'Oh, yes.' Erika nodded. The Dorsches' son and daughter were asleep in their bedrooms.They hadn't had to worry about babysitters tonight. And Heinrich hadn't had to worry about bringing Alicia along. Maybe she'll talk to Katarina about things, if her sisters give her the chance, he thought.That will help. She thinks Aunt Kathe's interesting. Lise and I are just-Mama and Papa.
Willi got to his feet. 'Don't disappear quite yet. I'll fix one for the road.' He headed off into the kitchen.
'Oh, good heavens. My back teeth are already floating.' Lise headed off, too, in the direction of the bathroom.
That left Heinrich briefly alone with Erika Dorsch. In a film, he would have run a finger around the inside of his collar. He'd never quite figured out whether she knew how provocative she was. Had things been otherwise, he might have been tempted to find out. As they were…every once in a while, he was tempted to find out anyhow. He'd never yielded to temptation. Too much rode on it.
All she said was, 'You played that well,' which hardly encouraged fantasies.
Heinrich shrugged. 'I thought it was the best chance I had to make. And the four of us have been playing bridge a long time. I know how Willi's beady little mind works.' He grinned to make sure Erika didn't take him seriously.
She smiled, too, but only for a moment. 'You think about things,' she said in musing tones. 'And you think other people-even women-can think about things, too.' She paused, then added, 'I wonder if Lise has any idea how lucky she is.' She eyed him speculatively.
Not knowing what to say to that, he didn't say anything.And does Willi have reason to worry about me? he wondered. The mere idea made him nervous for all sorts of reasons, of which temptation was among the least important. When he was tempted by a woman like Erika Dorsch, that showed how urgent the other reasons were.
Not saying anything proved a good idea on general principles, for Lise and Willi both came back into the dining room at the same time. Willi carried a tray with four glasses of Kirsch on it. He couldn't resist doing a little routine with the tray, as if he were one of the English butlers in such demand among wealthy German families. Lise laughed. Erika rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. Plainly, she found her husband less than amusing tonight.
Willi handed everyone a glass of cherry brandy, then raised his own in salute.'Sieg heil!' he said.
'Sieg heil!' The others echoed the words. Erika sounded subdued. Heinrich made sure he seemed enthusiastic. So did Lise. If they were the good National Socialists and Aryans they pretended to be, they had to sound that way when they hailed victory…didn't they? All at once, Heinrich wondered. Erika really was an Aryan and, he presumed, a good Nazi. She didn't worry about sounding indifferent. But, being who and what she was, she could afford to slack off on small things. The Gimpels couldn't afford to slack off at all. Like Caesar's wife, they had to be above suspicion, for suspicion meant disaster.
'That's quite a nightcap,' Heinrich said, and mimed being hit over the head with a club.
'You can sleep late tomorrow,' Willi Dorsch said, knocking back his own Kirsch.
Lise snorted. 'You know our children too well to say anything silly like that. Francesca likes to sleep in, but Alicia and Roxane will be up at the crack of dawn.'
'Ghastly habit,' Willi said. 'Our two like to lie in bed, the lazy good-for-nothings.' He stuck out a finger in Heinrich's direction. 'Meant to ask you: are the Americans going to make their assessment this fiscal year?'
'I'm…not sure,' Heinrich answered cautiously. He knew the Americans were unlikely to, but didn't want to say so in front of Lise and Erika, neither of whom had the security clearance to hear such things.
Willi's wave said he understood why his friend was being so cagey. It also said he thought Heinrich was being a wet blanket. He asked, 'Are we gearing up to wallop the Americans if they don't meet the assessment?'
'Not that I've heard,' Heinrich said, which combined caution and truth.
'I haven't, either,' Willi said. 'You know how I was complaining a while ago about not living in glorious times?' He waited for Heinrich to nod, then went on, 'I didn't think we were gettingthis soft when I grumbled, I'll tell you that.'
'I don't think we're soft,' Heinrich said. 'Germany rules the biggest empire the world has ever seen. Ruling and conquering are different businesses. A ruler can forgive things a conqueror would have to step on.'
'Not if he wants to keep on ruling, he can't,' Willi said, going red in the face.
'No, Heinrich's right,' Erika said, which made Lise raise an eyebrow and made Willi turn even redder. Erika went on, 'If you want to hold a country down without a rebellion every other year, you-'
'Kill the first two or three batches of rebels and everybody who's related to them,' Willi broke in. 'After a while, the people who are left-if there are any-get the idea and settle down. That's what finally worked for us in England.'
In a way, he was right; England hadn't risen against the Reich since the mid-1970s. Even so…Heinrich said, ''Finally' is a word with a lot of bodies behind it. When we can, we ought to run things more…more efficiently. That's the word I want.' It was, he hoped, a word that wouldn't rouse the interest, let alone the anger, of the Security Police.
'We ought to run, period,' Lise said. 'Kathe's going to be impatient with us.' She didn't want any sort of political argument, even with friends. In that, she was undoubtedly wise. When she rose to her feet, Heinrich followed suit as automatically as he would have in the bridge game.
'I'll get your coats out of the closet,' Erika said, which meant she thought the evening was at an end. Willi walked out to the front hall with them, but he didn't say anything. Heinrich hoped his friend wasn't fuming about being contradicted. It wouldn't have been so bad had Heinrich been the only one to disagree with him. But when Erika did, too, that must have felt like a stab in the back. Willi managed a smile and a bad joke when the Gimpels headed for the bus stop. That eased Heinrich's mind. But, after the door closed behind Lise and him, Willi's voice rose angrily-and so did Erika's.
'What's that all about?' Lise pointed back toward the Dorsches' house.
'I think Willi thinks he ought to be jealous of me,' Heinrich said unhappily.
'Jealous? Jealous how?' his wife asked. He didn't answer. His wife walked on for a couple of paces before stopping short. 'Jealous likethat?' Even more unhappily, Heinrich nodded. 'And does he have reason to be jealous like that?' Lise inquired ominously.
'Not on account of me,' Heinrich said. That covered the most important part of the question. Not quite all of it, though; he felt he had to add, 'I'm not so sure about Erika.'
They got to the brightly lit bus stop. Lise tapped her toe on the cement of the sidewalk. 'I can't fault her taste, but I did see you first, you know. Kindly remember it.'
'I will. For all sorts of reasons, I will,' Heinrich said.
'She's pretty. You'd better,' Lise said. The bus rolled up just then, which saved him from having to answer: a small mercy, but he took what he could get.
II
Franz Oppenhoff looked at Susanna Weiss through spectacles that grotesquely magnified his bloodshot blue eyes. 'I fail to see the necessity for this journey,' he said, and scratched at the bottom edge of a white muttonchop sideburn.
Susanna looked back at the department chairman with a loathing she tried to conceal. 'But,Herr Doktor Professor, it is the annual meeting of the Medieval English Association-and only the third time it's metin England since the war.'
Oppenhoff paused to light a cigar. It was a fine Havana, but the smoke still put Susanna, who didn't use tobacco, in mind of burning long johns. She coughed, not too ostentatiously. After a puff, he said, 'Many-even most-of these meetings are a waste of time, a waste of effort, and a waste of our travel budget.'
'Oh?' Somehow, Susanna made one syllable sound dangerous. 'Is that what you said when Professor Lutze asked to attend?'
'I didn't…' Professor Oppenhoff paused, evidently deciding he couldn't get away with the lie direct. He tried again: 'I thought the conference would enhance his professional development, he being-'
'A man?' Susanna finished for him.
