A Fine Woman Read online

Chapter Four

  Antibes 1948

  By the time Captain Taylor came to the end of this section of his story, the sandwiches were finished and Sister Anna-Marie was carrying their plates away.

  “It was one of the many times when Helga almost gave up,” he said as he put down his empty cup.

  Sister Marie-Thérèse still held her last cup of tea. “How did they smuggle the Rabbi across the country to France?” she quickly asked.

  “They disguised him as an old woman called Frau Heinrik, I believe.”

  Sister Marie-Thérèse hardly batted an eye-lid at his reply. “So they continued?”

  “Yes. And during the period between October 1943 and August 1944 Helga and Jacob successfully smuggled one hundred and twenty-eight children and thirty-five adults into France and into the arms of the Underground. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for one woman and a boy. They made twenty-six round trips altogether. Her last trip was in August, but by then everything had changed for her.”

  There was a slight pause before Sister Marie-Thérèse asked the question she could tell Captain Taylor was eager to answer. “Why was that?”

  “Because on the 20th July 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg put a bomb near Hitler in the Wolfsschanze. That’s the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s headquarters in Poland. It wasn’t until all the reprisals started that Helga found out that her father had been involved in the assassination plot. He was shot a few weeks later, you see. She never even suspected. I suppose it must have pleased her in a way, because it meant that her father had shared her feelings and that he would have approved of her actions. But it must have been hard for her as well. Neither one of them really knew what the other was doing. And overnight she lost her father and went from being a rather cosseted and well-off Countess to being a hunted criminal. What made it worse was that without her father’s protection those who had been forced to turn a blind eye to her activities for all this time could now take full advantage. And at the top of the list of those wishing to do so was Obersturmführer Meyer.”

  Sister Marie-Thérèse held her last cup of tea. “Did Obersturmführer Meyer catch her in Germany?”

  Captain Taylor glanced down at his empty cup. “No. Helga was on route to France with Jacob, eight children and three adults when it happened. She didn’t even know until she had delivered them to André and was on her way back. The SS seized the entire Burbeck Estate while she was away. Because of his familiarity with her, and because he volunteered for the job, Obersturmführer Meyer was put in charge of hunting her down. It was almost too easy. Helga was loud and bossy on her travels, and she never hid her movements, so her route was well known to the Gestapo by then. While her father was alive their hands had been tied. Now they could act. So before she even knew her father was dead, Meyer was waiting for her at Grasse. Fortunately a friend warned her.”

  Antibes 1944

  Antibes was filled with noise and confusion. German trucks and half-tracks sped along the road from the main garrison at Fort Carré and crowds of people milled about on the side shaking their fists and jeering at them. They were no longer scared.

  André fought his way through the crowds. He needed transport. He had to get to Juan-les-Pins before Helga left her Château to return to Germany with Jacob. All around him the people shouted and pushed forward, and it took ages for André to finally work his way through them and reach the house where Moniqué opened the door. Stephane was inside. He was as surprised to see André as Moniqué was scared.

  “André? Why come here in the day? Are you insane?”

  “Not insane, but in a hurry!” André replied. “We have to go up to the Château at Juan-les-Pins and warn the Countess!”

  Stephane wasn’t impressed. “But the Americans are here! We should wait for them!”

  “No! I have spoken with London! Her father was implicated in Hitler’s assassination plot! He has been shot, Stephane! And she will be next! The SS are no fools! We must hurry! Get a car!”

  Stephane paused only for a moment and then turned to the young girl who had looked on fearfully as they argued. “Moniqué! Go to the tabac and tell your papa what we do! Tell him I have taken his Renault! Go now!”

  “Yes, Stephane! You will find my Jacob?”

  “Yes! Now hurry!”

  Moniqué grabbed her coat and left by the front door. As soon as she was gone Stephane led André to the back door.

  “The car is in a garage a short distance away! But the roads will be full now that the Boche are pulling out! And they won’t want to stop and ask any questions should they find two men in a car barring their path! We should go by bicycle and keep off the roads!”

  André shook his head. “It will take too long! If Helga leaves before we get there it will be too late! Once she’s on that train, she is a dead woman!”

  Leutnant Spiegal opened the door of the staff car. “Please hurry, Countess. The train will not wait, and Oberst Riner will not be able to help you if you remain behind once we depart.”

  Helga hurried from the entrance to the Château. She was wearing a white full-length linen coat over a yellow summer dress. Elegant high-heeled shoes completed the ensemble. She was leading Tirpitz and Bismarck on their leads and both dogs barked excitedly.

  “I understand, Leutnant. And I am grateful, believe me, if somewhat surprised by your sudden arrival. But I have no wish to be trapped in France surrounded by coarse Americans and revengeful French peasants.”

  As she got in the car, Jacob stuffed their luggage into the open boot. Leutnant Spiegal waited until Jacob had closed the boot, run round the car and jumped in beside Helga before he closed the door. In an instant he had opened the front door and jumped in beside the driver, and a moment later the car turned and sped away, heading for the station.

  Tirpitz and Bismarck jammed their noses out of each partly open window in the doors. And Helga smiled at Jacob and squeezed his hand. Then she looked forward and spoke to Spiegal.

  “Leutnant, does the Oberst risk his career by giving us his aid?”

  Spiegal hardly glanced back at her as the car sped along the narrow roads. “No, Countess. You are a German national. It is only natural that you should receive our help. But the timing could be better. The Americans have landed in force at Agay to the west of here. Another assault is under way at San Raphaël. It is clear that it is a full invasion. Oberst Riner has received orders to send all our forces west to prevent the Americans breaking out. With the garrison depleted and the Americans so close there are bound to be attacks from the French Underground. It is best that you are well away from here, Countess.”

  Jacob had continued to look at Helga as the Leutnant had explained events. Helga now turned to him again and smiled.

  “Then as soon as we are aboard the train, the better.”

  André was frantic. “Missed her! Missed her!” he shouted to Stephane as he ran out of the Château. He jumped back in the car and Stephane got back in the drivers seat. He started the engine and waited.

  “What now, André?”

  André sat in the car staring ahead with his mind whirling. “The Concierge said she was picked up by a German staff car. Riner probably sent it. He must think he is doing her a favour.”

  “They could have taken her into the country and shot her,” Stephane suggested.

  “No. She’s a Countess smuggling Jews. The SS will want her. If the news had reached here they would have sent a car, not Riner. He will have taken her to the station.”

  “Then we are too late. The train will be gone before we get there.”

  André turned to look at him. “Then we must get ahead of it. Drive to Mougins.”

  “Vallauris is nearer.”

  “Yes, and the train will stop there first. That’s when we will overtake it. Go!”

  Stephane sighed as he put the car into gear. “We should be blowing up Germans, not racing trains.”

  The tyres on the old Renault kicked up the gravel as it accelerated away.

>   Obersturmführer Meyer stood on the station platform at Grasse. He had taken off his gloves and was waiting patiently. Next to him the train from Juan-les-Pins slowly pulled in and stopped. On the station approach a truck was parked. It was filled with German soldiers whose uniform bore the insignia of the SS.

  Meyer smiled. It would be a nice surprise to see the Countess again. And of course, there was her ‘travelling companion.’ He could be dispensed with right away, on the platform, in fact, and those wretched dogs. But the Countess Burbeck would need to be interviewed. There were things she knew that were of interest. And when she had answered his questions she would be taken back to Germany. He would enjoy seeing her shot. But not as much as he would enjoy seeing her broken.

  The locomotive hissed and breathed steam and smoke as it sat waiting for the signal to pull out. All the passengers climbed on board while others alighted. One of those who climbed down from the train was Schneider. He hurried towards Meyer and clicked his heels and saluted when he reached him.

  “She is not on the train, Obersturmführer! The Guard said that he saw her board at Juan-les-Pins and he checked her ticket at Vallauris, but did not see her after that!”

  “What is the first stop after Vallauris?”

  “Mougins, Obersturmführer!”

  Meyer nodded. “Let the train go.”

  As Schneider hurried back to the Guard, Meyer walked to the station telegraph office. He replaced his gloves as he walked along.

  It seemed that his reunion with the Countess would have to be delayed. Either she was very fortunate, or she had been warned. That just made his need to question her all the more important.

  Two men wearing leather coats waited inside the telegraph office. The telegrapher sat at his desk between them. He was sweating. Meyer took off his hat as he closed the door behind him.

  “She got off at Mougins. Contact our people at Cannes. Have them cut all the roads south and east of the station. I will meet them with my men. It seems that we must search for our quarry.”

  The old Renault hurtled down the road from Mougins to Antibes. There were six occupants: Two dogs, three men and one woman.

  Jacob sat in the backseat next to Helga with Bismarck on his lap. Tirpitz sat on the floor, his tongue hanging out as he panted. Jacob was scared but also relieved, and with André and Stephane in the car with them, he felt safe. At least they were going in the right direction now.

  The knowledge that the Americans were close and that they had been travelling away from them had worried Jacob. He didn’t like the idea of going back to Germany. But when Leutnant Spiegal had turned up so unexpectedly there was no way Helga could have argued with him. Jacob even wondered if she wanted to. The way she had almost dismissed André’s fears when he also arrived so unexpectedly in their compartment on the train made him wonder again. But the Frenchman’s bluntly spoken news about her father had obviously upset Helga. She had gone with him without a word and she still hadn’t spoken. She also hadn’t cried.

  In the front of the car, André held onto his seat as the Renault swerved around another bend. “Can’t you go any faster?” he said to Stephane.

  “My foot is to the floor, André!”

  André smacked the dash in front of him. “We have to get back to Antibes before the train gets in at Grasse! They have radios you know!”

  The car swerved around another bend and a German half-track parked across the road suddenly came into view.

  Stephane wrenched on the steering wheel. “Jesus!”

  As the Renault plunged off the road, men in uniform ran forward firing their MP40 machine-guns. Bullets peppered the trees and the back of the car, and one of the tyres blew.

  Jacob was bounced around as the car careered over the uneven ground. Bismarck was thrown from his lap and both dogs barked and yelped. Stephane kept the car going for as long as he could, but a ditch brought it to a final halt.

  André threw open the door. “Everyone out! Run, Countess! Stephane! Get the guns!”

  Stephane was already running around to the boot. He opened it and flung aside the bags and blanket inside until he reached the British machine-guns hidden underneath. There were only two. He gave one to André.

  Jacob had climbed out of the car and fell to the ground. Bismarck and Tirpitz bounded out and milled around him, barking incessantly. Helga fell out the other door only for André to pull her roughly to her feet.

  “I said run!”

  “You run!” she snapped back at him, wrenching herself free and re-arranging her coat. “I have nothing to fear! I am German!” she said proudly.

  André stepped closer to her again. “If they catch you, they will make you tell them about us! About Stephane, Moniqué, about all the people who have helped you! And there is Jacob! Now run, or I will shoot you myself!”

  There were shouts in the air from somewhere near to the road. And they could hear the engine of the half-track burst into life. Stephane leaned against a tree and shouted over his shoulder.

  “They’re coming, André!”

  Helga turned away from André. “Tirpitz! Bismarck! Heel! Follow!” She ran forward with her dogs. “Jacob! Keep up, boy!”

  Jacob paused to look at André. André nodded. “We’ll delay them and catch up with you! Don’t worry! We don’t intend to die now that the Americans are here! Go!”

  Stephane fired his machine-gun. There were shouts and an instant response that scattered bark from the tree. Jacob turned and ran with tears in his eyes. He chased after Helga, the sound of gunfire ringing in his ears. Then there was an explosion.

  Stephane and André ran as the Renault burned. They dodged around the trees, pausing to fire back at the soldiers who advanced carefully and methodically.

  Meyer climbed out of the truck as Schneider shouted to the men in the back.

  “Raus! Raus!”

  The men began to pile out of the truck and run for the trees. The truck was parked on the edge of the road, and among the trees nearby was a half-track. Two men lay on the ground with their backs against the tracks, bandages marking their wounds. Another three were laid out at the back of the vehicle. Meyer hardly glanced at the bodies as he followed his men at a sedate walking pace. While he walked, they ran ahead, Schneider leading them forward at a trot.

  Meyer soon came upon the smoking wreck of a car. There he found another Officer waiting for him. The Officer saluted as Meyer approached.

  “They are somewhere in these woods, Obersturmführer! They will not get far!”

  “You have suffered losses?”

  “They caused us a brief surprise, no more!”

  “But they have delayed you?”

  “They will not delay us for long! We know where they are!”

  There was a distant bark. Meyer smiled as he put on his gloves. He pulled his pistol from its holster. “Lead the way, Untersturmführer.”

  Jacob was standing alone in the woods in shock. It was suicidal, stupid, but it was his idea.

  When Jacob had explained, Helga had wanted none of it, but André had merely nodded and Stephane had dragged her away. Then André had snatched the leads of Tirpitz and Bismarck from his hands and had run away with them. Jacob had just stood there in shock. The dogs had started barking straight away.

  It was his idea. It should have been him. He didn’t care if they caught him. If that meant that Helga got away, then he would have been content. It wasn’t supposed to be André.

  A shout from Stephane stirred him from his stupor.

  “André! Come on!”

  Jacob looked back and forth, confused by the mistaken identity. Then he realised that Stephane meant him, and he turned and ran at last.

  André was never comfortable with Helga’s dogs. They were German, he was French, and somehow they knew it. As a result neither dog needed encouragement to make a noise. They barked and yelped and wagged their tails as they pulled him along. Every so often they tried to turn and go in another direction. André knew they wanted to
find the Countess, but he also knew that the noise they made drew everyone towards him.

  Helga was furious. “How dare you let him do that!” she screamed as Stephane half dragged her and half carried her through the woods. She struggled and kicked at him and one of her shoes flew off. “Let me go, you French oaf!”

  Stephane came to a halt and let go of Helga. She stepped back, hopped, and then stood before him with an arrogant and aloof expression on her face despite her lost shoe. She was about to make a scathing comment when Stephane punched her in the jaw. She instantly relaxed and fell forward and Stephane threw her over his shoulder.

  “Now we can move faster!” he said as he turned and saw Jacob. He was suddenly surprised. “You? Where’s André?”

  “He took the dogs,” Jacob told him lamely.

  Stephane swore. “Just what I need! A German woman and a boy!”

  With Helga over his shoulder and his machine-gun clutched in the other hand, Stephane made off at a trot.

  “Keep up! Or the Boche will get you!” he called to Jacob.

  Jacob chased after him.

  Meyer listened to the dogs barking. This was too easy. The Countess may have been a woman but she was not stupid. And her control over her dogs was far more proficient than she would have him believe.

  “Untersturmführer! Get me a map! Where are we? Where is the road?”

  The Officer ran towards him and pulled a map from his breast pocket. Meyer took it and unfolded it against a tree. The Untersturmführer instantly pointed.

  “We are here! The road, here!”

  “Then we have been travelling in this direction,” Meyer remarked. “It leads nowhere!” He suddenly turned away, handing the map back to the Untersturmführer. “Continue with your men, Untersturmführer! But have the Scharführer meet me here with half a dozen men! While you go north, we will go south!”

  André knew that the game would soon be up. He could hear the soldiers nearby. They were close and they were running. The dogs barked louder and more often, they could smell the men that chased them. It was time for a change.

  André pulled the two dogs to a halt, and kneeling down he drew them close to him. They wagged their tails excitedly, snuffling at him.

  “Now Tirpitz, Bismarck! Find your Mistress! Find the Countess!” He unclipped their leads and released them. “Go!”

  Bismarck and Tirpitz leapt forward and bounded away. He could still hear them barking as he ran.

  Schneider ran towards Meyer holding something in his hand. Meyer took the shoe he offered to him. He then took off one of his gloves and put his hand inside the shoe. It was still warm. He smiled and dropped it on the ground.

  “Gather the men, Scharführer! After them!”

  Schneider saluted and then ran back towards his men, shouting at them and urging them to move faster.

  Meyer put his glove back on. “It seems that your dogs have distracted me once again, Countess,” he muttered to himself. “But this time you will not escape me. This time the game will be over.”

  There was confusion in the woods. Men shouted and dogs barked. The sound of gunfire filled the air only to be answered by more shouts. The Untersturmführer shouted louder than anyone else.

  “Ceasefire! Ceasefire! You’re shooting at one another!”

  “They are among us, Untersturmführer!” one of the soldiers shouted back.

  “Where? Show me!”

  In answer came another bark from close by.

  “There!”

  Machine-guns opened up again as a black dog bounded through the trees. The bullets smacked into the trees just behind it.

  “Hold your fire!” the Untersturmführer shouted. “It’s only the dogs!”

  André suddenly loved those dogs. They were causing havoc. In a few minutes the Germans had become strung out, their line broken. They shot at everything. He had slipped through them easily. At least three of them had been hit by their own gunfire, and he hadn’t needed to fire a shot.

  Jacob heard the twig break at the same time as Stephane. Despite the sound of distant gunfire, shouting and barking dogs, it had been quite clear. It had also been very close. They both stopped and looked back. There was nothing but stillness behind them. The sun shone through the leaves and branches and cast shadows. But the scattered trees of the woods soon blotted out the view.

  Stephane lowered Helga to the ground. “Jacob!” he hissed. “Come here and wake her up!”

  Jacob hurried to his side and began to shake Helga. “Countess! Countess! Wake up, Countess!” She stirred and murmured, but didn’t wake.

  Stephane held his machine-gun at the ready and inched forward, staring back through the trees. They had only just covered that ground. They should have been safe, miles away. But carrying Helga delayed him. And those who chased them only carried their guns. Then he saw them, an Officer and Sergeant and some men.

  Stephane fired immediately. One of the men fell and the rest dived for cover. An instant later and they were returning fire. Stephane ducked as the bullets tore the wood from the trees around him.

  Helga awoke at the sound of the shooting. She looked up at Jacob in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked. Then she winced and rubbed her jaw.

  “André took Bismarck and Tirpitz,” he replied. Then Stephane ran up to them and dragged them both forward.

  “Run! The Boche comes for you!”

  Bullets peppered the trees as the three of them ran. But they had hardly gone far when Helga grabbed Jacob and pulled him almost to a halt. She leaned on him and hopped on one foot as she reached down and threw off her last shoe. A moment later and they were off again. Stephane had crouched down by a tree, he squeezed off another burst from his machine-gun as Helga and Jacob ran passed him. Then he turned and chased after them.