Shadows of War

by Michael Ridpath

  At last he turned to her. ‘All right, Millie. I’m going to tell you something. I hinted at it to your brother when I saw him a few days ago, but I should stop playing games with myself. The British government needs to know.’

  ‘Needs to know what?’

  ‘The Duke of Windsor, your former king, is attached to the French general headquarters and over the last couple of months he has inspected the French lines. He is a surprisingly acute observer. And he has been passing his observations on to someone who has been passing them to me. Vital information about the French deployment and in particular its weak points.’

  ‘Edward is a traitor?’ Millie said. ‘That doesn’t make any sense. He was our king three years ago.’

  ‘I can’t be sure if he is doing this intentionally or if he is just indiscreet. But I can assure you he is doing it. And it is very useful information to our intelligence people.’

  ‘That’s not right, Theo. Someone is lying to you.’

  Theo reached out and grabbed Millie’s arms. ‘I said we have to trust each other, Millie. I am not lying. Your government has to do something about it; they have to stop him. And you must tell your father this – not Alston, your father. Do you understand?’

  Millie met Theo’s intense stare. There was no doubt he believed what he was saying. She nodded. ‘I will tell him,’ she said. ‘But do you have any evidence? I mean, he might believe me, but will the government believe him? There are all sorts of rumours flying around at the moment, Father says.’

  Frustration flashed in Theo’s eyes, but then he seemed to see Millie’s point. ‘Very well. I will try to get you some evidence. I’m not sure what yet, but I will think of something. How long are you staying in Holland?’

  ‘Another three or four days,’ Millie said. ‘We are waiting for a response from Herr Langebrück.’

  ‘I’ll bring you something in the next couple of days.’ Theo touched Millie’s cheek. ‘In the mean time, be careful. Don’t trust Langebrück or Ribbentrop. Don’t trust anyone.’

  ‘Apart from you?’

  ‘Apart from me.’ To Millie’s enormous relief, Theo smiled at the irony. ‘You should go back inside, you are freezing. I’ll see you again soon.’

  Millie’s emotions were in turmoil as she hurried back across the sand to the warm glow of the Kurhaus. She was ashamed that she had gone behind Theo’s back; she was angry with her father for letting Alston open up a dialogue with such Nazis. She was also shocked by what Theo had said about the Duke of Windsor. She had met him once when she was nineteen and he was Prince of Wales. Like most people her age, she had been pleased to see him succeed to the throne in 1936: a young, modern king who understood the twentieth century. The politics of his abdication had baffled her, but she couldn’t help admiring a man who had put his love for a woman before everything else, even his throne.

  Her father knew the duke quite well. He had railed against his interfering in the Hoare–Laval pact during the Abyssinian crisis in 1935, over which Lord Oakford had resigned his position in Cabinet. But he had been uneasy about turfing a king off his throne. Would he believe her?

  She had been right to ask for evidence from Theo. She believed him, she had to believe him, but it was going to be very difficult for Oakford to persuade the government that their former king was a traitor.

  But if he was, if the duke really had been passing vital secrets to the Germans, then something had to be done about it.

  Constance was hovering anxiously, waiting for her in the lobby. ‘Are you all right, Millie?’

  ‘Oh, leave me alone!’ Millie snapped.

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘Sir Henry Alston is a Nazi, isn’t he, Constance?’

  Constance was taken aback. ‘Don’t be an ass, of course he isn’t. He just wants peace, like your father.’

  ‘He’s best friends with Ribbentrop and Ribbentrop is a Nazi. He’s trying to sell our country out.’

  ‘Is that what Theo told you?’

  Although the lobby was empty, Millie realized she was talking too loudly and lowered her voice. ‘Theo thinks the Duke of Windsor is a spy. He has been giving Theo secrets about the French defences.’

  ‘Theo has been talking to the Duke of Windsor?’

  ‘Through some kind of intermediary. He wants me to tell my father.’

  Constance frowned. ‘I know you like Theo, Millie, but that cannot possibly be true.’

  ‘He’s going to bring me proof in the next couple of days. While we wait for your friend Herr Langebrück to come back with his reply, which, by the way, I intend to rip up.’

  ‘You can’t do that!’ Constance said. ‘That was the whole reason we came here.’

  ‘We shouldn’t be negotiating with the Nazis behind our government’s back,’ Millie said. ‘Not when we are at war.’ What she meant was behind Theo’s back. And Conrad’s.

  ‘Why don’t we leave that to Sir Henry to decide?’ said Constance. ‘And your father.’

  ‘Because Sir Henry is a Nazi and my father is a fool!’ Millie said, the tears stinging her eyes as she did so.

  ‘What are you going to do about the Duke of Windsor?’ Constance asked.

  ‘Tell my father, of course, once Theo provides us with some evidence. As soon as we get back to England. I just hope he will listen.’

  ‘I don’t think you should do that,’ said Constance.

  At that instant all Millie’s frustration focused on one person, the girl standing in front of her. ‘Leave me alone, Constance,’ she said. ‘Just leave me alone!’

  With that she strode off to the lifts and her room. She needed to be by herself to make sense of all she had just heard. She needed to be away from Constance.

  Constance returned to her table in the almost empty ballroom and poured herself a cup of tepid tea from the pot. She had some hard thinking to do.

  After a few minutes she went up to her own room and placed a telephone call to London.

  20

  The Ritz, Paris

  Conrad lit another cigarette and leafed through the pages of the Herald Tribune. He had finished Le Monde. He wondered how long he could safely sit in the lobby. The staff of the Ritz didn’t seem to mind; people waited for other people in grand hotels all the time.

  He glanced up every time the doors opened until finally he saw a face he recognized from the brochures he had picked up in Amsterdam. The photographs had done justice to the boxer’s face and the jug ears, but not to the vitality with which Charles Bedaux bounded into the hotel. He spoke to one of the men at reception, requesting the manager.

  This was interesting. Nonchalantly, Conrad got to his feet and wandered over to the desk. He asked whether there was a message for him. While the receptionist was looking, the manager appeared. He was perfectly dressed in morning coat, and succeeded in looking both authoritative and deferent at the same time. He clearly knew Bedaux.

  Conrad listened to the conversation, which was in French. Bedaux had arranged a private dining room for four people and seemed very concerned about the arrangements. As did the manager. One of the people was ‘Madame Bedaux’, but Conrad didn’t catch the names of the other two. Conrad couldn’t hear the whole conversation, he had to respond to the receptionist who hadn’t been able to find a message for him, but he did catch a couple of words from the manager: ‘eight o’clock’.

  Conrad checked his watch. It was half past six. He told the receptionist he would return later and asked him to keep any messages for him from a Monsieur Madvig. May as well put the old Danish Prime Minister to work again. Then he wandered out into the place Vendôme, and found himself a café on a side street.

  At ten to eight he strolled back to the Ritz. He was disconcerted to see Charles Bedaux standing in the lobby, shifting impatiently from foot to foot. Conrad decided he had better not hang around there, and so made his way over to the far side of the square, outside an American bank. But it was dark in the blackout, and from that distance he couldn’t make out the
occupants of the cars that pulled up at the entrance. He would have to get closer.

  He moved over to the shadows outside a jeweller, only a few yards from the entrance to the hotel, confident that no one could see him in the blackout.

  At twenty past eight a large Buick rolled up and two faces he recognized emerged. The appearance of the couple seemed to energize the doorman, who ushered them into the hotel. Conrad decided he could risk one more turn though the lobby himself.

  Sure enough, as he passed through the blacked-out doors, he saw Bedaux fussing over his dinner guests.

  The Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

  He span off to the left and found himself in the bar. He ordered a whisky and soda to give himself time to think.

  Could that be what Theo was getting at? Charles Bedaux’s relationship with the Duke of Windsor. Was Bedaux giving Theo secret information about the duke? And if so, what? Something about Wallis Simpson? Surely that scandal had played out.

  Conrad remembered Warren mentioning Fruity Metcalfe, the duke’s ‘sidekick’. Well, here Conrad was, in the bar of the Ritz. Conrad had no idea what Metcalfe looked like; he scanned the room for likely suspects. There was really only one candidate, a tall middle-aged man in a double-breasted suit, propping up the bar, sipping a whisky and looking glum.

  Worth a try.

  Conrad moved over to him. ‘I say,’ he said to the man. ‘Are you English, by any chance?’

  ‘Irish,’ the man replied, looking up.

  Conrad perched on a stool next to him. ‘I think I just saw the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the hotel lobby. Is that possible?’

  ‘I’d say it’s a racing certainty,’ the man replied. ‘He’s having dinner here tonight.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Conrad. ‘I didn’t realize he was in France.’

  ‘Been here over a month,’ said the man, in soft Irish tones. ‘As have I. In fact I spent all day with him.’

  ‘Really?’ Conrad looked impressed. ‘I’ve never met him, myself. They say he’s charming.’

  ‘He is that,’ said the man, whom Conrad was now certain was Fruity Metcalfe. ‘You could never accuse the duke of lacking charm.’

  ‘Are you dining with him tonight?’ asked Conrad. He knew it was a stupid question, because the duke had been wearing a dinner jacket and Fruity wasn’t.

  ‘No. I work for him. I’m his equerry.’

  ‘Ah, I see,’ said Conrad. ‘The name’s de Lancey, by the way.’

  ‘Metcalfe,’ said Fruity. He was clearly slightly drunk, but seemed happy with the idea of talking to Conrad. The company seemed to be lifting his air of gloom. ‘What are you doing in Paris, Mr de Lancey?’

  For a moment, Conrad almost panicked. What the hell was he doing in Paris? He couldn’t tell Fruity he was trying to find out about Bedaux, and from what he had heard it was difficult for a British officer to get leave in the city. ‘Seeing my sister-in-law. She lives here and she needs some help with something.’

  ‘Oh, who’s that?’ Fruity asked.

  ‘Isobel Haldeman.’

  ‘Oh yes, I know her. Marshall Haldeman’s wife. Must be a rum business for you to come all the way here to sort it out.’

  ‘I suppose it is, rather,’ said Conrad. ‘I shouldn’t really have told you her name. Didn’t think you would know her.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Fruity. ‘I promise I’ll forget all about it.’ He took a sip of his drink and looked Conrad up and down. ‘Sister-in-law? That makes you Isobel’s brother’s... No, sister’s husband.’

  Fruity was a bit befuddled, Conrad was glad to see.

  ‘Ex-husband,’ said Conrad. ‘So does that make Isobel an ex-sister-in-law? Somehow I don’t think it does, does it?’

  Fruity pondered the question. ‘Don’t know,’ he decided eventually. ‘De Lancey, you say? Is your wife Veronica de Lancey?’

  ‘That’s her,’ said Conrad. ‘And she’s my ex-wife.’

  ‘Oh, I see. I met her once. Sat next to her at dinner somewhere. Charming woman.’

  ‘You could never accuse Veronica of lacking charm,’ Conrad said.

  Fruity laughed. ‘Can I get you another?’ he asked Conrad. Conrad’s glass was half full; Fruity’s was entirely empty.

  ‘Why not?’ said Conrad, finishing his.

  ‘What’s it like, being divorced?’ Fruity asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t recommend it.’

  ‘Was it your idea, or hers? I hope you don’t mind me asking, old man, I know you are a stranger, but there are some things it’s easier to ask strangers.’

  ‘Hers,’ said Conrad. ‘I fought it for a year or so, then I gave up.’

  ‘Was Alec Linaro involved in any way?’ Fruity asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Conrad. ‘I take it he was at that dinner party too?’

  Fruity nodded. Conrad felt the anger rise inside him, the humiliation of the cuckold. While he was scrabbling around in the dust and blood of Spain, his wife was openly flirting with other women’s husbands in front of total strangers.

  ‘Don’t let it get to you, old man,’ Fruity said. ‘It happens to all of us.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘My wife is beautiful. Wealthy. The daughter of an earl. And I have no idea which man she is with at this precise moment. But I would be very surprised if she was alone.’

  Conrad raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Are you wondering why I admit that?’ Fruity said. ‘Why shouldn’t I? I mean, she flaunts it. Why should I never mention it, just because no one ever mentions it to me?’

  Conrad nodded. ‘I know what you mean.’

  They stared at their drinks for a moment.

  ‘Do you love her?’ Fruity asked.

  ‘I did,’ said Conrad.

  ‘Do you now?’

  Conrad looked at Fruity sharply. ‘No. Maybe. I don’t know.’

  ‘I love her,’ said Fruity. ‘That’s the problem. I’ll always love her.’

  Conrad liked Fruity. He bought him another drink. They changed the subject. They talked about Paris, the phoney war, the army, Fruity’s service in India, the Duke of Windsor, the French army, Fruity’s trips around northern France.

  It was several whiskies later and well past midnight before Conrad left the Ritz and made his way over the Seine to Warren’s flat, thinking he now knew why Theo wanted him to track down Bedaux.

  His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor had been passing secrets to the enemy.

  And if Theo was right, in only a few hours’ time the Germans might be making use of those secrets to attack Belgium and Holland.

  Time to go back to London.

  Scheveningen

  It was about ten o’clock. Millie was in her nightgown having ordered a light supper from room service. She lay with the lights out and her eyes open, listening to the sound of the surf outside and thinking about what Theo had said.

  There was a light knock at the door.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘It’s Constance.’

  ‘Go away!’

  ‘Let me in, Millie! I want to apologize.’

  Millie sighed, got out of bed and opened the door a crack. Constance was standing on the landing looking sheepish. ‘Can I come in?’

  Millie hesitated, and then opened the door wider. Constance sat on the small chair by the desk, and Millie parked herself on the bed.

  ‘I just wanted to say I am sorry, Millie. I’ve been thinking about it and you are quite right. It’s wrong to negotiate with the Nazis when we are at war with them. We should have told your father and Henry that.’

  Millie was surprised, but gladdened that Constance seemed to share the doubts that were growing in her own mind after her conversation with Theo.

  ‘It’s just so difficult when people you trust ask you to do something,’ Constance went on. ‘And I do wish someone would do something to stop this dratted war.’

  ‘So do I,’ said Millie. ‘But I wonder if we shouldn’t leave it to our government.’

  ‘Probably,’
said Constance. ‘I don’t think Henry is a Nazi, though.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ said Millie.

  Constance looked as if she was going to argue, but seemed to think the better of it. ‘Oh, and I saw Theo earlier this evening.’

  ‘You did?’ said Millie. ‘Why didn’t you send him up to see me?’

  ‘I tried to, but he said he just wanted me to leave you a message. He wants you to meet someone tomorrow morning. Early.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘He wouldn’t tell me,’ said Constance. She dropped her eyes. ‘I think he doesn’t trust me.’

  ‘When? Where?’

  ‘Half past six. In the sand dunes just beyond the beach. Below the watchtower up there. You know. We walked up there yesterday afternoon.’

  A mass of low sand dunes covered in scrub stretched along the coast for several miles to the north east of Scheveningen, and Millie and Constance had explored them the day before. ‘Yes, I know where you mean. That’s frightfully early, though. It’s still dark then.’

  ‘It must be someone quite important,’ said Constance. ‘I asked if I could come with you, but Theo said no.’

  ‘All right,’ said Millie. She looked at her companion. Constance’s apology seemed genuine enough, but Millie didn’t even begin to understand her. At one moment she seemed to be impossibly naive, but she clearly understood more about international politics than she let on. With Otto Langebrück she had appeared firm and businesslike. And her relationship with Alston was a mystery. She said she was a friend of Alston’s niece, but it was odd that Alston trusted her so much.

  ‘Thank you, Constance,’ she said. ‘Good night.’

  After Constance had left her, Millie rang down to the hotel reception to book a wake-up call.

  21

  Scheveningen, 15 November

  The phone woke Millie before six, and she was out of the hotel by ten past. It was still dark, although a lighter shade of grey framed the Kurhaus to the east. The breeze was steady rather than strong, and the Dutch flag flapped jauntily from the cupola of the hotel.

  The promenade was empty, but one man was walking his dog on the beach down by the pier. Crows and seagulls huddled on the sand. Most of the guesthouses and hotels along the front were dark.