemed to pick up her hooves and trotted happily when she knew she was near Hirson. The skies were cold and grey as zinc and there was the scent of snow in the air. When Madame Clare reached her home she seemed a different woman from the sulky one who had spent her money on warm clothes for Aimee and Marius. Her voice was shrill once more as she told her gardener the house wasn’t clean enough.