The FitzOsbornes at War (61 page)

‘Toby! You
said
you weren’t going to be flying any operations!’

‘I said I wasn’t going to be flying
in
combat
. And I didn’t. I just took a quick trip to Montmaray and back, and no harm done. They didn’t even fire their anti-aircraft guns at me.’

‘Oh, excellent, they’ve got an anti-aircraft battery there as well!’ said Veronica. ‘This is sounding better and better!’

‘They didn’t fire it because they’re either slow and stupid, or they’ve run out of ammunition,’ said Toby patiently. ‘Their supplies must be getting pretty low, now that the Nazis have been kicked out of France and the Spanish have finally stopped helping them. It’s an ideal time to launch our attack. Anyway, they definitely won’t be shooting at one of their
own
planes, so we needn’t worry about that. Obviously, there are still a few little details to work out, but overall, what do you think of my plan?’

‘I think it’s unnecessary, extremely risky and altogether one of the stupidest ideas you’ve ever had,’ said Veronica.

‘I can’t believe they let you work in the Diplomatic Services,’ said Toby. ‘Soph, what do you think?’

‘I’m already imagining a dozen things that could go disastrously wrong,’ I said.

‘Oh, good,’ he said. ‘Well, write them all down, then we can figure out a solution for each problem.’

‘And what did you mean,’ I continued, ‘when you said that
you
won’t be speaking German? Who will?’

Toby hesitated for the first time. ‘Um . . . well, there’s someone who’s volunteered to help. Perfect for the job.’

‘A German?’ I asked.

‘No, no. He just speaks German, knows a lot about Wehrmacht officer behaviour . . .’ Toby began to falter under Veronica’s stare. ‘And he’s . . . er, familiar with the terrain –’

She jumped up, setting all the teacups rattling. ‘Absolutely
not
! You are
not
involving Daniel in this ridiculous scheme!’

‘Well, that’s up to him to decide, isn’t it?’ said Toby. ‘I just happened to mention the idea to him, and he said he wanted to help.’

‘When was this? When you
just happened
to be visiting Bletchley? And I suppose you
just happened
to have arranged with the Colonel for Daniel to be released from his duties there?’

‘Mmm,’ said Toby, suddenly very busy shuffling his photographs into a pile.

‘Right! That’s it! I’m going to telephone him this instant!’ she shouted, and stormed off.

And that was the end of our meeting.

After dinner, I tackled Julia, the only person who might possibly be able to talk Toby out of this.

‘Oh, I
know
, Sophie,’ she said at once. ‘I know exactly how you feel! I wish Toby would just wait till Germany surrenders. But I’m not sure anyone can stop him, he’s so determined to go ahead with it. Even though it seems terribly dangerous . . .’

‘I think Toby
wants
it to be dangerous,’ I said. ‘I think he wants a chance to have his revenge on the Nazis. To pay them back for what they did to him, and to Henry.’

‘Yes, you’re right, I think he does,’ she sighed. ‘Still, I must admit, he’s brightened up a lot since he started planning this thing. I had a vague idea of what it might be, of course . . . And you know, the Colonel wouldn’t have agreed to help unless
he
felt it was a feasible scheme. That’s the only thing making me feel slightly better about it. Oh, you
will
help Toby, won’t you? You and Veronica? Because you’re both so clever and you know Montmaray. He needs you to make this work.’

Toby walked into the kitchen just then with his notebook. ‘Simon,’ he announced to both of us. ‘Soph, do you know where exactly in Italy he
is
now? We’d better get him back, we might need a spare pilot.’

Julia and I looked at each other after he’d gone back upstairs.

‘Well,’ I said, giving up. ‘Just as long as he doesn’t try to draft
Rupert
into this.’

12th November, 1944

W
E SPENT MOST OF TODAY
ensconced in what Toby insists on calling ‘HQ’ – a large second-floor bedroom he’s converted into his study, the wallpaper of which has now disappeared under dozens of maps, diagrams, photographs, meteorological charts and scrawled lists, as well as a dartboard featuring Hitler’s face. It turned out Churchill was quite enthusiastic about the idea of a commando raid on Montmaray, when the Colonel told him our plans, but his generals all said they didn’t have any ships, planes or men to spare for such a ‘strategically insignificant’ mission. The most they could promise was some help afterwards, collecting prisoners of war, and clearing up any land mines or unexploded bombs. Upon hearing that, Toby put in a request for Jimmy Smith’s bomb disposal company, because the poor boy’s been abroad for months and Alice is going out of her mind with worry over him. Of course, there won’t be any need of their bomb-disposal services until we’ve got rid of the Nazis, which depends on us coming up with a foolproof plan – and sometimes I’m not sure we’re
ever
going to manage that.

This afternoon, Daniel joined us for one of our interminable meetings. We still didn’t come to any firm decisions, but he did prove quite effective at mediating between Toby and Veronica, who keep having the same argument over and over again.

‘Even if there
are
only six soldiers stationed there – and I must say, the evidence for that isn’t very convincing – it still means
three
of them for each of you,’ said Veronica. ‘That’s why I ought to come with you.’

‘Well, you can’t,’ said Toby. ‘And it’s got nothing to
do
with you being a girl, so don’t even start on that. The plane only seats two. Therefore, unless you can learn to fly a plane or speak fluent German in the next fortnight, you’ll just have to be in charge of the support crew in Cornwall.’

‘Anyway,’ said Daniel, putting his arm round her, ‘there won’t
be
any physical combat, so it doesn’t matter how many of them there are. We’re going to
talk
them into surrendering.’

‘Yes, how’s the script going?’ Toby asked me.

‘Well, I’ve written three scenarios so far,’ I said, frowning at my notebook, ‘but none of them sound all that plausible to
me
. I mean, Nazi soldiers aren’t
really
going to believe that Hitler’s committed suicide and the war is over, are they?’

‘Well, what if Daniel tells them that all the Nazi generals have banded together behind Hitler’s back?’ said Toby. ‘Because they want to negotiate a peace treaty, in order to save the Fatherland from annihilation?’

‘But would a high-ranking Nazi officer bother flying to some remote island outpost to inform the soldiers there?’ I said. ‘Especially if there
are
only six of them?’

‘What about if I’ve come to tell them they’re being posted back to Germany, because that’s where all the fighting is going on now?’ said Daniel.

‘Yes, I wrote one about that,’ I said. ‘But there’s still the question of why you’d want to disarm them before they left the island.’

‘And surely we’d bring a bigger plane if we were meaning to transport troops,’ pointed out Toby. ‘The problem is, we’ve only got access to a two-seater. Well, there
is
another plane available, but I’m not sure I could land it safely on that tiny airstrip.’

‘I think
this
scenario’s the best,’ said Veronica, who’d been reading my notebook. ‘Daniel accuses them of treason – says one of them was picked up on a listening device, overheard making jokes about Hitler’s sanity, so they’re all being taken back to Berlin to stand trial.’

‘But do Nazis
have
trials?’ Toby said. ‘They just shoot traitors on the spot, don’t they?’

‘Either way, it provides a plausible excuse to handcuff and disarm them,’ said Veronica. ‘Or some of them, at least.’

‘And they’re bound to have said
something
bad about Hitler at some stage,’ I said, scribbling down notes, ‘so they’ll all be feeling a bit guilty and be more likely to go along with it. I’ll add some bits about Daniel being sympathetic to them. You know, “I hate to do this to you, I can just imagine what it’s like being stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, but just cooperate with me, and we’ll get it all sorted out as soon as possible, and then you can have some leave in Germany.”’

‘Sounds good,’ said Toby. ‘Show it to Daniel when you’re done. Now, what’s next on the list? Oh, yes, communications. I’m not sure yet how we’re going to contact the authorities after we’ve recaptured the island. We obviously can’t use the German radio system –’

At that point, Julia came in with her tape measure, to check Daniel’s size for the Nazi uniform she’s sewing him. And then it was time for tea. So we still haven’t figured out even
half
of what we need to do . . . but we’re getting there.

30th November, 1944

I
SEEM TO HAVE SPENT
a significant proportion of this war feeling either very bored or very anxious, and at the moment, I’m managing to experience both at once. So I have taken out my journal, in the hope that writing down a detailed description of events thus far might provide some distraction from our nerve-wracking wait. We’ve been sitting here, in this wooden hut on the edge of a wind-blasted Cornish heath, for more than six hours now. Well,
I
am sitting – Veronica is wearing a groove in the floorboards with her pacing, and Simon keeps leaping up to peer out the window in the direction of the airfield. I don’t know what he expects to see there. The message we’re anticipating is far more likely to arrive from the other direction – along that bridle path that leads to the farmhouse pigeon loft where Rupert is stationed. Meanwhile, Julia remains in London by the telephone, ready to alert the Colonel if anything goes wrong – not that there’s very much he’ll be able to do if it
does
. . .

Oh, but I’m meant to be distracting myself. Very well – I’ll write about Simon. It was rather disconcerting at first, to have him back with us again. He looked so unchanged – perhaps a little older, and rather more tanned than the last time I’d seen him, but just as handsome. Yet how
could
he be the same, when I felt so differently about him? For I realised at once that my complex, intense emotions of several years ago had been smoothed flat by the weight of subsequent experiences, so that all that remained was a mild affection. Any resentment or anger had been brushed aside long ago. Veronica initially seemed far less inclined to forgive him for his Great Disappearing Act (I’d always
wondered
how much she’d known about Simon and me). But then the two of them had a noisy argument about what time he’d said he’d be arriving, and now they seem to have settled back into their usual, comfortable level of squabbling. As for
Toby
– he looked so pleased to see Simon again that I couldn’t help thinking that my brother’s feelings, at least, were exactly the same as they’d ever been. And Simon did such an excellent job of disguising any shock he felt at Toby’s altered appearance that I felt a rush of gratitude towards my cousin, and was suddenly very happy that he’d returned . . .