The Librarian Spy(39)
“Miss Harper is the woman I mentioned,” James said.
“Ah, oui.” Monsieur Blanchet nodded. “La bibliothécaire américaine.”
The American librarian.
James casually lifted a finger at someone across the room. “Do excuse me a moment.”
“By all means,” Monsieur Blanchet said smoothly.
James glided off, leaving Ava with the Frenchman.
“It is a strange place, is it not?” he asked in French as he surveyed the room. “What is your opinion of all this?”
“It appears to be a glimpse of heaven amid the hell of war,” Ava responded back in French.
“A glimpse?” His brows rose.
She had given offense. “Pardon, Monsieur Blanchet. I only mean that it is so small a place in times such as ours.”
“Please,” he said genially, “call me Lamant. And you are not wrong, so I am not offended. You needn’t worry.” He cocked his head. “This is a mirage, a shimmering promise on the horizon that disappears once you grow closer. I was curious on your opinion on the matter.”
“Well, that’s it exactly.” Ava looked at the room again, at the hip bones jutting through silk gowns, at the strain lining men’s smiles, at the heavy pours of amber liquid into the cut crystal glasses. “It doesn’t seem real.”
“It is not,” Lamant agreed. “We all left our homes where we were starving. We are here until we no longer have the money to afford a room, biding our time for visas and passes as generations of inheritances trickle through our fingers like sand through an hourglass. We are safe, yes, but for how long?”
The rhetorical question lingered in the air between them, neither having an answer despite both wishing they did.
“James said I would like you and he was not wrong,” Lamant said. “I have something I think you will find interesting. Something that may help. There are newspapers printed beneath that preposterous mustache of Hitler’s. Men and women who risk their lives to publish the truth. I brought them with me from Lyon when I was smuggled out and have been wanting to ensure they fall into the right hands. James has told me you are such a person.”
The grandeur of the room fell away, and she focused the whole of her attention on Lamant. There had been mention of these clandestine papers at the embassy, but she had failed to acquire any thus far. “I can promise you if I am given those newspapers, I will personally ensure they are seen to properly.”
“It is as I figured.” A grateful smile stretched over his thin lips.
James made his way back toward them from across the room.
“I will have them delivered to your car while we dine,” Lamant said. “I also have ways of acquiring more if you like. Mademoiselle Harper—” he bowed over her hand and kissed the back of her glove once more “—it was a genuine honor.”
He left as James approached, a silent nod shared between them. “Forgive the interruption,” James said. “I hope you found Monsieur Blanchet as interesting as anticipated.”
He led her to dinner where they were served soupe à l’oignon, coq au vin and ended with a decadent chocolate soufflé. Ava ate until the narrow waist of her dress began to squeeze at her full stomach. When they had finished and the mix of a fine port weighed down the airy sips of her champagne, they departed the Palacio.
Ava’s pulse quickened as the car was brought around, a large manila envelope evident on the passenger seat. She practically fell into the vehicle in her haste to see its contents. Conscious of the valet nearby, she left the packet in her lap, its heft seemingly significant. Or perhaps that was simply her imagination.
Once James pulled away, however, she opened the flap and drew out several pages of newsprint. They were smaller than expected, the size of a piece of office paper, with Combat written at the top with the familiar Cross of Lorraine emblazoned across the bold C. There were eight issues inside, their dates two weeks apart. The contents detailed the Nazi wrongdoings in France, mothers whose bread rations weren’t enough to feed their babies and the failure of a program called relève, which claimed to send captured French soldiers home as it exhorted free labor from the women wanting to save their men. One newspaper from April even detailed a horrific event in which the Nazis set up a trap to capture Jews on the one day a week they were allowed the charity of food and medical assistance.
She couldn’t help but recall the American newspapers with buried articles about Hitler trying to eradicate the Jews. The mention of numbers killed had been exorbitant to the point of disbelief for those in America who were so far removed from the crises.
But Ava had always suspected there was something candid and awful in those harrowing words that others refused to believe. Reading Combat now made those seeds of trust sprout, the roots settling deep within her.
“This is incredible,” she murmured to herself.
“I knew you would find Lamant helpful.” James glanced at her as he drove.
“Very much so.” She lowered the stack of precious pages. “But why give them to me when you could be using them?”
“My assignment here is a little different,” he replied easily.
Before she could press him for more details, he continued, “Theo and Alfie are too busy for me to send these their way and they don’t read French. I thought you could truly appreciate them.”