My German lover : Part 5

Paul remained glued to the radio, while Will got busy in the kitchen, making lunch... From time to time, the speaker would come back on the air... telling again about the speech Pétain would give later...

While in the kitchen making lunch, Will felt sad for Paul and for France... Sure, Germany was victorious... but nevertheless, he felt sad. Let's pray that such a thing never happens to Germany, Will tought to himself...

But he also thought about the fact that if, indeed, France had lost a major battle, the war was not over yet. The British were still fighting... and by now, they probably had very well fortified themselves on their island...

He stopped working for a while, and started thinking about that... England! That island would not be easy to take, Will thought... It was not like if the Wehrmacht could just walk to London... The Channel was there... and the Royal Navy was the most powerful in the world... Every German ship, trying to carry troops over there, would be sank so fast... Hitler was not creazy enough to try that, Will said to himself. Yeah... England was well protected by the Channel...

Hitler would have to take care of the Royal Navy first, before trying anything else... That explained why Hitler didn't want to see the French Navy join the Royal Navy... Will smiled at that... Yeah, he thought... the French had a few good cards on their hand... Hitler will have to refrain himself...

Will finished preparing lunch, then joined Paul into the drawing-room.

"Here, my love... that will be sustaining... you have to eat if you want to survive... so I can make love to you again..." Will said to Paul, smiling while giving him a large plate full of food...

"Thanks, Will. I guess your right... as always... I should eat a little, because I sure intend to have you making love to me in a very near future...", Paul replied, smiling...

"So... what's new? Have you heard anything?" Will asked.

"No. Nothing. Always the same speaker... you know..."

"We'll have to wait..."

"Yeah!"

So they slowly ate their lunch... listening to the music on the radio... Not much was said...

Later on, they heard someone at the front door. Paul looked at Will, a bit puzzled...

"Are you expecting someone?"

"No!"

Paul rose and started walking to the entrance hall, Will following right behind him. He went to the door and, through the large panes, he saw two people standing outside. He smiled. He knew them... so he opened one of the large doors:

"Bonsoir, madame et monsieur Bloomfield... comment allez-vous? Mais entrez, je vous prie..." (Good evening, Mrs & Mr Bloomfield, how are you? Please, do come in...)

"Oh, good evening, monsieur Paul... How are you?" madame Bloomfield asked.

"Very well, thank you"

Then Paul noticed Mrs & Mr Bloomfield were looking at Will, standing right behind him...

"Please, come in, and join us... Do you remember my cousin Guillaume, from Strasbourg?", Paul asked them...

"I'm not sure we've ever met", Mr Bloomfield replied, with a smile on his face... "And if we did... you were probably very young at the time..."

"At any rate, Guillaume, this is Mrs & Mr Bloomfield, our neighbours...", Paul said.

They shook hands and Will, thinking fast, said to them:

"Oh!... yes... I remember having seen you in the past... but that's a long time ago... So, you're right Mrs Bloomfield, I was very young at the time... I guess I've grown up since then..."

"You're right, Guillaume... You've certainly grown up... look at you... What a fine young man you are now..." Mrs Bloomfield said.

"Please, Mrs & Mr Bloomfield, call me "Will"... that's my nickname..." Will replied, smiling to them....

"Please, do join us into the drawing-room", Paul said...

As they were walking towards the drawing-room, Mrs Bloomfield kept searching her memory to remember when they could have met with Will in the past... Did she even knew that the De Brion had family in Strasbourg? She wasn't sure... But anyway, she concluded, sometimes, I have bad memory... so...

On his side, her husband had come to the same conclusion... Ah! Old age... he thought... Bad memory...

While walking towards the drawing-room, Paul gave a look to Will, with a grin on his face... Will returned the look with a frown...

"Please... do sit down. We were just waiting to listen to the speech Maréchal Pétain will give to the Nation, later... I hope you will stay with us to hear it...", Paul said.

"Oh, yes... We've heard about that speech... That's the reason why we came..." Mr Bloomfield said "... "So we can talk with your father, after the speech..."

"Well Mr Bloomfield, I'm afraid you won't be able to talk with my father... for my family isn't back yet...", Paul replied.

"Oh", Mrs Bloomfield said... "We thought they were back... The other night, we thought we heard your mother play the piano... And this morning, we saw your father's car, going and coming back... so we thought..."

Will smiled at Mrs & Mr Bloomfield, and said:

"It's me, you heard playing the piano the other night... and it's me you saw this morning, driving my uncle's car... I just couldn't stay put... I had to go out... and get some fresh news..."

"Oh, you play so well..." Mrs Bloomfield replied.

"Thank you very much... I guess I've inherited that talent from my aunt, Paul's mother..." Will said, giving a big smile to Paul...

Paul smiled back to Will, thinking about what a good liar Will was! He had some guts! And Will had been right about everything else: The neighbours, not being all gone; People watching everything of what was going on outside, on the street... Yeah. Will had a very good judgment, Paul thought. He was always right about all those things...

On his side, Will was crossing his fingers in the hope that Mrs & Mr Bloomfield would not start questionning him about Strasbourg, for he knew nothing about that place... and he hoped they wouldn't question him about his new "aunt" ... Shit... He didn't even knew what her first name was... He had to do something to change the subject...

"Cousin Paul...", Will said, grinning... "Do you think we could serve coffee to our guest?"

"Oh, but of course... Where are my good manners...", Paul answered.

Will rose:

"Keep company to our guests, Paul... I'll go make coffee... you know... I've been around here so often, that I know very well where to find everything I need..." Will stated, trying not to break into a fit of giggles, saying that...

"Yes, cousin Will... You're so right..." Paul replied, thinking that if that was possible, he would strangle Will for what he had said... and the way he had said that... Oh, you, devil! You'll pay for that, he said to himself...

Will began walking out of the drawing-room, and Paul could see his lover was glowing... Will was too happy to leave Paul and later see how he had swam out of the mess he had created...

A few minutes later, Will was back, carrying a large tray with coffee, sugar, cups and saucers on it... As he laid the tray on the coffee table, Paul said to him:

"Oh, cousin Will... I see you did find all you needed..."

Will sat and, looking at Mrs & Mr Bloomfield, he said to them:

"Yes... but you know... it's not easy... Poor cousin Paul... now that my uncle's Chef is gone... He no longer even have a maid, you know! All gone!!! All of them!!! Gone!!! Ahhhhhh! I tell you... Life is so dreadful, nowadays..."

Keeping his serious face, Will turned to Paul, a twinkle in his eye...

Oh shit! Paul thought... That does it! You're gonna pay dearly for that, mister! Nonetheless, he had to refrain himself because, otherwise, he would burst out laughing... He didn't know Will could be such a clown... He looked at Will and, being as serious as Will had been, Paul replied:

"Oh dear cousin... you're so right... And you can understand our situation so well... since you were all forced to evacuate Strasbourg last year... It must have been so hard..."

"Yes", Will said... "You know... it's been so hard... I prefer not to talk about that..."

"Oh... We do understand..." Mrs Bloomfield stated... "Poor you..."

"Yes", Will answered, giving a malicious smile to Paul, without their guest noticing...

But their little game was cut short, when the speaker came back on the air to say that in five minutes, Maréchal Pétain would start to give his speech...

The mood changed inside the drawing-room, as everyone nervously waited...

"Chers auditeurs, Monsieur le Maréchal Pétain s'adresse à vous maintenant" (Dear listners, Mr the Marshal Pétain speaks to you now"):

There was a pause, then they began hearing the voice of the old Maréchal:

"... Français!" (Frenchmen!)

"À la demande de Monsieur le Président de la République, j'assume à partir d'aujourd'hui la direction du Gouvernement de la France!" (At the call of Mr the President of the Republic, from today, I shall assume control over the direction of the French Government!)

And the old Maréchal went on, saying he knew he could count on the support of the Army, on the support of the ex-servicemen he had had the privilege to command in the past, as he knew he could count on the unbounded faith the whole of France had in him...

And then, he got to the main part of his speech:

"C'est le coeur brisé que je vous dis aujourd'hui qu'il faut cesser le combat!" (It is with a broken heart that I must tell you today that we must cease fighting!)

... And the old Maréchal went on, explaining that the night before, he had contacted the opposite side, to inquire as if they had the will to explore, along with France, and with honour, ways to end the hostilities...

Hearing that, Mr Bloomfield quickly got up, went to the radio and shut it off...

"Pierre!", Mrs Bloomfield shouted... "We're not at home, here..."

"Don't worry, Mrs Bloomfield, we've heard quite enough...", Paul calmly said.

"It's a shame" shouted Mr Bloomfield... "It's a shame to ask that poor old Maréchal Pétain, the hero fo Verdun, to beg the enemy for mercy... Where is President Lebrun? Where is Premier Reynaud? They have disgrace themselves... They should be brought to the guillotine..."