Cold Lonely Courage (Madeleine toche Series Book 2) (21 page)

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CHAPTER
FIFTY-FOUR

Madeleine was sitting in Colonel Maurice Buckmaster’s office. He was head of F section and responsible for the SOE activities in occupied France. He was the man who had originally interviewed her over tea and scones when she first volunteered for duty. Those days seemed a lifetime away. The Colonel was a much more relaxed man now that his orders had been carried out.

She received years of back pay as an ensign and used some of it to put herself up in the Ritz hotel and to buy some new clothes. She smiled at the memory of the British women as they watched her make her way through the expensive shop making several purchases, her confidence adding a layer of sophistication and depth to her already stunning good looks.

Buckmaster returned her smile. She looked chic and stylish in clothes tailored to fit her. She had gone to Harrods and received a full beauty treatment and was turning heads in the street wherever she went. There was a porcelain quality to her skin, complementing her fine bone structure and features that had taken on a more sensual look than the twenty year old girl his section had sent to France. He found himself having to break eye contact with her often. Funny after all he had endured that he would feel like a schoolboy in the presence of one of his own operatives.

“I don’t suppose I can talk you into undertaking another mission, Madeleine. Germany is far from defeated and a person with your talents can be very useful.”

“No, Colonel. I’m finished. I have completed my assignment and leave the rest of the fighting to the soldiers. France will be free very soon. Once the south is liberated, I’m going home.”

“You’ve served your country and the cause of freedom with utter distinction. There will be medals and honors for you once this is all done.” Buckmaster slowly poured the tea in the formal manner that gave him such pleasure. It was the simple things that reminded him that Britain had endured, along with her people, traditions and backbone. He was just bursting with patriotic pride these days. Many agents had been lost to the war, some perished in battle, and others suffered a slower death in concentration camps. The Germans would have much to atone for and he intended to participate in whatever wartime tribunals were established to punish the atrocities of the Nazis.

“I wonder, Colonel. Assassination hardly ranks in the gentlemanly art of war. I was the hammer of the dirty tricks department. I killed so many.”

“Every flight that bombs German towns kills hundreds and thousands of civilians. For the most part, all of your targets were military and, I might add, some of the most demented and unholy of men that have ever walked the face of the earth. We are quite sure that our suspicions that these same SS and Gestapo participated in the mass extermination of countless numbers of Jews will be confirmed, along with their more open crimes like those perpetrated at Oradour sur Glane.

“I tried when I could to help get Jewish children out. I remained anonymous as possible. There were many brave young men women risking their lives to do the same without training. All they had was courage and trust in God. Their heroics saved lives. I took lives.”

“The Nazis are monsters, Madeleine.”

“I fulfilled my promise to my brother Yves. France will be free. Now I must return to my parents. They have had no word from me for more than three years.”

“You have news of their safety?”

“Yes, the German police officers of whom I spoke verified that they were alive.”

“Major Horst Stenger and Captain William Petersen?”

“Yes sir. If you have any influence, please locate them and see that they are afforded privileged status. They are Germany’s future and her past. I find that after knowing them I cannot hate the German people, however hard I try. Stenger and Willi saved me in more ways than one. Stenger will be a leader in the rebuilding of Germany. I know it in my heart.”

“I have some additional although unconfirmed information about those two.” Buckmaster said, tapping a thin file on the table next to the tea service. It seems that hundreds of Jewish refugees have told stories about being aided in escape by men they thought to be masquerading as Gestapo agents. One taller and blond and the other darker, compact like a prizefighter.”

Madeleine tried to speak but couldn’t, peals of laughter rolling out of her as she looked at Buckmaster. She felt just marvelous. Buckmaster stared at her a look of utter surprise on his face. This was their stone killer! Eventually he couldn’t help it and dissolved himself.

“There’s nothing that will change your mind?” Buckmaster said, as their laughter subsided.

“I can’t think of anything,” Madeleine said.

“Maybe this will help,” Buckmaster said, picking up his phone. “Send him in, Judy,” he said to his secretary.

The door opened and Teach walking into the room.

“Hello, Jack,” Madeleine said, walking over and embracing him.

“You made it, Madeleine. I knew you would,” Jack said. “The Colonel has one last mission, one that might be the most important of all.”

“Now you’re not playing fair,” Madeleine said, addressing Buckmaster. “And I suppose the plan requires me to go to some God awful place all alone.”

“Not alone, Madeleine Toche,” DuPont said, walking into the room.

Stenger and Willi stood behind the temporary barbed wire fence along with hundreds of other German POWs awaiting their fate. They were relatively clean, not having been in combat as many of the other captured men had.

A few days earlier they had surrendered to a US patrol, sitting austerely in front of the little police station drinking coffee. The Americans had been relatively cordial, believing that they were basically arresting German MPs. Enlisted men everywhere treat MPs with some deference, regardless of which side they’re on. Both men turned to watch as a British jeep pulled into the compound. Two officers jumped out and presented some orders to the commanding officer of the makeshift POW camp.

“Major Horst Stenger and Captain William Petersen, front and center,” one of the guards called out.

“What’s this, Horsty? I don’t care whose army this is, it’s never good to get your name called out,” Willi said out of the side of his mouth.

“We better find out, Willi,” Stenger said, equally surprised.

One of the officers marched stiffly up to the fence. Snapped to attention and saluted Stenger as he stepped forward.

“Major Horst Stenger and Captain William Petersen please report!”

“Stenger and Petersen here,” Stenger answered.

“Come with us, sir. Somebody in London has ordered your release.”

“Who might that be?”

“The directive ordering your release was signed by Winston Churchill.”

“I don’t believe it,” Willi managed to say.

“You must have friends in high places, gentlemen.”

“No, an angel on our shoulders,” Stenger said, shaking his head and smiling knowingly at Willi.

“You are officially released and are now posted in the service of her Majesty’s Navy as civilian employees for the duration of the war.”

“Doing what?”

“I don’t believe it. You two are going to be night watchmen at the Bullmastiff brewery in Cardiff, Wales. You lucky sods!”

“I trust the brewery is intact, Lieutenant?” Stenger said.

“Your planes dropped bombs everywhere else but it was never hit.”

Stenger roared with laughter and Willi was shaking and giggling so hard he had to hold onto Stenger.

Willi finally managed, “You see, Horsty, I got you in the brewery business after all!”

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Author’s Note:

The characters in this novel are largely fictitious, except for those of historical significance. The Das Reich Division of the SS perpetrated the massacre at Oradour sur Glane. The reasons behind the actions of the Nazis and their destruction of Oradour are clouded. There is no definitive answer. I chose to incorporate the theory put forth by Robin Mackness in his nonfiction book, “Massacre and Aftermath” (c) 1988, concerning a possible explanation. That information is referenced on an Oradour sur Glane website,
http:www.mikekemble.com/ww2/oradour.html
. Regardless of the reason behind their actions, the Nazi SS Das Reich Division perpetrated an unconscionable act upon the men, women and children of Oradour. It is my fervent hope that the punishment for their crimes is perpetual.

I would like to thank my friends, family and parents for their encouragement and support during the long process of bringing
Cold Lonely Courage
to print. I would like to specifically thank, Ben Oney, my first editor, for his help and direction and Judy Bridges, Redbird Studio, for her critique, and Annie Chase for her editing.