Read Winter of the World for Free Online

slicked hair. Jörg was younger, a blond man with delicate features
and a cheerful smile. The two had been prisoners of war together in Russia. Now they lived in an apartment over the restaurant.
    They reminisced about the wedding of Walter and Maud, held in great secrecy on the eve of the war. There had been no guests, but Robert and Ethel had been best man and bridesmaid. Ethel said:
‘We had champagne at the hotel, then I tactfully said that Robert and I would leave, and Walter –’ she suppressed a fit of giggles – ‘Walter said: “Oh, I assumed
we would all have dinner together”!’
    Maud chuckled. ‘You can imagine how pleased I was about that!’
    Lloyd looked into his coffee, feeling embarrassed. He was eighteen and a virgin, and honeymoon jokes made him uncomfortable.
    More sombrely, Ethel asked Maud: ‘Do you ever hear from Fitz these days?’
    Lloyd knew that the secret wedding had caused a terrible rift between Maud and her brother, Earl Fitzherbert. Fitz had disowned her because she had not gone to him, as head of the family, and
asked his permission to marry.
    Maud shook her head sadly. ‘I wrote to him that time we went to London, but he refused even to see me. I hurt his pride by marrying Walter without telling him. My brother is an unforgiving
man, I’m afraid.’
    Ethel paid the bill. Everything in Germany was cheap if you had foreign currency. They were about to get up and leave when a stranger came to the table and, uninvited, pulled up a chair. He was
a heavy man with a small moustache in the middle of a round face.
    He wore a Brownshirt uniform.
    Robert said coldly: ‘What may I do for you, sir?’
    ‘My name is Criminal Commissar Thomas Macke.’ He grabbed a passing waiter by the arm and said: ‘Bring me a coffee.’
    The waiter looked enquiringly at Robert, who nodded.
    ‘I work in the political department of the Prussian police,’ Macke went on. ‘I am in charge of the Berlin intelligence section.’
    Lloyd translated for his mother in a low voice.
    ‘However,’ said Macke, ‘I wish to speak to the proprietor of the restaurant about a personal matter.’
    Robert said: ‘Where did you work a month ago?’
    The unexpected question startled Macke, and he replied immediately: ‘At the police station in Kreuzberg.’
    ‘And what was your job there?’
    ‘I was in charge of records. Why do you ask?’
    Robert nodded as if he had expected something like this. ‘So you have gone from a job as a filing clerk to head of the Berlin intelligence section. Congratulations on your rapid
promotion.’ He turned to Ethel. ‘When Hitler became Chancellor at the end of January, his henchman Hermann Göring took the role of Interior Minister of Prussia – in charge of
the largest police force in the world. Since then, Göring has been firing policemen wholesale and replacing them with Nazis.’ He turned back to Macke and said sarcastically:
‘However, in the case of our surprise guest I’m sure the promotion was purely on merit.’
    Macke flushed, but kept his temper. ‘As I said, I wish to speak to the proprietor about something personal.’
    ‘Please come and see me in the morning. Would ten o’clock suit you?’
    Macke ignored this suggestion. ‘My brother is in the restaurant business,’ he ploughed on.
    ‘Ah! Perhaps I know him. Macke is the name? What kind of establishment does he run?’
    ‘A small place for working men in Friedrichshain.’
    ‘Ah. Then it isn’t likely that I have met him.’
    Lloyd was not sure that it was wise for Robert to be so waspish. Macke was rude, and did not deserve kindness, but he could probably make serious trouble.
    Macke went on: ‘My brother would like to buy this restaurant.’
    ‘Your brother wants to move up in the world, as you have.’
    ‘We are prepared to offer you twenty thousand marks, payable over two years.’
    Jörg burst out laughing.
    Robert said: ‘Permit me to explain something to you, Commissar. I am an