If you had wanted to return to England you would have gone.'
'These children were in my care,' the old man said.
'I could not have done that.'
The Gestapo officer said: 'Lies... lies... lies.'
He was about to say something more, but checked himself.
The young man by his side leaned forward and whispered deferentially to him again.
Major Diessen leaned back in his chair.
'So,' he said, 'you refuse our kindness and you will not talk.
As you wish.
Before the evening you will be talking freely, Mister Englishman, but by then you will be blind, and in horrible pain.
It will be quite amusing for my men.
Mademoiselle, too, shall be there to see, and the little children also.'
There was a silence in the office.
'Now you will be taken away,' the German said.
'I shall send for you when my men are ready to begin.'
He leaned forward.
'I will tell you what we want to know, so that you may know what to say even though you be blind and deaf.
We know you are a spy, wandering through the country in disguise and with this woman and the children as a cover.
We know you have been operating with Charenton - you need not tell us about that.
We know that either you or Charenton sent information to the English of the Fuhrer's visit to the ships in Brest, and that you caused the raid.'
He paused.
'But what we do not know, and what this afternoon you shall tell us, is how the message was passed through to England, to that Major Cochrane' - his lip sneered - 'that died in 1924, according to your story.
That is what you are going to tell, Mister Englishman.
And as soon as it is told the pain will stop.
Remember that.'
He motioned to the Feldwebel.
'Take them away.'
They were thrust out of the room.
Howard moved in a daze; it was incredible that this thing should be happening to him.
It was what he had read of and had found some difficulty in crediting.
It was what they were supposed to do to Jews in concentration camps.
It could not be true.
Focquet was taken from them and hustled off on his own.
Howard and Nicole were bundled into a downstairs prison room, with a heavily-barred window; the door was slammed on them and they were left alone.
Pierre said, in French: 'Are we going to have our dinner here, mademoiselle?'
Nicole said dully: 'I expect so, Pierre.'
Ronnie said: 'What are we going to have for dinner?'
She put an arm around his shoulder.
'I don't know,' she said mechanically.
'We'll see when we get it.
Now, you run off and play with Rose.
I want to talk to Monsieur Howard.'
She turned to Howard.
'This is very bad,' she said.
'We are involved in something terrible.'
He nodded.
'It seems to be that air raid that they had on Brest.
The one that you were in.'
She said: 'In the shops that day they were saying that Adolf Hitler was in Brest, but one did not pay attention.
There is so much rumour, so much idle talk.'