The Fragile Hour (14 page)

“
No, more than that. I saw him in training today. He’s a late entrant, but he only arrived in Alesund last night.”

She
sank down on to the chair by the desk. Now she knew why Alf had phoned. He was as much into Resistance work as she. Nils must have asked him to get a message to her.

“
Anna? Are you still there?”

“
Yes, Alf,” she replied. “Forgive me. I was distracted momentarily.”

“
I can see what you mean when you talk about being busy at the hotel. I suppose there’s always a coming and going of those staying there.”

He
was covering up for her involuntary lapse of silence. Collaborators’ ears listened into many telephone conversations as everybody knew, and she became more guarded. “You’re right. No, I can’t come with you, Alf, but thank you for asking me.”

“
I doubt if I’ll go on my own.”

She
knew he wouldn’t. He had carried out what he had been entrusted to do. “Maybe we could meet another time when I’m free,” she suggested.

“
That’s a great idea. I’ll ring you again. Goodbye for now.”

Anna
replaced the receiver and remained seated, her hands lying palm uppermost in her lap. Nils was safe! The thought rang through her head like a jubilant bell. She wished she could tell Karl, although he was likely to hear soon from some other source. It had been hard not to accept Alf’s invitation, but for safety’s sake it was best to stay away. She must be content that Karl’s hopeful prediction had come true and that once again Nils had pulled strings and lulled the Germans into trusting him once more.

What
a clever move it was to go straight into the public eye, appearing to give open support to the Nazi regime, no matter what his inward feelings. Then it crossed her mind that there was even a chance that he might be at the party. After all, as he had re-entrenched himself in the Germans’ favour, he might be invited with the other civilian guests, especially if they knew that he had once been an Olympic contestant at Hitler’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen. She began to hope that Saturday evening would prove to be better than she had first expected.

Chapter Twelve

When Saturday evening came, Anna took the borrowed gown she was to wear from its hanger. After she had accepted Klaus’s invitation to the party, Margot had told her she would have to dress up.

“
The German officers expect it of their civilian guests. They like to look smart themselves and — damn them! — they always do in any case. So it will be evening dress for all the invited women and the collaborators. I’ve plenty of evening gowns I haven’t worn since before the Occupation. Take your choice.”

So
the selection had been made. Anna had decided on an oyster silk, quite plain, and Greta had offered her the loan of gold earrings and a necklace, which she had accepted.

Checking
her appearance in her bedroom mirror, Anna knew she had chosen well. The pale sheen of the gown set off the sun-tint of her arms as well as her face, the result of skiing in the heat of the midday sun with her jacket and jersey tied by the sleeves around her waist.

Her
thoughts drifted to another evening gown, one of shaded peach chiffon that Aunt Rosa had generously ordered from Paris for her seventeenth birthday. She’d had only one chance to wear it and she supposed it was still hanging up in her bedroom in Oslo. Her aunt was a great hoarder in any case and would still be keeping it for her. Anna felt a wave of childlike devotion go out to the woman who had been like another mother to her.

It
was time to go downstairs. Anna picked up an evening purse and threw a velvet wrap, both borrowed, over her arm. She was buoyed up by the hope of seeing Nils and went cheerfully out of the room.

Klaus
was waiting in the lobby and he looked up sharply as she appeared, a slow smile of immense appreciation spreading across his face. He desired her intensely, this lovely young woman coming down the flight to him now, pale silk shimmering over her slender, well-formed figure. Gold glinted at her ears and around her throat, her fair hair swinging softly and full of those same lights. He clicked his heels and bowed in tribute to her beauty before coming to the foot of the stairs as she reached it.

“
Every man this evening will envy me,” he said with satisfaction, taking the wrap from her to place it around her shoulders.

Anna
thought with amusement that he, conscious of his own exceptionally good looks, would probably expect every woman to be jealous of her!

At
the reception desk, Margot bade them an enjoyable evening. Her irony was lost on Klaus, who barely acknowledged her. She observed that he had eyes only for Anna and hoped that it would not prove to be a problem.

A
military car was waiting outside and the army-driver saluted before whipping open the door. Taking a seat, Anna wondered what unfortunate owner in Alesund had had this splendid car commandeered from him. One of the first things the
Wehrmacht
had done was to take all the best cars everywhere with no compensation for the owners.

“
Whom do you expect to be at the party this evening?” she asked as they were driven through the blacked-out streets, the faint glow from the car’s shielded headlamps barely showing the way. Klaus listed his commanding officer and some others to whom he would introduce her, but there was no mention of Nils.

Arriving
at their venue, they went from the darkness into warmth and brightness. When Anna returned from leaving her wrap, Klaus offered her his arm and she had no choice but to place her hand in the crook of his elbow.

“
This makes me feel as if the war has been won,” he said with pleasure as he led her into the room where the party was already in full swing, “and we are at one of Berlin’s many nightclubs.”

She
could not tell him that on Greta’s hidden radio she had heard the BBC give the news that Berlin had been bombed again by the RAF, which boded ill for those nightclubs.

The
music of a military dance band greeted them, the saxophones and trumpets catching the light with a silvery gleam. Couples were dancing on the circular floor surrounded by tables, each with a lighted candle. At one side of the room, doors were drawn back to reveal a buffet supper laid out.

As
Anna and Klaus were shown to their table, she glanced towards the civilian guests seated with their German hosts. She recognised several known collaborators and most had brought their wives and even their grown-up daughters with them. Anna guessed that those girls were in great demand as dancing partners, for although every table was taken the officers more than outnumbered the women. She was aware of the sharply interested gaze of many of the officers as she went by with Klaus.

Their
table was in a prime position on the edge of the dance floor and not too near the lively band. No sooner were they seated, when one of the resident officers at the Hotel Ryan came to speak to them. His rank was that of
hauptman
, and he was a red-faced, self-satisfied man with a loud voice, who would shout even louder in contempt when some of the domestic staff failed to understand his rapid German. So far he had not learnt a word of Norwegian beyond
skal
.

“
Guten
abend
,
Fraulein
Larsen
. And to you too, Major.”

Before
he could say another word, Klaus stopped him with a raised hand. “Listen to me, my good fellow, I’m having the first and last dance with my charming companion and all the rest in between.”

Hauptman
Bauer looked displeased. “You can’t blame me for trying.”

As
he left, Klaus looked triumphantly across the table at Anna. “I’m pulling rank this evening. I want to keep you all to myself.”

It
was not what she wanted. It was only if there was conversation with others that she might pick up a snippet of something useful, because even a few casual words could be pieced together with other scraps of information.

“
No, Klaus,” she said with a little laugh, “that won’t be the right thing to do. Of course the first and last dances are yours as well as most of the others, but, as a Norwegian, I’m very conscious of being entertained here this evening. What chance is there of furthering good relations between our two peoples if I seem to spurn dancing with any of lower rank than yours? It would appear very discourteous.”

Klaus
was slightly put out, but he could see that she would not want anyone to feel snubbed. “Very well, I agree, Anna. But don’t escape from me too often.”

He
had expected reassurance from her, but a waiter had come to take his order for wine and the moment passed. When that was done, he took Anna onto the floor just as the band struck up
Lili
Marlene
.

He
was an excellent dancer, which was what she had expected. Such a man as he, proud and self-assured, would want to excel at anything he did. He was holding her very close, his clean-shaven chin smelling faintly of aftershave lotion, which was so pleasing that she thought it must be French. Anything good had flowed out of the occupied countries into Germany from the start including cattle and corn from Norway.

Klaus
drew back his head to smile down into her eyes. “You’re looking serious, Anna. Those French women aren’t still on your mind, are they?”

“
I wasn’t thinking of them.”

“
Then why so thoughtful?”

As
he had spoken, a woman vocalist in a red evening gown had stepped in front of the microphone to sing. It gave Anna an outlet to his questioning. “Perhaps it’s this song of separated lovers that had a momentary effect on me,” she declared, smiling again. “But I do like it.”

They
both listened to the song as they danced, he holding her still closer as if the poignancy of the words might have some significance for them. As it came to an end, people all over the room began taking it up again and the band played on. Soon the whole gathering was singing lustily, the vocalist encouraging them. To Anna it made a refreshing change from the constant dosage of
We
March
Against
England
that still echoed daily down the streets.

The
band-leader announced that the next dance, a foxtrot, would be an ‘Excuse me’ dance for the gentlemen. As a result, Klaus was tapped on the shoulder within half a minute and Anna was whirled away from him by a young
oberleutnant
.

“
I saw you as soon as you came in,” he said eagerly, knowing his time with her would be short. “Where do you live? I’d like to see you again. My name is Wolfgang. What is yours?”

That
was the end of the conversation, for she had no time to answer as he in turn lost her to another partner.

The
pattern continued, but at the end of the dance she had gained a grain of information. One of her partners had expressed the wish that he had met her months ago.

“
It’s my bad luck that we are moving out the day after tomorrow all the way up to Tromso,” he had said.

The
new posting of his company was nothing in itself, but there could be a special reason why a district was being strengthened.

By
now much of the company was noisy, the singing of
Lili
Marlene
having led the way for louder voices, some of the officers unsteady on the dance floor. Only the presence of the Commanding Officer kept a curb on an evening that might otherwise have become a drunken bout. Klaus introduced Anna to him when they came from the buffet room.

“
Sir. Please allow me to present Fröken Larsen.”

Oberst
Weiss was grey-haired with chiselled features and a fine military bearing. A row of medal ribbons adorned his broad chest, including the Iron Cross. His whole attitude towards her was extremely courteous. “I’m honoured,
fröken
.”

Anna
judged him to be of the old school of the German Army, privately having little regard for Hitler while holding a great love for his own Fatherland. He invited Klaus and her to join his table.

Klaus
had to accept. Anna could tell it was something he had not expected and he was far from pleased. There were several other high-ranking officers at the table and he had to take a seat away from her. It also put an end to his having priority as her partner.

“
It’s a pleasure to have a charming young lady at my side,” Oberst Weiss was saying. She was seated next to him, somebody else having moved down, and wine was poured for her in a fresh glass. He and those nearest chatted with her, but all waited for him to take her on to the floor first.

To
Anna it was like dancing with a grandfather. There was no attempt to hold her too close, her fingers were lightly clasped, and the conversation kept to the music of Grieg and the beauty of Norway. She liked him. The others at the table danced in turn with her afterwards. Anna saw how exasperated Klaus looked every time.

Yet
they were dancing together when out of the corner of her eye Anna saw Nils arrive, dressed in what she guessed were borrowed evening clothes. She did not allow herself to look again in his direction until the dance brought him once more into view and she saw he was shaking hands with Oberst Weiss. The next time she glimpsed him, he was seated at the same table, but Klaus kept her for another quickstep before they returned there. She and Nils acted as if they were total strangers when introduced.

“
We are fortunate to have an Olympic Gold Medallist with us this evening,” Oberst Weiss explained to Anna. “My son won a Bronze in running at the Summer Games in Germany that year.”

“
Is he in Norway too?” Anna asked. Nils was seated on the other side of the Oberst, which had moved Klaus still farther away from her.

“
No, he’s on the Eastern Front and I’m proud to say he is serving the Fatherland well.”

It
was almost the end of the evening when Nils finally allowed himself to ask Anna to dance. The band was playing
The
Blue
Danube
and, with other dancers rotating around them with speed, they were able to talk closely together without being overheard.

“
We must look as if we’re chatting about unimportant things,” she said at once, “because I know I’m being watched.”

“
By all the men in the room, do you mean?” he teased.

“
No! By one man in particular.”

“
I know whom you mean. That Major hardly takes his eyes from you.”

“
Alf rang me. I was so thankful to know you were safe. How did you get away?”

“
I’ll tell you, but first there is something I want you to do for me. I’m involved here for the next two days in getting orders for supplies and I’ve an important message for you to deliver. Don’t trust it to anybody else.”