Pegasus: A Novel (26 page)

“Maybe they’ll lose the war.” But it didn’t look like it. Hitler was being aggressive
with all the neighboring countries on his borders and across Europe, and gave the
impression of wanting to swallow them whole.

The next day Christianna told her father and brothers about Nick’s family home being
seized by the Nazis, and they felt sorry for him. And others in the circus grew increasingly
worried about their relatives, especially those that were Jewish and were now in countries
under Hitler’s control. None of them could go home again either, and they were afraid
for their loved ones.

At the beginning of February, Hitler ordered unrestricted submarine warfare against
his enemies, while England blockaded Germany. And German U-boats were sinking ships.
He hadn’t heard from Alex again.

Alex’s letter to the friend in New York had found its way to Charles Beaulieu in Hertfordshire
within three weeks, in early February, and Charles’s response via the same route took
another month to get back to Alex, but his response was immediate and sincere. First,
he said he was sorry to hear about Nick’s father. He also shared Alex’s concern with
what was happening in Germany, and he suggested
that Alex get Marianne to England as quickly as possible, if he could get her there,
which they both knew would not be easy to do. Many German children had been sent to
England just before the war, as well as Hungarians and Poles, mostly Jewish children,
who had been gotten out by the British on the Kindertransport trains, but since war
had been declared six months before, it was not easy to seek asylum in England, nor
find a way to get her there. And Marianne was not a child. She was considered a woman
at nineteen. So she would have to leave Germany as an adult, with all the ramifications
and risks of any woman.

And both the British blockade and Germans sinking ships made sailing across the channel
extremely risky. But Alex thought keeping her in Germany with soldiers all around
them was worse, and he wanted to take the chance, although his heart ached at the
thought. He had to get Marianne into France, to cross the channel from there, or by
a safer route if he could find one.

Charles and his wife Isabel were more than willing to have her—in fact, they said
they’d be delighted—for the duration of the war if necessary. They had two sons, both
in the RAF, and no daughters, and Charles said in his extremely kind letter to Alex
that Isabel would be delighted with the company, since life in Hertfordshire was very
dull these days, and they rarely saw their boys. And he assured Alex that she would
be safe with them, as safe as anyone was in England these days, but surely more than
Germany. He said that many people were sending their children and families to the
country, whenever possible, even to strangers who had signed up to take them in. And
he and Isabel had been thinking of having children stay with them, on their very large
estate. Charles was the seventh marquess of Haversham, and a member of the House of
Lords, and he and Alex had been in the same class at school.

Alex was greatly relieved to get his letter, and all he wanted now was to find a way
to get Marianne safely to England, without alerting anyone in the Third Reich while
he did. And since Germany and England were at war, he couldn’t just book a ticket
and send her. He had to find a discreet way to get her out. And after careful examination
of the problem, he thought the best way to do so would be through Belgium, which was
neutral. But he had no idea who to contact to set the wheels in motion. Alex had no
connections in government or the army, and although there were some aristocrats in
the Wehrmacht and the SS, he thought most of them a bunch of badly behaved riffraff.
And he wasn’t willing to take a chance on any of them, and surely not with his daughter.
He had no underground connections either, nor wanted to use them for Marianne. He
wanted to get her out of Germany legally, with proper papers. He was still thinking
about it when the colonel came to pay him a visit to see his horses.

He went through the stables and stopped in amazement when he saw the four Lipizzaners
that Alex still had, two mares and two stallions, whom he needed for his bloodlines.
They were as fine as Pluto and Nina had been, though slightly older.

“Are they trained?” the colonel asked with a look of awe.

“Fully, to liberty commands,” Alex said, hating to even show them to him, but he couldn’t
deny him. The colonel could do anything he wanted.

“May I see?” he asked, skeptical, and one of the young boys helped Alex bring the
four horses into the main ring he used to train them. And wanting to impress him and
show him how insignificant he was, Alex let all four horses loose in the ring and
commanded them in the precise exercises of the Spanish Riding School that he had trained
them for. The horses were exquisite, ending in a levade, followed by a croupade one
by one in perfect symmetry. The colonel nearly had
his mouth open when they finished. “You trained them yourself?” he asked in disbelief,
and Alex nodded with amusement. He was tempted to tell him that aristocrats were far
better at training horses than soldiers, but he said nothing.

“I usually send them to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, but I kept these four
for breeding.” He didn’t mention the two that had left the year before, with Nick.

“Do you ever sell them?” the colonel asked, with stars in his eyes. He could just
imagine himself on one of the two stallions. But Alex had no intention of giving him
any. He would have to take them, and Alex realized he might.

“No, I don’t. I place them with the school in Vienna, I keep them for breeding. And
I’ve given two away. They’re not for sale.”

The colonel turned to him with an angry look then, and he had mean little eyes. “You
realize I could take them all if I wanted to, don’t you? In the name of the Reich.”
Alex didn’t answer for a long moment as he stared him down. The colonel didn’t frighten
him. Alex loathed him.

“You could,” Alex responded slowly, “but I don’t believe that an officer of the German
army would want to demonstrate such execrable manners, particularly among gentlemen,
unless I’m mistaken, of course, about the Fuehrer’s officers being gentlemen.” His
eyes never left the colonel’s as he said it, and the little officer backed down immediately.
It was clear he desperately wanted one of the Lipizzaners, but he couldn’t find a
reasonable excuse to just confiscate them. He had no reason to, the army didn’t need
them, and he wasn’t an officer of the cavalry, which was an honor guard he didn’t
belong to, and Alex knew it. He was a colonel in the regular army, the Wehrmacht,
not even SS, the elite corps. But one of the Lipizzaners would have lent him status
and dignity. Alex could see how badly he wanted
them, and it gave him an idea. It was bold, and dangerous, but worth it if it worked.

“I only give them to people who are extremely important to me, as a tribute of respect
and my admiration for them. Like the Fuehrer, for instance,” Alex said with a serious
expression as the colonel nodded. “By the way, would you like to ride one of the stallions?
They’re quite easy, particularly the big one.” The smaller one was in fact better
bred and had trained better, but the bigger one was showier, and he could see that
the colonel liked him, and thought him a good match for his sense of self-importance.
The colonel nodded immediately at the suggestion, and Alex helped him into the saddle
he put on the big horse. The colonel looked like he was going to explode in ecstasy
as he rode around the ring on the beautifully trained horse. Alex commanded the others
to stand still. “He’s a nice ride, isn’t he?” Alex said casually as the colonel rode
several times around the ring, and then came to stand next to Alex and looked down
at him.

“You would give such a horse to the Fuehrer?” The colonel looked impressed, but it
still wouldn’t get one in his possession, and he could hardly steal it from the Fuehrer
if Alex were to offer such an extraordinary gift. He would have to commandeer it or
confiscate it, but he realized it would make him look like a horse thief to Alex,
which he didn’t like either. Aristocrats like Alex had made him uncomfortable all
his life, and Alex could sense that too.

“I would,” Alex confirmed, “or to someone I respected equally.” He looked at the colonel
sitting on the stallion. Their eyes met and held, and the colonel understood instantly
that there was something Alex wanted from him. All he had to do was find out what
it was, and if he could deliver it easily. He had a feeling Alex was about to tell
him, and perhaps they could strike a deal. The colonel was uneducated but he wasn’t
stupid, and the two men understood each
other without words. “Travel papers and safe passage to Ostend in Belgium” was all
Alex said, and the colonel looked at him intently. It was a port town, and the colonel
could guess that it would only be a midpoint in a journey to somewhere else.

“For a Jew?” That he couldn’t do, even for a Lipizzaner. He was no traitor, and he
had strict orders about that, from the high command.

“Not at all. For a lady of high rank. Her papers are in order.”

The colonel understood immediately. “Your daughter?” he asked in a low voice, and
Alex was terrified to admit it and put her at greater risk, but he had no choice.
He had to say it, if he was to get her out of Germany, and this might be the only
way he could. Alex nodded, and the colonel took a long time to answer, sitting on
the stallion he wanted so badly and could have confiscated, at the risk of looking
like a boor to this nobleman who seemed fearless and at ease. But he could well imagine
how much his daughter meant to him. Enough to give away a priceless stallion in exchange
for travel papers to Belgium, to get her out of Germany, and probably to England from
there. If he wanted her in Belgium, it was likely he was sending her to England across
the channel.

“It could be arranged,” he said quietly. “When?”

“Whenever you like, as soon as possible.” Alex had exposed his whole hand, and prayed
he didn’t lose, or her life and his own would be at stake. He had played a high-stakes
game of poker with the colonel and hoped he hadn’t been wrong to do it.

“I’ll give it some thought,” the colonel said, and dismounted smoothly. “I’ll get
back to you in a day or two.” He strode out of the ring then, and the stables, without
ever looking back, while Alex’s heart pounded in his chest. He knew he had been crazy
to say what he had to him, with Marianne as the pawn he was risking. It had been a
very dangerous game, and it wasn’t over yet. The colonel drove off
with his driver minutes later. And Alex stood in the stables wondering what to do.
There was only one choice. He had to play the hand to the end now, whatever happened.
The die was cast, win or lose.

He put one of his hunters on a lead rein, and tightened the saddle on the big Lipizzaner.
He told the boy helping him to put the other three in their stalls. And he mounted
the big stallion and walked it out of the ring, leading the hunter, as the boy looked
at him in surprise.

“Where are you going?”

“To deliver a gift,” he said, and then trotted off on the familiar road to Nick’s
schloss. The hunter followed the stallion easily, and when Alex got to the schloss,
he tied the hunter to a post that he and Nick had used since they were children, and
dismounted. There were soldiers in the courtyard, and he saw the colonel’s car with
the flags, and walked up to a young sergeant. He executed a curt bow and handed the
reins of the stallion to him.

“With my compliments to the colonel,” Alex said formally. “Please remind the colonel
that he forgot his horse Favory in my stables. I wanted to return him.” The sergeant
smiled at what he said. He knew the colonel had no horse such as this. He had never
seen another one like it. He was a spectacular beast, and he seemed perfectly calm
and at ease standing in the courtyard. “His name is Favory, of the original bloodline
of Lipizzaners. Good evening, Sergeant.” Alex bowed again, and walked back out of
the courtyard, untied his hunter, and rode away. He had no idea if it would work,
but it was worth a shot. He had gambled everything on the last play.

There was no word from the colonel that night or the next morning, and he said nothing
to Marianne. He had risked his own child’s life and possibly his own, in order to
save her and get her to safety. And as he sat down to lunch with her, a corporal arrived
in a Jeep.
He said he had a letter for Count von Hemmerle, and one of the maids brought him to
Alex. Alex took the envelope and opened it with shaking hands after he left. There
was no note. There were only travel papers, to Ostend, Belgium, signed by the colonel,
in Marianne’s name. They were for the next day. The poker hand had worked. Favory
had bought Marianne’s freedom. Alex’s eyes filled with tears as he read them.

“What is it, Papa? Is something wrong?” Marianne looked worried.

“No,” he said quietly. He put the papers back in the envelope, slipped it into his
jacket pocket, and had a civilized lunch with her. After they finished, he took her
to the library with him and closed the door, and explained it to her.

“You may not like this, my darling, but you must do as I say. It is dangerous for
you here, too dangerous. These people will do anything, and I don’t want anyone to
hurt you. You must leave Germany now. There are soldiers here, too close to us. They
play by their own rules, and you’re a beautiful young girl. I am sending you to my
old friends the Beaulieus in England. They have agreed to take you, and the colonel
has given you travel papers. I have them in my pocket. You must leave tomorrow.” He
told her all of it at once, and she burst into tears immediately and tried to argue
with him, but he wouldn’t let her. He wanted her out of Germany as soon as possible.

“Oh my God,” she said, staring at him suddenly. “You gave him Favory, didn’t you?
They told me this morning that he was missing. But now you only have one stallion
left to breed.”