The Red Cross provided proper beds and appeals to charities in England produced bales of blankets, sheets and pillows. More recruits arrived and the FANYs swept and scrubbed until the wards were at least reasonably hygienic, if not exactly homely. They were less successful in improving their own living conditions. It seemed that none of the landladies who ran the boarding houses were prepared to put up English visitors for more than three or four nights, though they resorted to a variety of excuses to explain why their guests would have to move on. One morning on their way to work Leo and Victoria passed an empty shop, which bore the name ‘Le Bon Genie’. ‘I wonder who it belongs to,’ Victoria mused. ‘If we could rent it we could live there.’ ‘We can’t sleep in a shop window!’ Leo protested. ‘I’d rather do that than move every three days,’ Victoria retorted. Enquiries produced the answer that the tenants had fled the town and the owner was only too glad to rent the place to someone else.
