Opposite Sides (42 page)

“
It all seems
well planned.” Hans had had no idea the two Turners had already
made all the decisions. Miss Turner inclined her body in Hans’
direction.

“
Janine often
takes Andrea out on the weekends. She has visited London Zoo and
has had a ride on a boat on the Thames, too. Did you know that,
Resmel?”

Hans shook his head. He
had had no idea that all these people had rallied around to make
Andrea’s life such an exciting one. Even Jan did not seem such an
adversary now. Maybe Caroline was right when she said that Hans did
not know the Jan she did.

“
When do you
return to London, Hans?” asked Jan.

“
In a few
days. I’ll take a train to Oxford first and see Robert. He wants to
show me around Oxford. He managed to get in to the university but
I’ve forgotten exactly what he said he is doing his thesis on.
Something to do with mathematics, mechanic or something. He can’t
say much. Hush-hush, I guess.”

“
I guess so,”
Jan added. “He was a very able student. And after?”

“
Another four
days in London and I take a boat to Cuxhaven. This time next week
I’ll be back in Germany again.”

Jan frowned and scratched
her nose. She shifted forward on the seat and inclined her upper
body in his direction.

“
Is it true
what our newspapers report about your new chancellor?”

“
In what
way?”

He already knew what she
was about to say for he had been making it his duty to find out
what the English thought. He hadn’t thought of Jan as being
interested in politics. She had always been the girl who poked her
tongue out at him and he had always shown his anger towards her.
That was possibly the reason why they often ended up in
confrontation. He wondered what she would say next.

“
Well,” she
said with some hesitation, “we’ve been told that he wants to expand
Germany’s borders. Is there any truth in that?”

Hans knew Jan well enough
to know that she was expecting a straight answer. He bounced the
tips of his fingers together with short rapid movements as he
thought about how he should answer her. He decided to give her the
official point of view that his employers would have
expected.

“
Our new
chancellor only wants a peaceful Europe. He has no intention of
expanding beyond Germany’s former borders. The English government
must realise that the German Reich needs to be able to include all
German people within its borders. And those borders must include
all lands confiscated by the treaty, which Germany was forced to
adhere to.”

He wondered whether Jan
would be satisfied with the answer. He was not even certain that he
believed every word of it but his bosses in Berlin had trained him
sufficiently well in answering politically sensitive
questions.

“
You expect
the British public to swallow that line?” she asked, re-organising
the way her glasses sat across the bridge of her nose. “And what
about the rallies and the other disturbing things that are said to
be happening?”

“
You don’t
have to believe everything you read in your newspapers!” His tone
was now curt and abrupt. He jumped up and physically moved closer
towards her with a threatening gesture. “Much of what you read is
twisted half-truths put out by splinter groups who would rather see
Germany collapse.” He pointed wildly into the air at some unseen
protester. “They’ve already been responsible for the huge
unemployment figures and the burning down of our Reichstag. You
have no idea of the problems the Reichskanzler has to sort
out!”

Hans suddenly realised he
was beginning to sound just like Renard. He had not meant it to
sound that way but Jan still had enough sting in her to drive him
into a confrontational affront. His agitation made his face flush.
His blue eyes were wild and angry as he looked intently right into
her face. For a full minute, no one said a word. His eyes
penetrated her defences until Jan lowered her lids and submitted to
his stronger will.

“
Let us just
forget the politics for a while. Put our differences aside. Janine,
we must not keep Resmel any longer.” Miss Turner stood up and
brushed down her crumpled dress. She smiled weakly at Hans as she
held out her hand. “Thank you for coming. I am sure you still have
much to organise.” He took the hint and pulled at the hem of his
pullover, more as a gesture than of necessity. The old lady took up
her cane and walked him over to the living-room doorway. “Now, do
not forget what I’ve said, young man. Janine and I will be pleased
to look after Andrea. Think about it. Let us know what you
decide.”

“
I will,” he
promised. “And thank you both for what you have already
done.”

He shook her hand again.
Both grips were warm and sincere and he realised that Miss Turner
bared him no ill will. He was positive that she and Jan would see
that Andrea would be well cared for.

“
And thank
you, Jan,” he said as she came up along side her aunt. His aunt as
well. He must remember that. “I hope politics will not get in the
way again. I hope we can part as friends.”

Jan walked him to the
front door to let him out.

“
Good bye,
Hans.” She stood holding the side of the door. “Do be careful. I
know the newspapers can exaggerate but all the same don’t get
involved too deeply with that new crowd over there. I’ve a bad
feeling about what’s happening. We have had a taste of it here, as
well. It’s most frightening. I hope things will not get worse. It
would be awful if there was to be another war.”

“
Don’t worry.
Everything’ll be all right. Kanzler Hitler would not risk another
war.”

“
I hope you
are right.” She began to close the door but suddenly stopped. “If
only you didn’t have to leave. You could stay here, you know.” She
sounded most genuine.

He laughed,
uneasily.

“
Before long,
I’ll be back again in England. I travel back and forth quite
regularly but I can keep in touch by mail, if that is what you
would like”

“
I would and
I am sure you will want to know all about Andrea, Hans.”

“
Then, it’s
good bye for now, Jan.
Auf
Wiedersehen.
”

He clicked his heels
together in the old way he had seen his father do and placed his
hat on a slight angle.

“
Bye, Hans.”
She began closing the door again, so slowly that she could watch
him walk away. He could feel the strong lingering presence of her
as he opened and closed the small front gate. As he turned right to
walk down the street, he looked back at the house. Jan gave a
little wave and inched the door closed.

What a
difference nursing had made to Jan Turner
,
Hans thought.

He could almost believe
he could begin to like her.

The Berlin office had
been most satisfied with the reports Hans had regularly sent back.
He had been recalled several times to Berlin to report personally
to Oberleutnant Pfinger but he always found such meetings
uncomfortable. Pfinger gave the impression that he could become a
dangerous man if crossed. Besides, he had connections to those who
worked high up in the offices of the Abwehr headquarters. Such men
were party to every secret document and information that made its
way from foreign governments to the Chancellor’s office. These men
were becoming experts in covert operations so it was important to
be on one’s guard, just in case their sympathies lay with the
Party.

England’s Prime Minister,
Mr Chamberlain, easily gave in to Chancellor Hitler’s demands that
German populations along the post-war borders be included in his
new Reich. Hans was reminded of the fears Jan Turner had voiced
when he had seen her last. Next, the Ruhr was clutched back and
then pressure was put on Austria to join the new Germany. No wonder
a feeling of unease and suspicion was beginning to develop in the
minds of some of the English parliamentarians. Anne had written to
Hans saying that she and Gerald still hoped they could remain
friends even though their respective governments appeared to be
moving further apart.

While unemployment
figures in the Reich fell, the military forces grew. Conscription
was the government’s answer to mopping up all those men who would
become a burden on the state. Better to employ them building up
infrastructure than have them making a nuisance of themselves in
the streets. Before long, the manufacture of cars was superseded by
the manufacture of tanks and guns. Chancellor Hitler maintained
this was done solely for peaceful purposes: to get the economy back
on its feet. And, if Mr Chamberlain agreed to swallow that, what
else might he be persuaded to consume?

The last time Hans was
able to visit England was just after New Year in 1938. This time he
found people were less friendly and although new factories had been
built around the outskirts, London was a city expecting some
horrible disaster to happen and more of its people were talking
about the possibility of new hostilities. Newspapers had, only a
few days ago, reported that the german Chancellor had seized
control of the army and had put top Nazis into positions of power.
The report of this sent ripples of consternation across Europe and
across the Channel. As Hans walked through the streets, he could
feel a great tension and unease around him. At Waterloo Station he
felt that people were looking over their shoulders and although
people still went about their normal tasks, each one was less
friendly, more reserved and suspicious as if they each concealed
some dark secret they did not want to share. The earlier fascist
marches he had once seen in Oxford Street were no longer tolerated
and their supporters were openly despised. It was as if all of
Britain were contracting and gathering in her strength to fight for
her survival.

The train arrived on time
at the main town station. Carriage doors slammed shut, steam hissed
and those who had just got off began filing off the narrow station
platform. Hans noticed that most of the friendly old holiday
excursion posters had been removed and new ones warning people to
watch out, be vigilant and never talk openly to strangers had been
put up instead. Seeing them unnerved him a little so he took his
time leaving the station and walking down the main street. He
stopped outside the little café where he and Caroline had
frequently met and ordered a cup of English tea. He sat beside the
window, allowing himself time to unwind and relax. Afterwards, he
stepped outside and hailed a taxi in which he could sit back and
watch familiar landmarks, houses and cottages that came and went
within the small rear vehicle window until the taxi finally turned
a tight corner and where, after passing a dozen houses, it stopped
outside the gate of the Turner home.

It was wonderful to see
Andrea again, a lovely child who always brought delight. Innocently
she chatted to him, showing how she could skip around the room and
do pirouettes without falling over. She sat beside him on the sofa,
the flames from the open fire playing patterns on her hair. She
wriggled closer to him so that she could show him her colouring-in
book that she had been so carefully colouring: purple painted
fairies flittering among the dark trees tree tops with yellow and
blue toadstools dotted in fairy circles among the grass below. She
showed him with pride, for there was hardly any paint outside the
lines.

“
Shouldn’t
toadstools have red spots?” Hans asked.

“
Not mine,”
answered the child as if it was the most natural thing in the
world.

“
Are fairies
always that colour?”

“
Yes. Mine
are.”

“
Have you
seen any fairies?” Hans was almost teasing Andrea.

“
Yes. I
have.” She raised herself onto her knees so that she was able to
whisper in his ear. “They only come at night. And big people cannot
see them, either.”

When Andrea ran off to
attend to her favourite doll who, she said, needed to be fed and
put to bed, Miss Turner turned her attention to the subject that
was uppermost in people’s minds.

“
Is it true
that your Mr Hitler has put every abled bodied man in the army?”
Miss Turner sounded serious and there was a hint of anger in her
voice and before Hans had the time to answer, she concluded with
utmost indignation, “I hope you haven’t had the stupidity to join!”
Hans felt he could not answer. What would Miss Turner say had she
knowledge that he was already holding a military rank? But the
elderly schoolmistress was not finished. “All this talk of peace,
yet all the demands. I am not sure this Mr Hitler of yours is to be
trusted. And, what does he intend to do with the huge armed force
he is creating?”

“
I do think
Andrea looks well, don’t you?” Hans asked, anything to change the
subject and divert Miss Turner’s mind away from military
matters.

“
I hope for
both your sakes, it will not come to war but I have my
fears.”

The following day, Hans
called briefly in to see Anne and Gerald, together with their
growing family. Andrew now had a little sister, Alice. Anne had
found a replacement for Nanny Goodman and she now had more time to
pursue the things she wanted to do. Gerald was still flying and
enjoying it. He did not say whether he had joined the air-force but
it would not have surprised Hans if he had. There was a RAF base
not far from where they were living but when Hans mentioned it,
Gerald was more guarded with his answers and quickly changed the
subject.