Lady Victoria asked me to lunch at her house, because she said that this way we would have more time to talk.
When I saw her I thought once again that she was a truly impressive woman. Her interest in my research seemed sincere. I told her where Francesca had left me.
“So you are in 1940, December... ,” she muttered as she looked through a notebook.
“Yes, I think that Amelia went back to London with Albert James.”
“Yes, and then they went to the United States.”
“To the United States? But why?” I asked in annoyance. I was getting tired of my great-grandmother’s traipsing from one side of the world to the other. It was tiring for me track her journey over half the globe.
“Lord James had asked his nephew for a favor and he insisted that he would only do it if Amelia went with him. It’s all here, in the notebook,” Lady Victoria said, pointing at its cover.
“May I have a look?”
“It’s part of Lady Eugenie’s diary. It’s thanks to her that we have the information we do about what happened. I don’t know if I’ve said, but Lady Eugenie wrote in her diary every day; it was her way of letting off steam. Albert was a constant source of disappointment to her because of his refusal to break off with Amelia and marry Lady Mary Brian. Are you ready?”
I nodded. I knew that the best thing I could do would be to listen without interrupting until she got tired of talking.
Winston Churchill was trying to get the United States to join in the war. He knew that Great Britain could not hope to win the war without American help and he was trying to use all the tools in his power to convince President Roosevelt to give them his assistance. The United Kingdom was bankrupt and needed money as soon as possible to pay for the gigantic costs of the war.
Lord James had thought that, since his brother Ernest was a prosperous businessman in the United States, and his sister-in-law Eugenie was capable of gathering all of New York high society in her drawing room, and Albert was an influential journalist, maybe he could call upon his family to convince the leaders in Washington that American aid was vital if they were to defeat Hitler.
Ernest and Eugenie accepted this offer with alacrity to become extraordinary ambassadors for their country, and Albert also agreed to give a series of talks all across the United States to make clear the menace that Hitler posed, but he insisted that Amelia accompany him.
Here is what Eugenie wrote in her diary:
Albert arrives tomorrow. My brother-in-law has convinced him to come. All the better. Even Ernest, who is always so understanding with our son, was furious that he refused to get involved in everything that’s happening. Of course, he’s making us pay the price; he’s bringing Amelia with him, who is a real nightmare. How will we be able to present her to our friends? We can’t say that she is Albert’s fiancée, because she’s a married woman. We can’t say she’s a family friend. We don’t know anything about her, and I think she’s nothing more than an adventuress, for all that Paul has told Ernest that she’s been very useful. I don’t know what she could have done to have been useful, but I’m sure it was not as important as Paul has made Ernest believe. But anyway, whatever the girl has done, that doesn’t make her somebody. Albert says that Amelia comes from a good family, but what sort of family lets a daughter run off and abandon her husband and her son?
It will not be easy to put up with the gossip about Albert and his stupid insistence on having Amelia in his New York apartment with him, just as he did in London. My son living with that Spanish woman... What will people say?
If he weren’t my son, I would never let him in my house again. He came here with Amelia even after his father had insisted that he had to speak to him alone. Albert is so stubborn. Lunch was impossible. The girl never stopped looking at me, and Albert was hanging on everything she said. The worst was that Albert went off to talk to his father alone and I had to spend almost an hour with this woman. I asked her if she had read Shakespeare, and she said she hadn’t. I thought as much. She also doesn’t have much musical taste, even though she can play some Mozart and Chopin and Liszt on the piano. I don’t know what my son can see in this woman. It’s enough to drive one crazy.
Ernest told me that Albert was a great success in Washington. Some of President Roosevelt’s friends went to hear him speak, and also some of the president’s advisers. I think that they were worried by what they heard him say. It’s difficult to believe that the Americans find it hard to imagine that Hitler is a danger to them as well. If it weren’t for Winston Churchill, Hitler would become the ruler of the world, that’s what they don’t want to understand here, even though Ernest tells me that President Roosevelt is open to some of the things that Churchill has been saying.
How disgraceful! Mrs Smith came to see me. The old witch just wanted to say what I already know, that Amelia’s presence is a scandal and that Albert should respect people of good breeding and not take her everywhere he goes.
I told Mrs Smith that perhaps it would be better if she were to pay attention to her daughter Mary Jo, because she would not stop flirting with the oldest Miller boy at the Vanderbilt dinner. I know she won’t forgive me, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say to stop her talking. I cannot allow her to come to my house and criticize my son.
If Ernest had not told me so himself I would never have believed it. Albert has asked that Amelia herself talk about what is happening in Europe. Apparently they have to turn people away when she speaks, but I’m sure they only come to gawp at her, to find out what kind of a woman it is who has turned Albert’s head.
Ernest says that all of San Francisco high society has surrendered to Amelia and that she is invited everywhere. Amelia is giving talks in the women’s clubs because Albert thinks that wives will be better placed to change the way their husbands think.
They will be back in New York in two days’ time. Ernest wants me to organize a dinner for all our friends, and he wants Albert to give a speech.
The dinner was a success, even though I am exhausted. Everyone came; I think that anyone who is anyone in the White House, apart from Roosevelt himself, has come to see us.
Albert was wonderful. How good he is at explaining what kind of a man that Austrian corporal actually is! He scared the women and made the men think. Ernest says that Roosevelt needs a few little pushes to get him ready to help England. He has already started to help, in fact. For some of our friends, the war is a good opportunity to do business, because the help they give England will have to be paid for one way or another. Americans are very practical, but I am pleased that my son has given them arguments to help them understand what is happening in Europe.
Albert spoke to them as if he was one of them; this son of mine is more American than Irish, even though all of his blood is Irish. He even said that he understands Roosevelt because a ruler should avoid war unless it is absolutely impossible not to.
I didn’t think he would ask Amelia to speak at this occasion, but he did, and she spoke to our guests without a trace of shame. It wasn’t a good idea of hers to tell the story of her friend, Yla, the daughter of her father’s partner, who had to escape from Berlin, or else to tell us all about this woman Rahel. It was as if Amelia had only Jewish friends. It’s not that I don’t like Jews, some of our best friends are Jewish, but the way Amelia tells it you would have thought that the worst thing about Hitler was that he didn’t like the Jews. She makes everything too simple.
I had to cut off a lot of people when they were making comments about Amelia and Albert, people were asking if they were more than good friends, as if it were anything but obvious that she is my son’s lover. It is all so very disagreeable, and Albert won’t hear a word said about Amelia.
How embarrassing: Albert had a fight with the oldest Miller boy, and in his house too. The Millers organized a farewell dinner for Albert, who will be going back to London in a few days. It was all going swimmingly until Bob, the oldest Miller boy, insisted on dancing with Amelia. He was a bit tipsy, but Amelia was like a shy little virgin, saying that she didn’t want to dance. Bob wouldn’t take no for an answer, he grabbed her by the arm and insisted that she dance with him. Amelia got hysterical and asked him to let her go, and Albert turned up to help her and socked Bob one. My son made a spectacle of himself, he was an embarrassment to us all. The evening couldn’t have ended any worse. Mr. Miller and Ernest had to step in to end the fight, and we had to leave, with all the guests looking and murmuring. Amelia was pale, but I don’t think she felt at all sorry for what had happened. They’ll all criticize us now, and this will go all the way to London. Our friends are very generous and let Albert take Amelia to their houses, but I’m sure, after this, that they’ll never invite us again.
I asked my son to come to see me, and he came by today to say goodbye. At least he had the good sense not to bring Amelia with him. Ernest asked me not to fight with Albert, but we weren’t able to avoid it. I asked him to put an end to this situation once and for all, that he could not respect a woman who so clearly had no respect for herself. My son said that he would never forgive me for saying that about Amelia, whom he says is the bravest and most honorable woman he knows.
I don’t know what she’s done to him to make him like that, but he’s changed utterly, he only cares about her.
My son said that if I would not accept the situation with Amelia then he would stop coming to see us. The worst is that I think he meant it. This woman will destroy us all. She is destroying Albert and now she wants to destroy our family.
Albert left without giving me a kiss, the first time he has done that in his whole life. They are going back to London tomorrow.
Albert and Amelia went back to London at the beginning of March 1941. Their trip had been a success, or at least that is what Lord Paul James thought. A lot of the ideas that Albert had laid out seemed to have hit home among Washington’s highest political and economic spheres.
They moved back into Albert’s apartment, knowing that at any moment Amelia could be sent out of England on another mission. Albert asked his Uncle Paul to stop using Amelia, but Paul thought that anything he owed Albert had been paid off by his allowing Amelia to go with Albert to the United States.
Major Murray soon asked Amelia to go back to Germany.
“You told me that your friend Max von Schumann had been sent to Poland,” he said.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt us to know what’s going on over there. We have some information, but it would be useful to complement it.”
“Do you have people in Poland?” Amelia wanted to know.
“My dear, that is not for you to know. What you need to do is to get in touch with von Schumann and try to go to see him, wherever in Poland he is stationed.”
“What will my excuse be?”
“That’s up to you. We trained you to develop your own alibi as a field agent, it’s not something that’s easy to do from an office in London. Tell me what you need and we will try to get it for you, but you will have to think about how best to get close to Max von Schumann. We understand that he is strongly attracted to you.”
Amelia sat bolt upright in her chair. Major Murray’s insinuation offended her.
“How dare you...” Amelia’s tone was filled with indignation.
“I have no intention of offending you. I have the greatest respect and consideration for you, but you must not forget that you are an agent on a mission, and when we prepared you for this task we told you, along with the rest of your group, that you would have to lie, maybe even kill, that you would have to do things that under normal conditions you would find repulsive, but that are necessary in times of war. So don’t get upset, this isn’t a tearoom, this is the Admiralty. If you can’t do this job, then tell me, but don’t play the injured maiden. Of course you are a respectable woman, but you are also an agent, and so you may have to do things you never thought you would be obliged to do. In any case, I am not going to order you to do anything in particular, but I will just remind you of something that is self-evident: The baron is attracted to you and that could be a help with your work, but you have to decide how you are going to organize this operation.”
They were silent for a moment, looking at each other. Major Murray was a gentleman, but he was also a dedicated soldier, an expert in espionage, where there are no norms or limits. He had not intended to offend Amelia, indeed he had felt a secret sympathy for her ever since the moment they met, but he treated her with the same severity as the rest of his men. They were at war and there was no room for social niceties.
“I will go to Berlin, and I will arrange things so that I meet Baron von Schumann in Poland,” Amelia said, finally.
“You might have to stay close to him for some time, we are keen to have such a significant source of information in the army. As well as opposing Hitler, he is a soldier with a fairly high rank, which grants him access to other officers even higher up in the hierarchy.”
“He hates Hitler, but he is a patriot. He will never say anything that puts the lives of German soldiers in danger.”
“I am sure of it, but you should work with him and try to get information from him without his feeling that he is betraying his country. You can have some help on this occasion. Someone you know is in Berlin.”
“Who is it?”
“A companion from boot camp. Do you remember Dorothy?”
“Yes, I was a friend of Dorothy’s.”
“Dorothy’s husband was German, from Stuttgart, he died of a heart attack. She spoke German almost as well as Jan.”
“Jan? I don’t think I know him...”
“No, you don’t know Jan. He’s British, but his mother was German. He grew up with his maternal grandmother because he was orphaned at a very young age. He knows Berlin like the palm of his hand. He lived in the city until he was fourteen, when his father’s family came and took him back to England to give him a better education.”
“What is their cover in Berlin?”
“They’re pretending to be a happily married couple. Jan is past sixty; he works for the Admiralty and even though he is near retirement age he has volunteered for this mission. We have created a false identity for him, officially, his parents were Germans who immigrated to the United States, and now he’s the prodigal son who has been drawn back to Germany by Hitler’s magnetism, and he has done so with his charming wife, a woman a few years younger than him. They are rich enough to live, but not to draw attention to themselves. Jan was an engineer and this has been very useful for us; we sent him with a special radio, very powerful, but he has to hide it from the Gestapo. From here on in, whenever you get any important information, you are to give it to them. And you will get my instructions from them as well. You will have to make sure that no one follows you when you go see them, and for the time being it’s better not to tell anyone that they even exist, not even your friends, and certainly not Baron von Schumann.”
Major Murray spent more than an hour telling Amelia what he was expecting from her.
Murray accepted her request to travel to Germany from Spain. He knew that the only thing he could not refuse her, if he wanted her to carry on helping them, was regular contact with her family. Also, it was only possible to travel to Germany from an allied country, such as Spain.
“I don’t want you to go,” Albert said when Amelia told him that she was going back to Germany.
“It’s my job, Albert.”
“Your job? Amelia, this is not a job. You have got yourself caught up in something you cannot control, you are a pawn being moved by other people. It will be too late when you realize that you want to take back control of your life, because your life will no longer belong to you. Leave it, I’m not asking for my sake but for yours, leave it before it destroys you.”
“Do you think this is all for nothing, what I’m doing?” Amelia said angrily.
“No, I think that whatever is gathered by spying is of immense value, and will help win the war, but do you really think that you are ready to get involved in this simply because you have trained at the Admiralty for a while? They are using you, Amelia, they get you to work for them by saying that maybe when Hitler is gone then Franco will go too, but they won’t do anything against him, they will prefer that Franco is in power rather than the Popular Front, don’t you see?”
“No one has ever promised me anything, but I am sure that once Hitler is gone, Franco will start to totter. He will no longer have allies. I am sorry that you think I am so insignificant, so incapable of doing this work, but I will continue with my mission, I will give it my all to do it as best I can.”
“Then we will need to think about our relationship.”
Amelia felt a stab of pain in the pit of her stomach. She was not in love with Albert, but ever since Pierre’s death he had been the pillar against which she had supported herself, the haven where she felt safe, and she was not prepared to lose him. Even so, when she replied it was her pride that answered first.
“If that is what you want...”
“What I want is for us to live together and to try to be happy. That is what I want.”
“I want that to, but only when you respect what I do.”
“I respect you, Amelia, of course I respect you, that is why I’m asking you to speak to Major Murray and tell him that you’re giving up, that you’re not going to carry on with this.”
“I won’t do that, Albert, I am going to carry out my promise to the Admiralty. My promise and my relationship with you are compatible, or at least they are for me...”
“I am sorry, Amelia, but if that is your last word on the matter then we cannot continue together.”
They separated. Two days later, Amelia left Albert’s house with a couple of suitcases containing all her belongings. An Admiralty car was waiting for her at the door. Major Murray had arranged her passage to Berlin via Spain.
“Well, my dear Guillermo,” Lady Victoria concluded, “I know that Amelia spent several days in Madrid, I suppose she went to see her family. I have spoken with Major Hurley and we have a surprise for you. The major will come to dinner tomorrow at my house. He has said that he has some declassified documents about Amelia’s journey to Germany, and that he will give us some more details over the meal.
“It’s lucky that you and Major Hurley are related,” I said with a certain degree of irony.
“Yes, you’re lucky, and all the more because I am married to one of Lord Paul James’s grandsons; if I weren’t then it would be very difficult for you to find out what happened during those days.”
I left Lady Victoria’s house after promising that I would come for dinner the next day at six o’clock. When I got to the hotel I called Professor Soler. I asked him if he remembered whether Amelia had come through Madrid in mid-March of 1941, and he seemed unsure.
“I’ll look at my notes and I’ll give you a ring. Amelia came to Madrid a lot, sometimes for a day or so, sometimes longer. I don’t remember anything in particular happening in March 1941.”
“Did she never tell you anything about what she was doing?”
“No, never. Not even to her cousin Laura. Amelia appeared and disappeared without saying anything. Her Uncle Armando tried to find out how she earned her living, but Amelia told him to trust her, and that she earned her money honorably. We knew that she lived with Albert, and we thought that it was he who kept her.”
“So not even you were aware of what Amelia did... ,” I said doubtfully.
“Your great-grandmother was never the object of my historical investigations. Why should she have been?”
He called an hour later to tell me that he could find no note relevant to that time, so we agreed that Amelia must have come through Madrid and, apart from seeing her family, must have done nothing out of the ordinary.
There was nothing else I could do except wait to see what would turn up at the dinner with Major Hurley at Lady Victoria’s house. I was a little aggrieved at such formality. I didn’t see why Major Hurley and Lady Victoria didn’t just tell me what they knew all at once, instead of measuring out their information drop by drop. But they had the whip hand, so I had no option but to do as they bid.