Chapter 1 - The Rise of Édouard Dubois

Oh now, where was I in my story? Oh yes, at the beginning! You'll be itching to know how the two young lovers met, I dare say. Well you’ll just have to wait, just a short time, I promise, while I introduce you to their respective parents the Dubois and Meilleux families or more precisely Édouard the patriarch of the Dubois dynasty and Gabby the matriarch of the Meilleux clan, let me think, who first? Yes, let’s start with Édouard.

  Édouard Dubois had come out of the war remarkably unscathed. In fact, to say he had had a bad war would be untrue, times were uncertain; to say he had been made by the war might be closer to the mark. His financial dealings during this time had left him as a doyen of the local business community, a role which allowed him to travel now through the North of France and the Belgium to conduct his business affairs. He would visit at least once a month to talk to his bank manager always staying usually for a long weekend. A bank manager who appeared to wear channel number five, such was the odour from his suits!

  He had married Paulette LeGrande few years before the war on the expectation of a reasonable dowry. This had been sufficient, but not as sufficient as one might imagine. The bulk of which he had invested in German armaments companies and until the start of hostilities had paid a handsome return. In fact to be honest they were still paying him! He had taken advice on the best way to invest from a completely disreputable source and as a result had his shares managed by a third party in Switzerland.

  On the outbreak of hostilities Paulette had promptly given birth, at the shock to twin boys, and at this shock had retreated into the penitent part of Catholicism, this was indeed fortunate as the spark that had kindled their marriage had been as brief as the army career of Édouard who had been mobilised at the outbreak of war and sent after the briefest period of training to serve as a medical orderly.

  He sat out what has been described as the phoney war, outside Lille with the French Sixth Army, drinking, smoking and generally using his uniform to its best advantage with the ladies. He was however a married man, and though not what one would call madly in love, was content, his life had an order and with some endeavour on his part he would make a good hand of it. So the fact that on his liaisons he never took off his wedding ring, was not an issue. This, after all was who he was. No promises, at first he noticed how this did not matter and later like a spider, he even used that, to snare his prey �" leading them into a false sense of security.

  When encountering a much better dressed enemy in 1940, he promptly surrendered such was his gallantry. He was more than happy for the French army to hold out and drain the German war machine. After all, the more gallant his fellow countryman, the more tanks would be required and the higher his dividend would be. Paid to the Swiss account he had really quite inadvertently created.

  And as a prisoner of war he was performing his own form of resistance behind German lines, forcing them to feed, house and guard him, thus draining their vital war effort.

  Before the war and his marriage Eduard had been a hospital orderly, with his marriage he had not only managed to secure a dowry, but was also helped onto the career ladder by being allowed to train as a clerk in the small provincial merchant bank that Paulette’s uncle ran for Monsieur Lefèvre, offices in Paris, Lille and Marseille. Now a merchant bank was not what you might think of today, no a merchant banker was someone who advised the local middling classes on their investments from a first floor office in one of the better boulevards. One that afforded a discreet entrance and exit as well as the front door. Other than investments, sometimes customers would find themselves financially embarrassed, so to speak and the higher the civic status, the more their embarrassment would be. Thus utilising the services of one of Monsieur Lefèvre offices and his discreet assistant Édouard was  of the utmost importance. And a client was assured that whatever piece of frippery they had entrusted to Monsieur Lefèvre, it would be sold several hundred miles away if not further, thereby reducing those awkward dinner parties where you are invited to watch the new owner of your necklace parade round for all to see You know the comments that follow and as a result  Édouard now found himself with a relationship, like that of a priest and confessor.

 

 The French Army though thinks of no man’s aspirations and as a result on the outbreak of war, he was called to the reserve, having had no luck in his wish to defend French Polynesia or perhaps French Indo-China from the hordes, he managed to swap his rifle for his old profession of medical orderly, which on the face of it seemed slightly safer. Although the Red Cross on his sleeve was not bullet proof, it made him feel more disposed to hopefully a positive outcome for his longevity.

  He was not what you would call handsome. He was still however young, good looking, more importantly his facial features would be described as trustworthy, if that can bound classification. And in his uniform, well who can resist a smart young man in a uniform. You put a man in a uniform and his whole persona changes, he swanks, he struts. Yes a uniform can even make an average man appealing to the ladies. And ladies would perform their patriotic duties for liberty and for way too much fraternity.

  On his surrender, he spent a long cold winter in Germany where his knack of ingratiating himself was quickly put to use securing him a job in the camp boiler room. His job being to monitor the pressure and keep this furnace lit while his compatriots sang the Marseillaise in sub-zero temperatures outside. Rather than allow the boiler to explode as an act of resistance to his captors, he again actively sought to use their scant resource by burning as much fuel as possible. He achieved this at the personal cost of being the only prisoner of war that winter to gain a suntan.

  In the New Year he was one of the first to be released and repatriated back to France, being a non-combatant he was seen as posing no threat to the occupying power. It was on his return that he found out that his Uncle and Monsieur Lefèvre had closed shop for the duration and taken one of the last ships to America. Therefore with no immediate prospects he returned to his former post at the hospital.   

  However, his trip to Germany had revealed to him one fact and that was that as long as he was careful and chose not to go against either system, he could act with a reasonable amount of autonomy, in all of his dealings. Not only his extra marital ones! Within the year he had used his post at the hospital to aid several people with chest conditions wishing to travel to the more temperate southern climate that the Vichy were in possession of, to obtain the correct medical certificates. The doctors believed they were helping the refugees, the people thought they were paying the doctors. It became so confusing that all-in-all Édouard thought it easier if he kept the money and a few of the trinkets, after all they were grateful and forced them on him. On the anniversary of his return to Lille, he watched the sign-writer remove Monsieur Lefèvre brass plaque and then his Uncles-in-laws wooden name plaque from the banks door and replace it with his. uncle's name plaque, well just long enough to pop on the fire, after all ,wood was in such short supply. Yes, this was the start, there would be a steady stream over the next few years of people wishing to dispose of a family possession here and there for the best possible price; such was a merchant bankers lot.