There was a bad moment when Alice was back in the days of the Vienna household, remembering that this was the master’s son, and that she should remember her place and be respectful and obedient. But Lucretia, with imperious annoyance, said, Rubbish! This is a bully and a brute, and I owe him nothing and I refuse to be cowed by him.
So when she finally spoke, it was the baroness who said, ‘This is all utter nonsense, Leo.’ Yes, call him Leo, remind him that you’re equals these days. ‘You’re behaving as if we’re living inside a Victorian melodrama,’ said Lucretia. ‘All this absurd talk about having your revenge on the woman who wronged your sister—It’s like something out of East Lynne.’ This sounded satisfyingly disdainful, but inside she was panic-stricken. I’m cooped up with a powerful man who hates me and who’s almost certainly taking me to some miserable prison camp, and I’m telling him he’s behaving like a Victorian villain! I wonder if I’m entirely sane at the moment?
‘I’m extremely sorry for what happened to Nina,’ she said. ‘But it isn’t my fault that she became a drug addict. I didn’t steal Conrad from her, in fact I had no idea your father had intended him to marry her.’ A pause. ‘I will admit that I behaved less than well that night, but plenty of girls lose a lover and survive. Nina had looks and money and position. And a doting family.’ She leaned back in the jeep and studied him. ‘Back then I told a roomful of people that you had tried to seduce me and that I refused to be seduced. Surely you aren’t still resentful of that, Leo? Such a small event, wasn’t it? Or perhaps it wasn’t a small event to you. Perhaps it was important to you.’
His eyes snapped with anger, but he mastered it almost at once – it was rather frightening to see the iron self-control clamping down. In a tight, clipped voice he said, ‘I am entirely within my rights to take you to a labour camp. Himmler has ordered that all Jews be segregated.’
‘I’m not a Jew,’ said Lucretia at once.
‘Among so many, that will never be noticed. And you have the colouring.’ Incredibly, one hand came out to touch her hair. As she flinched, he smiled. ‘And,’ said Leo Dreyer, ‘if you try to protest against wrongful incarceration, among so many that will not be noticed either. In any case you have consorted with a Jew all these years. You gave birth to his bastard.’
‘One day, you will pay for that remark,’ said Lucretia, sounding bored. She peered through the jeep’s sides again, and in a sharper voice, said, ‘Something’s happening out there, isn’t it? All those people shouting – the soldiers everywhere—Whatever it is, you’ve used it as your cover to get at me—’
‘Yes, something is happening,’ he said. ‘Last night the German government unleashed a pogrom against the Jews—’ He stopped, watching her reaction. ‘I see you know what the word means.’
‘Mass killing,’ said Lucretia, a completely new horror crawling over her skin. ‘Organized mass murder.’
‘Yes. An interesting derivation – Russian, originally. Used, of course, when the Jews in Russia were massacred in the early years of the century.’ For a moment he leaned forward, moving the jeep’s canvas covering to peer out at the streets.
‘We are burning the synagogues,’ he said. ‘Throughout the cities of Germany and Austria we are destroying everything Jewish – all the Jew-owned shops and businesses, all the Torah scrolls we can find, all the prayer-books. Can you see how the sky is lit up with the flames? Over there to the west?’ He was looking out into the streets, his attention momentarily away from his prisoner. Was this the moment to make a lunge forward and jump out? No. The helmeted and visored soldiers were still riding level with the jeep. She would not get five yards.