The Prince and the Nun

by Jacqueline George

  She was sitting at lunch with the girls when a figure in uniform appeared beside her. “Rado! You’re back at last, and in uniform. Make room for him, girls. How’s Jana and your father?”

  Rado squeezed in and a plate appeared in front of him. “They’re fine, Your Honour. I came up to ask if you needed anything now the Army’s gone, and to deliver a telegram.”

  The envelope was addressed to ‘Officer in Charge, Montebello Castle.’ She opened it. It read:

  In accordance with the terms of the executive order issued by the Peace Congress on 4th January instant transferring responsibility for the Krasna Dolina area to the Military Administrative Area of Pannonia, this is to inform you that the castle of Montebello is to be handed over intact and with all munitions and supplies to the relevant military forces.

  Elements of the Strength through Toil Mechanised Infantry Regiment under the command of Brigadier General Strelnikov will relocate to Montebello Castle and take control.

  All remaining Alliance forces should parade at the castle with arms stacked. Officers may retain their side arms. The entrances to the castle should be clearly marked with visible white flags to signify receipt of this order. Failure to follow these orders will be taken as a hostile action.

  Col. Lipkin

  Chief of Staff, Military Administrative Area of Pannonia, Szolnok

  She passed the telegram to Rado. “I suppose this means you’d better move your men up here. Then you can surrender the castle and everyone will be happy. Do you think your men will mind? It shouldn’t be for long. I’ll get the foresters to put up some white flags immediately.”

  She decided to send Rebecca home early, and she left with the girls’ money. It would be safer with Mr. Isaacs than loose in the castle.

  Rado and his small band of men moved into the coach house that afternoon, and the sentry box was occupied again. A big white flag hung over the gate and smaller ones were tied to the trees at the entrance to the wagon park, and then they waited.

  That evening Therese spent with the girls in the club. She showed them the Bishop’s letter and asked who wanted to go back to the Convent. None of them did. They wanted, most of all, to return to their families for a holiday. Then they would spread their wings and take on the world. Go to Vienna to be near Wanda. Get married and have babies like Maria. Go to study music or medicine. None of them wanted to return to the Convent. Nor did they seem to care for Therese’s future. They were young birds, and they were ready to fly from their nest.

  Chapter 41

  The telephone gave them warning of the approaching troops and all the castle inhabitants, even Sister Brigitta and the nuns, gathered in the corners of the courtyard to watch their arrival. Therese had arranged for Mikhail to wait in the wagon park to reassure them. Rado stood to attention in the centre of the courtyard, in front of all eight of his men. They were all in uniform, but they did not look as if Sergeant Grossner had been taking care of them. Their carbines were stacked in two stands on either side of Rado. The spectators pressed themselves against the walls and left as much space as possible.

  The tramp of marching feet sounded, coming to the gate below and on up to the courtyard. The Coalition troops looked battle-worn and professional. Their grey uniforms appeared baggy and strange after the well-tailored uniforms of the Imperial troops. They carried full packs, and items of equipment dangled around them. The rifles on their shoulders looked well-used. They were led by a tall, thin captain with a large pistol belted outside his greatcoat. Rado saluted as he approached and held the salute as the Coalition troops halted and wheeled to face him.

  The Captain walked up to Rado and gave a casual salute. “Captain Stumpfl, Second Political Officer, Strength through Toil Regiment. And you are?”

  “Lieutenant Krausov, Imperial Militia, Your Honour.”

  Rado had come on well, thought Therese, since the day he had first met her and driven her and Jana out of the village in a borrowed trap. Now he looks and behaves just like a soldier.

  Captain Stumpfl scanned the men with an expression of distaste. “Do you trust your men, Lieutenant?” He clearly did not care if he was overheard.

  “But of course, Your Honour.”

  “Perhaps that was the wrong question. Can I trust them?”

  Rado was put out by his questions. “You can trust them with your life, Your Honour.”

  “I doubt it. Never mind. Dismiss them and order them back to normal duties.”

  “Beg pardon, Your Honour, are they to take their carbines?”

  “Certainly not. I may return their arms after I have spoken to them individually. Get them moving. You go too. I’ll send for you when I’m ready.”

  As Rado and his men left, the captain started to walk around the square with his hands clasped behind his back. He stared at the people, looking them up and down, with no hint of human contact in his face. He stopped in front of the nuns.

  “Mother Superior Therese von Falberg?” he asked.

  Sister Brigitta stepped forward. “Your Honour, I’m Mother Superior Brigitta. Falberg’s over there.”

  “Very good. My information must be incorrect. Please take me inside and show me the facilities.” He turned back to the courtyard. “The rest of you stay here until I return.” Therese and the others stood uncomfortably in the cold, watching the soldiers watching them.

  They returned in twenty minutes, too short a time to have covered the castle but obviously enough time for Captain Stumpfl to decide on his next move. He cleared a corner of the courtyard and started to call out names from the list he was now carrying. “Now, over here immediately, Therese Falberg, Agata Grunwald, Dorota Krawczyk, Meike Strechler—” Therese was shocked. He was calling out all the girls, even Portia. Sister Brigitta must have given him their names.

  The girls crowded together behind Therese. “Captain, may I speak with you?”

  Stumpfl came to her and without warning slapped her face. “Silence!” he shouted at the top of his voice. “All prisoners will be silent!”

  “I am Colonel von Falberg to—” but another stinging slap ended her protest.

  “Silence! Enemy prisoners have no rights! Sergeant, tie this noisy bitch up.”

  There was nothing she could do. Her eyes were weeping, her head was spinning and she could taste blood in her mouth. The girls had pulled her back into the crowd for protection. The sergeant came for her, and she eased the girls away and forced herself to stand upright.

  “Beg pardon, Your Honour,” said the sergeant quietly, “If you could turn around and give me your hands. That’s it. Tight but not too tight. Sorry about this, Your Honour, but he gets like this sometimes. Best to go along with him.”

  Therese turned back to face Stumpfl, who was fumbling inside his coat for another list. “I have more names. Franz Mefist, Maria Breig, Rado Krausov and Rebecca Isaacs.”

  No one came forward in answer to his call. He turned to the castle staff and started to shout again. They were looking shocked and cowed and did not answer. Therese spoke again with all the firmness she could manage. “I can help you, Captain Stumpfl.”

  Stumpfl came back to her. “Very well, where are they? And no lies or it will go badly with you.”

  “I am not in the habit of lying, Captain. Captain Prince Franz Mefist is a member of the 3rd Carpathian Brigade and is currently with his unit in Gyor. Maria Breig recently married Major Lamoreaux of the same brigade and traveled with her husband to Alsace on honeymoon. The other two are not here and I don’t where they are at the moment. And my title is Colonel, Captain, and—”

  He slapped her again, but she fought on, “you will address me properly!”

  “Oh yes, Colonel, Your Honour! I’ll address you as you deserve. I can just imagine the battlefield you won your promotion on. You and the rest of the whores are arrested for consorting with partisans and for common prostitution. You will be dealt with as soon as General Strelnikov arrives. He knows how to deal with traitors. Until then, the coal cella
r is behind you. Get down there, all of you.”

  They filed into the narrow doorway. If only they could turn up the spiral stairs, they would pass the library and come up to her office and home. As it was, they went down to the boiler room. Oh well, Therese thought, it might be dark and dirty, but at least it is not cold. They were herded in and the door slammed behind them. Someone found the light switch, and the girls untied her hands.

  She looked around their prison. More than half of the space was taken up by the two boilers that heated the castle, and the coal that had been poured down the chute from outside. At one time the walls had been whitewashed, but a patina of coal dust lay wherever it could and dirtied their hands whenever they touched the walls. It would only be a matter of time before they were all as black as coalminers. Therese looked at the chute door, where Maria had laid false trails to cover Rado’s escape. It was now padlocked.

  She stood and thought for a moment. The girls were standing in a bunch in the centre of the room, waiting for her. She took a quick inventory of the room. Scrapers and stiff brushes for the boilers; two shovels; buckets; a yard broom; a large pile of hessian potato sacks, brought here to dry, and slept on regularly from the look of them.

  Therese clapped her hands and tried to look confident. “So, don’t just stand there. Take your coats off and we’ll start cleaning. We might be calling this home for a while, so we may as well be comfortable.”

  They worked through the afternoon, cleaning and turning their dungeon into a home of sorts. They had water–a tap in the corner–and buckets to carry it in. They used the water to keep the dust down and to wash the floor and walls. Eventually the area around the door was clean enough to live in. They arranged the potato sacks to give seats against the walls. The slop bucket stood in the far corner of the room, behind the second boiler.

  Work done for the day, they sat and chatted. The shock of being imprisoned was wearing off, and the girls seemed happy to sit and talk to her. As long as Therese was there beside them, they obviously felt that things could not be too bad.

  “I wonder what Maria’s doing, Mistress? Do you think she’d be in one of those grand hotels in Switzerland?”

  “Let me see–when did she leave? Four days ago? I suppose she might be, but Lamoreaux promised her a visit to Paris, and she was really looking forward to that. I expect they’re dining in an elegant restaurant, and she’ll be wearing some of the finest clothes he could buy her. I wish she was here now.”

  “Oh, yes, Mistress. She was a good one for times like these. She always had the right word to cheer you up. Or at least to set you thinking straight. She’d have given that Captain the sharp side of her tongue.”

  “That’s right! She wasn’t afraid of anybody. Do you remember her chasing Lieutenant Nielsen that night, Mistress? It still makes me laugh when I think of it.”

  “Me too. Him with his hands on his head trying to protect himself and his thing waving around in front of him. And Maria having to jump up to hit him properly with her shoe. I was surprised that she was so upset. Lieutenant Nielsen used to do that to me all the time.”

  That surprised Therese. “Really, Agata? In your bottom? You poor child. It must have hurt terribly.”

  “Oh no, Mistress. You just have to put it in very carefully to start with, and use lots of cold cream. After that, it’s fun. I thought so anyway, and so did Lieutenant Nielsen. Didn’t you ever try it, Mistress?”

  “No—” she bit off the rest of what she was going to say. “No, I never tried it. It looks as if you are all so much more experienced than me.”

  “Never mind, Mistress. Practice makes perfect, and you’ve got plenty of time.”

  “I didn’t like making love very much to start with at first, but after I’d had a bit of practice, it just got better and better. And now, if I’m in the mood and the man’s right, well, fly me to the moon! Do you think the same, Mistress? The more you do it the better it gets?”

  Therese thought about it. She was sadly ignorant compared to the girls, but she had to admit that each time Mefist or Wanda took her flying, she did seem to get closer and closer to the moon.

  They heard voices outside, and everyone sat up. “Stand away from the door,” shouted the sentry. “Stand away—I’m ready to shoot if anyone moves.”

  They crowded together away from the door. It swung inwards to reveal the sentry standing with his rifle ready. Then in came Mikhail, not the normal boiler man.

  “Good evening, Your Honour, ladies. My word, you’ve made this right homely. I’ve just come to tend the boilers, that’s all.” He went to open the first boiler. As he levered the riddle back and forth, he watched the doorway. He stopped making a noise and, sure enough, the sentry stepped forward to look and see what was happening. Mikhail started riddling again, and the sentry watched for a moment and stepped back into the stairwell where he could watch his prisoners from safety. As soon as he had gone, Mikhail waved at them and slid a small folded note under the boiler. He dropped coal from the boiler’s hopper into the grate and after a few adjustments moved onto the second one.

  Therese called to him as he started to leave. “Mikhail, can we have some food?”

  “I tried, Your Honour, but the Captain says he won’t think about it until tomorrow. I saw him take a good dinner, though.”

  “Could you take out our slop bucket then?” Mikhail looked at the sentry, who nodded. He carried out the bucket.

  “Do you have another, Your Honour? I shall get this one cleaned up and bring it back tomorrow morning when I fill the hoppers. Sleep well, Your Honour, ladies.”

  Once he had gone and they could not hear the sentry moving, Therese gestured to the girls to keep talking and went for the note. Have telephoned the General and the Prince for help. The key to the coal chute is on top of the doorframe. Burn this. Of course, she thought, they’d lock the coal chute door but then keep the key handy to save the trouble of keeping it safe. Changing old habits was never easy. She quietly opened the boiler spy hole and poked the note in. It flared up instantly.

  She passed on the message about the telephone to cheer the girls up, but she kept the key a secret. Trying to escape with no one waiting outside, they would risk getting shot. If they got clear of the castle, where could they go? Perhaps Rado could plan something if they were still being held after a few days.

  They had turned off the single light and were ready to sleep when Portia started to call quietly through the door. “Soldier, soldier! What’s your name? Soldier, come on, answer me. I’m not going to bite.”

  “Ivan. What’s yours?” came the whispered answer.

  “Natasha,” said Portia with a grin. “What are they going to do with us, Ivan?”

  “I don’t know. Nobody tells us anything. That captain can be a crazy bastard sometimes, but I expect he thinks he’s keeping you for his bed. I’m surprised he hasn’t sent for one of you already. Perhaps he’s tired after all that shouting and slapping your lady. Is she really a colonel?”

  “She certainly is, Ivan, and when word gets out about what he’s doing, your Captain’s going to be up to his ears in shit.”

  “He’s not my captain! He’s a Political. No one can touch him.”

  “What about your general? What’s he like?”

  “Oh, he’s a right hard bastard. Been wounded more times than I’ve had lunch. One hand gone, and one eye. Wears an eye patch and walks with a stick, but he’s still as hard as Swedish steel. I’m glad I don’t have nothing to do with him. What do you look like, Natasha? Which one are you?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know! No, you’re good enough. I’m blonde with blue eyes, and big tits and dupka. I’ll wink at you tomorrow if I get the chance, but don’t say anything. We don’t want any trouble.”

  “Go to sleep, little Natasha. Things’ll look better in the morning.”

  Chapter 42

  It was difficult to sleep on the stone floor. The potato sacks made no sort of mattress, and they had only their coats
to cover themselves with. They paired off for warmth and Therese wrapped herself around Portia, who slept curled up in a tight ball like a cat. She was used to sleeping in rough places and dropped off quickly. Therese lay awake for much longer, always uncomfortable and always afraid to move for fear of waking Portia.

  In the end she must have dozed off because she woke with a start. She was lying on her back and Portia was fast asleep under her arm. The stone floor was poking holes in her, but that was not why she had woken. She could hear voices outside. She sat up, and now everyone else began moving.

  “What have you got down there, soldier?” asked an educated voice.

  “Girls, Your Honour. Captain Stumpfl arrested some girls. One of them says she’s a colonel.”

  “One of them is a colonel, if I’m to believe what I’m told. Give me the key and go and get Stumpfl. Tell him that Colonel von Falberg wants to see him immediately. If he objects, tell him I sent you. Go on, I’m sure my driver and I can fight off these female storm troopers.”

  “Switch on the light!” ordered Therese. Light flooded the room and they were blinking and rubbing their eyes. They looked terrible, red eyes, faces swollen with sleep and hair like haystacks. They started to pass combs and try to look presentable.

  The key turned in the lock and the door swung open. Framed in the doorway stood a slight officer with an eye patch, his black leather coat draped over his shoulders, leaning on a walking stick. They all straightened up and stood as much to attention as they could. He came straight to Therese.

  “Colonel von Falberg, I believe,” he said, reaching for her hand to kiss. “Prince Mefist asked me to take good care of you and your girls, but I don’t seem to have got off to a very good start, do I?”

  “General Strelnikov, how pleased we are to see you! I’m afraid we have not been able to prepare much of a welcome. And please call me Therese, Your Honour. My rank is only honourary.”