The Ambassador's Daughter (10 page)

Celia hesitates. “If you’re sure you’ll be fine.” Not waiting for my response, she follows the Swedes, who have already run off into the night, intent on the errand of finding a newspaper that is more than a month old. As she disappears into the trees, I sigh. I do not begrudge her excitement when she has so little to call her own. And she would not have left me if I was in real distress.

I limp back toward the house. The party has faded, the salon empty except for a rowdy group of men in the smoking room, a couple kissing shamelessly on one of the settees. I find the butler and ask him to call a taxi.

It is nearly midnight when the cab reaches Versailles. I pay the driver and step out, then peer across the road toward the Hôtel des Réservoirs, where lights still burn on the ground floor despite the late hour. Curious, I walk down the street. In a first-floor library, a man works intensely behind a desk, head low, bathed in yellow light. It is the German naval officer who picked up my scarf. I watch him, transfixed. He looks to be about thirty. He lifts his head and catches my eye, holding my glance for a second longer than he had earlier at the arrival. Then he stands and walks from the room. I step back into the shadows. How rude of me. He obviously minded the intrusion. But then the front door to the hotel opens and I see him silhouetted against the light.

“Can I help you,
mademoiselle?
We are not a zoo.”

I flush, seized with the urge to run. “No, of course not.” Then I take a step forward, out of the shadows. “It’s
fraulein,
actually.” I am quick to identify myself as a German out of the earshot of others, as if our kindred citizenship might excuse my watching him. I shift my weight awkwardly to my right foot. “I mean, Margot. Margot Rosenthal.”

“The professor’s daughter?” I nod. “I’m Georg Richwalder. I’m the military attaché to the delegation.”

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you. I broke my heel and was just pausing.” I hold up the shoe as evidence, take a step through the gate. He walks down the steps toward me. He is taller than I thought and I crane my neck upward to meet his eyes rather than stare at his chest as we speak.

“May I?”

I hand the shoe to him.

“I can fix this, I think.”

I eye him skeptically.

“You learn to be handy in a great many ways when you’re at sea. Would you like to come in for some tea while I try?”

I hesitate. The library behind him looks warm and inviting, the quiet and solitude a welcome contrast to the Maxwell party. But it wouldn’t be proper. “No, thank you. I’ll just be on my way.”

“Wait here,” he instructs firmly, a man who is used to giving orders. I shiver at his commanding tone. “I’ll bring the tools—and some tea—outside.”

I sit down on the step. A few minutes later he emerges with two cups of tea and a small kit. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you,” I say.

“Not at all.” He smiles and in that instant seems not at all the terrifying soldier I’d glimpsed during the delegation’s arrival. A chink in the armor. “After so much time on the train, the fresh air is refreshing. The trip was exceedingly long. We sat at one point for eighteen hours for some reason known only to the French.” He is wearing the same dark blue uniform as earlier today, but the jacket is unbuttoned, the shirt loosened at the collar.

I run my hand along the step, the stone hard and rough beneath my fingertips. “And the hotel...is it quite dreadful?”

“It’s not bad, really. I mean in its heyday I’m sure it was quite grand. But I spent the better part of the four years on a ship, so I may not be the best judge of comfort.”

“You were in the navy, weren’t you?”

“I was on the
SMS König,
the crown jewel of His Majesty’s High Seas Fleet.” The pride in his voice is reminiscent of the prewar days, taking me back to the parades down the Unter den Linden, young girls pressing sandwiches and sweets into the hands of newly minted soldiers as they made their way to the station. “Even as a senior officer, my quarters were no bigger than a closet. The hotel has reasonably clean linen and fresh water and I’m not awakened to the sound of gunfire each morning.” He smiles. “It’s paradise. And the library is wonderful. I shall enjoy working there at night after the rest of the delegation has retired. They’re mostly older, and we don’t have much in common. But it’s not a social occasion.”

“And your family—did they mind being left back home?” The question comes out more prying than I intended. “I mean only that I’ve heard some of the men lamenting that their families couldn’t enjoy Paris.”

“No.” An image pops into my mind of a Frau Richwalder, elegant and well coiffed, keeping the house running back in Germany. “That is, there’s no one. I’m not married. Not so much to enjoy here these days, anyway.”

“I suppose not.” The German delegation was almost entirely confined to the hotel except for sanctioned meetings and a lone excursion.

“There.” He hands me my shoe, neatly fixed.

“It’s good as new.
Danke
.” He watches me, as though lost in thought. Between my mud-streaked dress earlier and broken shoe now, he must think me a wreck.

“Aren’t you cold?”

I shake my head stubbornly.

“That’s hardly a suitable coat.”

“It’s the fashion.” I struggle to keep the sarcasm from my voice.

“Well, no one is here to see.” He takes his coat and puts it around my shoulders in a strange, too-familiar gesture.

A mixture of soap and wool wafts upward from the collar. “Now won’t you be cold?”

“I’m something of a polar bear actually. All of those nights on the North Sea.”

My eyes travel to the contour of his shoulder, dark against the lighted window. “Papa mentioned that there’s a trip to the battlefields scheduled for Sunday. Are you going?”

“Not if I can help it. I’ve spent the past four years on a battlefield of another sort. I’d like to see them, of course, and pay respects, but on my own, not from the window of a motor coach. I came here to work, not sightsee.”

“I suppose you won’t be going into Paris for the plenary session tomorrow, either?”

He shook his head. “We weren’t asked.” How odd, to be summoned all of this distance, only to be sequestered in a hotel, excluded from the very meetings for which you were invited. But then he forces a smile. “It’s no matter. So much better to have the time to work and not be shut up in stuffy proceedings all day.”

“True. What are you working on?” His eyes widen and I wonder if he minds the question.

“It’s quite dry,” he says apologetically. He is not offended, just surprised that I might take an interest. “I’m the delegation’s military officer and I’m studying plans and proposals as to what the treaty might look at, reading up on what the French and British experts are advocating in order to develop a counter position.” He continues, “There’s going to be a whole new world, a way for nations to coexist and to form strong alliances that will ensure we never face such destruction of man like that again.” His shoulders straighten. “I can be part of that, I think, by helping the navy to find its place. It’s slow going. Not the technical parts—I’m familiar with all of the engineering concepts from the ship. But languages were never my strong point and the delegation can’t spare a translator outside of the sessions.”

“I can help you,” I blurt out, without meaning to. “My French and English are quite good. I’ve got no technical training but with the aid of a dictionary I could muddle through.”

He looks at me dubiously. “It’s tremendously dull, lots of engineering reports.”

“I studied maths and science through the progymnasium level,” I reply. His jaw drops slightly, making his lips even more full. “I know it isn’t the typical curriculum for a girl,” I add, my words flowing more easily than usual. Back home girls are typically schooled in the gentle arts of music and literature at the high school level. But I had gravitated naturally toward the sciences and Papa had let my curiosity direct my studies.

“There’s nothing to be paid for it.”

“That’s fine.”

He coughs slightly. “Then why would you want to?”

“For the chance to do something—” I fumble for the right words, replaying my talks with Krysia “—meaningful. Real.” Because I’m sitting here in the middle of the world being formed, I add silently, playing at dinner parties and treasure hunts.

“Fine,” he acquiesces. For a moment I am annoyed—I’m trying to help him, but it sounds as if he is doing me a favor. “It’s quite late tonight but if you’d like to come by tomorrow evening at eight, we can work after the delegation retires. You’ll need clearance, of course, but that shouldn’t be hard to get with your father’s credentials.”

“So we’re agreed.”

“
Ja
. If...” he adds, “your father approves.”

I bristle and open my mouth to tell him that I am an adult and my own woman. But I can tell by his tone that it is not subject to debate, and that he will not cross another member of the delegation. “I’m sure it will be fine. I will see you tomorrow.” I stand and hand him his coat. “Thank you for the shoe, and the tea.” He stands. I wait for him to offer to escort me home, but he does not.

Back at the apartment, Papa is hunched over some papers in the study, reading so intensely he does not hear me come in. Smoke curls upward from his pipe, giving off a sickly smell. Seeing me, his brow furrows. “Is something amiss? I thought you were with Celia.”

“I was. I came home. Are you working?”

He shakes his head. “Just composing a cable to Uncle Walter.” I worry sometimes that Papa reports back to his brother-in-law too much, as if beholden to a superior. But Uncle Walter is just curious, a child being kept from the adults’ table, eager for every detail he is missing, as well as an assessment of how the Germans will fare. He has always imagined himself a political thinker. I suspect that in reality he is just an excellent prognosticator of what is to come, and he sorely needs details to do that.

“Papa,” I begin tentatively.

“Ja, liebchen?”
He looks up and smiles. My father, an absentminded academic, can fairly be accused of spending the better part of life in a hazy bubble of his own thoughts. But he has always had a way of knowing when my tone was serious and required his actual focus and attention.

Which was not the effect I am going for here when I was hoping to pass this by him before he ever had the chance to focus on it. “I’ve been offered an opportunity to do some work.” He raises an eyebrow, and I continue. “Captain Richwalder from the delegation, you know him?”

“The young military officer. We met earlier.”

“He needs someone to help him with translations. Please, Papa, I’m just so terribly bored.” I don’t tell him that the work will need to happen in the evening or in the library of the hotel. “I just want to help.”

He rubs his chin. “I see no harm in it. It will be good for your linguistic skills.” He turns back to his papers.

Dismissed, I walk to my room. Across the road, the massive expanse of the palace grounds, trees and fountains are shrouded in darkness. I press my head against the window, craning my neck to glimpse the hotel. The light in the library still burns yellow on the first floor and I imagine Captain Richwalder hunched over his papers. I wonder what the work will be like. Will my language skills be sufficient? Remembering his imposing gaze, I shiver. Then, I turn off the light and climb into bed, anticipating with excitement and more than a little dread the day that is to come.

Chapter 5

It is just shy of eight o’clock and the lamps glow behind the curtains at the hotel as I approach. I knock and a few seconds later the door opens. Captain Richwalder wears no jacket this evening, but his dress shirt is pressed crisply, the short hair above his ears still damp from washing. “Thank you for being prompt,” he says, sounding as though used to people being otherwise. I had, in fact, loitered a good twenty minutes at our apartment, not wanting to arrive too early, checking my reflection with more care than I otherwise would have to make sure I look capable. My clothes are simple, a starched cream blouse with a scalloped collar and a navy skirt a shade longer than is fashionable these days.

Taking in his stiff, formal demeanor, I am suddenly uneasy. What if he is difficult to work for, even unkind? Though I volunteered to do this and am not receiving pay, Papa will expect me to honor the commitment I’ve made and see the job through.

Captain Richwalder leads me through the lobby of the hotel, which is nicer than I might have expected from the drab exterior. The maroon curtains are just a bit faded and the chandelier overhead is every bit as elaborate as the one in our Paris hotel. He opens the door to the study. “Please make yourself at home. I’ll just be a moment.” As he closes the door behind him, I remove my coat. The library is modest in size, no bigger than our parlor down the street, but pleasant, with soft, overstuffed chairs and book-filled shelves that climb to the ceiling. The air carries the same damp, musty smell that permeates most of the town.

Captain Richwalder returns a moment later with two cups of tea and sets them down on the low table. “It’s a bit warmer now. The weather, I mean.” His attempt to make small talk is awkward, simple conversation strange on his tongue.

“Indeed.” I smooth my hair, which is pulled back in a loose, low knot. Then I decide to be direct. “So what is it that you need me to do?”

His face relaxes at being given permission to turn to work and he motions for me to follow him over to the desk in the corner, where he holds the chair out for me to sit. “There are a number of military matters related to the peace treaty that are to be proposed, and I’ve been asked to work on those, not surprisingly, that involve the navy. The Imperial Navy is one of the finest in the world,” he adds, unable to keep a note of pride from his voice. Or was, I cannot help but think. “And I believe there’s a real role for the navy as a peacekeeper in the new world order.”

His suggestion is the first I’ve heard of such an idea. “Do you think that’s what the Allies have in mind?”

“Surely some sort of partnership. Remember what Wilson said at the cease-fire, peace without blame.” It was true that in the desperate efforts to stop the fighting, Wilson had made such hasty promises. But the rhetoric since we’ve been in Paris has been far more pointed.