The Vogels: On All Fronts (The Half-Bloods Trilogy Book 2)

by Jana Petken

  She shook her head. “No, no. I’d like to hear about it now if you don’t mind.”

  “All right. Well, because you’re German, we thought you might consider working for our government in the … let’s say … the translation section.” Max chuckled as her eyes grew round. “Don’t worry, Judith. We won’t ask you to leave the country or do anything dangerous at all. In a nutshell, we want you to read, speak, and listen to German for us. If you accept, you’ll be working in an office with a lot of other people – people from all over Europe – who’ve escaped the Nazis. I guarantee you’ll learn English very quickly and make good friends into the bargain. Would you be interested in helping Britain defeat Adolf Hitler? Just think about…”

  “Yes. Yes, I would like that very much. I’d do just about anything to see that man defeated. I hope they hang him for what he did to my sister and father.”

  Such sadness in her, Max noted, as her eyes shone. He surmised that the subject of her lost family was still very painful. He recalled Paul saying she didn’t know what had become of her father after his arrest, but he knew; Herr Weber was dead.

  “We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.” With a mischievous grin, he tapped his fingers on the table. “Now, let’s get this table set before my mother catches us slacking.”

  “I’d been looking forward to meeting you, Max,” she said as Max stood. “Hannah said no one knows Paul like you do, and I wanted very much to talk to you about him. He saved my life, but I was never able to thank him properly.”

  “Paul is a good man. He is very fond of you.”

  Judith bent to pick up the cutlery still scattered on the carpet. “I’m being silly, I know, but I’d do just about anything to speak to him. Does he know I’m here? Before leaving Berlin, your father urged me not to tell Paul he was helping me to get out of Germany. He thought Paul would be safer if he didn’t get involved.”

  Max felt his nerves sparking again with yet another conversation about his brother. For days, he’d done nothing but think and talk about Paul, imagining where he was and if he were in trouble. What he needed was time to think about something else, perhaps his own life and where he was headed. That was a novel idea. “I don’t know what Paul knows. It’s possible we won’t hear from him again until this terrible business in Europe is over.”

  “Oh, I see.” Judith gave him a sidelong glance then continued laying the table. “I thought I might write to him. I was very happy when your father told me in London that he’d got married. She’s a very lucky woman, whoever she is. I’d like to congratulate him, but your mother doesn’t think I should send mail to Germany. What do you think?”

  “I think my mother is right. Paul is in the Wehrmacht, and is what we would call behind enemy lines. We might be able to get a letter through to him via the Red Cross, but because of who we are and what we do for Britain, any personal communication could throw suspicion on him. It’s very hard on my family, not being able to get in touch with him, or my other brother, Wilmot. But they are enemy soldiers…”

  “Yes, I understand. Your mother explained that to me, and your father also told me that he was supposed to be dead.” She shook her head. “That was the first thing he said when I met him again in London. He was worried that I might mention his name to other Germans. I should have known I couldn’t reach Paul, but I thought I would ask.”

  Max studied the graceful curve of Judith’s neck as she delicately laid forks and spoons beside the knives. He hoped that was the end of the conversation for the moment. He still had dinner to get through with his mother and sister who would talk incessantly about Paul and Wilmot. Frank had warned him in the car to smile and say he didn’t know anything about Willie’s whereabouts or Paul’s ongoing drama in Paris. Frank had also remarked that, after seeing the devastation left by the Luftwaffe in London, Laura was finding it difficult to accept that her other two sons were enemies of Britain.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Vogels

  Dinner was eaten at five thirty, much earlier than the Vogels were accustomed to having their evening meal in the south. It was dark in Scotland at three o’clock in the afternoon, and days at the training school began at 6am most mornings, meaning Frank went to bed at around nine thirty or ten o’clock most evenings.

  While Laura, Hannah, and Judith were in the kitchen serving up, Max and Frank discussed Judith’s situation.

  “… it was your father’s idea to send Judith up here to Hannah. He wanted us to gauge her character and state of mind,” Frank said.

  “Where was she before Scotland?” Max asked.

  “Billeted as a refugee with an English family in Croydon. Dieter told me that Judith didn’t settle in well at all. She didn’t speak a word of English, and she was desperately unhappy when your father and Heller went to visit her the day after your dad’s arrival in Britain.

  A while later, Max and Frank turned their attention to the vote in the United States Senate on whether to allow merchantmen to be armed and permit U.S. ships to enter combat zones.

  “Were you surprised when the bill passed?” Frank asked Max.

  “Yes, and delighted. The American ships will bolster the supply of food and arms reaching Britain. That, and the failure of Hitler’s crazy plan to draw Britain and the United States into a coalition to destroy the Soviet Union, has cheered me up no end.”

  Laura, who had apparently heard some of the men’s conversation, became emotional when she gave Max and Frank their dinners of minced beef, neeps and tatties. “Hannah and I were talking about the Soviets before you two arrived. We were discussing what the Germans did to that Soviet ship. Did you hear about it, Max?”

  “Yes, it was in all the newspapers, Mother. I have no love for the Soviets, but the Germans shouldn’t get away with that massacre. They must have known the Armenia was a hospital ship from the big crosses on her sides and deck.”

  “Ah, but she also had light anti-aircraft armament, and it’s widely reported that she’d previously transported troops and military stores,” Frank informed Max.

  “What’s the latest on how many died? The radio said it was in the thousands,” Hannah said.

  “It was, darling, and I suspect not just one or two thousand,” Frank answered.

  “My God!” Hannah rushed to translate for Judith.

  “I hate Nazis. They don’t care about people’s lives unless they’re Aryan. They like killing those who can’t defend themselves,” Judith blurted out in German.

  “I hope those responsible for atrocities get strung up when this is all over,” Hannah grumbled in English.

  “Be careful of what you wish for, dear,” said Frank. “All Nations involved in this conflict will have blood on their hands when it’s over. One of the biggest curses of war is collateral damage. Ask the civilians in London who have lost entire families and homes, and those in Germany who will lose loved ones when our bombers hit Berlin hard. We will be the ones they call blood-soaked savages.”

  “I know that, Frank, but I’d like to think that the British would draw a line at sinking ships treating wounded soldiers, and with women on board … nurses for goodness sake. It’s appalling.”

  “Our newspapers will tell a different story to the one Herr Goebbels’ propaganda machine put out about the Russian ship,” Max said to no one in particular. “They won’t tell the German people they sunk a hospital ship. They’ll say their bombers acted to protect their ships from an enemy weapons-carrying vessel.”

  “That’s if the story gets out at all in Germany. Goebbels has sunk independent journalism,” Frank added.

  Max flicked his eyes towards his mother; he could feel her intense gaze on him. “What’s wrong, Mother?”

  “Darling, I hate to interrupt this conversation, but I’m worried sick about your father. I haven’t heard from him in three days. I don’t know what to do. I can’t believe he would put me through this again after everything that’s happened.”

  “What’s he putting you through now?
”

  “Keeping me in the dark as usual, driving me mad not knowing what he’s up to. God forbid he’s in trouble again and I don’t know about it. I’m still not over what he did in Germany. Thinking he was dead, and then … oh, Max, I don’t think I’ll ever be right again … the grief of burying your father, then discovering he’s alive, and now wondering if I’ll lose him a second time …. I can’t deal with this anymore.”

  Max wanted to hold his tearful mother in his arms. She looked lost, and it was breaking his heart. He understood what she was feeling more than anyone else in the family. “I was going to leave this news until after dinner, but you might as well know now…”

  “Oh, dear God, what’s happened, Max? I can’t bear it!”

  “Nothing. Mother, it’s good news.” Max laid his knife and fork on his plate and reached for her hand. Jonathan Heller had sent Dieter to Bletchley Park to attend the Government Code and Cypher School, and to remain there afterwards in the German codebreaking section. He couldn’t tell his mother that Bletchley was in Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, or what went on there, but he had been given permission to escort her back to England and take her to his father.

  “Father has been given a government job. It’s not in London or Kent, but it is in England. He wants you to join him.”

  “Oh, Laura, that’s very good news, isn’t it?” Frank said.

  “Yes, but, where will I be going?”

  “I’ll be able to tell you more en route, Mother. But I know you’ll love it. Father’s already arranged for a cottage in a village near where he’ll be working. And you can stay with him for as long as he’s there, which might very well be for the duration of the war.” Max, who had tried to tell her without being hit by a barrage of questions, stopped talking as Laura’s eyes welled up again. “Come on, Mummy, please don’t cry. I know you’ll have to leave Aunt Cathy in Kent and Hannah again, but at least you’ll be with Papa.”

  “I’m not upset, dear … goodness, no, I’m happy. I hated the thought of him being stuck at home with nothing to do all day. It would have driven him mad and me along with him. But I disliked the thought of him leaving me even more.” Laura, smiling through her tears, shook her head and produced a lacy handkerchief from her sleeve. She dabbed her eyes as she lifted her water glass. “Cheers everyone. This has made my day.”

  “Max, will your nephew and I be able to visit Mummy and Daddy?” Hannah asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You might not be allowed to go to near the place,” Frank said, without giving a reason. “And to be honest, darling, I’d prefer it if you didn’t go back to England at all. You and Jack are both safer up here.”

  Max agreed. “Frank’s right, Hannah. Mother and Father will be using assumed names for their own protection, and we’ll all have to be very careful if we’re seen with them.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Max, you can’t think all this cloak and dagger nonsense is necessary?” said Laura, turning on a sixpence. “As far as Freddie Biermann and the Nazis know, your father is lying in his grave in Berlin.”

  “That’s true, but the Abwehr might have spies or sympathisers in Britain who look for information that the Nazis would be happy to pay for. Father’s face was often in the German newspapers. He was seen at Nazi functions and was photographed with ministers in the Chancellery. It would only take one German agent to spot him and report back with the scoop. And, it’s not only father we have to worry about, it’s what the Abwehr would do to Paul and Willie by association if it were to be found that their father was alive and working for the British.”

  “Honestly, sometimes I think you make this stuff up,” said Hannah, scowling at Max. “If they think he’s dead in Germany, why would they be spotting him anywhere? I’m with Mummy – it’s all nonsense if you ask me.”

  “I’m not asking you!” Max snapped. “I’m sorry, but you don’t seem to understand how serious this situation could become.”

  “I’m not stupid, Max. I lived under Hitler’s rule as well as you and Paul and Willie. I know what the Nazis are like, but if Papa’s dead to them, he’s dead, full stop!”

  “Dear, we all know what your father did, but you should listen to your brother. He knows what he’s talking about,” Laura said, trying to calm the situation.

  “Your mother will manage the odd trip up here, darling.” Frank tried his best to appease his wife. “Won’t you, Laura?”

  Hannah was on the verge of tears. Judith, lost in the hurried and heated English conversation, focused on the neeps on her plate.

  “Finally, we’re in the same country and we can’t even spend time together. It’s not fair,” said Hannah through clenched teeth.

  “I know, darling, and it’s not fair that we can’t see Willie and Paul either. It could be years.”

  A brief silence ensued with Hannah looking embarrassed, and when she finally spoke it was with a more conciliatory tone. “We’ll just have to put up and shut up, I suppose.”

  “Yes, we will. Just like all the other families who watch their sons and brothers go off to war,” Laura said. “I remember the Great War, not knowing if your father and my two brothers would ever come back. No one came home every five minutes on leave, not like our lot.”

  “To be fair, Mother, the army wouldn’t have come home this time if they hadn’t been pushed off those beaches in Dunkirk,” Max reminded her.

  “I’ll never forget that day in 1917, when my mother found out that my twin brothers had died,” said Laura, completely missing Max’s point.

  “You never talk about them. Did they die together?” Hannah asked.

  “No. They weren’t even serving in the same battalions. John was at the Somme, and Paul, after whom your brother is named, was in North Africa. They died three weeks apart, but we got the notifications the same week.” Laura sniffed again. “Hannah, darling, we’re very lucky to be sitting around this table together, and to have Judith with us. I’ll come back to see you whenever I can. War or no war, I won’t be kept from you and my grandson.”

  Laura perked up as the conversation returned to Dieter’s secret posting. “My goodness, it must be a very quiet place if no one knows about it. I’ll get plenty of reading done, I suppose. Oh, I’m very excited about seeing him. Hannah, I think I’ll take him some of that delicious shortbread we found yesterday.”

  Max was content to listen to the conversation going on around him. Judith, coming out of her shell, showed off what little English she’d learnt and seemed to be quite at home with her hosts. His mother, talking non-stop now she’d absorbed the good news, was convinced she wouldn’t be able to sleep.

  The longevity of his parents’ love for each other never ceased to amaze Max. They were still crazy for each other after more than three decades, and under some trying circumstances. His father wasn’t a charmer, nor had he been an overly attentive husband. He’d always put work first, yet after years of hard slog he’d decided to lie to his wife, and up and leave his business in the hands of his somewhat clumsy brother-in-law. His sister’s husband, though a loyal foreman in the Berlin factory for years, was a labourer at heart with no diplomatic skills or experience in dealing with Germany’s business community, or what was left of it. What did it matter? Max thought. The factories and everything in them would probably be sequestered by the Nazis for the good of the Fatherland or blown to smithereens by the Allies. His mother was laughing now, her upset gone. He couldn’t help but admire her; she was the strongest and most forgiving woman he’d ever known.

  “… no, really, I’m not worried about leaving my homes in Germany unattended when there’s so much more to deal with here,” Laura was saying to Frank, as though she’d read Max’s thoughts. “I was much more upset about having to leave Paul and Willie behind, and Kurt as well, although I could never seem to get to the bottom of that man.”

  “But Paul and Wilmot weren’t there,” Hannah reminded her.

  “That’s true, dear, but I still felt I was aba
ndoning them. That’s why I retained Kurt’s services. He’ll make sure everything in the Berlin house is just as it should be for when the boys go home for leave.”

  “Forever the optimist, eh, Laura,” said Frank.

  As Max listened to Laura, now telling Judith about how she’d met up with Dieter in London and had nearly died of shock, his thoughts drifted to Klara. Months ago, he might have aspired to have something like his parent’s long-lasting love with her. He had imagined it often, until traumatic events had smashed his feelings to pulp – a hurdle called Paul had been taller than all the other obstacles he and Klara had faced – he wasn’t sure he even wanted to see her again.

  “Don’t keep Frank up too late, Max. He has to be up early,” Hannah called out as she followed Laura and Judith up the stairs to bed.

  The two men were drinking tea from floral patterned cups and eating Laura’s homemade chocolate cake, a real treat for Max.

  “I have to say, Max, I was shocked when your mother told me about what your father had been up to in Germany. It was a courageous thing to do, but I can’t imagine me ever letting Hannah think I was dead. If I’m honest, I think it was rather cruel of him.” Frank held Max’s eyes. “Is he the only reason you’re here, or is there a more sinister one?”

  Max sighed. “There is something I wanted to run by you.” Finally, he could talk to someone who understood him better than anyone, better even than his twin, it seemed.

  “Wait, let me pour you a real drink.” Frank went to the sideboard and brought out a half bottle of Scotch and two glasses.

  Max accepted one but then looked at the clock and saw it was almost midnight. “Sorry, Frank. I’m keeping you up.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I have an easy day tomorrow. My pupils are on the firing range with my sergeant in the morning and then off for an overnight hike in the highlands. I’ve got a test to mark, but I’ll knock off early. Do you want to meet me for a drink around two o’clock?”