Leonora
By jazz
- 289 reads
I had been discharged, demobbed. It was , and is, hard to believe after so long.
I detested my time in the Army and in the whole conflict, but I also loved it, loved it more than anything , however I was glad to get back to civilian life.
Jacobs, the senior partner, was keen to have me back anyway. There had been a couple of deaths and Lewis had retired ( to run a boarding house in Colwyn bay, a truly bizarre change of career and hardly for retirement but his third wife was a lot younger than him and would doubtless share more than she needed of the work).
I sat in the office waiting for old Jacobs, the place didn't seem to have changed and it was lovely to talk again to Miss Huntley; his secretary looked even younger after six years of war than she did when she joined.
She took a Du Maurier out of her desk and lit it so casually, after what I had seen in the occupied countries men and women would kill for something she was now doing so casually.
'It will be good to have someone from the old days Mr Connolly, we have missed our boys'
She always had that flirtatious twinkle in her eyes when she spoke , I wonder that she could have had her fair share of men friends, but she hadn't as yet settled down with anyone.
'It will be good to get back' I replied 'The whole country now needs some stability'
She nodded and obviously wanted to talk more;
'Should I ask how was it? I had a cousin who married a Frenchman and was living near the Vercors..'
She stopped suddenly and abruptly and looked at the ceiling.
'I can have a word at the War Office, I still know some people there, but I think on the plateau they had a hard time'
'Did we abandon them Mr Connolly?'
' I don't think we did, but hard choices had to be made, and still are' I didn't want to say any more and we were saved by the avuncular figure of Jacobs entering.
'Connolly my dear boy ( everyone was dear boy or dear lady to Jacobs), let's talk, conditions and all the rest of it, you are needed believe me'
*
It was good to have the routine of civilian life back. I rented a room near the offices , run by a charming bohemian lady of fifty or so who went by the name of Mrs Jefferson, although no Mr Jefferson was ever spoken of, or seem to have existed.
It was late on a Thursday evening I seem to recall that her heard her unmistakeable cough coming up the stairs and then there was a knock.
'Sorry to trouble you Mr Connolly but I have a problem'
My first instinct was to ask her to call in to the office but she was a good sort and overlooked the fact that my rent was late on the first two months. So I obliged.
It turned out that she had a relative who was from France and wanted to settle in England. Of course I said that she could stay with Mrs Jefferson but then something odd came about. Mrs Jefferson became very sharp and her usual gregariousness evaporated.
'Can't your Miss Huntley help?'
'How on earth do you think she can?'
'She's French speaking, she worked for the government in the war'
I really couldn't see the attractive and mannered Miss Huntley working for the government, I had thought she was with Jacobs all the time. Although I knew of her relations and I knew she could speak French perfectly.
'Go and ask her Mr Connolly, You will find your pretty Miss Huntley not all that she seems'
*
A Few days later I had asked Miss Huntley, or Leonora as I called her when we were less formal outside of work ( on our occasional lunches and even rarer trips to the opera , I loved La Boheme she didn't, she adored Verdi whereas I was always Puccini), I was always Mr Connolly to join me at Baxters Tea rooms.
She was , if I can recall correctly, quite keen to talk about me and my war record, rather than what she did. However, I heard her slip up when I talked about France and my returning to the capital I really should have guessed that she knew something when she mentioned the Vercors.
'Those bloody communists still about? No wonder De Gaulle wants them out'
Immediately she halted and lit another cigarette; I said nothing for we bot knew that she had let too much information out.
'How could you know that? Or are you just well informed? Or is my Mrs Jefferson correct in saying that you were not with our firm during the War?'
'I don't have any idea how she would have known Mr Connolly (she would never ever call me Edward), but I was a fool to mention France when you came back, letting it out like that. I had a call from Whitehall late in 1940..dear uncle Jimmy worked there in some capacity and knew my French was good'
'You worked for SOE?'
'Yes Mr Connolly, Mr Jacobs has said he will not mention it, he was compensated by Uncle Jimmy believe me, but I worked in liaison for the Free French..eventually being parachuted into France. Christ knows how I got back'
She made all this sound terribly prosaic and betrayed no emotion whatsoever. My regard for her grew immensely.
'I am breaking the rules telling you this Mr Connolly, I feel I can trust you though..Can't I ?' The suspended sentence left me to answer and I nodded. My work as Liaison on the ground between the victorious powers had also led me to be discreet, as well as secretive.
'What worries me is how does she know ' Leonora didn't look at me as lit another Du Maurier..provocatively and to my considerable consternation she blew the smoke in my face. This was definitely not the Leonora I knew.
'I can find out, we need to find out how much she knows'
'We?' Leonora snapped 'I need to find out, but you can help Mr Connolly'
She got up and left, leaving me with an order.
Mrs Jefferson was still very keen for her relative as she called, to get a British passport. She was not keen on letting me have much more information , but I had to keep digging and find out how what the connection was with Leonora.
Work was getting busy, and to be honest I really wanted to get back into things but it all all kept nagging away, seeing Leonora every day and Mrs Jefferson most days did not help. Eventually it all got the better of me and I organised a visit to London to see an old colleague at the War Office.
'Connolly, I only have a few minutes you know that' Said major Fredericks on the phone, he was good to work with but always thorough, and always in a rush.
Charlie Fredericks was a big man, at least six foot tall and about nineteen stone, but surprisingly athletic. The Free French actually got on well with him, his superiors I always thought found him too easy to placate others, but he was tolerated and still had a good position at the War Office.
' 'All this is strictly classified you know' he winked at me as he led me into his spacious office.
'We could have done with something this size ' I said as I was enveloped into a winged armchair.
Charlie laughed
'This is recent, I was getting used to cramped quarters! Anyway, you want to know about your Miss Huntley and this er.. Jefferson lady?'
He opened a seemingly enormous file on his desk and gave it to me. There were numerous photographs of Leonora typing at a desk, and then in uniform, and finally a false passport.
'Leonora spoke excellent French and was recommended to us by Jimmy Wellbeck.. you remember him? He is her uncle'
'That Jimmy! Relatives in high places then?' I was astounded, there was more and more to this woman.
'She initially typed for us but got on well with some of the French, and Poles for that matter, she picked up languages very easily, even colloquially. We dropped her into France once, I was not happy at putting someone like her in the field but we got her out, luckily the Germans were retreating then and more concerned with the invasion.'
'Was she anywhere near the Vercors ?'
'No not really, as you knew Edward a terribly difficult place to supply. She was dropped near there with a young French girl called Colette de Valois..Tragedy is that we never got her back'
'She was lucky to get out?'
'Well they split up , as was the plan and they were, shall we say, good friends.. She missed Colette badly and thought she had gone of her own volition to the Vercors. The great problem was that we were given information that Colette's brother was in the Milice'
'She was passing information?'
Fredericks shook his head,
'We never had any evidence but we did wonder '
He then made a show of looking at his watch.
'Where does Mrs Jefferson fit in?'
'Mrs Jefferson lived in France before the war, she got out in 1938, she stayed with a family there, as yet we don't know who but we are keeping an eye on her'.
I wasn't going to get up but Charlie Fredericks stooped.
'Your Miss Huntley should not have said anything..you and I know better than to talk at any length about what we went through, tell her to be quiet..careless talk and all that'.
*
Mrs Jefferson was very quiet from then on, I wondered if she only accepted me as a tenant as I was with the firm. Eventually, and with some reluctance she announced that her relative was coming from France and would stay for a few days.
I asked if there was anything I could do and was told, with some bitterness , as I recall, that I could do nothing and that nobody had really helped them. I still to this day do not know who her 'relative' was. All I can say is that she was a young girl of about seventeen who had lost both her parents in the Occupation, her English was good but accented and she seemed remarkably sure of herself considering what she had gone through. However one should not judge, none of us will ever know I trust, how ordinary people survived in the dark years. I was never compromised but many were, and doubtless still are. We are humans and we do what we can to survive, even if it does render us animalistic.
Mrs Jefferson introduced her around the town and she warmly welcomed. Leonora was curious and was quite distant.
We were leaving work one wet night and I asked her to join me at the tea rooms again, the manager knew us well enough to keep the place open for an extra hour.. and a pound note made sure we were kept alone from him and customers.
'You really should not have told me..No one at SOE talks of their work, you are bound by the Act for the rest of your days' I was sharper than perhaps I should have been.
'I know Mr Connolly, I know but I have only told you..I was lucky to get out you know, and I was only dropped once '
'And dear old uncle Jimmy is Jimmy Wellbeck!'
She laughed ' loudly and unexpectedly loudly, and I loved it.
'Well we all have some secrets! He is a very distant uncle you know..he called me to answer England's call and I did. He will be retiring soon, I don't think he is in the best of health..he was gassed at Ypres '
I said I knew, Jimmy always had chest problems, Charlie said he was fun to work with and didn't take himself too seriously.
'This cousin? There is no cousin is there?
Leonora looked me straight in the eye and smiled mirthlessly.
'No, there wasn't..it's the girl I dropped with..You can't live and work with someone in the excited atmosphere of what we did and not get an attachment..Her name was Colette and I loved her Mr Connolly, totally and completely..and I have no idea what happened to her'.
I did not say I knew but I was alarmed at just how easily Leonora was telling me this, she must have been keeping a lid on it for so long, she was happy to let it flow out.
Even so, she was being very composed, looking back we were all like that, it's as if what we had seen and endured was too much for words, or for any comprehension.
'Where does Mrs Jefferson fit in/ do you have any idea?'
'She stayed with a family, I think there was a connection to Collette, I can't believe that after everything we live in a small world'
'She knows you were in SOE?'
She shook her head, I think she knows I worked for the government, but I doubt very much that she knows what at, although I would have thought she could have approached me directly'.
I said I had found out very little about Collette, Leonora was undoubtedly disappointed but tried her best not to let it show.
'Surely you can approach Jimmy directly?'
'Oh no, as far as he is concerned the least said about our work the better, I think that he felt, and quite probably still does, that Collette was just a necessary casualty.
We talked a little longer about nothing in particular but it saddened me that two months later Leonora handed in her resignation, she said she was going to take up a position with Coutts and preferred to be in London. I was disappointed but poor old Jacobs was desperatley sorry to see her leave after so many years. He admitted to me that he coped during the war but then he knew that she would be back.
Tha day she left we had a sherry party at the office and some speeches were made. She did seem to enjoy the attention but there was an overwhelming sadness to it all.
Jacobs drove her to the staion the following day, I just couldn't do it. Maybe the war years with their constant goodbyes had been too much but I just just could not cope and to my astonishment over the next few weeks I would think of her and even see her in the street. We wrote to each other, not regularly I am ashamed to say and after two years things drifted off. I was lucky in meeting Niamh, a sweet Irish girl fifteen years younger than me. Soon, married life and cgildren and domesticity took me further away from Leonora and eventually the firm, being able to set up on my own.
Mrs Jefferson soon left the village as well with her new found charge , no one knew what happened to them either but later I had a call from Major Fredericks saying that they were looking for Mrs Jefferson's 'relaltive' with quite some urgency.
I told him I knew nothing and would be surprised what a seventeen year old may have been up to.
'Oh there is no way she is seventeen , we think she is at least three years older and is a thorough bitch, we are near certain she was the mistress of a Gestapo officer near the Vercors'
I didn not know how to respond, but then I had also encountered so very many who had led double lives; just for survival or just to settle old scores, who will ever know .
All I can say now is that here across the Channel we were so lucky not to be compromised.
Found in the private parers of Edward Ralph Connolly, D.S.O, LlB 1920-2011.
Leonora Huntley, sentenced under her real name of Patricia Fry, was hanged at Holloway prison 1953 for the murders of Mrs Gladys Jefferson and Miss Avril de Valois
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