At the same moment in Romney Marsh, the wind from the sea rattled the French windows of the drawing room as Shaw closed the curtains. The furniture was no longer what it had been, the carpets faded, but there was a log fire burning in the hearth, Nell lying in front of it. The door opened and Lavinia came in. She was wearing slacks and carried a tray.
‘I’ve made coffee, darling.’
‘Coffee?’ he roared. ‘To hell with the coffee. I found a bottle of champagne in the cellar. Bellinger. That’s what we need tonight.’
He took it from a bucket on the table, opened it with a flourish and poured some into two glasses. ‘This man, Conlon,’ she said. ‘What did you say he was like?’
‘I’ve told you about five times, old girl.’
‘Oh, Max, isn’t it exciting? To you, my darling.’
‘And to you, old girl,’ he said, toasting her in return.
In Berlin, it was very quiet in Schellenberg’s office as he sat working through some papers in the light of a desk lamp. The door opened and Use looked in. ‘Coffee, General?’
‘Are you still here? I thought you’d gone home.’ ‘I’m going to spend the night in the emergency accommodation. Asa’s stayed on too. He’s in the canteen.’
‘We might as well join him.’ Schellenberg stood up and buttoned his tunic.
‘Are you worried, General, about Devlin?’ ‘My dear Use. Liam Devlin is a man of infinite resource and guile. Given those attributes you could say I’ve nothing to worry about.’ He opened the door and smiled. ‘Which is why I’m frightened to death instead.’
From his window Steiner could see across to the river. He peered through a chink in his blackout curtain and closed it again. ‘A large ship going downriver. Amazing how active things are out there even at night.’
Father Martin, sitting by the small table, nodded. ‘As the song says, Old Father Thames just goes rolling along.’
‘During the day I sometimes sit at the window and watch for a couple of hours at a time.’
‘I understand, my son. It must be difficult for you.’ The priest sighed and got to his feet. ‘I must go. I have a midnight Mass.’
‘Good heavens, Father, do you ever stop?’
‘There’s a war on, my son.’ Father Martin knocked on the door.
The MP on duty unlocked it and the old priest went along the corridor to the outer door. Lieutenant Benson was sitting at the desk in his room and glanced up. ‘Everything all right, Father?’
‘As right as it will ever be,’ Martin said and passed through.
As he went down the stairway to the foyer, Sister Maria Palmer came out of her office. ‘Still here, Father? Don’t you ever go home?’
‘So much to do, Sister.’
‘You look tired.’
‘It’s been a long war.’ He smiled. ‘Good night and God bless you.’
The night porter came out of his cubby-hole, helped him on with his raincoat and gave him his umbrella, then unbolted the door. The old man paused, looking out at the rain, then put up his umbrella and walked away wearily.
Munro was still in his office, standing at a map table, charts of the English Channel and the Normandy approaches spread before him, when Carter limped in.
‘The invasion, sir?’
‘Yes, Jack. Normandy. They’ve made their decision. Let’s hope the Fuhrer still believes it will be the Pas de Calais.’
‘I understand his personal astrologer’s convinced him of it,’ Carter said.
Munro laughed. The ancient Egyptians would only appoint generals who’d been born under the sign of Leo.’
‘I never knew that, sir.’
‘Yes, well you learn something new every day. No going home tonight, Jack. Eisenhower wants a blanket report on the strength of the French Resistance units in this general area and he wants it in the morning. We’ll have to snatch a few hours here.’
‘Very well, sir.’
‘Was there anything else?’
‘Vargas gave me a call.’
‘What did he want?’
‘Another message from his cousin in Berlin. Could he send as much information as possible about St Mary’s Priory.’
‘All right, Jack, cook something up in the next couple of days, staying as close to the truth as possible and pass it on to Vargas. We’ve got more important things to take care of at the moment.’