She glanced wildly at her husband, still bemused by the whole thing. 'Yes, that's right.'
Steiner said to Preston, There are only six telephones in the general village area. All calls come through a switchboard at the Post Office and are connected by either Mr Turner or his wife.'
'Shall we rip it out?' Preston suggested.
'No, that might attract unnecessary attention. Someone might send a repair man. When the child is suitably changed, send her and her grandmother up to the church. Keep Turner himself on the switchboard. If there are any incoming calls, he's to say that whoever they want isn't in or something like that. It should do for the moment. Now get to it and try not to be melodramatic about it.'
Preston turned to Betty Wilde. Susan had stopped crying and he held out his hands and said with a dazzling smile. 'Come on, beautiful, I'll give you a piggyback.' The child responded instinctively with a delighted smile. This way, Mrs. Wilde, if you'd be so kind.'
Betty Wilde, after a desperate glance at her husband, went after him, holding her son by the hand. The rest of Preston's section, Dinter, Meyer, Riedel and Berg followed a yard or two behind.
Wilde said hoarsely, 'If anything happens to my wife...'
Steiner ignored him. 'He said to Brandt, Take Father Vereker and Mr Wilde up to the church and hold them there. Becker and Jansen can go with you. Hagl, you come with me.'
Ritter Neumann and his section had arrived at the bridge. Preston had just reached them and was obviously telling the Oberleutnant what had happened.
Philip Vereker said, 'Colonel, I've a good mind to call your bluff. If I walk off now you can't afford to shoot me out of hand. You'll arouse the whole village.'
Steiner turned to face him. 'There are sixteen houses or cottages in Studley Constable, Father. Forty-seven people in all and most of the men aren't even here. They are working on any one of a dozen farms within a radius of five miles from here. Apart from that...' He turned to Brandt, 'Give him a demonstration.'
Brandt took Corporal Becker's Mk IIS Sten from him, turned and fired from the hip, spraying the surface of the mill pool. Fountains of water spurted high in the air, but the only sound was the metallic chattering as the bolt reciprocated.
'Remarkable, you must admit,' Steiner said. 'And a British invention. But there's an even surer way, Father. Brandt puts a knife under your ribs in just the right way to kill you instantly and without a sound. He knows how, believe me. He's done it many times. Then we walk you to the jeep between us, set you up in the passenger seat and drive off with you. Is that ruthless enough for you?'
'It will do to be going on with, I fancy,' Vereker said.
'Excellent.' Steiner nodded to Brandt. 'Get going, I'll be up in a few minutes.'
He turned and hurried towards the bridge, walking very fast so that Hagl had to trot to keep up with him. Ritter came to meet them. 'Not so good. What happens now?'
'We take over the village. You know what Preston's orders are?'
'Yes, he told me. What do you want us to do?'
'Send a man up for the truck, then start at one end of the village and work your way through house by house. I don't care how you do it, but I want everybody out and up in that church within fifteen to twenty minutes.'
'And afterwards?'
'A road block at each end of the village. We'll make it look nice and official, but anyone who comes in stays.'
'Shall I tell Mrs. Grey?'
'No, leave her for the time being. She needs to stay free to use the radio. I don't want anyone to know she's on our side until it's absolutely necessary. I'll see her myself later.' He grinned. 'A tight one, Ritter.'
'We've known them before, Herr Oberst.'
'Good.' Steiner saluted formally. 'Get to it then.' He turned
and started up the hill to the church.
.
In the living room of the Post Office and General Stores Agnes Turner wept as she changed her granddaughter's clothes. Betty Wilde sat beside her, hanging on tightly to Graham. Privates Dinter and Berg stood on either side of the door waiting for them.
'I'm that feared, Betty,' Mrs. Turner said. 'I've read such terrible things about them. Murdering and killing. What are they going to do to us?'
In the tiny room behind the Post Office counter that held the switchboard, Ted Turner said in some agitation, 'What's wrong with my missus?'
'Nothing.' Harvey Preston said. 'And there isn't likely to be as long as you do exactly as you're told. If you try shouting a message into the phone when someone rings through. Any tricks at all.' He took the revolver from his webbing holster. 'I won't shoot you - I'll shoot your wife and that's a promise.'
'You swine,' the old man said. 'Call yourself an Englishman?'
'A better one than you, old man.' Harvey struck him across the face with the back of his hand. 'Remember that.'
He sat back in the corner, lit a cigarette and picked up a magazine.
.
Molly and Pamela Vereker had finished at the altar and used up what remained of the reeds and marsh grasses Molly had brought to create a display by the font. Pamela said. 'I know what it needs. Ivy leaves. I'll get some.'
She opened the door, went out through the porch and plucked two or three handfuls of leaves from the vine which climbed the tower at that spot. As she was about to go into the church again, there was a squeal of brakes and she turned to see the jeep draw up. She watched them get out, her brother and Wilde, and at first concluded that the paratroopers had merely given them a lift. Then it occurred to her that the huge sergeant-major was covering her brother and Wilde with the rifle he held braced against his hip. She would have laughed at the absurdity of it had it not been for Becker and Jansen who followed the others through the lychgate carrying Sturm's body.
Pamela retreated through the partly opened door, bumping into Molly. 'What is it?' Molly demanded.
Pamela hushed her. 'I don't know, but something's wrong - very wrong.'
Half-way along the path, George Wilde attempted to make a break for it, but Brandt, who had been expecting such a move, deftly tripped him. He leaned over Wilde, prodding him under the chin with the muzzle of the M1. 'All right, Tommi, you're a brave man. I salute you. But try anything like that again and I blow your head off.'
Wilde, helped by Vereker, scrambled to his feet and the party moved on towards the porch. Inside Molly looked at Pamela in consternation. 'What's it mean?'
Pamela hushed her again. 'Quick, in here,' she said and opened the sacristy door. They slipped inside, she closed it and slid home the bolt. A moment later they heard voices clearly.
Vereker said, 'All right, now what?'
'You wait for the Colonel,' Brandt told him. 'On the other hand, I don't see why you shouldn't fill in the time by doing what's right for poor old Sturm. As it happens, he was a Lutheran, but I don't suppose it matters. Catholic or Protestant, German or English. It's all the same to the worms.'
'Bring him to the Lady Chapel,' Vereker said.
The footsteps died away and Molly and Pamela crouched against the door, looked at each other. 'Did he say German?' Molly said. 'That's crazy.'
Footsteps echoed hollowly on the flags of the porch and the outer door creaked open. Pamela put a finger to her lips and they waited.
Steiner paused by the font and looked around him, tapping his swagger stick against his thigh. He hadn't bothered to remove his beret this time. 'Father Vereker,' he called. 'Down here, please.' He moved to the sacristy door and tried the handle. On the other side the two girls eased back in alarm. As Vereker limped down the aisle, Steiner said, This seems to be locked. Why? What's in there?'
The door had never been locked to Vereker's knowledge because the key had been lost for years. That could only mean that someone had bolted it from the inside. Then he remembered that he had left Pamela working on the alter when he had gone to watch the paratroopers The conclusion was obvious.
He said clearly 'It is the sacristy, Herr Oberst Church registers, my vestments, things like that I'm afraid the key is over at the presbytery. Sorry for such inefficiency. I suppose you order things better in Germany?'
'You mean we Germans have a passion for order, Father?' Steiner said. True I, on the other hand, had an American mother although I went to school in London In fact, lived there for many years. Now what does that mixture signify?'
'That it is highly unlikely that your name is Carter.'
'Steiner, actually Kurt Steiner '
'What of, the SS?'
'It seems to have a rather morbid fascination for you people. Do you imagine all German soldiers serve in Himmler's private army?'
'No, perhaps it is just that they behave as if they do.'
'Like Sergeant Sturm, I suppose.' Vereker could find nothing to say to that Steiner added, 'For the record, we are not SS. We are Fallschirmjager The best in the business, with all due respect to your Red Devils.'
Vereker said, 'So, you intend to assassinate Mr Churchill at Studley Grange tonight?'
'Only if we have to,' Steiner said 'I'd much prefer to keep him in one piece.'
'And now the planning's gone slightly awry? The best laid schemes and so on.'
'Because one of my men sacrificed himself to save the lives of two children of this village, or perhaps you don't wish to know about that? Why should that be, I wonder? Because it destroys this pitiful delusion that all German soldiers are savages whose sole occupation is murder and rape? Or is it something deeper? Do you hate all of us because it was a German bullet that crippled you?'
'Go to hell!' Vereker said.
The Pope, Father, would not be at all pleased with such a sentiment. To answer your original question. Yes, the plan has gone a little awry, but improvisation is the essence of our kind of soldiering. As a paratrooper yourself, you must know that.'
'For heavens sakes, man, you've had it' Vereker said 'No element of surprise.'
There still will be,' Steiner told him calmly 'If we hold the entire village incommunicado, so to speak, for the required period.'
Vereker was for the moment, rendered speechless by the audacity of this suggestion. 'But that is impossible.'
'Not at all. My men are at this very moment rounding up everyone at present in Studley Constable. They'll be up here within the next fifteen or twenty minutes. We control the telephone system, the roads, so that anyone entering will be immediately apprehended.'
'But you'll never get away with it.'
'Sir Henry Willoughby left the Grange at eleven this morning to travel to King's Lynn where he was to have lunch with the Prime Minister. They were due to leave in two cars with an escort of four Royal Military Police motor-cyclists at three-thirty.' Steiner looked at his watch. Which, give or take a minute or two, is right now. The Prime Minister has expressed a particular desire to pass through Walsmgham, by the way, but forgive me, I must be boring you with all this.'
'You seem to be very well informed?'
'Oh, I am. So, you see, all we have to do is to hang on until this evening as arranged, and the prize will still be ours. Your people, by the way, have nothing to fear as long as they do as they are told.'
'You won't get away with it,' Vereker said stubbornly.
'Oh, I don't know. It's been done before Otto Skorzeny got Mussolini out of an apparently impossible situation. Quite a feat of arms as Mr Churchill himself conceded in a speech at Westminster.'
'Or what's left of it after your damned bombs,' Vereker said.
'Berlin isn't looking too good either these days.' Steiner pointed out, 'and if your friend Wilde is interested, tell him that the five-year-old daughter and wife of the man who died to save his son, were killed by RAF bombs four months ago.' Steiner held out his hand. 'I'll have the keys of your car. It might come in useful.'
'I haven't got them with me,' Vereker began.
'Don't waste my time, Father. I'll have my lads strip you if I have to.'
Vereker reluctantly produced his keys and Steiner slipped them into his pocket. 'Right, I have things to do.' He raised his voice. 'Brandt, hold the fort here. I'll send Preston to relieve you, then report to me in the village.'
He went out, and Private Jansen came and stood against the door with his M1. Vereker walked up the aisle slowly, past Brandt and Wilde who was sitting in one of the pews, shoulders hunched. Sturm was lying in front of the altar in the Lady Chapel. The priest stood looking down at him for a moment, then knelt, folded his hands and in a firm, confident voice, began to recite the prayers for the dying.
.
