Under the Moon Gate (19 page)

“It’s a girl,” William marveled. “Twins. Madam, you’ve just delivered twins.”

“A miracle,” Yvette said, awed. “Let me see my children, William.”

Suddenly the ambulance driver and his associate swept into the room like bats and brought chaos with them. Too soon for William. He wanted to savor the moment, share it with Yvette.

“What’s the emergency?”

“Henry, look,” the other worker said. “She’s just delivered. Two babies.”

They scurried about, cutting the cords, washing the babies, while William looked on in wonder.

“The babies, they’re so tiny,” William whispered. “So beautiful, like their mother.” He took a step toward the babies and then back, hesitant, dropping Yvette’s hand.

“Is this the father?” the taller worker asked, wrapping one baby in a towel and handing the bundle to William.

“Oh,” William said, startled as the baby shifted in his arms.

“No,” Yvette laughed, looking at him wistfully. “Not the father, a friend—I think, yes?”

“Yes,” William said strongly, fascinated by the tiny boy he was holding.

The workers lifted Yvette off the bed and onto the stretcher. Then one of them took the bundle from William. Yvette was cuddling her daughter against her chest.

“Well, then, I guess I’d better go home and get cleaned up.”

“William,” she breathed. “Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me alone now. I need you.”

“I’m right here with you, then,” he said. “The babies, they’ll be okay?” William asked one of the emergency workers.

As if on cue, both infants wailed.

“You can hear ’em, can’t you?” the man replied. “They’re madder’n hornets, wanting to be fed, no doubt.”

William turned to Yvette, who was already coaxing her nipple gently into her little girl’s mouth. William blushed when he saw the baby nursing furiously, her tiny fist nestled against her mother’s breast.

A tear spilled out of William’s eye.

Yvette smiled.

“I think we have been part of a true miracle, William,” she sighed.

William caressed Yvette’s cheek.

“You were very brave,” he said.

“And so, William, were you.”

“Okay, we’re going to get mother and babies to hospital,” the ambulance driver announced.

“Will you follow us?” Yvette asked.

“Just let me clean up a bit here, take care of a few things, and I’ll be right behind you,” he assured as Yvette and her children were wheeled out the door.

The room was a bloody mess. It looked like a murder scene. In a few minutes, it would have become one.

The splintered door would be hard to explain. He rinsed his hands, threw the bloody towels into a bag, and sanitized the room, removing any evidence of Yvette’s ever having lived there.

Then he walked down the hall, took the elevator, and danced down the steps of the Princess. He called for his car and drove home. But he couldn’t go to his wife, not yet. He went to Marigold House and removed a pouch from his safe.

Chapter 16

When William arrived at the hospital, he tracked down Yvette and hurried into her room, anxious to see her and the babies again. They were so beautiful, so tiny, so new. His heart filled just to see them. Yvette was feeding the boy now, and the little girl was sleeping soundly in a bassinette by the bed.

“Are you well?” he asked.

“Sleepy, but fine, thank you. Thank you for coming back. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“I promised, didn’t I?”

“You’re a man who keeps his word, I could tell that right away about you.” She smiled, looking at him in rapture.

“Have they fed you?” William wanted to know.

“I’ve been able to eat a little.”

“I brought you something. A sweet pear from our garden.” He held it up to her mouth so she could taste. The juice dribbled down her cheek and he wiped it away.

“That’s delicious, William. Thank you.”

“And I’ve brought you something else. Something to help you, for your future.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Some insurance.”

“What?” Yvette asked, puzzled.

“Don’t ask questions. Just take this. It holds diamonds. They’re yours.” He thrust the pouch toward Yvette. “You deserve this and much more.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I want you to have it.” His words, spoken with force, left no room for objection. “For the children. And if you ever need anything, you know you can come to me.”

They left the rest unspoken between them. William pulled up a chair beside the bed and held Yvette’s hand, closing it around the dazzling emerald.

“I wish…” He paused. “I wish that I could do more for you.” There was a look of longing in his eyes, matched only by hers.

Then the nurse came in and took the children from their mother so Yvette could rest.

He stayed for a while, until Yvette fell asleep, and then he whispered, “I must go now, but I will see you soon.”

When he returned to the hospital the next morning, all trace of Yvette and her babies was gone. It was as if the new family had disappeared off the face of the earth. He used every available channel but could not determine what had happened to the three of them. It haunted him for days, weeks, months. He was frantic that Nighthawk had come for them in the middle of the night, and his mind went wild imagining all the cruel things he could do to the woman and her innocent babies. But he couldn’t ask Nighthawk. His associate had disappeared also.

Chapter 17

Bermuda 1943-1945

31
st
May 1943. “Black May.” Forty-one of our U-boats have been sunk in the Atlantic. The Allies’ achievement of naval supremacy effectively marks the end of our sustained U-boat campaign. The Allies are beginning to employ new radar technology, thwarting Wolf-pack attacks, and the Ubootwaffe suffers a heavy death toll. Canaris tells me 863 U-boats have gone out on operational patrols, and 754 have not returned to their bases. Of the 39,000 men who put to sea in U-boats to date, 27,491 have died.

****

“Thank God the worst of it is over,” Sir Stirling said to William over drinks at Marigold House. “The Germans came dangerously close to starving us out and forcing Britain to come to terms with Germany.”

William wondered if he had even made a difference in the war effort and whether he should have stayed in the
Kriegsmarine
and fought to the death with those daring men with nerves of steel. While
Grossadmiral
Dönitz, head of the
Kriegsmarine
, proclaimed, “You have fought like lions!” William had done nothing but struggle with paperwork and record his “exploits” in a journal.

****

June 1944. Sir Stirling has just returned from England with grave news about heavy attacks on the city of London. The vice admiral and his wife came for dinner, and we caught up on the news.

“I was in London the day the first B2 bomb hit,” recalled the vice admiral. “It was a 3,000-mile-an-hour missile—and it didn’t make a sound. Not like the scream of the Stukas, but terrifying in its own right. One minute I was leaning against the Red Cross building and then, without warning, the bloody thing dug a hole about 40 feet deep. Nobody heard it coming.

“The city has been bombed so badly, you can hardly find a place to live. People can climb a set of steps and there’s no house left at the top. All the glass is gone. To replace windows, they’re smearing brown paper with shortening to let light in. How our people can manage to live under the bombardment I don’t know. The spirit and the fortitude they display is remarkable. The Blitz has killed more than 40,000 people, including thousands of children.”

****

1944. The right to vote was given to all eligible Bermuda women.

William continued to follow his instructions to record all events in his shore-based war diary, or
Kriegstagebuch
, no matter how insignificant they seemed at the time. It amused him to think that this particular milestone, women’s right to vote, would probably have longer-lasting repercussions than the Third Reich’s fading dreams of world dominance.

“Diana and Olivia are over the moon because land-owning women have been given the right to vote,” the vice admiral said. “My wife and my daughter are suffragists. What is the world coming to? Diana told me you put Marigold House in her name so she could receive a vote. I know you have properties all over the island, but signing over the house meant the world to Diana.”

“And she means the world to me,” replied William, who continued more and more in love with his wife each passing day.

William didn’t know how well that move would sit with his superiors, but the way the war was going, he didn’t know how much longer he’d be in Bermuda. If he were to be pulled suddenly, he wanted to leave Diana well protected and cared for. He had already begun placing his other assets in her name. To hell with his handlers. She was the most important thing in his life. The only thing he valued.

He had built an entire operation here, waiting for word of an invasion, for his people to smooth the way for the waiting submarines, and still the word never came. It had been years. Did they think that overseeing and maintaining such an intricate network—facilities, supplies, resources, operatives—had not been difficult or risky? Bermuda was a gem, ripe for the picking, and still no word to move the plan forward. He knew German subs were still out there, lurking off the island. He had seen them with his own eyes, boarded them on occasion, communicated with them regularly, and still no one had issued the order to proceed or dismantle the operation. His operatives were growing impatient. And so was he. The information he reported was becoming sketchier. In truth, he had learned some damaging information from his father-in-law that he didn’t bother to report to his superiors.

He was losing his appetite for the game, especially once he’d heard the distasteful, nasty, actually revolting rumors about the Jews and their inhuman treatment in the concentration camps—the “KZs.”

Bermuda was his home now. He had been here seven years. What if he were pulled back, his cover compromised? The way the war was going, where would he be pulled back to? It was apparent to him that Germany was going to lose the war. What would become of his operation? Of his wife? He had amassed a fortune, and to what end? Who else knew about it? Could his subordinates be trusted? What was he supposed to do with the gold and his properties if the operation was permanently torpedoed?

The Third Reich was imploding with typical German precision—folding on every front. Desperate, William had even toyed with the idea of turning, becoming a double agent. Going to his father-in-law and revealing all, offering to help the British war effort and seeking his protection. But it was much too late in the game to play both sides of the fence. Either they would hang him or his own agents would seek retribution. And then what would become of Diana? Every move had to be made with her in mind. She was his world now, his lifeline.

He heard rumors that Canaris had attempted to change sides but his peacemaking posturing was ridiculed in the Foreign Office. Everybody knew Hitler was already doomed.

William had been receiving conflicting reports. He knew that between February 1942 and October 1943 German U-boats sank 17 ships off the Florida coast. He wondered if Germany was still in control of the sea. He had his doubts. He was isolated here, dangling precipitously. Not knowing the final outcome of the conflict was tearing him apart, preventing him from moving on with his life with Diana.

The first sign of a chink in the German armor came little more than a month later.

****

20
th
July 1944. I was shocked to learn of Colonel Claus Count von Stauffenberg’s putsch at Wolfsschanze, Hitler’s secret headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb killed four people, wounded more, but the target escaped. Hitler went on air the next day to assure the German people that all was well. He was unhurt and the plot against his life was foiled. Stauffenberg and his aides were immediately convicted of high treason and shot by a firing squad.

23
rd
July 1944. Admiral Canaris has been arrested, three days after the attempt on Hitler’s life! I will never believe the admiral was involved in the conspiracy to kill Hitler, although it was no secret he didn’t hold Hitler in high regard.

William recalled the last time he saw his friend. He had been surprised, shocked really, by the appearance of Canaris himself standing on the bridge during a recent submarine rendezvous in the waters outside Marigold House late in the war. He had personally come to Bermuda to warn his protégé so he wouldn’t be left out in the cold.

“How did you manage to get out of Germany?” William wondered as he saw his mentor standing in the moonlight. “It’s much too dangerous for you to be here. You shouldn’t have taken the risk. Karl should never have let you come.”

“He couldn’t have stopped me. I had no choice, Wilhelm. I had to get away. Germany, at least the Führer’s glorious vision of Germany, is crumbling around us. I’ve been in touch with the Americans and the British to negotiate for myself and an unnamed associate.”

Canaris put his arm around Wilhelm’s shoulder.

“I promised your father I would protect you, and I have tried to honor my pledge. You’ve been like a son to me. But it’s too late. They weren’t interested.”