The Girl on the Platform by Ellie Midwood

Author:Ellie Midwood [Midwood, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“A sanatorium?” Wend looked at his nephew with interest. “That’s a grand idea.”

“Libertas’ idea.” Harro smiled warmly at his wife.

They sat in a restaurant frequented by the top military brass, where the orchestra was attired in tails and the waiters wore Party members badges. Libertas had offered Harro to politely decline her uncle’s invitation, but Harro suggested they trooped through it. Wend had implied that Göring could attend. Who knew what military secrets Herr Reichsmarschall would blurt out if well-lubricated with imported brandy?

But Göring had other affairs that required his attention, and so, it was his replacement, Nicolaus von Below—Hitler’s Luftwaffe adjutant and Harro’s superior—who stared daggers through the newly promoted officer as he sat framed by Wend on one side and a rosy-cheeked pilot from the Condor Legion on the other. It was von Below, a dedicated Nazi, who was behind Harro’s trouble getting a promotion. He didn’t trust the former editor of a liberal newspaper and didn’t conceal that fact. Only Göring’s personal intervention had made Harro’s career move forward. As far as von Below was concerned, Harro belonged in a concentration camp, not in the Air Ministry, and certainly not in its Foreign Air Forces recently combined with the Operations department with too much sensitive information exchanged freely among its officers.

Wend had informed Harro about his superior’s attitude, chuckling in a conspiratorial manner as though he found the matter positively amusing.

“Ignore that Pale Templar,” he had advised Harro with a nonchalant sweep of the hand as they drove to the restaurant. “He sees conspiracies everywhere. I won’t be surprised if he accuses me of being a foreign spy one day.”

To Libertas, however, such a dismissive attitude spelled danger. She remembered far too well how things ended for the SA leader Röhm after someone had whispered a similar conspiracy into Hitler’s ear, implying that Röhm was plotting against him when it was very much not the case. To Libertas, no conspiracies were harmless, and particularly those spread by people like von Below, who had Hitler’s ear.

She poked her crab cake without much appetite, her back stiff with tension and a charming smile plastered onto her face, ready to come to her husband’s aid at any moment.

“You have troubles with kidney stones too?” the pilot, whose name kept escaping Libertas, straightened in his chair, a piece of asparagus forgotten on his fork. “Please, do let me know if the treatment helps you on your return. I have developed quite a few stones myself after drinking bad water in Spain. Too much calcium, the garrison physician said. And the black pepper those bastards put on everything—excuse my language, please,” he quickly apologized to Libertas, his hand pressed to his chest. “That did a number on my kidneys too.”

“I ought to thank the SS for awarding me with mine,” Harro replied casually, eyes trained on a veal cutlet he was presently cutting.

In his seat, von Below pulled himself up visibly.

Under the table, Libertas nudged Harro’s boot with the tip of her shoe.

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