Hello, friends! At last, our girls are together! The playlist selections for this chapter are Charles de Gaulle's "Paris Martyred" speech and the tango called "Tears." Please feel free to let me know how you think the story is going and/or what you think of the playlist. :)
The trio wandered where the movement of the crowds and their interests took them. Twice they found themselves surprised by gunfire, pockets of Germans that had not given up. They, like the rest of the civilians, crouched behind walls and cars while the resistance fighters with guns shot back and the French soldiers used their turret and machine guns to take the threat down. They were lucky, for no-one close around them was seriously hurt. Not all were so lucky. More than once they saw small groups of men and women carrying the flag of the red cross and bearing wounded away.
Parisians were usually fairly controlled about expressing their feelings in public, and although some were still obviously on guard and others met the liberating soldiers with standard handshakes and smiles, others were moved to act further on their emotions. More than once, Cosima, Delphine and Scott saw soldiers and French women, apparently complete strangers, kissing. On a side street, a small group of young men were destroying an abandoned German truck, smashing the glass with bricks, kicking and beating the metal and screaming in release. One of them painted the symbol of the Free French in white on the back of the truck, and crossed it with a V for victory. Delphine worriedly pulled on Cosima's arm when she started to step closer, but when the youths were able to rip one of the doors off the cab, Cosima promptly scooted back away and left the street with her friends.
In the afternoon, they heard that von Choltitz had signed the papers of capitulation over to General LeClerc, and cheering roared through the crowd. They were swept along with the human tide, and in the evening found themselves at l'Hôtel de Ville, where the tall, emphatic General de Gaulle gave an impassioned speech.
"These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives," he shouted. "Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!"
Delphine took Cosima's arm, tears in her eyes, and the smaller woman grinned. She turned to Scott with a bit of a smirk while the speech continued.
"Oh, the Americans are gonna love that. Paris completely freed by the French, all by themselves."
"Shh!" Delphine hissed, elbowing her. "Give us our moment. You should know how hard we fought."
Cosima stroked the Frenchwoman's arm, contrite.
"I know. I think you… and the resistance, are amazing. And my country's army wasn't about to head through the city. I just meant that there are always different viewpoints from the simple speeches, and the Allies might not be too thrilled."
"They'll understand," Scott interjected. "De Gaulle wants to be the President, right? Him saying all this stuff just shows that he's part of the group that freed Paris, the group in power."
Cosima looked up, impressed, at her friend.
"Well, look at you, Scotty-boy, breaking out the political analysis. I believe you're right."
"Shh," Delphine chided them again, and they witnessed the rest of the speech. She knew there were always power plays and politics, but at this moment, she allowed her heart to fill for France.
A bit later, the sound of music drew them down a familiar street, and they found themselves in front of Le Petit Chiot. Two musicians with a violin and an accordion were playing spiritedly on the sidewalk, and smiling people with bottles and glasses of wine and alcohol moved to and fro, crossing in and out of the door and yelling to one another in celebration. Delphine laughed as Cosima liberated one of the wine bottles and two glasses from a waiter's tray and ran back to her companions, flashing a mischievous grin. They ducked into an alley, and Scott worked at the top with his pen knife until Cosima grabbed the bottle and yanked the cork the rest of the way out with her fingers and teeth. She poured liberally into the two glasses for Scott and Delphine, and then raised the bottle to them.
"Vive la Paris!"
Delphine and Scott laughed, clinking their glasses against the bottle.
"Vive la Paris!"
They all drank deeply. Cosima made a show of tipping the bottle back and Delphine playfully grabbed it from her, only to tip it back herself.
"Vive la Paris. I'm glad you're well, Mademoiselle Delphine," came a voice behind her, and she turned. It was Claude, his hat clutched in his hands and a look of contrition on his face.
"I'm glad you're well, too, Claude," Delphine answered, after a moment. "What's the news of Pascal and your friends?"
Claude licked his lips.
"Eh, there have been some skirmishes for days. I mostly ran messages. Pascal is brave, but… when I saw the soldiers…" he shrugged and trailed off.
Delphine imagined signing up with Pascal's group had not turned out to be as Claude had hoped. She bore the small man no ill will. Maybe he wasn't of the highest character, but he had tried. She only hoped Pascal had not gotten too many of his supporters killed during the attacks on the Germans.
Delphine nodded, and after a moment, Claude seemed to succumb to the awkward air of the situation. He gave a brief nod to Scott, with a respectful "Monsieur," and then scuttled away.
Cosima tugged on the bottle in Delphine's hand and, when the taller woman resisted letting go, simply tilted it down and moved her mouth underneath it. Delphine giggled as the American took a good swig and then righted the bottle, standing up straight and wiping her mouth.
"Who was that? Was it one of Pascal's boys," she asked.
Delphine hmmed, and pointed at her.
"Cheeky! That is a story for later." They smiled at each other and Delphine, growing tipsy, flung an arm around Cosima's neck. "Come on," she urged playfully, and slid her hand down to Cosima's to pull her towards the music, "I feel like dancing!"
Sometime later, the trio, having found themselves more wine and cognac, as well, and all at various levels of giddy inebriation, stumbled back to the Lafrange's house. The doctor was out, but there were a couple men sporting bandages sitting at the kitchen table, while Madame Lafrange spooned out some bean stew.
"Madame Lafrange," Delphine smiled, and the older woman looked up and turned to hug her.
"Delphine! Oh, you must have been naughty. You smell of alcohol. All three of you! Hello," she offered her hand to Cosima, "I'm Madame Lafrange."
"This is my… Cosima," Delphine bumbled, grinning, as Cosima gave the mistress of the house a charming smile and a warm handshake.
"Pleased to meet you," Madame Lafrange smiled, and took Scott's arm. "Come, you three, sit down. You must be hungry."
Delphine hesitated, eyeing the table and the men she didn't know at it.
"Euh, I wanted to talk, to spend some time catching up with my friend," she protested, looking toward the stairway.
Cosima turned back.
"C'mon, Delphine, I'm starving. Don't deny our gracious hostess. We'll have plenty of time for talking after we eat."
The three of them sat at the table and broke bread together, gathering after small introductions that the two men had been injured in separate incidents during the fighting and come to the doctor's residence to get treated. Both seemed alright.
"Scotty, I want to catch up with you, too, in a little while," Cosima told him, between mouthfuls of stew. He had his chin in one hand, and seemed to be spooning more slowly by the minute, drooping into a slouch and sliding down in his chair.
"Yeah, me too," he nodded, then yawned impressively. Cosima laughed.
"Looks like you're pooped. I'm worn out, too. We can rest a while before all that."
Delphine looked down at the table, where Cosima's hand rested but a few inches from her bowl, and felt a sort of warmth flow into her, a calm content. She smiled, but slightly, under her now-loose half-curtain of hair, almost as if it was a private feeling, a grin meant to be kept to herself. She could feel colour rising slightly in her cheeks, although she couldn't have said why. All she knew was that her foot, at that moment, decided to slide closer and give a little press against Cosima's, as if there was a secret that they shared, and after a quick glance at her out of the side of her eyes, Cosima pressed back, too.
They finished eating and gave their fond excuses to Madame Lafrange, and all three of them trooped upstairs. In the second floor hallway, Scott turned before climbing to the attic and gave Cosima a quiet hug. After she squeezed him back, he smiled sleepily.
"I'm going to lie down," he told them. "Wake me if you need me, or if anything happens."
With his retreating footsteps, Cosima turned to Delphine. The Frenchwoman was biting her lip through a small, almost shy smile, her eyes sparkling. She quietly took Cosima into her room, and sat down on the bed.
Cosima took a look around, her lips also turned softly upward, and sat next to her.
"So," she breathed out, "what a day."
Delphine couldn't think of anything to say so she simply smiled a bit wider. There was so much she wanted to talk about, to share, but she was tired, and she also just wanted to bask in having found this remarkable woman.
"You look sleepy," Cosima told her. Her voice was warm. "Almost as tired as me. Why don't I go wash my face and get out of your hair, and we can talk later?"
Delphine nodded, rubbing Cosima's hand she was holding with her other hand. "Oui, the washroom is down the hallway. I have a pitcher of water and glasses in here, if you just want a drink."
"Mm, maybe," Cosima considered, standing up and moving to the door, her hand slowly sliding from Delphine's fingers after giving them a light squeeze. She opened the door and paused, turning back.
"Where am I going, anyway?" she asked. "Where does Mrs. Lafrange want me to sleep?"
Delphine relaxed down on her side on the bed facing Cosima. "Hm, there's not much more room left. Come back here and stay with me. I still don't want to let you out of my sight for too long."
Cosima's eyes flickered. Her lips held a slight smile, while underneath she seemed to be cycling through a silent, choppy reel of thoughts and emotions. Delphine raised her eyebrows and gave her a reassuring grin, which was interrupted by an unexpected yawn into her hand.
"Okay," Cosima nodded, easing through the door. "I'll be back."
Delphine shuffled to one side of the bed and laid still, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. Outside, there were still sounds of disorder, of revelry, yells and footsteps and the roaring of engines going by, but it bothered her little. Her body sank gratefully into the mattress, more comfortable than she could recall being in a long time, not just placed there in the hopes of recharging her physical strength. Behind her eyelids, Cosima's smile was still flashing, the sound of her throaty laughter when they danced a ridiculous parody of a tango back at the bar echoing in Delphine's mind. She felt a peace, then, something she did not fully realize consciously, and couldn't have described or explained.
She must have dozed, because the next thing she noticed, she felt Cosima slipping quietly into the other side of the bed. They were both on their sides, curved, echoing each other, and through her slitted eyelids, Delphine could see the roll of Cosima's shoulder blades beneath her shirt, and then feel the bed stir with her sigh as she let herself relax into the comfort. Delphine almost unconsciously reached out, slowly, across the space between them and placed one hand softly against the smaller woman's back, feeling the warmth, the connection. Before she knew it, she was asleep.