Tuscan Rose (55 page)

Giovanni knelt and began making a crude model of the villa on the tent floor, using pieces of string for the driveway and blocks of wood for the buildings. Starling showed him where the gun posts had been the last time he’d observed the villa. ‘But there’s no guarantee they haven’t moved them now the Germans are fleeing.’

‘And don’t forget they are using the Derveaux villa as a fuel storage facility,’ said Ada. ‘There is a reserve force nearby that could be at the villa in fifteen minutes if they hear the guns being fired.’

Rosa glanced at Clementina. It occurred to her that they were relying on information from a witness none of them trusted. Normally a dangerous mission like this would need thorough reconnaissance but there was no time. They had no choice but to strike that night.

Starling took Clementina away to be guarded by another partisan and returned so the group could discuss their plan.

Giovanni turned to Luciano. ‘This is your mission,’ he said. ‘You have full command. I will obey whatever orders you give me.’

Luciano looked at his father steadily and nodded. It was no small thing for Giovanni, the more senior commander, to hand
over control to Luciano. But it was a sign of his regard for his son and the point wasn’t lost on those present.

‘Despite the Germans withdrawing north, the colonel is still well protected,’ Luciano said. ‘But the Derveaux villa could be to our advantage.’

Luciano used a piece of paper to represent the Derveaux villa. ‘If we can create a diversion here and cut the telephone lines to the villa at the same time, the colonel may assume the fuel supply is being attacked and send his force from the villa to there. Then we can attack that force and at least weaken it. At the same time we will need to neutralise the machine gun posts near the gates.’

‘But we wouldn’t attempt to take the villa from that direction,’ said Starling. ‘The reserve force might be on our heels before we even make it to the villa.’

Luciano nodded. ‘That’s right. That’s why we will have two groups suppress the machine gun posts at the rear and side of the villa and we will storm the house from the woods. But getting into the villa is one thing. Getting out again with fifty women and children is another.’

Luciano outlined a plan where he would divide the partisans into three groups. Giovanni’s group would be responsible for creating a mock attack on the fuel store at the Derveaux villa and ambushing the soldiers the colonel would send from the Villa Scarfiotti to defend it. By laying mines on the road they would also slow down the reserve force that would arrive when alerted to the attack on the villa. It was also this group’s responsibility to suppress and then take over the guard post near the gates. The assignment would call on every skill the partisans had learned in their years of fighting. Giovanni nodded his approval, pleased with his role.

The next group would be led by Starling. Their job was to suppress and neutralise the gun posts at the rear and side of the villa once the colonel had sent off his soldiers in response to the mock attack. That achieved they would then storm the villa and pick off any remaining soldiers and servants who got in their way.
They were to take the Marchesa and the colonel captive—or to shoot them if they resisted.

‘The third group will be the smallest,’ Luciano said, ‘and will be led by Raven and myself along with Partridge.’

Rosa’s heart leaped. She was being given a leading role? Luciano must have truly believed what she had said about her calling.

Luciano explained that it would be the responsibility of the last group to get the women and children out of the villa and take them through the woods to safety. The majority of Luciano’s group were to secure the escape route and wait in the woods with Woodpecker for the hostages while Luciano, Rosa, Ada and Partridge entered the villa to rescue the hostages from the cellar. Nobody voiced it, but it was the most dangerous role of all. Once Luciano’s squad were in the lower part of the villa, they would be trapped if Giovanni’s group couldn’t hold back the reserve force long enough. Although their mission would need nothing short of a miracle to succeed, Rosa believed in the angel. Whatever happened, they were called to do this.

After the group had agreed on the plan, they lapsed into silence, each absorbed in his or her own thoughts. The danger was brought home again when Luciano reminded each partisan to reserve a bullet for themselves in case they were captured by the Germans.

The plan was to attack at night, so the partisans spent the afternoon cleaning and checking their weapons as well as giving orders to their own squads. Those who could sleep, did. Others wrote letters of farewell to their wives and parents, which would be left with Fiamma and some of the
staffette
who would be waiting at the edge of the woods to receive the hostages and any injured. Rosa and Luciano left to tell the priest of a nearby village to warn the inhabitants to hide in case there were any German reprisals if the partisans did not succeed.

They walked back to the camp as the sun was setting.

‘Rosa,’ Luciano said, using her real name for the first time since she had joined the Flock. ‘Promise me something before we go on this mission.’

Rosa turned to him. ‘What is it?’

‘Promise me that if I order you to withdraw, you will. That whatever I tell you to do on this mission, you will obey my command.’

With Luciano’s eyes intently upon her, Rosa had no choice but to agree. He took her hand and squeezed it. They had not spoken of their feelings since they had made love. They didn’t need to. Rosa hadn’t allowed herself to think about the future—or the past. She only allowed her mind to dwell in this present moment. All she knew was that she and Luciano must fight together, and that occupied her full concentration.

When they reached the camp, Luciano called Partridge over. ‘Witness this,’ he said, before turning back to Rosa. ‘Raise your right hand,’ he told her. Rosa did as he asked.

‘By the powers awarded to me by the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy, I hereby swear you into the rank of lieutenant,’ Luciano said.

‘Lieutenant?’ Rosa repeated. ‘That’s a high rank.’

‘You’ve earned it,’ he said.

Rosa, Luciano and Partridge shared a piece of bread together before gathering their equipment. The partisans set off for the villa as the sun was sending its last rays through the trees. Rosa had a final word for Clementina who was being guarded by two
staffette
.

‘I hope you know that if you are lying, you are sending your countrymen to their deaths,’ she said. ‘And our neighbouring partisans will not be generous in their treatment of you once the Allies arrive.’

Clementina stared at Rosa then turned away. ‘You’d better hurry,’ she said. ‘They’ll notice I’m gone when I don’t come down for dinner. You’re lucky they eat late at the villa these days.’

As the partisans departed the camp, Rosa looked at the men and women with whom she had fought for the past year and blessed each one in her heart. Their mission depended on the element of surprise. It was a flimsy foundation. All it would take
would be for one thing to go wrong and everything would be lost. She sensed that God was with them, but she didn’t know if that was because they were marching to victory—or to their deaths.

Darkness had fallen by the time they reached the woods bordering the villa. Giovanni’s group prepared to depart. He and Luciano embraced.

‘I’m proud of you, my son,’ Giovanni told Luciano.

Luciano couldn’t bring himself to speak and did not take his eyes off his father until the group disappeared around a bend in the road. After that, the rest of the partisans made their way through the woods. Rosa walked with Ada and Paolina, appreciating how her time as a partisan had improved her night vision. As they moved stealthily through the trees, she became conscious of three figures cloaked in black moving next to them. They were not earthly beings. Ada and Paolina were aware of their presence too.

‘It’s Orsola and her companions,’ whispered Ada.

Rosa silently prayed. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her, but she knew that she was surrounded by beings of light. The figures of the three witches moved closer to each other until they formed one large mass. Rosa became aware of the strong earthy smell of a large animal and realised it was not three figures she was looking at any more but Dono. He was striding along beside them.

‘
Buon Dio
!’ said Starling in a strangled whisper. ‘It’s a bear!’ He raised his gun but wasn’t able to shoot without giving the whole mission away.

Rosa pulled down the barrel of his gun. ‘He doesn’t intend us harm,’ she said. ‘He’s escorting us through the woods.’

‘When that woman said “Dono”,’ whispered Partridge, ‘I thought she was talking about a dog!’

The villa appeared before them and the partisans crouched down behind the trees. The place was quiet except for soft music coming from the Marchesa’s quarters. It was the Intermezzo from the opera
Cavalleria Rusticana
. Rosa remembered the time she had
stumbled across the Marchesa listening to it while looking at Nerezza’s opera sets. There had been tears in her eyes. She recalled what the Marchesa had said to her—
When two opponents meet, there can only be one winner
—and realised that she was not only on a mission to save the nuns and Jewish women and children, but also to seek justice for herself.

Starling signalled to his men who crept into their positions ready to fire on the machine gun posts. Starling had selected four partisans who were famous for their perfect aim to lob the grenades into the posts once the fire attack was under way.

The lower floors of the villa were lit up and Rosa saw servants moving about in the rooms. She shivered when she spotted Signora Guerrini in the dining room. The housekeeper was no doubt giving orders in her usual imperious manner, oblivious to the mayhem that was about to unfold. Two guards stood in the kitchen garden; if they didn’t move when they heard the explosions go off then they would be amongst the first to be shot.

Luciano’s group waited in silence, their breathing measured and shallow. But with her strained nerves, everything sounded too loud to Rosa. Their whole mission could be given away by the clink of a gun against a belt, a cough or a sneeze. She looked for Dono but he had disappeared. Luciano squinted at his watch. Something was wrong. The explosions Giovanni’s team was to set off as a diversion should have gone off ten minutes ago.

Luciano set his gun sights on the two guards in the kitchen garden. Rosa wondered what would happen if Giovanni’s bombs didn’t detonate. The summer heat played havoc with explosives. Starling’s and Luciano’s groups would have to attack the villa without a diversion, and that would simply be suicidal. Rosa tried not to think about the women and children in the cellar and the nuns. Madre Maddalena would be with them too. She prayed they were all unharmed.

Suddenly there were booms like thunder. Giovanni’s bombs had detonated! The two guards ran into the house. There was a commotion and a few minutes later three trucks sped down the
driveway. Luciano and Rosa looked at each other. The colonel had done exactly what they’d hoped he would do; he had sent his soldiers to defend the fuel store. They had no time to wallow in their first victory. Gunfire crackled. Starling’s fire support team was attacking the machine gun posts. The skirmish team managed to suppress and take over the positions. Everything was moving like clockwork now—and quickly. The rest of Starling’s group sprang one at a time over the low hedge into the kitchen garden. There was a burst of gunfire in the kitchen. Rosa saw two SS guards fall. The other partisans kicked down the door that led to the rooms underneath the villa. The SS officer who had captured Rosa from the hospital ran forward firing a gun, but he was cut down in a hail of bullets. There were more shots. Then one of the partisans ran out and gave the signal to Luciano.

‘Move! Move! Move!’ Luciano commanded Rosa, Ada and Partridge. They ran after him towards the villa, stepping over the bodies of the guards the partisans had shot and entering the lower part of the house. Luciano kicked open the cellar door and the group burst inside. The women and children had heard the gunshots and had pressed themselves as far away from the door as possible. Some had hidden themselves behind barrels and crates. They screamed when they saw the partisans, thinking they were coming to execute them.

Madre Maddalena recognised Rosa and stood up. She had black bruises under her eyes. Someone had broken her nose. It made Rosa angry to see the injuries but there was no time to think about it.

‘We are here to rescue you,’ Rosa told her. ‘We have to get everybody out quickly.’ Giovanni and his men would hold the road against the reserve unit that would surely be sent but they couldn’t do so forever. Soon the place would be swarming with soldiers.

Madre Maddalena called to her nuns to help get the women and children moving. But they seemed dazed, as if they had prepared themselves to die and now couldn’t believe that God had sent them rescuers instead.

‘I thought we were forgotten,’ said Suor Valeria, grabbing Rosa’s arm. ‘I thought we had been forsaken.’

‘You’ve not been forgotten nor forsaken,’ Rosa told her. ‘But please, you must hurry. Go up the stairs to where the partisans are waiting for you.’

Rosa had not anticipated that it would take so long to get the hostages to move. Not all of them were Italians. Some were foreign Jews who had fled to Florence for safety. Rosa tried to communicate in Italian, then English and then French to one terrified woman who was huddled in the corner with a small child in her arms. Finally, she realised the woman was Czechoslovakian and picked her up and pushed her towards the door.

The hostages moved out of the room on unsteady legs. Rosa saw them being lifted into the kitchen garden. Other partisans were helping them into the woods. Out of the corner of her eye, Rosa caught something move in an upstairs window. It was a guard with a machine gun. Her heart stopped when she saw that he was about to mow down the women and children struggling towards the woods. But Starling returned to the kitchen garden and saw him too. The guard collapsed in a crackle of gunfire. Rosa wondered where the Marchesa had gone. Had the partisans managed to capture her?