In an effort to calm down, Franck got out his phone and listened to his only message, but there was nothing, just silence broken up with distant beeps. He kept the phone to his ear, pretending to speak as he casually weaved his way through the crowd and off to the left. Seen from a distance, the butcher on his platform dominated the scene. Franck could feel him watching him as he boned the shoulder of beef. He was watching him as he cut around the animal’s radial bone with practised movements. The butcher watched him leave without even looking at the carcass, as if he were saying: ‘The two of us will meet again. We’ll meet again.’

September 1914

September 1914

Lucien would not say what he had seen up there. Instead he told everyone that the lion tamer would definitely need eighty pounds of fresh meat a day to feed his eight massive wild animals. That was the equivalent of one large dog, or a ewe, or two children. But, he said, the German still had goats and ewes left, so he must be feeding them something else … The women were immediately fearful for their children. The villagers also worried about the sheep hidden on the other side of the hills, the large secret flock that the requisition committee were not to know about.

When the weather was good, the sheep were left on the summer pasture. From April to October they grazed in the grassy valleys, the land having been left fallow after the destruction of the vines. Le Simple watched over them up there with three dogs. In the evening, he herded them into the shelters and during the day he took them from one clearing to the next, according to what kind of grass he wanted them to eat. The pastures on that side of the hills were fertile, with thousands of hectares which would go to waste if not used. In a sense, the sheep were gardening, and without them, trees would have taken over, and the hills would have been covered with forests. It was comforting to know that the sheep were enjoying those enormous pastures, far away from everything. Le Simple was not afraid of wolves and always slept with two loaded rifles beside him.