Pegasus: A Novel

by Danielle Steel

  Chapter 3

  The days after Paul told Nick that he had to leave ran into each other with endless stress and a constant undercurrent of shock and fear. Nick still couldn’t believe what was happening, Paul spent his days writing letters to people he barely knew in America, hoping to find a sponsor and a job for his son, and explaining their plight to anyone who would listen.

  Lucas was oblivious to the tension surrounding them, but Tobias picked up on it quickly and asked his father what was wrong. It was one of the most painful moments in Nick’s life to explain to his son what was happening, and why they had to leave their home. It made no sense to any of them.

  After bursting into tears and saying he wouldn’t go, Tobias took off on his bike to tell Marianne. She was just leaving the stables when he found her. She had been watching her father train Pluto, and was over her flu by then, although she still had a bad cough, and she had a red scarf wrapped around her neck. And the moment she saw Toby, she knew he’d been crying, and she was afraid that something terrible had happened. Her father had said nothing to her about what the von Bingens were facing. He didn’t want to tell her until the boys knew and they knew where they were going, which would be something concrete, rather than the raw terror that was seizing Nick and his father at the moment. Their worst fear was that no one would help them, and that Nick and the boys would wind up in a labor camp after all. Their days of freedom were numbered, and time was racing. If they were going to get out of Germany, they had to find something soon.

  “We’re leaving!” Tobias shouted, as he threw down his bicycle, untangled his long adolescent legs, and ran toward her.

  “Leaving for where?” She looked startled and uneasy, and the devastation on his face frightened her immediately. His eyes were filled with tears.

  “We don’t know yet. But it’s going to be soon. America maybe, or England. Papa and Opa are working on it. Papa’s mother was half Jewish, and she isn’t dead after all. She went away somewhere, and they got divorced,” he said in a conspiratorial tone. “And now we have to leave because they think we’re Jewish too.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” Marianne tried to dismiss what he was saying as she stared at him. He was as tall as she was, and she could see that he was shaking, from fear and shock at what he’d been told, as much as from the cold wind that swept her white blond hair across her face. “You’re not Jewish. Who said you have to go, and go where?”

  “The Reich says we’re Jewish, even if only a little bit. Because of Papa’s mother, and he’s never even seen her. She left when he was born and gave him to Opa. Papa just told me. I won’t go,” Tobias said, frightened. “I want to stay here. This is our home.” He burst into tears, and she reached out and put her arms around him and held him close as she began to cry too. “Papa said if we don’t go, they’ll take us away somewhere. Maybe a labor camp. I don’t want that to happen either.”

  “Does Lucas know?” she asked, instantly worried. They were like her brothers. She knew that Tobias had a crush on her, but she paid no attention to it. He was just a child to her, even though he was only two years younger. But at seventeen and fifteen, it made a difference. A big one.

  “He’s too little. We can’t tell him.” He echoed what his father had said. “Papa has to find a sponsor and a job.”

  “What kind of job?” She was shocked at the idea, as well as everything else Tobias had just told her.

  “I don’t know.” He was confused.

  “What can he do?” She looked surprised, as she led Toby to the house to get them both out of the chill wind.

  “I don’t know,” Toby said, as they walked into the drafty main hall, with ancestral portraits lining the walls. He followed her to the kitchen, where she asked for hot chocolate for both of them, and then took him upstairs to her father’s study since he was out. It was a cozy book-lined room, with a fire burning in the grate for when her father would come back from the stables. It was her favorite room in the vast, drafty house. The larger rooms were hard to keep heated in the winter, but this one was always warm and inviting, especially when her father was in it. She loved sitting and talking with him here. And Tobias liked it too.

  “This all sounds crazy,” Marianne said sensibly, unable to believe his story, or the dire implications of it for them. “Are you sure you have to leave? Why would they send you away? Your father’s not a common thief.”

  “Of course not, but they think he’s a Jew.” Tobias appeared desperate as he said it.

  “Are they sending Jews to labor camps?” Marianne looked horrified, as though she didn’t believe him.

  “A general who is a friend of Opa’s came to warn him. He’s the one who said we had to leave, or they’ll take us away.” Marianne was pale, and her hands were shaking when Marta brought the tray in, with a cup of hot chocolate for each of them. Marta could see that they were upset about something and left quietly, sure that it was an argument of some kind between them and they’d work it out. They always did. They had been squabbling as children for years. Marianne usually won because she was older, and Tobias was still a child in many ways. Marianne was growing up, particularly in the last year, and Marta thought she was as beautiful as her mother had been, perhaps even more so, and she had her father’s spirit.

  “This all sounds like a crazy story to me,” Marianne said with determination, as they sipped their hot chocolate. She didn’t want to believe what he’d told her, but the terror in Toby’s eyes told her it might just be true, unless he had misread the seriousness of the situation and thought it was worse than it really was. She hoped so. “Does my father know?” she asked him.

  “I don’t know. Papa didn’t tell me,” Toby answered, and as though they had conjured him up, her father walked into the room. Marta had told Alex they were in his study, and she appeared shortly afterward with a tea tray for him. He helped himself to a cup of tea, and looked at both children with a serious expression.

  “What’s going on here, you two?” He wasn’t sure if they’d had an argument, or if Toby had told her the news, if Toby even knew it himself yet. Nick had said he wouldn’t tell his boys until he was sure where they were going, and he wasn’t yet. Nick had told Alex that himself.

  “We’re leaving,” Toby said sadly, and told him the same story he had told Marianne minutes before. Alex nodded, and they could both see he already knew.

  “Your father told me a few days ago,” he said quietly. “That is very, very bad news, for all of us,” he said. And the way he said it told Marianne that it was true, and tears filled her eyes immediately.

  “How is that possible, Papa?” she asked him in a choked voice. “Why are they sending Jews to labor camps? And the von Bingens aren’t Jewish.”

  “Nick and the boys are part Jewish, it turns out. And apparently that’s all the Reich needs to hear. They have been slowly banishing them from our society for the past five years. They seem to want all Jews isolated from the rest of us, or out of Germany, or confined in camps if possible. Toby’s right, they have to leave. And very soon too. His father and grandfather are working very hard on it.” He had sent off several letters himself, but had no responses yet. “I’m very sorry, Toby. I’m sure your father will find a solution. It’s just hard not knowing where it will be.”

  “Can we go to visit them?” Marianne asked quietly. It was the worst news she’d had since her father told her that Toby’s mother and sister died five years before. She remembered it perfectly. She had been very fond of Toby’s mother, and very sad when she died, and equally so about his little sister.

  “It depends where they are,” Alex said honestly, “but we’ll certainly try.” Marianne and Toby exchanged a look then, which said everything they felt about being separated. Toby couldn’t bear the thought of yet another important loss in his life, not only his dearest friends but his home too. And he didn’t want to leave his grandfather behind, but he and Toby’s father had said that his grandfather had to stay. They didn’t want to lea
ve their ancestral seat unattended with all the upheaval going on, even if the schloss was far from any city. It was hard to say what would happen now.

  They talked for a long time, and Marta brought them more hot chocolate and tea, and some freshly baked biscuits. It made Marianne suddenly realize that her friends might not be living this way anymore, and she was grateful that she and her father didn’t have to leave too. And after a while, Alex offered to drive Toby home, but he said he’d be fine on his bicycle and left a few minutes later, after kissing Marianne on the cheek. She thought of him more than ever like a little brother when he did it, and not the man he wanted to be.

  “That’s an awful story, Papa,” she said sadly, still unable to believe that it was true. She was shocked by everything she’d heard that afternoon. It was truly inconceivable.

  “Yes, it is. I don’t know what they’re going to do. It’s not so easy to pull a job out of a hat, and a whole new life, in a matter of weeks. It takes time to organize, and that’s the one thing they don’t have.”

  “And if they get sent to a camp?” she asked, holding her breath.

  “They’ll have to be very brave and survive it,” he said matter-of-factly, trying to convince her that they’d be okay, but he didn’t believe that himself, not by a long shot. He thought Nick and the boys should leave Germany as soon as they could, but for now they still had nowhere to go.

  He and Marianne talked about it all through dinner, and Marianne thought she could detect a small smirk of disapproval on Marta’s face when she heard that Nick and the boys were part Jewish, and then she left the room to tend to her duties in the kitchen.

  Marianne thought about them all night, and finally slept fitfully, and in his room, Alex was still awake when he heard the birds begin singing the next morning, while it was still dark. But he sat bolt upright in bed then. He had an idea. He got up, dressed quickly, and hurried downstairs to grab a coat and his car keys, then rushed to the garage, to drive his Hispano-Suiza over to the von Bingens. He used the big brass knocker to pound on the door, and their head housekeeper appeared a moment later. Alex asked to see Nick immediately and was told he wasn’t up yet, and then she reluctantly agreed to check. Nick appeared a few minutes later, wearing a silk dressing gown open over his pajamas and slippers. He was surprised to see Alex pacing in his front hall, as though he had come to make some kind of announcement, which was the case.

  “I have an idea, and I think it will work,” Alex said excitedly. He didn’t want Nick to leave, but under the circumstances, it was their only hope. And with the risk of being sent to a labor camp, he didn’t want them to stay either.

  “Why are you here so early?” Nick asked with a pained look, as he tied the belt of the dressing gown. He had been up until two, but no great ideas had come to him.

  “I’ll give you two of my Lipizzaners, and some Arabians. All we have to do is contact a circus, and ask them to give you a job and sponsor you. And with eight horses, two of them Lipizzaners, I’m sure they would.” Nick looked at him in disbelief and burst out laughing. He laughed so hard he nearly cried, and then he had to sit down. He rang for coffee for both of them, and looked at his friend.

  “You’re crazy, but I love you, Alex. I can’t join a circus, for God’s sake, no matter how fabulous your horses are. I can’t do a circus act. You’re the horse trainer, not I. And I can’t take your horses. And not the Lipizzaners surely. No circus would hire me. I’d have no idea what I was doing.”

  “I can teach you. And the Lipizzaners know their job. All you have to do is guide them through it, by voice command. Leave the hard part to them. You can ride one of the Arabians and gallop around the ring. Nick, you’re one of the best horsemen I know. And you can do it, if it will save you and the boys.” Alex saw it as their only way out.

  “I can’t join a circus,” Nick said. “What would I do there?” He looked horrified, but Alex was determined.

  “You’d be saving your sons, and yourself, from disaster here. The situation for Jews is getting worse not better, and your father’s friend said they have a file on you. What choice do you have?” Nick didn’t answer for a long moment as he thought about it, and then he nodded, and looked at Alex. Everything his friend had said was true.

  “I can’t take your horses. Eight of them, and two of them Lipizzaners. If I do it, I’ll pay you before I go.”

  “I won’t take your money. You’re like a brother. If the circus will take you, they’re a gift from me.”

  “I can’t do that,” Nick said firmly, and then he grew pensive again. “How would I find a circus from here?”

  “There is one called Ringling Brothers. I’ve read about it. I think they merged with another circus, and they’re based in Florida. We can call the embassy in Berlin and ask.”

  “They’ll think we’re crazy,” Nick said, smiling. He was beginning to feel hopeful, even though he still thought it was a crazy idea, and probably wouldn’t work. Circuses didn’t just hire men with horses to perform a circus act they didn’t know how to do. It sounded farfetched to him. But they called the embassy later that morning, and they were given the address of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Florida. It was based there for the winter before it went on tour. The woman at the embassy knew all about them, and Nick didn’t tell her why he wanted to contact them. He was afraid she’d think he was crazy too.

  Nick and Alex drafted a letter then, asking them to hire and sponsor him, with a description of the horses he could bring with him, and explaining the documentation he needed from them. They drove to the post office to mail it, and then they went to the manor house to tell Paul what they’d done. He thought it was an intriguing idea, although he insisted on paying Alex, too, if it worked. Nick would be taking some of his best horses. And Alex said he had an old railroad car they could use for the ship to transport them. He was even beginning to convince Nick as they discussed the plan. Nick wanted to go riding after that, but Alex wouldn’t let him. He said they had work to do.

  “What kind of work? Do you want to look at your forest land again?” Nick liked that idea too. It would distract him and get his mind off his problems.

  “You have a circus act to learn, my friend,” Alex said in a stern tone, “and after we teach you what you need to know, we’ll work with the boys.” Nick could see he was dead serious, and this time he didn’t laugh. They drove back to Schloss Altenberg, and Alex pushed him hard all afternoon, showing him how to work the Lipizzaners, and how to direct them by voice commands. And then he had him ride Pluto around the ring, again and again, taking the big white stallion through his paces and everything he knew how to do. And then he had him work with Nina, the Lipizzaner mare, and an Arabian stallion.

  “Your horses are a lot smarter than I am,” Nick said finally. “I keep forgetting what to do. They don’t.” They were impeccably trained.

  “They’ll remind you. They’re smarter than I am sometimes too.” Alex had done nothing but instruct him, with infinite patience, all afternoon in his style and their liberty commands. And he made Nick repeat what he learned again and again. He was a hard taskmaster, and incredibly patient, and Nick was impressed.

  It was an arduous week in Alex’s hands. He was relentless in his training of Nick, teaching him how to work as one with the horses, and then he included the boys. Responses to Paul’s letters began to drift in, all of them negative. No one had a job for Nick or felt they could sponsor him and the boys. Their only hope now was the circus, and as they waited for an answer, Alex continued to work with Nick and the boys. Paul came to see them in the stables several times, and was impressed by what he saw, and Marianne came every day after school to watch them. They looked very professional to her by then. Toby was still a little shy, but Lucas was irresistible and a natural. He rode one of the Lipizzaners bareback, and Alex taught him how to leap from one to the other, and both the mare and the stallion were willing to let him do that. If the circus hired them, Alex was going to give t
hem Pluto, and the mare called Nina. She was ten years old, but beautifully trained and a steady ride. And he had already handpicked six Arabians for them, all from his best stock. He insisted that he could spare them, and that he had so many horses that he would hardly notice. But Nick knew that Pluto had been promised to the Spanish Riding School, and Alex would have a hard time replacing him. And Alex persisted in refusing to be paid.

  A full two weeks after Nick had sent the circus the letter, he finally got a response. Nick’s hands were trembling as he tore open the envelope in front of Alex and his father and read what they said. There was dead silence. Alex was afraid that they had turned him down. It had been almost three weeks since the general’s visit, and the threat of labor camp, or worse, was becoming more real by the day. Ringling Brothers was their last hope. Nick met Alex’s eyes when he put down the letter, and there were tears in his eyes as Alex gently touched his arm to console him.

  “My God, they want us,” he whispered, “it’s all here. Everything we need. They’re even going to post bond for us. We can leave.” The tears rolled down his cheeks then, and Alex gave him a hug, let out a war whoop, and they could see that Paul was crying too. It was both happy and bitter news. With luck, they could avoid being sent to hard labor, but it meant they were leaving Germany forever, and it had to be very soon. Time was running out.