The Reprieve - post V

Just as it seems like war is inevitable it looks like Hitler might back down but the wheels are in motion and the characters move to take up their places in the event of a war. In a flood the old characters come back to the centre of the story and Mathieu gets more attention than he has nearly all of the book and Ivich reappears and Boris and Daniel share their thoughts with the wrong audience.

Bullet points between pages 288 – 348

* Mathieu returns to his Paris flat and cannot sleep sp heads out to visit some old haunts and take a mental picture of the city for what he expects could be the last time but before heads out his landlady hands him a letter from Daniel which he pockets rather than reads

* Boris confides to Lola that he is not sure if he will be frightened by war and that concerns him but she only thinks of herself so he resolves to join up and put an end to his doubts and heads for the recruitment office

* Philippe the pacifist is noticed in a bar with the prostitute he picked up by the secretary of the pacifist editor the boy has fallen under the influence of and so she resolves to follow him and watches as Philippe is beaten up for calling an end to the war

* Mathieu pretends to be a policeman and steps into save Philippe and then helps the secretary Irene put him into a cab but she stops and asks for his help because the young man is trying to escape

* They take him to her flat and put him to bed and then in the most emotionally intense scene yet Mathieu and Irene share the night together and although when they wake Philippe is gone she agrees to see him off at the station that night when he leaves

* Ivich meanwhile has just about had enough of being cut off in the country and after her father welcomes the German aggression and comments that soon they will be able to return to Russia she storms out and heads for Paris

* Once back in the capital she heads for Mathieu’s flat and he meets her and tells her she can stay there but he seems to have gone past the point of having any thoughts for her of love and lust and leaves her to go to the station and there he says goodbye to Irene

* Philippe goes to the police and tries to get himself made a martyr for peace but all they do is phone his father and ask him to come and pick him up

The final thirty pages will come at some point this weekend…