"We also learned that she had helped others from our company to escape to freedom. She took in the situation at once-our clothes, our state, Buster's sign language, my blood-soaked sleeve-they all told the story.
"Briefly, she took us in. She attended to me first; she bandaged my arm, got me into a bed, and gave Buster a hunk of rye bread and something which bore a resemblance to coffee.
"I think I was delirious. I was not sure where I was and most of the time thought I was in the Priory. Buster slept well on the floor beside my bed.
"He said afterwards: 'I knew that Marianne was a good 'un. Some might have took us in and then given the alarm. Not this one. She's going to get her own back on the Hun, and his enemies are her friends.”
"Well, Marianne was indeed a 'good 'un." She was so good to us and without her I could not have survived. Through everything she did, she showed her hatred of the enemy. Otherwise she was a placid sort of woman, good-looking in a rather blowsy, dreamy way-except when she was giving vent to her hatred of Germans. Then she would look fierce and mutter what she would like to do to them.
"Buster and I smiled on these occasions. 'All the better for us,' was Buster's comment. I believed she would have taken any risk to work against them.
"But she was tender and sympathetic. When she dressed my arm she would murmur, 'Le pauvre petit garcon." It comforted me, for the pain could be great.
"We learned a little from Marianne of what had happened, how the great General de Gaulle was going to save France, of the Allied landings in Normandy, of that villain Petain who had betrayed France and become a slave to the cruel conquerors. The English and the Americans were 'magnifique' and here they were, back on French soil to rise against the conquerors and betrayers, to wipe away the country's shame and make her great again.
"It was her duty to help escaping prisoners, she said. She was doing it for France and she had liked so much the charming men who had come her way. There had been two airmen. They had dropped from their parachutes. She had kept them for two nights. There had been men from the chateau. She could tell them about the country... she could get clothes for them. She had some which had belonged to her husband who could no longer wear them because of the cursed Hun.
"I could see that I was a handicap for Buster and I said he should go on without me. We were too near the chau for comfort. What if the guards discovered that we were in this house? Not only should we suffer, but Marianne herself would.
"Buster turned this aside, and so did Marianne. She would not allow me to go with such an arm, though she could do but little for it, alas.
It needed a doctor. She could not call one, for how could she trust him? No, she would do what she could. At least it was something.
"Then we met Lisette. Lisette had been staying at her uncle's farm and had now come home to her mother. She was a younger version of Marianne-with the same plump and shapely figure, the same hooded eyes and full lips and overwhelming femininity. She smiled warmly at us.
She must have been accustomed to her mother's helping men to escape: she could speak a little English which was helpful.
"She said: 'Escape. You? From the chateau?’”
"We told her we had and that her mother had been very helpful.
"'My mother like much English and Americans. I too.”
"'Lucky for us,' said Buster.
"We were at Marianne's for several weeks. Much of the time I was hardly aware of my surroundings. It seemed so unreal there. My arm began to fester, but Marianne was afraid to ask the doctor to come.
She was wonderful to us. She kept us there and fed us, though we had no money with which to pay her.
"'She do for France,' declared Lisette dramatically. Buster worked on the farm, which I am sure was a great help, but I was unable to do anything.
"There was a time in the beginning when I suffered from delirium.
It was a sort of fever .
Jowan paused, as though looking back. I guessed he was seeing the old farmhouse, and recalling the strangeness and uncertainty of those days.
"The Allies were advancing," he went on, "and there seemed to be numbers of Germans everywhere. We had to be very careful not to be seen. Marianne had a big cupboard in which she proposed to hide us if they ever came to the house. It contained heavy farm implements and we were to crouch behind some sacks if it was ever necessary. I was sure, if they ever came, we should be discovered at once. Fortunately, we did not have to hide.
"I was always urging Buster to get away. It would be easier for him if he did not have an invalid to look after. He would not go, of course.
I think he was enjoying his stay at the farmhouse. It was clear that he liked Marianne and her daughter. He had mended and painted the wheelbarrow and it was placed on the farm. It was almost like a shrine.
