London Dawn (22 page)

“And I’ll take the twenty quid for my troubles,” he growled.

The captain was staring at Harrison in horror.

“What’s the matter?” Harrison demanded.

“There’s blood all over your face.”

“Is there? Well, don’t worry yourself. It’s not mine.”

Pea Porridge Hot
docked at Dover just after eleven. Three RAF officers were waiting for the travelers, and they were whisked away in a car to London. Harrison was in the backseat with Eva and Charles, and he was conscious of Eva’s eyes remaining fixed on him throughout the drive. Finally he looked at her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I saw death and murder in that camp.” Her voice was rough, and she could barely speak. “I saw the devil.” She reached out with narrow boney
fingers and clutched his arm. “You could have rescued me from that. You could have fought them all and set me free.”

He put one of his hands over hers. “I just have.”

Three days later

Ashton Park

“It’s not the best that could be hoped for but it’s not the worst either.” Holly rubbed her hands as hard as she could into Harrison’s bare back as he lay on his stomach.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that while you were out surveying your domain, Caroline rung me up and we had a little chat.”

“How are those two kids getting along?”

“That’s the thing. They aren’t as talkative as Caroline could have wished, particularly in her wildest dreams, but neither are they as morose or sullen as she feared they’d be. Once she granted Eva permission to stay with them, instead of going to William and Elizabeth’s, Charles thawed thirty to forty degrees. He spoke with Caroline then, even called her Mum, and wasn’t averse to saying a few words to Kipp once he showed up. No torrent, mind you, but a few raindrops are better than nothing. Even Eva is opening her mouth. Not a lot, but she’s talking.”

“I thought she’d clam up tighter than a Nazi drum.”

“We all did.”

“Why the change, do you think?”

“Apparently it’s you, my love.”

Harrison rolled over on his side. “Me? Why, I was the one who abducted them.”

“Eva doesn’t speak about it that way. She hated what she saw at the concentration camp. You were the one who liberated her from that. What’s more, you proved you could protect her when you laid low those blokes on the boat and sword-wielding Lord Tanner.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Back on your stomach, Bravest of the Brave.”

Harrison grunted as he lay flat again. “What was it about a few weeks in the camp that had such an effect on Eva?”

“She hasn’t said a great deal about it. But she saw women and children
executed. She saw them worked to death. Not just once. Every single day she was there. You freed her from that. Caroline says she hardly opens her mouth but your name doesn’t come up. Evidently that goes for
Heil
Hitler Charles too. He told Kipp you’d be a worthy commander for the
Wehrmacht
.”

“And what is that?”

“The German name for their armed forces—army, navy, air force, the lot.”

Harrison snorted. “Not likely.”

“In any case, they’ve both asked to see you.”

“See me? You’re joking.”

“No, they really do wish to see you.”

“I’ve nothing to say. They’ll have to work things out as best they can. I’ve Ashton Park to look after.”

“I told them you’d be by tomorrow and that you’d stay over a few nights.”

Harrison rolled over on his side again. “You did what?”

“I can manage things here perfectly well, love.” She slid her crimson fingernails over his chest. “Now don’t disappoint me. You can do a great deal of good for those children.”

“They’re hardly children—”

“They
are
children and they’re asking for you. For all you know, Charles feels liberated too.” She put her scarlet lips to his chest, leaving a red smudge, and to his mouth. “I’m proud of you. And you’re going to make me prouder.”

“I’m too—”

Her kiss cut him off. She held it for a long time, her hands braced against his chest, before she pulled back.

“Now, what were you saying?” she asked.

Harrison was catching his breath. “It’s slipped my mind.”

“You do this for me and the children, and your reward will be great, Sir Calvert Harrison.”

“Rubies?”

“Greater than rubies.”

“Diamonds and gold?”

“Much greater than diamonds and gold.”

“The Crown Jewels then?”

She kissed him gently on the lips again. “There will be more when you return.”

“Ah, you know my weakness, my dear. Even without the kisses I’d do it. You only needed to make the request as you have done.”

“That’s the spirit of chivalry. Now don’t you wish the noble deed was finished and you were marching back through those oaken doors to collect your bounty from your lady?”

“I do. I very much do.”

He winked and began to sing softly.

See, the conqu’ring hero comes!

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums.

Sports prepare, the laurel bring,

Songs of triumph to him sing.

See, the conqu’ring hero comes!

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums.

Harrison stayed a fortnight at Kipp and Caroline’s townhouse in Camden Lock, surprising himself and his wife. At first, while Eva and Charles were glad to see him, the talk was general and mostly about how he drove them through France and how he fought off the three men on the boat, including Lord Tanner. Charles stuck to his favorite topic of Germany annexing England until a week of meals and walks with Harrison had gone by. One afternoon, after listening to his father’s broadcast on the superiority of the German air force, he found Harrison where he was trimming a hedge for Caroline.

“You say Mr. Danforth—Kipp—is testing aircraft?” he asked as Harrison snapped away with his garden shears.

“That’s right.”

“Where exactly?”

“Suffolk. Out east.”

Charles watched Harrison work with the shears a few moments. “I suppose it’s a restricted area.”

“It is indeed.”

“Are the planes any good? They can’t be better than our Messerschmitt.”

“It would depend a great deal on the pilot, wouldn’t it?”

“I’ve flown with some of the best.”

“Some, but not all.”

Charles was silent again as Harrison worked his way along the hedge. “Is there another pair of shears, do you know?” Charles suddenly asked.

“The tool shed is just at the back of the house. You can take a look.”

“Can I go down to see my—can I go out to Suffolk and watch Mr. Danforth fly?”

“Mr. Danforth?”

“Well, Kipp. You know, Kipp.”

“Lord Kipp.” Harrison paused with the shears open. “When were you thinking?”

“Could we…well, Friday?”

“Friday? Don’t you have a date to meet up with some of the British Union of Fascists?”

Charles put his hands in the pockets of his shorts and glanced at a robin perched on the eaves trough of the townhouse. “I’d rather go to the airfield.”

Harrison set down his shears. “What’s all this about then?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were keen on marching with the Blackshirts a week ago and changing England from the inside out.”

“I still want to do that. It’s just that…well, talking with you, seeing my Mum, listening to Eva’s stories…”

“What sort of stories?”

“About the camp. The tortures and the killings. She cries a lot, you know. When no one’s around. When she thinks I’m not listening.”

Harrison took the fedora off his head, smoothed down the hawk feather in the hatband, and turned it over in his hand, examining it. “You’ve always put across you’re a hard-boiled Nazi. So does Eva.”

“We’re both committed to Germany. We’re both committed to the Reich.”

“So why the long faces?”

“Some things…some things are not as they should be.”

“What things?”

Charles sat down on the paving stones and drew his legs up to his chest. He rested his arms on the tops of his bare knees. “Hitler and the Nazis have been very good for Germany,” he said. “They certainly put a new soul
in my body. Britain is just so soft and undedicated compared to the new Germany—it has no purpose, whereas the Third Reich has great purpose.”

Harrison pulled off his gardening gloves and sat down next to Charles. It began to sprinkle, and raindrops beaded on their hands and boots.

“It is very exciting…all the energy, the ambition, the march into the future,” Charles went on. “Eva feels the same way I do. But there are some who come into the movement and do things that are not good for Germany.”

“It may be those things were in the movement right from the start and perhaps you just didn’t notice…or care to notice.”

“Oh, but I think I
would
have noticed. The question of the Jews, yes, that was always before us. But I did not expect such a large number of executions. Certainly not of children.”

“You could write your father about it.”

“What good would that do? He can’t say anything about it on a broadcast, can he? And for all I know he wouldn’t want to. Yes, deal with the Jews, we must deal with the Jews, but slaughter? That is not a way of German or Nazi honor.”

“Maybe not German, Charles, but I’m not sure about Nazi.”

The young man’s face was grim. “You think we are all monsters.”

“Who runs the concentration camps?”

Charles stared straight ahead and did not answer. “I just want to put something else in Eva’s head, something else in her dreams. Can she come to that airfield where Mr. Danforth tests the aircraft?”

“I don’t even know if you can. I’ll have to talk to your mum and make a few calls. Are you sure you want to go down there?”

“I’m sure.”

“Lord Tanner won’t take too kindly to that once he finds out, will he?”

Charles didn’t respond. Slowly he peeled up the side of his shirt that faced Harrison. There were three long jagged scars.

Harrison sucked in his breath between clenched teeth. “Those aren’t very old.”

“I don’t wish to discuss it. I don’t wish you to talk about it with anyone. My father felt it would make me stronger. There were other ways and means he employed. Some obvious, some not so obvious.” He pulled the shirt back down. “I never thought about it until Eva spoke to me about the concentration camp. Until the weeks I’ve had here.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

“You are strong. And you are tough. But you would never do that to make me just as strong or tough.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Harrison replied. “Neither would Lord Kipp.”

“Eva has worse wounds. Let her come with us to the airfield.”

“I have no idea what they’ll say. I can’t promise anything.” The rain grew heavier, but neither of them moved. “What makes you think a trip like that would help Eva?”

“I don’t know. But she can’t just be a spectator. She has to go up.”

“Go up? I doubt very much they’ll let either of you do that even if you are granted permission to visit.”

Rain poured over Charles’s face. “She’s very strong. But a flight would make her stronger. It would get her through. Otherwise I don’t know if she’ll make it.”

“What would flying do?”

“The freedom…of the eagle, of the falcon. She was imprisoned for a long time. The concentration camp added another ten years in just four weeks. She needs the flying.”

“And you need it too.”

“
Ja
, I need it. But she needs it more than I do. So if only one can go up with Mr. Danforth…with Kipp, it should be her.”

“How do you know she’s not afraid to fly?”

“I don’t know. But she is a good German. She has to overcome any fears and do what she must. If I sense it, she must sense it too. She has to fly. Everything that binds her to earth has to fall away.”

Harrison wiped the rainwater from his eyes. “I’d never have taken you for a philosopher. You’re like your Uncle Hartmann.”

“Hartmann’s a traitor. I’m not him and I’m not a philosopher. Unless perhaps you wish to compare me to a good Nazi philosopher like Nietzsche.”

“Can’t say as I know the chap.”

“Nietzsche knew the importance of strength. And throwing off shackles.”

“Right.” Harrison blinked up at the rainclouds. “We’d best put the shears away and get indoors. I’ll ring up some of those RAF folk you and this Nietzsche fellow are anxious I talk to.”

“I’ll sit out here a while.”

“In the rain?”

“Yes, in the rain.”

“Suit yourself.” Harrison got to his feet. “Take your time.”