Chapter Twenty-six

Twenty-six

Alex thought both he and Uncle Toby looked so out of place walking along the French roadside with the small group of refuges heading into the countryside. It had been a long night and Alex was beginning to feel the weight of his knapsack, but Uncle Toby looked as spry and determined as he had when their car pulled away from Rosecrest.

They had left shortly before dawn in a British Army plane headed for the French coast. As they came within sight of the coastline he and Uncle Toby had parachuted into the cold Atlantic. Alex knew his mom would be furious with him when she learned he had been jumping like this from planes for over two years and not telling her. He thought it had finally come in handy. Alex didn't know how long Uncle Toby had been jumping, but he took to it with his usual zest. They landed in deep water a short distance from a small group of fishing boats. As soon as they hit the water they were scooped up by one of the boats and headed for the shore.

Alex had wanted to know who his rescuers were, but Uncle Toby just silently shook his head and up his finger to his lips to keep the boy quiet. The ride was long with the deadly silence.

Once on shore they were transferred still in silence to a covered truck where they changed into clothes that Alex guessed were more appropriate to the French countryside, if not clean and dry. By early morning they had been walking miles to the village where they had been assured by the French Underground that they would find Uncle Toby's Isabeau.

Now as they came to a fork in the road a vehicle approached them and the small group of people came to a halt as the small truck stopped in front of them. A German soldier climbed from front seat and walked toward them while two other soldiers sat shade of the cab.

The soldier said something in German to the man that was closest to him. The man shook his head no and told the soldier in French that he didn't speak German. As the man finished speaking the soldier hit him with his rifle. The man fell to the ground. Alex began to start toward the soldier, but Uncle Toby pulled him back.

"I think I can help you understand what we are saying" Uncle Toby told the soldier in German. The soldier grinned and began to swing the gun back once more, but stopped quickly when he saw what Toby had in his hand. Toby motioned and the young man came forward and took what he was offering. The soldier motioned that he wanted more, but Toby only shrugged his shoulders. The young man looked over his shoulder at the other two then he laughed and suddenly left as quickly as they had appeared.

Alex began to speak, but all Uncle Toby would say was that they were lucky, very lucky that the men were young and not very greedy. They helped the fallen man up and continued down the dirt road.

As the sun shone overhead the group came to a bend in the road that ran toward a small hill. Another, but smaller dirt road ran toward the south.

"This is where we leave you for now" said the man who the German soldier had hit. "Take this road to the end and there is the house that you want. We will be back for you in two days. Be safe, but know we cannot come any sooner and you must be ready to leave once we are here. Do you understand?"

"Yes" said Uncle Toby. "And we both thank you for your generous help. We will meet you here at the road's end in two days at morning break." The men then left the road by the other side and disappeared over the back and into the field.

"That was one very strange" said Alex.

"Quiet" said Toby "We are still in danger. Come." Toby lead the way down the dusty road. They walked about a mile before coming into view of a house. Alex thought the house large and somewhat on the elegant side if not more than a little shabby. The place appeared deserted in the fading light of late afternoon sun.

"Please stop where you are" came a voice from one of the upstairs windows. Alex could just make out the outline of a person against the glare from the sun. "I have a gun on you and since I don't know who you are I will use it if you don't do as I say."

"Ah, but you do know who I am, Isabeau" said Uncle Toby. But Alex saw that Toby had put his hands in the air the same as he did when the voice told them to stop.

"And who do I know?"

"You know Tobias from a long time ago and this is my great-nephew Alex. We have come to ask your help."

"Tobias? Is that really you? You look so very different, but it has been a long time. I will be right down. Please relax your arms."

The men waited in the hot dry air of the courtyard. Alex expected Isabeau, if the voice was indeed her to come out the front door, but was surprised when she came from the far side of the house apparently from the back somewhere. He didn't know what he was expected, but the woman coming at them would have been the farthest from his idea of what Uncle Toby's old love would look like would look like.

The woman coming toward them wore men's brown pants, boots, and an oversize men's work blue work shirt that had seen many washing and was tied at the waist. She was almost as tall as Uncle Toby and slender. Her hair was black with only a few grey streaks showing and was pulled back from her face and twisted up to be held by a couple of what looked at yellow school pencils. Her arms that showed and her face was tan, but without that leathery look that some older people have from being out in the sun too often.

Alex thought she is very beautiful. She walked toward them holding out her arms to Uncle Toby Alex thought her eyes looked a lot like his mother's eyes a warm dark brown that turned up slightly at the outsides, but where his mother's eyes always had a smile Isabeau's eyes were a bit hard. When she got to them she embraced Toby; then quickly turned to Alex.

"Ah, a great-nephew Tobias" she said. "What. Not a son?"

"No, I have no son Isabeau. No child of either gender, I'm afraid."

"Ah, I have pictured you all of these years as surrounded by a tribe of young adventurers who followed you into the deserts of Egypt." When she said this Uncle became quiet and Alex saw that this seemed to make the woman very uneasy.

"I should not have said that so without thought" she said. And if trying to make up for it she continued "It is just that I had hoped that one of us would have had a happy—fulfilled life."

These new words seemed to make the new silence all that worse. Toby and the woman just stood and looked at each other. Alex became aware for the first time in his life that his Uncle Toby had the feelings of a man and that he was so much deeper than what he had always thought of his old Uncle Toby with all the war and desert stories.

Toby was the first to break the awkward silence. "What ever may have been we can't ever determine, but I have come looking for you now to help with a very real and life threatening situation."

"I do not get involved with this war of the German's" said Isabeau.

"I haven't come about the war or Germans. There is a horror going on in the desert that I believe only you can help us with."

"Then you had better come in and we will talk about it while we eat."

Later that afternoon after a sparse, but filling meal of chicken soup and bread when Toby had told all they knew of Ardeth's daughter's story and why they come to find her Alex was walking around the grounds of the small farm. Isabeau had told him not to stray far for the German's would sometimes come unexpectedly if they were after some chickens or eggs.

Alex walked slowly around the outer buildings on the grounds. He could see that the farm had once been very prosperous and bigger than it now was. The old barn that was at the farthest reaches of the long yard had a sad look of abandonment. Alex didn't even see any of the chickens that Isabeau had told them at lunch that she was trying to raise. He was just about to go into the building he heard her call him from path to the barn not to go in telling him no to go any farther. She came at him at almost a run and quite out of breath.

"You don't want to go in there. It really isn't too safe anymore. Please come back to the house now. I am afraid that a German patrol might come by."

As they turned to go to the house when Alex heard a small noise almost like a kitten crying and he turned back to the barn.

"Listen" he said "I think you have a new batch of kittens in there or at least one"

"No, its not kittens and we do need to go to the house" said Isabeau as she took his arm very firmly and guided him to the house. Alex heard one last cry from the barn and reluctantly went to the house with the woman.

Toby met them at the back door. "I think you are going to have visitors" he said "I can hear some type of vehicle coming toward us.

Isabeau pushed the men into the house and told them to stay in the closet in the back bedroom and not to come out under any circumstances. She would take care of whoever was coming. Both men crammed themselves into the small cupboard that was posing as a closet. They could hear her open the front door and then there was silence.

Suddenly the noise from the front door opening startled Alex and uncle Toby and they heard voices coming towards where they were hid. Although they couldn't make out what Isabeau and whoever she was talking to were saying they could tell from her voice that she was upset. Alex began to open the door, but Toby put his hand on the young man's arm and shook his head.

Then they heard Isabeau outside the door.

" Toby, please come out. I am going to need you and Alex to help me and we don't have much time.

Both men came quickly out of the cupboard. Isabeau was standing there with the Frenchman who the German's had hit on the road that afternoon. He looked very tired and seemed to have taken a few more hits since they last saw him.

"Andre has come to tell us that the German's will be here in the morning if not before. The group that you came here with was stopped again on the road. Andre was the only one to get away this time. We are not certain if any of the others are still alive or not."

"We will leave at once" Toby began to say, but Isabeau held up her hand to silence and stop him from moving'

"The German's are not looking for you. They are coming for the people that I have hidden in my barn" she looked at Alex and smiled a half smile. "Yes, the kitten that you heard this morning is a new baby and he is with his parents, an uncle, and a grandmother. They are Jews. We were going to move them at the end of the week when we have some transportation coming for them, but it looks like the German's found out about them and are on the way here. For them, and apparently for me."

"Well then my dear, what do you want us to do?" asked Tobias