Read The Dress Thief for Free Online

custody numerous times, and his descriptions made Alix squirm. You were put into a windowless cell stinking of the last occupant’s sweat, or worse. They took your shoes and your topclothes and those came back with lice in them. They searched you, right downto your underwear. Women were meant to be searched by female personnel, but it didn’t always happen.
    In the lobby of her apartment building she walked past Mme Rey, too immersed in thought to see the woman.
    ‘Ants in the pants?’
    Alix whirled round. ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Been with your nice-looking boy?’
    ‘No, I mean, yes.’ Alix hurried up the first flight of stairs.
    The concierge called after her: ‘Myboy Fernand’s here tomorrow, delivery of coal. You’ll leave a tip,
hein
? He gives his time for nothing and it’s hard work, all those sacks.’
    Outside the door of her flat, Alix caught her breath and ironed out her expression. Inside she found Mémé cooking potato pancakes on a skillet. The fleshless shoulders were hunched and Alix knew instantly that something was wrong.
    As they sat down to eat,Mémé sighed. ‘Old Misery Mop told me the landlord means to increase the rent.’
    ‘What?’ This couldn’t be happening. Not with the copying work drying up, and coal to pay for as well. ‘Why now?’
    ‘The World’s Fair is opening in June, drawing people from the four corners of the globe, so the newspapers tell us. Our landlord thinks they’ll stay forever. He wants a thousand francs a month more fromnext quarter.’
    ‘Next quarter starts 25 th March …’ Alix calculated. Just over two weeks away. She felt like the camel bracing itself for the laststraw. She used a word learned from Paul that fortunately Mémé did not understand. ‘Right, we’ll find a flat near the canal or out at La Villette. We’ll get somewhere for half what we pay here.’
    ‘No, Aliki. I like a good address. Things like that matterwhen you’re my age, and how would I make new friends by the canal? I’m too tired to move again.’ Mémé gazed at her work-table. ‘I could get another hour a day out of my fingers. Poor Brandel will have to go. Who are we with a charwoman anyway? Rockefellers?’
    ‘I’ll clean. And –’ Alix pulled in a now-or-never breath, acting on a decision she was hardly aware of having made – ‘I was thinking, Imight apply for piecework with Maison Javier. You know, sewing I could bring home? I have the skills, and you could recommend me. Then in time –’ she ignored the warning glint in her grandmother’s eye – ‘I could get a full-time job there. Javier promotes women, so I could work my way up to being a première. Premières are paid really, really well if they’re good.’
Meanwhile, I would steal for Paul’scontact and keep us all afloat. Maybe even hit the jackpot. Seven hundred thousand francs …
    Danielle Lutzman’s mouth twitched in pain, then shock. Anger soon came. ‘You hear me say I’ll slave another seven hours a week, and you talk of throwing away your good job at the telephone company? A job I shamed myself to get you?’
    ‘I’d stay until I was sure …’ Alix caught up with Mémé’s last comment.‘What d’you mean, “shamed”? I got
myself
the job at the telephone exchange.’
    ‘Just when I need to feel safe, you talk of giving up the job that puts a roof over our heads?’ Mémé beat her fist on the table so hard the crockery jumped. Alix seized the bony hands.
    ‘Don’t, please, Mémé! Whatever I said to frighten you, I didn’t mean it. I’ll stay at the telephone company. I’ll work longer shifts.’She added silently,
I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe
.
    Yet, despite her protestations, she was to look back on this as the moment she stepped to the edge of the cliff, looked down into a pit crawling with deceit and danger … and jumped.

Chapter Five

NEWS MONITOR
10th March 1937
----
    V. Haviland, Madrid correspondent,
reports from the heart of Spain’s civil