A Secret To Tell You. Roz Fox Denny

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СКАЧАТЬ he did. Around me, he revealed himself as a man who enjoyed sitting quietly, listening to Bach, Beethoven and other classical composers. I soon learned he’d attended way more concerts than I ever had. We fell into the habit of taking long walks together. Once he asked a total stranger on the street to take a picture of us. Every day, he brought me a rose from some bushes that grew in pots along the balcony where he lived. I’d never seen his quarters. Couples were more circumspect in my day—at least at the beginning of a courtship.”

      “You had a courtship with a German when we were at war with them?” Quinn appeared thunderstruck.

      Sitting up straight, Norma said sternly, “Love doesn’t differentiate between uniforms.”

      “Love? You fell in love? With an enemy?”

      She bit her lip hard for a minute, then her voice dropped, sounding slightly ragged. “Yes, or so I thought.” She blinked back tears. “I was a willing participant the night Heinz seduced me with roses, wine and music. It was a momentous experience for me, Quinn. Other female agents had been ordered to submit for the purpose of gathering information through pillow talk, but that wasn’t what I’d been charged to do. In fact, Kestrel, er, Anthony, had been quite adamant at the outset of my mission that it did not include me going to bed with the colonel.”

      “Colonel. Oh, great. Now I suppose you’ll tell me he was Hitler’s fair-haired boy.” Vaulting off the love seat, Quinn strode to the fireplace. The fire had burned down and he threw on two logs, stabbing at them with the poker. When flames shot up, he jammed the poker back in place, with the rest of the tools on the hearth. He stood, keeping his back to his grandmother, hands braced on the mantel. “I think I’ve heard enough,” he said. “If those so-called love letters are from him, burn them all.” Quinn clenched his back teeth.

      Norma didn’t move, but her voice grew steely. “Hiding them won’t alter the facts, Quinn. Nor will turning them into ashes.”

      He glanced at her over his shoulder, his eyes a cold blue and his face a harsh mask. “Finish your story, then. We’ll put your guilt to rest and then forget this ever came up.”

      “I can’t forget,” Norma said simply. “That night with Heinz was my first. It was terrifying, but also beautiful. Heinz swore he’d grown to love me with all his heart. He promised he’d find a way for us to be together openly. I believed him. I had no reason not to. Especially since he sent the first of these letters the very next day.” Norma picked up the top one.

      “Could you cut to the chase? I don’t want to hear the details.”

      “All right. You want it straight, Quinn, here it is. Within days, things on the front heated up and I received notice to return to Marseilles. I sent Heinz a note requesting what I feared would be our last clandestine meeting. To my astonishment and extreme joy, he begged me to help him defect.”

      “What?”

      She smiled at Quinn’s yelp. “Yes. I knew it was so we could be together always. But it was more than that. Many times he’d confided to me that he was worried about the decisions Hitler was making. Not surprising, as there were whispers about the atrocities taking place. Defecting wasn’t as uncommon as you might think,” she said.

      Quinn continued to gape. “Well, that puts a more positive spin on this tale than I expected. So what happened? Did you help him? You obviously weren’t together always.”

      “Are you always so impatient? I’m reconstructing what happened long ago. You’ll have to bear with me and let me explain at my own pace.”

      “Okay. More brandy? If you don’t mind, I’m going to freshen my drink.”

      Norma shook her head. “There’s still a lot left to tell, Quinn.” He heard her take a deep breath. “I mistakenly assumed it would be merely a matter of notifying my contact. Kestrel, uh, Tony. I thought safe passage to America would be arranged for Heinz overnight.”

      Quinn tipped three fingers of brandy into his snifter and recapped the bottle. “I can’t believe you worked for the government and had such unrealistic expectations,” he said wryly. “Nothing happens in government overnight.”

      Her shoulders relaxed a bit. “Did I mention that I was naive? Well, I was. I sent my report, but heard nothing. Days passed, and I had two messages requesting I return to Marseilles. I started to panic, thinking my note had gone astray. Despite the danger that it might fall into the wrong hands, I sent another. Like you, Heinz understood such requests took time. He was fully prepared to continue a long-distance relationship.” She held up the packet of letters.

      “For a month we corresponded secretly and I hid his letters in the lining of my travel satchel, even though they were just the silly things lovers would write—not one sentence of political import. But all at once, again in the middle of the night, two agents I’d never seen in my life—one American, one French—appeared by my bed. I was ordered to pack everything, and I had no idea why. We left by car. For hours I was grilled. I was expected to divulge every intimate detail of my relationship with Heinz.”

      “You must’ve been terrified,” Quinn said, just a bit grudgingly.

      “Frightened, but not stupid. In those days no one trusted casually. I never breathed a word about our falling in love. I certainly didn’t mention his letters to a soul. I prayed fervently that the men wouldn’t search my suitcase. I made it seem as if Heinz and I had forged a loose friendship, which was the only reason he’d contacted me about his defection. I also pointed out that I knew the risk to everyone.”

      “What happened to Colonel von Weisenbach?” Quinn asked intently.

      Tears rimmed Norma’s reddened eyelids. Her lips trembled and her words were shaky. “My driver finally stopped. Where, I didn’t dare ask. To this day, I have no idea. At a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Tony was there, although I still didn’t know him by name. The other men left. Kestrel said he’d arrange, or maybe he said he had arranged for Heinz to come over to our side. He said it was a delicate operation and he needed me to play a part. I never questioned his decision, although I sensed his urgency, and his uneasiness. Kestrel told me I should get word to Heinz to meet us in three weeks on Saturday two hours before dawn. He wrote down some coordinates for me to pass on to Heinz.”

      She tried several times to say something else. Her lips moved, but no words emerged.

      “Here, you need more brandy.” Quinn carried her almost empty glass to the bar and added one generous splash, then a second. Returning, he stood over her, urging her to swallow. Quinn knelt and covered the cold fingers that still clutched the old letters. “It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out something bad happened, Gram. I have no desire to hear details that are so painful for you. Let’s leave the story here.”

      “No,” she insisted, thrusting her brandy snifter back at Quinn. “Let me muddle on…. I have to get this all out.”

      “As you wish.” Nodding, he got to his feet and placed her glass on the square coffee table within easy reach, then went to sit across from her again.

      “That Friday before the transfer was a bleak, rainy day. At two the next morning, Kestrel collected me and we drove off. He didn’t turn on the car’s lights. I suppose I should’ve been more concerned, especially as the weather got worse. But my spirits were soaring. This was the day Heinz and I had waited for. I admit to being a bit surprised when we drove a mile, stopped and picked up two taciturn Frenchmen whose silence unnerved me. They didn’t wear uniforms and they didn’t СКАЧАТЬ