A Season of Secrets (65 page)

‘But the risks!’ Olivia grasped hold of Judith’s hand tightly. ‘If anything should go wrong . . .’ She couldn’t finish the sentence, because if anything were
to go wrong it would be Sachsenhausen concentration camp for Judith – and maybe even for herself.

Dieter said gravely, ‘The risks of not following Violet’s suggestion are greater than those of following them, Olivia. Unless Judith has documentation to leave the country and enter
Britain by the time I leave Germany, she will be arrested when the Gestapo arrive at the house searching for me. When it is discovered how short a time it is since she left Vienna, and how I
immediately gave her employment here as a maid, it will be assumed that she, too, is somehow part of the conspiracy, or that at the very least she knows about it. And so she will be taken to
Gestapo headquarters for questioning.’

He didn’t have to spell out what that kind of questioning would entail.

His eyes held Judith’s. ‘The decision is yours, Judith. It’s one you have to make for yourself.’

‘I prefer the first risk.’ Her voice was steady. She looked towards Violet. ‘But it will leave you without a passport, Violet. When you need to leave the country, how will you
do so?’

‘Don’t worry about me. The US Embassy owes me a very great favour. When it is time for me to leave, I’ll have an American passport.’

‘Then that’s it!’ Dieter looked down at his watch. It was just after midnight. Thanks to Violet, in less than an hour all the major decisions that had to be made had been
taken. ‘You and Judith will leave by train for Paris tomorrow,’ he said to Olivia. ‘Judith, give your identity card to Violet. You mustn’t have it on you. You are Violet
Fenton from now on, not Judith Zimmermann. Olivia, the minute you are out of the country, telephone me saying you are having a wonderful shopping trip. Say nothing else. Then, knowing you are safe,
when I have done all that needs to be done in Berlin, I will join you.’

‘What about our things?’ The magnitude of what such a flight entailed was almost more than Olivia could comprehend. ‘What will happen to all our clothes? To my jewellery? What
will happen to the house and all our furniture?’

‘I think it’s safe to say that the house and furniture will be appropriated, as Judith’s family home and furniture were appropriated. Clothes don’t matter,
Liebchen.
Jewellery . . .’ He paused, looking towards Violet. ‘I think that even on a shopping trip to Paris, Countess von Starhemberg would be expected to have a jewellery-case
with her, don’t you, Violet? And as Judith will be travelling as Violet Fenton, the famous movie actress, then surely she would also have a jewellery-case with her?’

Violet nodded, knowing better than anyone that extravagance of all kinds was taken as normal behaviour where movie stars were concerned. ‘It’s also important that Judith is wearing a
lavish fur – so that will be two fur coats out of your wardrobe, Olivia. Not just one.’

‘Good.’ Olivia’s sincerity was deep. ‘That means I’ll get to keep both my sable and my mink.’

Despite the gravity of the situation, amusement twitched at the corners of Judith’s mouth. ‘I’ve dreamed of stepping on English soil for months and months, but I never dreamed
I’d be doing so as a movie star, wearing a fur and carrying a jewellery-case!’

Violet laughed, aware that someone who could keep a sense of humour at such a time was someone she could become very good friends with. ‘You’re going to look wonderful. When I return
with the wig, I’ll come with my make-up box as well. By the time I have made you up, not even my father would be able to tell the difference between us.’

Olivia’s thoughts were now focused entirely on Dieter. ‘When you leave, darling, will you leave as Judith and I are leaving? Will you take the train to Paris, and then to
Calais?’

He shook his head. ‘No. Leaving Berlin to join you in Paris would set all sorts of alarm bells ringing. I’ll seek an excuse to travel to Munich, and then I’ll shake off
whatever surveillance I am under, cross into Switzerland and from there into France. My journey to England will take a little longer than yours,
Liebchen
, but we will be together again
before too long.’

Olivia stifled the sobs of anxiety that were rising in her throat. Dieter was making his escape sound easy and danger-free, but she knew it was going to be neither. She also knew that, without
Violet, there would have been no chance of escape for him; that within weeks, perhaps within days, he would have been arrested by the Gestapo and, along with everyone else known to be in the
conspiracy plot, executed.

When Violet rose to leave, Olivia hugged her tightly, tears of gratitude and love on her cheeks. ‘Promise me that as soon as you have a passport you’ll leave Berlin,’ she said
fiercely. ‘Promise me, Vi.’

Violet hugged her back. ‘I’ll be leaving just as soon as I’ve tidied up a loose end that needs tidying. There’s nothing I want more than to be at Gorton again, with you,
Papa, Thea, Roz and Carrie.’

‘And Dieter and Judith.’

‘And Dieter and Judith,’ Violet said, wondering just when Dieter would tell her about the future he was planning for them both in southern Ireland.

Olivia gave a shaky smile. ‘That’s good. That makes me feel much better. Now I can set about doing what has to be done.’

‘Which is?’

‘Working out how many of my favourite dresses can be squeezed into two weekend cases.’

JANUARY 1939

Judith was walking across Grosvenor Square en route to Claridge’s, where she was meeting her mother for lunch. Left to her own devices, she would have preferred to be
heading towards the Corner House at Marble Arch, which was Thea’s favourite eatery when meeting up with her socialist friends. Zephiniah, though, would not have been seen dead in a Lyons
Corner House, and Judith, though she didn’t share the same scruples, would never have asked it of her.

At the thought of Zephiniah, love, amusement and exasperation flooded through her. Her mother had not been at all the kind of person she had imagined her to be. For one thing, she wasn’t
happily married to Gilbert. She was newly divorced from him and intent on marrying an Argentinian, Roberto Di Stéfano.

‘I’ve been in love with Roberto for years,’ she had said with startling frankness when Judith had asked about him. ‘From well before I met and married Gilbert –
though we weren’t still having an affair when I met Gilbert. Our affair began again later, when we met by accident in the casino at Aix-les-Bains.’

On her fraught-filled journey from Berlin to London – certain she was going to be stopped and arrested at every border check – Judith had tried to remain calm by imagining what her
future life with her mother was going to be like. She had imagined countless different scenarios, and not one of them had come close to the reality. Though her mother had been overcome with emotion
at meeting her – Thea had told her afterwards that she and Olivia had been utterly riveted by the sight of Zephiniah in floods of happy tears – her mother clearly hadn’t envisaged
the two of them living together.

‘Roberto and I spend far too much time on the move, darling,’ she had said, after explaining to Judith that her home would be with Gilbert and Thea. ‘We spend months and months
in either France or Switzerland, and if Britain goes to war then we shall leave for Argentina.’

Something else Judith had never expected was how caustic Zephiniah could be whenever Thea, Olivia and Carrie’s names came into the conversation. Her mother could barely speak about Thea
– with whom Judith had bonded immediately – without shuddering. She wasn’t quite as hostile when it came to Olivia, though she never tired of saying what a fool she thought Olivia
was for not making capital out of her friendship with Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, now that Elizabeth was the queen consort.

It was when it came to Carrie, though, that she became truly incandescent. ‘How can I take pride in the courtesy title of Zephiniah, Viscountess Fenton, when Lady Markham’s former
housekeeper will, when she marries Gilbert, have the title Viscountess Fenton? There will be jokes as to whether I, too, was a former housekeeper. I’m going to be a laughingstock – as
is he!’

Judith couldn’t imagine Gilbert ever being a laughing-stock. He was far too well loved and respected – and certainly so by her. In the few short weeks since she had known him, he had
become like a second father to her. He was as upright and as honourable as her adoptive father had been. More, he had travelled to Vienna in order to save her from horrors that she knew her mother
– and anyone else who hadn’t lived in Hitler’s Germany – couldn’t begin to imagine.

Exiting the square, she walked down a road blessedly free of black-uniformed, jackbooted SS officers and swastika-bedecked flags. The miracle of being in England – a sane, sensible country
that had no time for maniacal, rabble-rousing, hate-filled dictators – was one she knew she would never take for granted, and every morning she prayed that the coming day would bring Violet
to similar safety.

When she thought of what Violet had done for her, her heart filled with such gratitude she thought it was going to burst. Even Zephiniah had realized the enormity of Violet’s action in
enabling Judith to leave the Reich with Olivia. Whoever else Zephiniah spoke disparagingly about, she never did so about Violet.

Her mother also never had a cutting remark to make about Rozalind.

Two weeks ago Rozalind and her husband had spent Christmas at Gorton Hall. Rozalind’s stepbrother, Kyle, had driven up from London to spend Boxing Day with them, and Rozalind had told
Judith there had once been a romance between Thea and Kyle and that she, Olivia and Carrie were all hoping it would spring into flower again. Despite still officially being Monkswood’s
housekeeper – a situation that wouldn’t change until her employer, Lady Markham, arrived home from Madeira – Carrie had spent as much of Christmas as she could at Gorton, the
garnet-and-pearl ring sparkling on the fourth finger of her left hand.

On Boxing Day evening it had been open house at Gorton, and Judith had met Miss Calvert, who had once been Carrie’s teacher at Outhwaite village school; Jim Crosby, who had been
Gorton’s odd-job man and who now had a little business of his own, doing odd jobs for people far and wide; his wife, who was a barmaid at the Pig and Whistle; Hermione Hardwick, who had been
Thea and Olivia’s governess; Charlie, her husband, who was Gorton’s head gardener and who wore a piratical black eye-patch and had a scarred face that was the most genial Judith had
ever seen.

When she had met up with her mother – who had spent Christmas in Monte Carlo with Roberto – she’d known that as well as having her birth mother back in her life again, she also
had a family who, though not blood-related to her, might just as well have been, for their love and acceptance of her were so total.

Deeply grateful for them, she entered Claridge’s dining room to find her mother already seated and waiting for her.

Seeing the roses in Judith’s cheeks, Zephiniah said in immediate concern, ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve walked here in the freezing January weather all the way from Mount
Street, darling?’

Judith, who in far worse weather had tramped Outhwaite’s moors with Thea, Gilbert and two cocker spaniels, said with amusement, ‘Mount Street is barely five minutes’ walk away,
Mother.’

‘Nevertheless, you should have had Gilbert’s chauffeur bring you.’

Zephiniah, who had never in her life fussed lovingly over anyone, took great pleasure in fussing over her beautiful newly acquired daughter and had staggered everyone by insisting that, as she
was Judith’s mother, Judith should address her as such.

Judith seated herself at the other side of the small table for two and Zephiniah said, ‘Is Rozalind still in London? Perhaps I should have asked her to join us.’

‘She is still in London, but this morning she’s at a meeting at the Knightsbridge agency that handles her photographic work.’ She broke off their conversation to ask the wine
waiter for a dry sherry.

‘And Olivia?’

‘Olivia and Dieter are in Ireland, looking for a property to buy. They are going to live there, and finding a home has become a matter of some urgency.’ Judith’s mouth curved
in a wide smile. ‘On Christmas Day, Olivia announced she was having a baby.’

Zephiniah’s response was typically tart. ‘That news has been long enough in coming! They must have been married for at least ten years. Is Gilbert over the moon at the prospect of
becoming a grandfather?’

‘He’s very happy for her. Everyone is.’

Out of the corner of her eye Judith saw a waiter hovering and gave her attention to the menu.

Zephiniah, who had already studied the menu, said, ‘And was there any other announcement – such as an announcement of when Gilbert’s marriage to his former nanny’s
granddaughter is to take place?’

Judith moved the menu to one side. ‘Please don’t speak so disparagingly about Carrie, Mother. She never speaks about you in that way. As for the wedding – neither Gilbert nor
Carrie has any intention of it taking place until Violet is safely out of Germany.’