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Howard bent and took the lead off him, hugging him for a brief, unselfconscious moment. He rose as Lucas reached them and handed him the lead, coiled up.
Lucas took it. “Well?”
“I saw her. Morning after the book burning…”
“Was she all right?” Lucas’s voice was hoarse, but he could not help it.
“Very,” Howard said drily.
“Stop it!” Lucas snapped. “What…”
“She was buying Reibekuchen at the stall outside the embassy.”
The mundane absurdity of it was not lost on Lucas, but at the moment he did not care. He was about to snap at Howard again, even though he knew it was unfair, and Howard was hurting nearly as much as he was himself.
Then Howard continued. “We walked along the street together, quite a distance, before we were accosted by a bunch of Brownshirts, drunk on their own power. I brazened it out and told the one who stopped us that I was getting her for Goebbels.”
Lucas wanted to strike him. “For God’s sake, man, get to the point,” he said between his teeth.
“They let us go, all apologies. We walked a few yards until we were out of sight. Then she hit me, hard, my head struck the trunk of the tree behind me, and the next thing I knew I was sitting up slowly, with a hell of a headache, and Elena was nowhere in sight.”
Lucas looked at Howard’s face, pale, except for the definite flush as the blood mounted his cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. I didn’t dare draw attention to her by making any inquiries. I asked generally. I couldn’t afford for anything to get back to Cordell. He’s still head of the station in Berlin.”
“You are sure it was Elena?” Lucas asked, his voice shaking. He could not imagine her doing such a thing. “She couldn’t have known—”
“Of course, I’m sure!” Howard said a little tartly. “We talked about all sorts of things. She’s as English as cucumber sandwiches and tea on the lawn. She quoted from the things you often said she loved, and she no longer looks exactly like her picture, which is good. No one else would recognize her. I told her I knew you and Josephine, but she didn’t believe me. She doesn’t know me, Lucas. We’ve never met, and I doubt you’ve spoken about me to her. I should have thought of that before I went. I should have taken something of yours she’d recognize. And I could hardly draw Cordell into it, damn him!” He swallowed. “I’m sorry.” He looked for a moment as if he were going to add something, then changed his mind.
Lucas shook his head. “I suppose I don’t know her as well as I thought.”
Howard gave him a twisted smile, but there was real amusement in it. “Well, she’s not nearly as docile as you painted her, which is probably a good thing.”
“Docile?” Lucas was hurt. “Is that what you thought?”
“Perhaps I misunderstood you. She seemed to agree with you, at least on the surface, about pretty much everything.”
“Because I’m right!” Lucas said tartly, with a smile. “Usually. What can we do, Peter?”
Howard met his eyes. “Nothing…yet. I’ve told the men I can trust, but there are damn few of them! The only comfort is that the Gestapo haven’t got her yet. That I know for certain. And she has allies because she’s eluded the Gestapo for days now. Somebody’s looking after her, and it isn’t us.”
“You sure of that?”
“Yes.”
“Walk back with me?” Lucas requested. He wanted to put off a little longer what he would have to say to Josephine. There were many truths he had not told her, but on the other hand, he had never outright lied. This was not a time to begin.
Charles was another matter. And yet when it came to it, he could not lie to him either. He owed him that.
He parted from Howard without any more unnecessary words and drove home to tell Josephine. There was no avoiding it.
She waited a moment or two before she answered, then glanced at his hand, twisted in the thick fur around Toby’s neck.
“She’s got more courage than you think,” she said at last. “And more fight in her. Poor Howard! Remember how many times in the past you told her not to give up hope? Don’t you give up now.”
It was a struggle for her. He could see it in her eyes, in the unnatural firmness of her jaw.
If he replied, the shaking of his voice would give him away. He just took his hand off Toby’s neck and put it over hers.
