The Berlin Affair by David Boyle

Author:David Boyle [Boyle, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Quill
Published: 2018-03-06T22:00:00+00:00

7

Berlin, July 1940

When Stumpf referred to her clandestine meeting by the elephants, Xanthe had no guilty conscience, but she also knew all too well that she had something to hide. What she did not know was whether Stumpf actually knew anything or whether he was just supposing. A cold feeling ran down her neck. She reassured herself by reminding herself that he was having her followed – as he clearly was – on the off-chance of finding something on her. She tried hard to ignore it. Any reply, beyond a kind of interrogative look, would simply confirm his suspicions.

“My conscience is pretty clear,” she said, challengingly. “I’m just asking you not to paw me during the play.”

“Listen, Fraulein Schneider,” said Stumpf suddenly, and rather too close to her face. “You may have reason to be extremely grateful to me, and if you don’t realise that, then you may find yourself in a rather – how do you say it in English? – sticky situation.”

“Now,” he said, drawing himself up again and changing the expression on his face. “Let me give you another chance – let us both give each other another chance, yes? I fear the play left something to be desired – perhaps we could try again next week. I am free, as it happens, on Saturday night, and this time, let it be just the two of us.”

*

“What should I do about Stumpf?” she asked Ralph over tea the next day – Ralph insisted on tea in the English upper class style. It was not a familiar meal in Berlin, any more than it was in Cincinnati. “He doesn’t seem to have any, well, inhibitions. But I don’t want to cross him – and you clearly don’t want to either. But equally I don’t trust him, and I don’t like the way he touches me the whole time, as if he was sort of – treating me like Poland, I suppose. I mean, who does he think he is?”

Ralph smiled. “Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about Stumpf, either of us. He isn’t nearly as important as he thinks he is. I think he’ll just calm down in the end – but I agree that it makes no sense to irritate the man. Can’t you just go to the theatre with him and then beat a hasty retreat?”

“I don’t know. He’s beginning to give me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Hah! I know what you mean.” He looked thoughtful, as well he might; she stared at him, and not for the first time, wondered what kind of game he was playing. “I tell you what. I will run into you after the play and tag along. It will annoy him intensely, but I’d like to look after you.”

It was said with a kind of sincerity that she had barely heard from him before. She felt pathetically grateful.

“The thing about Stumpf is that he has so little role, you know,” said Ralph. “All that uniform, that liaison position between the Propaganda Ministry and the navy, it is what he makes of it.

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