London Dawn (19 page)

Lady Preston closed her eyes. “Wasn’t the pain of Ireland enough? Why did she have to experience the same sort of hate and fighting in Palestine that she did in Ireland? Why twice in her lifetime, William?”

“I don’t know. Except to say there are many places on this earth where the same sort of tragedies are played out again and again. It’s common to the human race. Many go through the same trials and tribulations. At least you and I can walk through them with God, walk through them to the other side. I do not believe Shannon is dead. She is alive, Elizabeth, more alive than we are. She is like an angel. No more sorrow. No more heartache. If she can see us, she knows that her husband and daughter are coming to us, coming to England, and that they will be greatly loved and cared for. She will have an overwhelming peace.”

“I’m glad someone has it because I don’t. I suppose if I didn’t believe in God I might be better off, for I would have expected nothing more than the back of the hand from this world. But I prayed to God and expected something better, and now I’m bitterly disappointed. First Albert. Then Christelle. And Michael. Now Shannon. It makes me wonder if there will be any of us left in two or three years.”

“Come, my dear, don’t talk that way. God is with us. Our children survived the war. Our grandchildren are hale and hearty. Robbie and Patricia are coming home to us. Thank God for that. Grasp ahold of your faith. It must be your anchor in such a time as this. It must or you will be swept away.”

“Shall I sing a stanza of ‘It Is Well with My Soul’? Would that please you? Is that what you’re looking for?”

“What I’m looking for is your Cornwall blood. What I’m looking for is the faith that stands with God and light and hope in the face of all fires and floods and pestilence. Your forefathers had it, and they dealt with far greater horrors than we have had to bear up under. Where is yours, Elizabeth? Where is yours now that our family needs it the most?”

She sank her head into her hand. “I don’t know, William. I honestly don’t. It’s lost at sea. It’s vanished into thin air. It’s in the grave along with Albert and Christelle and Michael and Shannon. It’s gone.”

December 11, 1937

St. Andrew’s Cross, London

“Hullo, Jeremy.”

Jeremy came out from behind his desk. “Robbie. I’m so glad you’ve made it here for our meeting. When I saw you the other night I wasn’t sure if you meant it or were just saying something you knew would make your mother happy.”

“What? Getting together with you and talking it out? I meant it all right.” Robbie shook Jeremy’s hand. “I really must do something or I’ll go mad.”

“I understand. How’s Patricia?”

“She’s with Cecilia. She’s just turned eight, you see, so they get along famously. It’s a gift. I thank God, it’s a gift. Patricia needs so much more than I do. She’s so young.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Please, take a seat.”

Jeremy took an armchair next to Robbie, the one man in black with his white collar, the other in full uniform.

“I can brew some tea,” offered Jeremy.

Robbie waved his hand. “Perhaps later.”

Jeremy nodded. “Right.”

“I honestly don’t know what to say or what help you can offer, Jeremy. I feel my mother ought to be here instead of me. She’s experiencing a towering rage against God. All I feel is a bleakness. I’ve seen combat. I’ve watched comrades die. I’ve killed. But this is different. I’ve lost my wife. I could protect the Jews of Jerusalem but not her. Why didn’t I order that the car be inspected? Why didn’t I tell them to lift the bonnet or open the boot? Why did I let her go down first with Patricia? Shouldn’t I have been
there ahead of her, ahead of both of them, making sure everything was in order? After all, there was a war going on, wasn’t there, the Arabs against the British and the Jews? Why was I taking things so casually? Why did I feel my family and I were immune? You see, Jeremy, for me it’s not a matter of where was God. I keeping asking myself over and over again, where was I?”

Jeremy peeled off his black suit jacket as he came into the vicarage that evening, tossed it on a chair instead of hanging it up as usual, walked to a window, and looked out at the street he’d just walked down for half a block. He watched the cars and trucks and people move past and did not turn away even when Emma leaned her head against his back.

“Ha’penny for your thoughts, Reverend,” she said.

“They’re not even worth that much, really. There’s nothing profound going on. I’m pretty empty-headed. I didn’t have anything to give to Robbie to settle his soul. It strikes me I didn’t have much to give Kipp when Christelle died or Libby when Michael was killed in that plane crash either.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is true. I can’t bring people back to life, can I? Or tell them the moment they cry a hundred thousand tears their bad fortunes will be reversed and everything will be as lovely as it was two or three weeks or a month before. That’s what folks who are grieving want, Em. Miracles. Words of comfort aren’t miracles.”

“Of course they are.”

“Oh, they might change a person’s mind, but they don’t change what’s real. Shannon’s gone, Em, and I can’t bring her back with my prayers or my faith. Hatred took her…love couldn’t keep her. God has her, but Robbie and his daughter are left all alone.”

“They’re not alone. They’re with us.”

“It’s not the same.”

“No, it isn’t. But it’s much better than nothing. Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve been blessing people for years, our family included. The words matter, the prayers matter, your messages matter. The mind and heart are real places too, Jeremy, not just what happens all around us.”

“I wish I could be as sanguine as you are.”

She put her arms around him. “I have enough of that for both of us. And equal measures of faith and hope besides.”

January, 1938

Kipp and Caroline’s townhouse, Camden Lock, London

“So Montgomery’s had a little man.” Caroline laughed as she hung up the telephone. “Libby’s so excited you’d think the baby was her own.”

She came into the kitchen, where Kipp was finishing his breakfast and enjoying a cup of coffee. He lifted the coffee cup in salute.

“Capital. What’s the lad’s name?”

“Well, it isn’t Skitt, thank goodness. Paul Terrence William.”

“You’re joking.”

“William for your father. Terrence for Terry, of course. And Paul for Skitt’s dad. Did you know he flew in the war?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Shot down twice. They awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross in September, nineteen eighteen.”

Kipp set down his cup. “What? Skitt never said anything about it when he was working at Ashton Park during the war.”

“I gather his father and him were at odds with one another at the time. Later on they sorted everything out. He’s gone now. Do you know he was almost forty when they gave him the DFC? But they thought he was thirty.”

“Good for him. I’ll have to remember that trick.”

“Oh, no, you don’t. No flying for you in another war. No flying for anyone in this family. If it comes to a head with the Italians and the Germans, we can let the other young men of Britain sort things out.”

Kipp cleared his throat. “Speaking of the Germans, I’ve been tapped to go to Berlin for a couple of weeks. Sort of a liaison position, you know—keep the RAF in good relations with the
Luftwaffe
, that sort of thing. I head over in March.”

“In March? You?” Caroline sat down across the kitchen table from him. “Did you ask for this posting?”

“No. Actually I thought they’d send Ben. But I got the nod.”

“Refuse.”

“I can’t refuse, love. This is the RAF, not the airline Michael and Ben and I ran. I’m no longer my own master in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“You’ll see Charles, won’t you?”

“I will. If he’ll see me.”

“You can’t go, Kipp. You mustn’t go. I know what will happen. You’ll get into all sorts of trouble on my account. You’ll demand Charles return to England with you. Get into a fistfight with Lord Tanner and have yourself thrown into some horrid Nazi jail.”

“A fistfight is the least of Lord Tanner’s worries.”

“You see? You’re spoiling for a battle with that monster.”

“You want Charles back, don’t you?”

“Of course I want him back. But not at the expense of losing you. And as much as I love my son and miss him, I don’t want him back at gunpoint. He comes willingly back to England or he doesn’t come at all.”

“Suppose he wants to come but Lord Tanner won’t let him? What then?”

Caroline stared at her husband. “I don’t know.”

“I couldn’t very well leave him behind in Nazi Germany, could I? Not if he pleaded with me to bring him home. Tanner or no Tanner. Hitler or no Hitler.”

“For heaven’s sake, Kipp Danforth, don’t use this whole affair as an excuse to start another war.”

“I don’t want to start another war. I just want to make you happy.”

“I am happy. I’m ecstatic. I love being here with you and Matt and Cecilia.”

“I’ve let you down plenty enough in my lifetime. I need to make everything right.”

“Oh, everything
is
right.” She got up and sat on his lap, running her hands through his hair. “My golden boy. How I love you. How I’ve always loved you. There’s nothing more you need to do. I know how much you care for me. I don’t want you getting yourself killed to prove it.” She gave him a long kiss on the lips. “Promise me.”

He put his arms around her. “Promise you what?”

“No Kipp Danforth heroics. No taking on Herr Hitler and the Third Reich. No tossing Lord Tanner Buchanan in the River Spree in Berlin.”

Kipp responded to her kisses with kisses of his own. “I won’t toss him in the River Spree.”

“Or any river?”

“Or any river.”

“No pistols at dawn? No rapiers?”

He put his lips to her throat. “None of that, my love. And no jousting from horseback either.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as tightly as she could. “I’m glad Matt and Cecilia are with their cousins this morning.”

“So am I.”

March, 1938

Nazi troops crossed the border into Austria on March 12 as Hitler once again defied the Treaty of Versailles by annexing the Austrian nation to Germany. Lord Tanner defended the action in his first broadcasts to Britain as the English-speaking announcer in the Ministry of Propaganda. He claimed the
Anschluss
had the support of the vast majority of the Austrian people and that Germany existed once more in its historic entirety.

Hitler himself visited Braunau, his Austrian birthplace, that afternoon. On the fifteenth he was at the center of a huge rally in Vienna. Lord Tanner reported on this event as well for his British listeners. He repeated Hitler’s announcement at the
Heldenplatz
: “
Als Führer und Kanzler der deutschen Nation und des Reiches melde ich vor der deutschen Geschichte nunmehr den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich
—As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich, I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich.”

“There is much love for Herr Hitler in Austria,” broadcast Tanner. “It’s overwhelming. Compare it to the absence of affection for your current prime minister in Britain, Mr. Neville Chamberlain. It’s like night and day, isn’t it? Have you watched the newsreels? Have you seen the cheering crowds? The Germans come as liberators to the Austrian people, not conquerors. Shouldn’t Britain benefit from the same sort of liberation? Wouldn’t her economy improve as rapidly as that of the Third Reich? Aren’t Germany and Britain the staunch allies of Waterloo? The day must come when London is festooned with Nazi flags as Vienna is today. The day must come when crowds swarm Hyde Park with cheers and Nazi salutes as Herr Hitler proclaims the inclusion of Britain into the Greater Germanic Empire. Pray that day may come speedily, Great Britain, aye, as speedily as possible, for on that day you truly will be great again.”

Two days later, on St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17, the aircraft carrying Flying Officer Kipp Danforth and a number of other RAF officials touched down in Berlin. On March 19, Baron von Isenburg met
with Kipp at the café in front of the hotel where the Danforth family had stayed during the Berlin Olympics. They both ordered coffee and chatted a few moments. Immaculate in his black SS uniform, the baron eventually leaned forward across the table.

“Himmler and the SS are making thousands of arrests in Austria—Jews, Communists, Austrian nationalists,” he said in a low voice. “It’s only the beginning. Between now and this plebiscite they want to hold on the reunification of Austria with Germany, there will be many thousands more. Some are being sent to concentration camps to wither and die. Others are of special interest and will be interrogated thoroughly. My castle is being chosen as the place to imprison some of the most important—hundreds of them. So the prisoners we have now are going to be executed or sent to camps where they will be worked to death.” He paused. “I must get Eva out of the castle and out of Germany. Is there any way you can help me?”