About Dunkirk Gregory had no need to call on his powers of invention, as for the best part of twenty-four hours he had sat on the beach watching the troops taken off; although, his own mission being uncompleted, instead of going home with them he had then got into an abandoned tank and driven off in the direction of Paris.
About London he exaggerated both the bad and the good with the intent of depressing his audience. He described the results of the bombing as frightful beyond belief, which delighted the Germans; but then went on to say how, all the unreliable elements having fled from the capital, those who remained had displayed the pigheadedness for which those accursed islanders were notorious. They had suddenly begun talking to their neighbours in buses and trains and sung a silly song about rolling out a barrel and’ pardon, but you will understand I speak of the filthy British’ gone about greeting one another with laughing cries of 'To hell with Hitler!'
Having despatched this barbed arrow, he swiftly returned to his own adventures, telling how he had skilfully managed to desert from a British Commando at St. Nazaire and that as, alas, France had not yet actively entered the war against the perfidious English he had come to Budapest in the hope of selling truffles.
He then paused to await with some curiosity their reaction to this admission of his pseudo commercial activities. Ribbentrop had been widely sneered at by the world Press because in pre Nazi days he had earned his living as a champagne salesman. Why, Gregory had never been able to understand, for it seemed to him that few trades could be more civilized and pleasant than selling wines; and, although he had no right to the 'von' he claimed, as only his mother's family had been noble, he came of respectable people. Moreover, he had been no ordinary commercial traveller, as he had married Anneliese Henkel, the heiress of the great German Sparkling Wine House. But nobody made any comment on Gregory's commercial activities, and a moment later the band started up a new number.
Standing up, Sabine smiled at Ribbentrop, then said to Gregory, 'Come and show me if you still dance as well as you used to when we were in Paris.'
'With the utmost pleasure,' he replied gaily, and led her out, on to the floor. But as they moved smoothly off among the throng of dancers, her manner changed and she asked abruptly:
'Now! What are you really up to here?'
'Surely you can guess,' he replied lightly. 'I am assessing the weight of bombs it will take to blow Budapest off the map; and how many Hungarian girls we can hope to save from the ruins to supply the brothels we maintain for the coloured troops of the Empire.'
'The Allied bombers will never get as far as Budapest, and…"
'I wouldn't be too certain of that,' he cut in with sudden seriousness.
Her voice was low and soft but held no note of friendliness as she replied, 'That, as I was about to add, is beside the point. I want a sensible answer to my question.'
'Let's say then that, my poor old bones now being racked with arthritis, I have come to do the cure at your famous mud baths.'
'Gregory!' She gave the back of his hand a sharp dig with her nails. 'Stop fooling! You are as fit and lithe as ever you were. And anyway…'
'Softly, my sweet, softly,' he chided her. 'Please remember that my name is now Etienne.'
'You will have exchanged your name for a number in a cell if you exasperate me much further. And I am not your sweet!'
Ignoring the threat, he smiled down at her. 'Alas, no. I fear that your taste has deteriorated since the wonderful time we had together in Paris, of course. About that you played up marvellously, and I am most grateful to you.'
Without returning his smile, she replied. 'Yes, it was all very amusing; but I am no longer in the mood for comedy. For the sake of old times I refrained from denouncing you, and I am now giving you an opportunity to explain yourself. Take it, or I shall get Major Szalasi to send for a policeman.'
He gave her a look of shocked surprise. 'Surely you wouldn’t do that?'
'Why not? Our countries are at war and I run into you here posing as a Frenchman. It is obvious that you are a enemy secret agent.'
'Then why not snatch up a champagne bottle from the next table we pass and bash my head in with it?'
A slight shudder ran through her slender body, and she exclaimed, 'What a horrible idea!'
T suppose it is rather particularly when you remember that you used to enjoy running those slim fingers of yours through my hair. Yet the effect of a real good crack from a bottle would be precisely the same as if my head were smashed in by the bullets from a firing party; and that would probably be my fate if you gave me away. So you see you would simply be getting somebody, else to do your dirty work.'
Her skin was flawless, with the matt texture of magnolia petals, but a worried frown creased her broad low forehead, and a warmer note crept into her voice as she said, 'God knows, I would hate to bring about your death. But don't you see that meeting you like this has placed me in an impossible position?'
By first making light of his own situation then just touching on the grimmer side of it, Gregory had played his cards skilfully. Few women can resist the appeal of a man who is in great danger yet instead of asking help talks gay nonsense about it: and he judged from Sabine's softened expression that he now had her patriotic scruples on the run. Stooping his head a little he murmured in her ear:
'I would not say impossible, but exciting. How could it be anything else when you recall the last time we danced together here. I find it incredibly thrilling that fate should have brought its together again like this. You have no idea how often I have thought of you.'
'Oh come!' she protested. 'Please don't pretend that you are still in love with me.'
'I wasn't an hour ago. Now I'm not so certain. Anyhow, I very soon can be.'
'You are saying that because you hope to persuade me to let you get away with whatever you are up to.'
'I'm not. You must know that you are lovely enough to turn any man's head especially one who has such memories of you as I have.'
She gave a quick sigh. 'Yes; it was wonderful while it lasted.'
'It ended all too soon; only because I had to go back to England and it was impossible for you to go with me.'
'I… I know,' her voice faltered a little.
As they swayed to the music he drew her closer. 'Being with you here again like this makes it seem as if the years between have been no more than a one night’s dream.'
'But they haven't been a dream!' Her words came faster now and she looked up into his face with troubled eyes. 'It is common knowledge that I'm Ribb's mistress, and even if I were not we couldn't pretend they have. Our countries are at war, and you have as good as admitted that you are here as a spy. How can you expect me to ignore that and continue to lie to people about your being a Frenchman I met in Paris?'
'Listen, Sabine. This is the truth. I am not a spy; but I am here on a secret mission.'
'Well, that's much the same thing, isn't it?'
'Not necessarily; and not in this case. If I can succeed in my mission I honestly believe that it will be a good thing for Hungary.'
'In that case there is nothing to stop your telling me about it.'
'Nothing except time. This dance must be nearly over and, anyhow, to go properly into the matter I'd need an hour at least. What are you doing tomorrow?'
'I don't really know. Ribb will be up at the Palace most of the day, having conferences with Admiral Horthy; and probably in the evening too. I expect I shall do some shopping, lunch with friends and bathe in the afternoon. But this has nothing to do with it. This thing has got to be settled tonight,'
'Why? Are you afraid I'll run away?'
'You might. Perhaps it would be the best solution if you did. That is, if I could be certain that you had left the country.'
He smiled down at her again and stuck his chin out. 'Well, I'm not going to. There is too much at stake. So if you are really set on getting me oft your conscience tonight, there's only one way you can do it. You'll have to call in
the police.
'Oh, Gregory, you are a brute! You haven't changed a bit. You're just as dictatorial as ever.'
'You haven't changed, either. But I'm not a brute. You know jolly well that I am the easiest, softest creature in the world, and that you never had the least difficulty in twisting me round your little finger. Look, why not cut out your shopping and all that tomorrow and spend the day with me?'
She closed her eyes and shook her head. 'No, no. Get thee behind me, Satan.'
'Why should I when it's such a joy to look at your race, Angel?'
Her eyes remained closed, their long dark lashes making fans upon her cheeks; but her lips broke into a smile, as she murmured, 'We're being absolutely crazy.'
'What is there crazy about trying to snatch a little happiness from life. If we can't put the clock back altogether we could for a dozen hours tomorrow.'
'Oh, you're incorrigible!'
'No; just human. I'll tell you about this mission of mine; then we'll forget the damn war and enjoy ourselves.'
Suddenly she opened her eyes. They were bright as stars and brimming with laughter. 'All right,' she nodded, 'you win. Where shall we meet?'
At that moment the band stopped. Under cover of the clapping he said, as he took his arm from about her, 'Let's start the day just as we used to, with a swim at the Gellert. I'll meet you there at eleven o'clock.'
She pressed his hand before letting it go, and whispered, 'That would be lovely, darling. Now we must think up some more funny stories about our time in Paris to keep Ribb in a good temper. Be careful how you look at me, though, because sometimes he gets jealous.'
Gregory was much too old a bird not to heed her warning; so he did not ask her to dance again, although he danced with Madame Szalasi and twice with Fraulein Weiss. Betweenwhiles he played the part of a cultured Frenchman who is something of a buffoon, and amused the party with cynical stories illustrating the hypocrisy and stupidity of the English. He found Ribbentrop somewhat conceited and very self-opinionated but, apart from that, congenial company.
It was the Nazi Foreign Minister's easy affability that had first opened to him the' road to fame. On Anneliese's money they had lived in a comfortable villa in the rich Berlin suburb of Dahiam, and made themselves a popular host and hostess. To their parties had come Von Papen, Himmler and then Hitler. The latter found Ribbentrop useful to him in giving colloquial translations of leading articles in the British and French Press and then the villa at Dahiam made "an excellent rendezvous for holding secret meetings. In it, during January 1933, had been hatched the conspiracy which led to the aged Hindenburg's giving his agreement to a Von Papen Hitler coalition government, and from then on the genial host of the conspirators had never looked back. Many of his fellow party chiefs resented his arrogance and doubted his abilities, but the ex-housepainter, Hitler, was so abysmally ignorant of. all foreign affairs that he could never be persuaded that Ribbentrop was not a second Bismarck.
Even conceding that to be an absurd exaggeration, by comparison Gregory found the Hungarian Nazi a dull dog, the A.D.C. only a moderately intelligent yes-man, and the two women of very limited mentality; but that was a good, rather than a bad, thing as it left him free to concentrate on the two principal members of the party.
Soon after two o'clock it broke up. Ribbentrop and Szalasi both had large cars waiting for them, and from the point of the island their ways lay in opposite directions across the two halves of the bridge which joined it to the opposite banks. As the Germans and Sabine were staying in Buda they offered Count Laszlo a lift, and the Szalasis, who lived in Pest, said they would drop Gregory at the Vadaszkürt. But before they parted he managed to get a brief word with the Count.
'It was a near thing,' he confided, 'but I'll only have myself
to blame now if she gives me away. I'm spending all tomorrow with her; so please let the others know why I shall not be able to turn up at our meeting. I can't make any further contribution, anyhow, so I'd be only a listener. But do press them to get something definite from General Lakatos. It is more urgent than ever now that I should get away from Budapest. I want to leave on Saturday.'
Count Laszlo had proved himself the most reasonable and helpful member of the Committee, and he promised to do his best; so Gregory took such comfort from that as he could, but he knew that during the next day or two he would be faced with a most tricky piece of tightrope walking.
In spite of his light-hearted fooling with Sabine during the first part of their dance together, he had soon realized that the only way to prevent her from turning him over to the police was to invoke her happy memories of their love affaire. That had not proved difficult; but, with her slender body pressed to his and her lovely face so close, his own memories had flooded back to him with most unsettling clarity.
He wondered now just how much that had influenced him in suggesting that they should spend the whole day together when an hour's talk over a drink before lunch would probably have been sufficient to satisfy her curiosity and secure her silence but he decided that, although it had been an added incentive, he would have done the same with any woman in similar circumstances solely because she was Ribbentrop's mistress. It was certain that a conceited man like the Reich’s Minister talked freely with his intimates, so Sabine must be privy to many Nazi secrets. She might prove as close as an oyster but such a chance to pick up. red-hot inside information about the enemy was one nothing would have induced him to miss, and to make the utmost of that chance necessitated his getting her to himself for as long as he could.
The disturbing fact was that when he had proposed this long session he had had in mind no more than a day spent together as old friends, whereas she seemed to have read into it more than that. Recalling the words he had used to win her over, he could not blame her; but just before they left the floor she had called him 'darling,' and she had said it in a tone which implied her expectation that, if only for a few hours, when next they met they would resume their old relationship.
Such a prospect had no strings to it provided that it was only for a few hours. But later, in conversation at the table, it had emerged that, while Ribbentrop was returning to Berlin on Saturday afternoon, Sabine was staying on in Budapest to attend the wedding of an old friend the following Tuesday before driving back to Berlin in her own car. That meant that from Saturday evening she would be her own mistress; and Gregory foresaw that if he had not left Budapest by then, a situation was likely to develop which would put him in a pretty fix.
He did not want to be unfaithful to Erika, but he knew his Sabine; and one of her attractions for him had been the frank joy she took in giving rein to her passions. He knew, too, the truth of the old saying that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' After a long day spent together, and with Ribbentrop out of the way, it was a certainty that she would expect matters to reach their logical conclusion. And if, after having again aroused her passion for him, he refused to play…?
It was that he had had in mind when he had told Count Laszlo that, if she gave him away, he would have only himself to blame. If he was not out of Budapest by Saturday Me would be safe only if he put his scruples behind him. And even that was not the final issue. If he did find that Sabine was inclined to be indiscreet about Nazi affairs, and that with patience he could wheedle really valuable information out of her, to make the utmost of such a marvellous opportunity he would feel it his duty to stay on in Budapest as long as she did. Then there could be no escape from becoming her lover again.
He was honest enough with himself to admit that should that happen one side of him was going thoroughly to enjoy it; but the other side was his private conscience, and as far as that was concerned, Sabine was no longer just an old flame. She had become fire and he was playing with it.
Divided Loyalties
Chapter 10
The St. Gellert Baths were, perhaps, the nearest thing of their kind in the modern world to those palatial establishments for health, social intercourse and sensual ple
asure that had been such a prominent feature of Roman civilization. The great building stood facing the Danube on the slope of the Gellert hill at the southern end of Buda.
In its lower floor there were marble halls and corridors leading to scores of rooms in which patients consulted their doctors and every variety of treatment could be given. On the next level there was a true replica of a Roman swimming bath. Towering columns flanked its sides, on its broad paved surround stone seats, where the bathers could rest awhile, were interspersed with larger than life-size statues of the gods and goddesses, and the water in it bubbled; for it was known as the 'champagne bath,' from being aerated by pipes set in its bottom so that swimmers should enjoy additional friction as they passed through these aerial fountains. On the same floor there were long corridors of rooms in which dozens of male and female attendants plied their trade as masseurs.
Above, and set still further back into the slope of the hill, was another swimming pool open to the skies. The tiles with which it was lined gave the effect of the water in it being blue, and at regular intervals a mechanism connected with it created artificial waves, so that bathers could take their choice of going in either when it was rough or smooth. The pool was set in a horseshoe shaped arena, the base of which was occupied by a restaurant. Outside it there were tables shaded by gaily coloured umbrellas. Round the rim of the horseshoe there was every type of well sprung lie low, swing seat and basket chair, and the whole was protected from the wind by a sixty foot high bank planted with flowering shrubs and flowers.
At a few minutes before eleven Gregory was waiting for Sabine on the broad flight of steps outside the entrance. She arrived shortly afterwards, driving herself, in a pale blue and silver Mercedes. When she had parked the car she greeted him without a smile and a shade hesitantly.
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