Violins of Autumn by Amy McAuley Page B

for May, isn’t it? My hair is hot enough to fry an egg.”
    How did he coax so much small talk out of me?
    “A young woman shouldn’t be traveling alone.”
    “I can look out for myself,” I say, guarding my words more closely. “I had a bicycle, but the Germans took it from me.”
    “Taking. They’re quite good at that. They’ll take until there is nothing left for them to take, and even then they will look for more.”
    I keep quiet. Expressing anti-German sentiment or any other inflammatory statements around a stranger can get me into a heap of trouble, even if the doctor supports the liberation of France. Spies and collaborators have to pass for ordinary people, so I’m not about to accept his introduction at face value. For all I know he’s not even a doctor, although the car does support him being a wealthy Frenchman of importance.
    As the car rolls through the countryside, all I can do is imagine how much longer this trip would take on a bicycle. The country seems so vast. How will I ever find Denise and Robbie again? The worry that we’ve been separated for good pushes to the front of my mind for a moment before I can shake it off. I know the situation isn’t as hopeless as it feels. They’re on their way to Paris. Denise and I have the address of our circuit leader’s safe house memorized. Eventually we’ll catch up to them on the road. And the looks on their faces when my chauffeured car drives past will be priceless.
    The thought makes me laugh, more like a goose than a girl, which startles the doctor. He rights his hat.
    “I’m sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you,” I say. “I thought of something funny.”
    “It’s a nice change to see such a happy person. I know too many who have become dour and fearful, going from one day to the next with a grim face and a cold heart, believing the way of the past will never return. They have forgotten that we live inone of the world’s greatest cities. I don’t like to see it. If we all give up hope”—he winks and says—“all hope is lost. Liberation will come.”
    I want to promise him it won’t be long until he’s free again. But a long fight looms. Paris, spared destruction when France surrendered, might still come under fire. To save him, the country’s beautiful towns and cities might be reduced to rubble as the Allies battle to conquer the Germans.
    For the next half an hour, Dr. Devereux happily talks my ear off. I gaze out the window, distracted, gripping my suitcase. Any moment, Denise and Robbie will come into view, pedaling and arguing. Any moment, I just know it.
    “We are about to enter the city now.”
    Robbie and Denise can’t possibly have beaten me to Paris on their bicycles. The sound of our approaching car must have sent them diving for cover as we crossed paths.
    At least I hope that explains their absence on the road. What if they were captured? I don’t want to prepare myself for the worst, but I might have to. Apart from my own capture, it can’t get much worse than losing Robbie, Denise, and Denise’s radio contact with headquarters in one fell swoop.
    “Is this your first time here?” Dr. Devereux asks.
    “It is, yes.”
    “Though the city is large, you won’t become lost. Paris is made for walking.”
    “Where is the Eiffel Tower?”
    He smiles. “You will see it. Sometimes, believe it or not, you cannot see it even when you are a hundred feet away.”
    As we drive through Paris, I come to understand what the word “occupied” means. Soldiers crawl the city like an infestation of ants. The SOE showed us photos of the German uniforms. Whata difference to actually witness those uniformed soldiers with my own eyes.
    “Where would you like me to take you?” the doctor asks.
    I give him the address, changing the number but keeping the street name the same.
    Dr. Devereux points out landmarks as we go, but with anxiety clouding my thoughts very little he says sticks with me.
    At the end of a narrow side street,