The Room on Rue Amélie(56)

“I’m not just a girl.” Charlotte’s voice from the doorway interrupted them, startling Ruby.

“Charlotte.” Ruby jumped up from the bed. “I thought you were asleep.”

Charlotte glanced at Samuel and then back at Ruby. “I’m not just a girl,” she repeated. “I want to do something. And I’m not leaving France.”

Ruby could feel her chest tightening. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough.”

Ruby prayed she hadn’t heard her repeat the rumors of putting Jews to death. Besides, there was no reason to think that would happen to Charlotte’s parents. Surely the French police wouldn’t be complicit in doing that to their own people. “Charlotte, we need to do everything we can to keep you safe.”

Charlotte shook her head. “This is my country too. I want to help. I want to do something, just like you are. Saving these pilots has given you a life back. It’s made you feel that you’re making a difference. I want to make a difference too. I want to make sure Maman and Papa come home safely.”

“And they will.” Ruby regretted the words as soon as she’d said them because it wasn’t a promise she could keep. It was all out of her hands. “But, Charlotte, I won’t put you in harm’s way. You’re a child.”

Charlotte stared at her, and in the silence, Ruby heard the words the girl hadn’t spoken. She wasn’t a child anymore. She hadn’t been for a long time; the war had changed them all. “I need to know what’s happened to them,” Charlotte said at last.

“I will see what I can find out. But for now, you must get some rest. All of us must. If we’re going to fight, we need to keep our strength.” Ruby glanced at Samuel. “You can return to the closet in the hall if you’d like, but I don’t think the police are coming back tonight. Why don’t you take the couch? You can hide in the wardrobe if anyone comes. And, Charlotte, why don’t you sleep here with me?” Ruby gestured to the other side of her bed. “We’ll figure everything out in a few hours.”



JUST PAST TEN IN THE morning, Ruby left the apartment to find Aubert, who would surely know what was going on. Samuel had promised he’d stay to protect Charlotte. “I’ll be fine alone,” Charlotte had protested, but he’d been unwavering.

“This is what the war is about,” he’d said solemnly in English. Charlotte’s eyes had filled with tears as Ruby translated the words for her. “I’m here to fight for you and your parents. I’ll keep you safe. I swear it on my life.”

The streets were eerily quiet, save for the police lorries and buses that rumbled by every few minutes. Ruby felt sick as she looked at the faces of the people staring out from the bus windows; there were at least as many women and children as there were men, and they all looked terrified. It seemed that the roundups were continuing and that most people had stayed inside their apartments to avoid it all. Ruby felt conspicuous as she hurried along, head down, toward the dance studio.

“You shouldn’t have come.” Aubert’s face was drawn and pale as he answered the studio door after five minutes of Ruby’s insistent pounding. “If you’d been followed . . .”

“I wasn’t followed. They’re too busy arresting innocent Jews to pay attention to me.”

“Quickly, come inside.” Aubert put a hand on her arm and led her into the back room. She was surprised to find Laure already standing there.

“Hello, Fleur,” Laure said, kissing Ruby on both cheeks. Ruby reciprocated stiffly.

“Laure here was just telling me what she’s been able to find out about the roundups,” Aubert said, taking a seat and gesturing for Ruby to sit down too.

Laure nodded, and Ruby realized the other woman looked rattled. She’d never seen Laure in anything less than total control. “The roundups aren’t over,” Laure said solemnly. “They’re continuing through many parts of the city, although thank God, many people have gotten word now and have gone into hiding. So there will be at least a few saved.”

“Saved from what?” Ruby asked, afraid to know the answer.

“Word is they’re being sent out of the country from Drancy.”

“Drancy?” Ruby knew the place only as a suburb of Paris.

“It’s the location of a new internment camp,” Aubert explained. “The French police control it, and people are shipped east by rail from there.”

“To Germany. And Poland. To work camps.” Laure glanced at Aubert. “And death camps.”

“No.” Ruby’s reply was instant. “The French police wouldn’t do that. They couldn’t.”

Laure sighed. “Don’t be na?ve. It’s happening. You saw it with your own eyes last night, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here?”

“Yes. But they’re taking children. They couldn’t possibly be sending them east to work.” Ruby felt nauseated as she heard the truth in her own words. They were being sent east to die.

Laure and Aubert exchanged looks, but neither of them said anything for a long while. “It’s why the things we’re doing are so important.” It was Aubert who finally broke the silence. “We have to put a stop to this, and helping the Allies is the best way we know how.”