fixed expression in those clear, almond-shaped eyes. ‘Please, tell me everything that happened today.’
She sat still and quiet as David explained, nodding occasionally. When he had finished she asked, ‘The woman Carol, you’re sure she knows nothing of what you have been doing?’
‘Yes. But – they’ll question her again. She was the one who warned me. They’ll make her talk.’
‘With luck she will only lose her job. If she knows nothing.’
David took a deep breath. ‘The man I spoke to on the telephone said they’d send someone to fetch Sarah. That was always part of the deal: if anything happened you’d help her.’
‘We will.’
‘If only she’d been at home—’
‘You shouldn’t have gone back there, you know,’ Natalia said, her tone quietly reproving.
‘I didn’t know what else to do. If that man had answered the phone the first time—’
‘Yes. If he had to go out he should have got someone to cover him. That was a mistake.’
‘I didn’t know what to think when I didn’t get an answer.’ He smiled at her ruefully. ‘Somehow I’d thought you were all infallible.’
‘Nobody is infallible. Not us, and not them, either. They should have realized this woman Carol might go and warn you. Just occasionally, you see, they overestimate the power of fear.’ She gave him one of her long, steady looks. ‘This woman must be very fond of you.’
‘And now I’ve landed her in it. I’ve landed everyone in it, haven’t I? All because I misfiled that bloody document.’
‘As I said, nobody is infallible. But the question is, what led them to you in the first place?’
‘It all points to Frank Muncaster, doesn’t it? They’ve got him to talk.’
‘That seems possible, I’m afraid.’
‘Then it’s all been for nothing.’ David put his head in his hands. ‘Poor bloody Frank.’
Natalia didn’t get up, but said, gently, ‘I’m sorry. It’s hard when you have personal loyalties.’
He glanced up at her. ‘Don’t you have any?’
She lit a cigarette from the pack on the table. ‘Not any more.’ She looked him in the eye. ‘Everyone I cared about is gone. That’s another thing the enemy don’t consider, that they might leave people with nothing else in their lives but to fight them. That’s what they’re doing in Russia.’
David pointed at the painting of the battle scene. ‘You’ve left that one on the wall.’
She said, ‘When my brother came back from Russia he told me about the last battle he was in. His leg was badly injured, that’s why he was sent home. He didn’t talk about it much, he couldn’t bear to, but one night he was in a bad state and he did.’ Her voice had become monotonous, holding in God knew what feelings. ‘It was in 1942, the Caucasus offensive, the Russians were defending a strong position and Peter saw a lot of his friends killed. Those are the Caucasus mountains in the distance. All in German hands now.’
‘I didn’t know that your brother came back. I thought he’d been killed.’
‘No. His leg was shattered, he didn’t get good treatment at the field hospital and he was never able to walk properly again. But it was his mind that really suffered. Some people can survive a war with their minds intact but not Peter.’
David shook his head. ‘Yes, it always stays with you. It was because of what I saw in Norway that I felt the peace with Germany was right. Like all the other fools, I needed peace.’
‘Although you are half-Jewish.’
‘I told you,’ he replied bitterly, ‘we kept that well hidden. I pretty much hid it from myself for long enough.’ He paused. ‘Since we spoke I’ve wondered whether I might have family – second and third cousins, perhaps – who were on trains like the one you described. It makes me ashamed.’
‘Why? Because you have been able to escape the trains and these new British camps? You shouldn’t be.’ She spoke emphatically. ‘It’s not your fault you happen to be different in a way that gets you singled out. And you
David smiled bleakly. ‘Making restitution, eh? When the anti-Semitic laws got really serious, that’s when I first began to feel ashamed. I suppose that was why I decided to join the Resistance. Everyone probably thinks I’m just another old-fashioned Englishman outraged by what’s being done. But I’m not, for me it’s personal.’
‘It is personal for all of us, one way or another,’ Natalia said quietly.
‘You mean your brother?’ They were talking intimately now, leaning forward slightly. The gas fire hissed gently in the background.
‘Partly. When he came back I nursed him at home. My father helped but he died later that year. Then it was just me and Peter. He wouldn’t go out, the only place he felt safe was in the house and even then he feared someone would come – Russians or Germans – and kill him. Not for any particular reason, but just because killing had become what people did. The strange thing was, Peter was so afraid of dying but in the end he killed himself, he jumped out of the window of our flat. We were on the third floor. He did what your friend Frank tried to do.’
‘I’m sorry.’ They were silent for a moment, then David asked, ‘What’s happened to Frank?’
‘Mr Jackson may know more.’
He looked at her, then said, ‘You hate the Fascists, yet you had a German fiance.’
Natalia’s mouth set firmly. ‘He wasn’t a Nazi. And I wasn’t just his fiance, I married him. I am actually a German citizen by law. I’m not sure I meet the race criteria, but we managed to fudge that – that’s the word, isn’t it? Fudge.’ She pointed at her eyes. ‘The Mongols reached the edges of my country, and it was part of the Turkish empire for centuries. I have some Asian blood from long ago.’ She smiled. ‘I have seen you notice.’ Her expression changed, became hard. ‘The most precious things in life can just be snatched away from you in a moment. But your wife, we will save her if we can. And she – well, she is your precious thing. Or you would not care so much about leaving her.’
He looked down. ‘I . . .’ Slowly, he stretched out a hand. He needed the contact, he needed it.
They both jumped as the doorbell rang violently. Natalia’s face worked for a moment, then she nodded quickly at David, got up and went out.
David heard two more pairs of footsteps returning with her: Jackson and Geoff. Jackson seemed angry; there were red spots on his plump cheeks. He was carrying a briefcase which he put on the table. He looked at David and said heavily, ‘Your chickens have come home to roost, I’m afraid, Fitzgerald.’ He walked over to the fire and stood with his back to it.
‘It’s not David’s fault,’ Geoff protested but Jackson gave him an annoyed glance, took a deep breath, then turned to David. ‘Full story, please.’
David told him, leaving nothing out.
‘The woman, Carol, she was sure one of the policemen was a German?’ Jackson asked.
‘I don’t think she would make a mistake.’
Jackson put his hands behind his back, rocked on his heels, thinking. ‘It’s the Gestapo, working from the embassy with Mosley’s people at Special Branch. It has to be.’ He stared out of the window; it was dark now. He said, in a gentler tone, ‘We’ve sent someone to your house, to pick your wife up. You’re quite sure she knows nothing?’
‘I’ve never given her even the vaguest hint.’
Jackson looked at Natalia. ‘Well, it’s the end of this cell,’ he said heavily. ‘We close everything up here tonight.’
‘What about Dilys?’ Natalia asked.
‘She has to go, too. Tomorrow if she can. I suppose someone in her profession is at an advantage in a way, she can soon find somewhere else, continue working. I almost envy her.’ Jackson looked at David and Geoff. ‘I’m afraid you two are finished as agents. Done. Exposed. On the run. It’s better you both realize that now.’
David turned to Geoff. ‘You, too?’
‘I left this afternoon, when they rang. Besides, I think they were beginning to have doubts about me. Lack of enthusiasm for the settlement programme in Africa; I’ve never been a brilliant actor. Of course, I didn’t have to act at first, I really did come back because of a broken heart –’ Geoff gave his little bark of laughter – ‘but that was a few years ago. Anyway, they’ll make the connection between you and me soon enough, it’s no secret we’ve been friends for years.’ He looked at Jackson. ‘I can stick it, sir, but what about my parents? Is there any chance you could get them away somewhere?’
Jackson shook his head. ‘That’s not the best idea. If they disappear they’ll be hunted, and at their age – well,
