‘What happens if I bump into Elizabeth? She knows that I am based at Witley Park. Will she not be suspicious?’
‘In fact it will be better if she is there as it will increase your credibility. You can tell them that you have become disillusioned by your training process and what you have been asked to do and that you are thinking of escaping back to Germany,’ the Colonel suggested.
‘I will help in any way that I can, and I will be prepared to go this evening. I just hope that this guy turns up.’
‘I will organize a pass for you so as you can get in and out through the checkpoints. You should wear ordinary clothes and not your’ uniform,’ the Major suggested.
‘I don’t think that I need to remind you about being extremely careful and certainly don’t lower your guard during the whole time that you are outside the confines of Witley Park. If your first meeting goes well we will give you false information relating to the other agents that you can pass on to them,’ Colonel Thorpe added.
‘I just hope that one of the locals doesn’t report me to the police as happened in Cornwall,’ I said.
‘Well at least you will have your trousers on.’ Major Richards smiled.
I left them in the office and returned to my room to prepare for my evening’s task.
I was down in the lounge by 5:15 pm waiting for my notification to proceed from the Major. An hour later the Major still hadn’t come to see me, and I was still patiently waiting when we were called in to dinner at 7:00 pm. A cloud of tobacco smoke came towards me.
‘I think that you can stand down now for the evening Markus as it looks as if he isn’t coming tonight,’ the major said.
‘Presumably I should be ready to go tomorrow night, Sir,’ I replied.
‘Yes, and you should get on with your normal training tomorrow. Just make certain that you are on your starting blocks by about 5:15 pm tomorrow evening.’
I grabbed hold of a plate and piled food onto it from the buffet, sitting down at the dining table. Shortly afterwards Francette came in to get her dinner. My heart gave a leap when I saw her enter the room, and I protected the chair beside me to make sure that she would be able to sit beside me.
After dinner, we both grabbed a drink and went to sit in a corner of the lounge where we wouldn’t have to talk to the others. I enjoyed her company and her gentle voice with the strong French accent. The gentle scent of her French perfume wafted across to me. I had been so tied up in my own survival and future that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed female company. Since I left Susie in Kiel, at the start of the war, I had been starved of the opposite sex. Francette had rekindled a need in me.
‘When do you have to go and be tested on your orienteering skills Markus?’ she asked me.
‘They still have to arrange a date. I am hoping that it will be in the New Year when the weather gets better. I would prefer not to have to go through what I endured last week until the weather improves.’
‘I was due to leave this week, but they have delayed my mission for some reason,’ Francette said.
‘I am glad about that. It’s nice to have your company. I really appreciated finding you waiting for me when I arrived back from Cornwall last night.’
‘I enjoy your company too Markus.’ She leant across and gave me a peck on my cheek and squeezed my arm.
Dark haired, petite and exceptionally attractive, Francette smiled at me seductively. She had my complete attention now and a piece of my heart.
‘Do you know Markus that I have a room to myself, and it is close to yours,’ Francette said retaining her seductive smile. ‘Why don’t we go upstairs and make use of my single room and finish our drinks there.’
That was the sort of invitation that I didn’t have the will power to refuse. I smiled in agreement.
Amazingly enough she had managed to make her room look feminine unlike the masculine environment that my room portrayed. There was no chair in the room, so we had to sit on the side of the bed. She had scrounged a bedside lamp from somewhere so she switched off the main light and we sat there in the romantic glow of the smaller lamp.
She leant into me and put her arm around my waste. The scent of her perfume excited my senses.
‘Are you ever afraid of what you have volunteered to do Markus,’ Francette asked me.
‘If I think about it, I do start to worry, but I find that if I put all my efforts into my training that the anxiousness leaves me.’
‘I was OK until I was given my date to leave here. I can’t tell you what I will be doing, but it is extremely dangerous with a lot of risk and I am particularly conscious of what happened to poor old Vic.’
‘I still have a lot of training to do, so I haven’t even thought about what will happen when I leave here. I’m glad I didn’t return from Cornwall and find that you had gone, I would have been extremely upset.’
‘Would you Markus? I need you to hold me to give me the strength I need to keep going. I am very afraid.’
I turned to face her, and we relaxed onto the bed until I was holding her close to me. I put my lips to hers, and we kissed, gently at first, but that soon graduated to highly passionate. All the anxiety and tension of the last two weeks went into my embrace, and she responded with equal passion.
I held her face in my hands and increased the energy of my kissing. We were lost in each other’s embrace, and there was no way that we had the brakes or inclination to stop what we had started.
The embrace moved through the usual stages to love making. We slipped our naked bodies under the covers and lost ourselves in each other. By the time that we had satisfied our desires it was safe to say that our tensions had vanished, and we were both lost in our love for one another. I slipped into a deep sleep still in the arms of Francette.
I woke up to feel a tap on my shoulder.
‘Markus, do you think that it is time for you to go back to your own room. Matt will be wondering where you are.’
‘Do I have to leave you Francette? Matt is a man of the world and will understand.’
‘Better not risk it though Markus. It is now 3:00 am and time that you were in your own bed’
‘Oh you are a spoil sport Francette. Why don’t we run away together and leave all this?’
‘Because we both have a job to do and I want to complete my mission no matter how scary it is.’
‘Can I slip back here tonight?’
‘We’ll have to see about that, won’t we? I don’t want to be branded as a loose woman’
‘You can be my loose woman any time Francette, but you are banned from being anyone else’s.’
‘You can have one last hug, and then you must go.’
Our bodies touched again, and a hug was not going to satisfy the desire exploding in both of us. Half an hour later I finally managed to escape from her bed and make my way to my own room. Climbing into my own bed, I lay there thinking of how much better my life had suddenly become. I fell asleep grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Chapter 27
I woke the following morning with Matt shaking me.
‘Get up sleepy head it’s time to leave that bed of yours’
I pulled the covers up over my head intent on staying where I was.
‘Where were you last night Markus? I heard you coming to bed at around 4:00 am and the last I saw of you downstairs was sitting with Francette. You haven’t been a naughty boy have you?’
I pushed the covers back a bit and looked at him. He was grinning knowingly at me.
‘I just went for a drink in her room, and we chatted for a very long time,’ I suggested. She was very worried about her upcoming mission.
‘Look at me and tell me with a straight face that you got up to nothing else.’
‘We just talked,’ I replied, avoiding his eyes.
�
��Then why are you grinning like a Cheshire cat?’
‘I am just amused by your suggestion that’s all.’
‘If I see a similar smile on Francette’s face this morning then that will confirm my suspicions. I am just jealous of you.’ Matt left the room to go and wash leaving me with my grinning face.
Matt and I were sitting together at breakfast when Francette came in. She gave me a big smile; Matt turned and gave me a knowing wink. ‘What did I say Markus?’
In one night, my whole life had changed. Up to my romp with Francette I had been burdened down by the loss of my brother and felt that there was no real future to my life. I was firmly fixed in the past. A bit of love had changed all that, and I now wanted to succeed for a different reason.
Survival and having a future had moved up my list of priorities. It was also extremely important that I uncovered the person who had led to the death of Vic. Francette could be the next one to be killed as a result of an information leak.
I was ready and waiting downstairs by 5:15 pm. I wasn’t disappointed this time as Major Richards came to get me at a quarter to six. He handed me a pass to allow me through the check points together with last minute instructions. The person who was the likely cause of Vic Biddlecome’s death was at the pub, “The Cat and Fiddle”.
Although it wasn’t even six o’clock it was pitch black outside, and, with the blackout, I had great difficulty finding my way. The major had given me a small flashlight to help me, but I didn’t want to advertise the fact that I was leaving the estate and decided only to use it once I was through the gates.
I passed through the first guard house and then saw a glow in the distance which I presumed was the main checkpoint at the entrance to the property. Once through that I set off for the pub now using my torch.
The pub had a system of curtains at the entrance to allow customers to come and go without allowing light to beam out into the car park. I poked my way through the curtains and came out into the interior of the pub. The entrance opened into the main bar where there was a large fire burning. Off to the side there was a snug where women were allowed to drink, so I presumed Elizabeth would be there with her lover. There were only old men, too old to join the services in the pub that I could see.
I approached the bar where a lady I took to be the owner of the pub was in residence. She finished serving a customer and then turned to me. She raised her eyebrows at me in a questioning way.
‘May I have a pint of beer please,’ I asked in as confident a voice as I could manage.
‘What brew do you want, will Watney’s do you?’ she asked.
I hadn’t been in a pub since I had arrived in England, so I had to remember back to when I had been to a pub with my father and Chris in Harrogate before I had returned to Germany in 1937.
‘Yes, Watney’s is perfect thank you.’
She pulled my pint and brought to it to me. As she placed the pint on the bar, she leant across and spoke to me.
‘He is in the snug.’
That’s all she said to me. She took my money and left me to it. I picked up my pint and opened the door into the snug. Elizabeth and her friend were seated on the far side of the room. On my arrival, they both looked to see who was disturbing their privacy.
‘Markus, what on earth are you doing here,’ Elizabeth exclaimed.
‘I was going mad locked up in that place, so I managed to get a pass out to get a decent drink in a better environment.’
‘You sound German,’ the man beside her said.
‘Sorry Markus, I forgot to introduce Boris to you. He was also born in Germany but has spent most of his life living in London,’ Elizabeth added.
‘Hi Boris, it’s nice to meet you. What brings you to Whitley?’ I asked as innocently as I could muster.
‘Oh, I live locally and commute into London to work in a bank. I met Elizabeth, and we have been going out together for the past year.’
‘Why don’t you join us at this table Markus, unless, of course, you are meeting someone else?’ Elizabeth gave me a knowing smile.
‘Thank you I would appreciate talking to somebody different. I have been cooped up in Witley Park for months now with nobody to talk to other than the other inmates.’
‘Why are you there Markus?’ Boris asked me.
‘I’m sorry, but I am prohibited from telling you as it is all hush hush,’ I replied.
‘Judging by your earlier remarks you sound fed up with having to stay there, is that a correct assessment of your position?’ Boris continued.
‘I am becoming extremely disillusioned with what is going on and the role that they want me to play.’ I wanted to appear to be disillusioned with my position to obtain his trust.
‘You are welcome to come and talk to us any time that you want. We generally meet in this pub at least three times a week and always at the same time. Elizabeth can tell you which evenings we will be here as she usually knows by 3.00 pm at the latest.’
‘That’s very kind of you. It would help a lot to talk to somebody different. Give me an escape from my barracks.’
‘What part of Germany are you from Markus?’ Elizabeth asked me.
‘I am from Kiel in the North of Germany. Do you know it Boris?’ I replied. There was no way I was going to tell them that my home town was Lubeck as he might have some way of checking on me. I had to keep my Mother and Grandfather safe at all costs.
‘No, I am from the South of Germany and have never been to the North even on vacation.’
‘We have to go Markus. We will be back here on Saturday, and you are welcome to join us then,’ Elizabeth suddenly interjected.
‘That would be great. Will you be here at the same time?’ I asked.
‘Yes or a little earlier as it is a Saturday. Meet us here at five,’ Boris said as he got up to leave. He shook my hand and left the snug with Elizabeth.
I remained in the snug a further thirty minutes before I felt it safe to leave the pub. When I got outside I didn’t advertise my position by switching on the torch, but kept close to the walls, keeping my eyes open for trouble. I didn’t think that I was at risk, but I had learnt that it was better to anticipate the worst, and be surprised when it didn’t happen.
Although I arrived back in the house after dinner, I managed to scrounge some food from the kitchen staff. While I was eating, Major Richards came over and sat beside me.
‘How did it go Markus? Did you actually talk to him?’ he asked.
‘It went better than I could have imagined. Elizabeth introduced me to him, and we had a pleasant chat.’
‘Do you think that he was suspicious as to why you were there?’
‘I explained that being cooped up in the house all the time was extremely boring, and I needed a break. I told them that I had been given an evening pass to go to the pub. They seemed convinced by my story.’
‘If Elizabeth asks any questions, I will tell her that I authorised a pass for you. That should provide greater credibility to your story about being fed up in having to stay in the house all the time.’
‘Thanks Major, she may check up on me.’
‘Well done Markus. Have they suggested that you meet them again?’
‘Yes, they will be there at 5:00 pm on Saturday and they have invited me to have a drink with them.’
‘That’s perfect, perhaps our little plan will work’ The Major patted me on the shoulder leaving me to finish my meal
Saturday evening I joined them at 5:30 pm in the snug at “The Cat and Fiddle”. We chatted for about an hour and then Boris leaned towards me.
‘Markus, you sound remarkably negative about the way your training is going and what they have asked you to do. Are you willing to gather some information for me that might help Germany defeat England?’
‘I don’t have
any information that would be of use to you,’ I replied in an offhand manner.
‘Elizabeth has told me that you are friendly with Francette Tranquet. Will you give me information about her mission?’
‘I don’t know anything about her mission. Trainees are not allowed to talk about what they are doing.’
‘Let me say it in a different way. Are you willing to give me any information that you may come across? I will pay you very well.’
‘If I do get some information that I feel that you might be interested in then I am willing to tell you.’
‘Thank you Markus, you can rest assured that anything you tell us will be kept to ourselves and you won’t be identified as the source.’
‘When will I see you again Boris?’ I asked.
‘I will return on Tuesday of next week. You can come and meet me here at the usual time.’
‘Thank you, I might just do that. I had better get back to the house as we will have our usual movie tonight and I don’t want to miss that.’
This time I was the one to say my goodbyes, and I left them in the snug.
I got back in time to join Francette for dinner.
‘Where were you Mr Bekker? Have you found a girlfriend in the local village and have abandoned me,’ she said with mock anger.
‘I was actually doing some of my training as an agent this evening.’
‘In a pub?’ She raised her voice, giving me a quizzical look.
‘Yes in a pub. I can’t tell you what I have been doing, but all will be revealed next week.’ I smiled at her.
‘Are we going to watch the movie this evening Markus or are you otherwise engaged?’
‘I rushed back here so I would be able to take you to the Cinema.’
‘Oh you are a liar; you don’t even have to pay to take me to the movies.’
‘I know, but it is the thought that counts. Can we take our drinks to your room afterwards for a private chat,’ I asked, giving her a sexy look.
War Brothers Page 15
