Robert slid a file off his desk and sat beside her. “What I’m about to show you is top secret. I trust you not to say anything to anyone, but I warn you, you won’t like what’s in here.”
“I don’t like a lot of things right now.” Including about herself and how she’d landed in trouble.
“With good reason.” He rested the file on his lap and opened it. “The Windsors refused to leave la Croë because they were in talks with Herr von Ribbentrop.”
“I know. Wallis spoke to him before she sent me to Paris. She said he’d guarantee my safety.” She set the coffee cup on the table. It stung to admit she’d been a gullible dupe.
“They were discussing more than that. Herr Hitler expects England will crumble as fast as France, and when it does, he plans to put the Duke on the throne as a puppet king with Wallis by his side.”
Amelia stared at him, unable to believe what he’d said. Wallis was bad but she wasn’t that awful—or was she? If five years ago someone had told Amelia that Wallis would divorce Ernest and help pull a king from his throne, she’d have laughed in their face, and yet it had happened. This must be true. “Oh my God. Mrs. Bedaux said she was entangled in something. I never thought it was this.”
“I don’t think she meant to involve you this deeply.”
“Until she saw the chance to use me for her own ends.” She couldn’t say she wasn’t warned, but once again she’d ignored it, insisting on seeing what she wanted instead of what was right in front of her.
“Apparently, she’s been planning it for some time.” He opened the file and handed her copies of private letters from Wallis to Herr von Ribbentrop and other German officials. Some were as recent as June, others stretched back to 1935 and 1936 when Wallis had been the King’s mistress. Buried between comments about difficult staff or new antiques were bits of information that when taken alone seemed harmless, but when read together painted an ugly portrait of state secrets stolen from the King’s dispatch boxes and passed to the Germans. Amelia wanted to tell Robert these were forgeries, an attempt by someone, probably the Queen of England, to besmirch Wallis but she couldn’t. She recognized Wallis’s elegant handwriting and the tone and flair of her phrases. There were also official government documents that made it all but certain, especially the memo to J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Memorandum for the Director
For some time the British Government has known that the Duchess of Windsor was exceedingly pro-German in her sympathies and connections and there is strong reason to believe that this is the reason why she was considered so obnoxious to the British Government that they refused to permit Edward to marry her and maintain the throne.
Shortly prior to the designation of the Duke to be Governor of The Bahamas, field agents established conclusively that the Duchess of Windsor had recently been in direct contact with von Ribbentrop and was maintaining constant contact and communication with him. Because of their high official position the Duchess was obtaining a variety of information concerning the British and French government official activities which she was passing on to the Germans. Accordingly, the British government moved them to Biarritz.
“That’s why the Germans announced which room the Windsors were staying in, in Biarritz,” Robert explained. “The Duchess told them where they were and they used the threat as a credible reason to go to la Croë. It’s also why they refused to leave there. They were waiting for word or instructions from the Germans. They still are.” He handed her another document. “We intercepted and decoded this communiqué from Baron von Hoyningen-Huene in Lisbon to Herr von Ribbentrop.”
I have heard through my sources that the Duke of Windsor believes continued heavy bombing will make England ready for Peace. He will postpone his journey to The Bahamas for as long as possible to see if the winds of war change in his favor. Her Royal Highness, given her need to interfere in politics, and her limitless ambition, has not abandoned hope of becoming Queen of England.
He laid another paper on top of it. “There are also rumors the Duchess and Herr von Ribbentrop are lovers.” He placed a typewritten
memo in front of her. Much of it was redacted but what wasn’t confirmed her suspicions about Wallis and Herr von Ribbentrop
long ago at Madame Schiaparelli’s.
Memorandum to the Director
[Redacted]
She also told me again that there was no doubt whatever but that the Duchess of Windsor had had an affair with Ribbentrop, and that of course she had an intense hate for the English since they had kicked them out of England.
Amelia thought she might be sick. Wallis’s deceit had been in front of her the whole time but she hadn’t seen it because she’d convinced herself Wallis had learned from her mistakes. She’d been as wrong about that as Wallis’s concern for her.
Robert set down another one. “This one was intercepted three days ago. It’s from Herr von Ribbentrop to the Duchess.”
Germany is now determined to force England to make peace by every means of power. It would be a good thing if the Duke were to keep himself prepared for further developments. In such case, Germany would be willing to cooperate most closely with the Duke and to clear the way for any desire expressed by you. The direction in which these wishes tend is quite obvious and meets with our complete understanding.
“The Nazis were eager to keep the Windsors in Europe to see how things developed with England but Sir Walter was kind enough to travel to Lisbon and explain to the Duke that Prime Minister Churchill was ready to court-martial him if he didn’t leave for Nassau immediately. The Germans intended to use you as a valid reason for the Windsors to stay, until I stepped in and had you released.”
“Mrs. Bedaux is in on it too. Everything she did for me was to help make me Wallis’s pawn.” Amelia wished a bomb would fall on the building and blow them and the papers to hell so she didn’t have to face this. It was like the morning the lawyers had laid Jackson’s crimes out to her in their office, destroying all of Jackson’s excuses and lies and her hope that the prosecutors had been wrong. The veil had been pulled from her eyes and she’d seen everything with horrifying clarity, as she did today, and nothing afterward had been the same. “I thought Wallis had learned her lesson, that she hated Britain because of what’d happened, the way I used to complain to Aunt Bessie about everyone who’d been mean to me. I didn’t think she’d do something like this. If I’d known, I would’ve done something to stop it. But I did know. I heard what she told Mrs. Bedaux about the Ardennes. How many people are suffering because of it?”
He clasped her hands in his. “There’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent the invasion. The Duke and Duchess weren’t the only ones feeding information about the defenses to the Germans, but you telling me allowed me to tip off people to keep a better eye on them.”
Another awful truth began to dawn on her and she slid her hands out of his. “You were spying on me the whole time, weren’t you, using me to get information on the Windsors?”
“I didn’t need you to gather information. The Duke wasn’t exactly subtle in his admiration of Herr Hitler.”
“But you still used me to do it. That’s why you helped with the deposition. Did you have Mr. Carlton tell the prosecutors not to order me home so you could keep me in Europe?”
He sat back against the sofa. “I didn’t but my superiors did.”
Amelia jumped to her feet and paced the room. “I thought you were helping me because you cared but you were using me like all the others.”
“That’s not true. In the beginning I followed orders to make contact with you, but the more I got to know you the more I began to like and admire you.” He stood before her, forcing her to stop and look at him and the sincerity in his blue eyes. “I love you, Amelia, I do, and I was in a panic when you didn’t turn up here. I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to find you. When Susan told me the Germans had you, I used every contact I had, pulled all the strings I could to get you out.”
“You lied to me.”
“Not about wanting to be with you, but this is bigger than us, and no matter what my feelings or yours, I have a duty to my country to do everything I can to protect it and Americans in France. You’d do the same if you were in my shoes.”
“I don’t know what I’d do anymore. Theodore was right, I can’t judge anyone and look what it’s cost me. I have nothing real, and no one because I’m a naive fool.”
“You’re a caring person who tries to see the best in the people she loves. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Isn’t there? My job is gone, along with most of my things. The people I relied on for experience and connections betrayed me. I can’t believe this is happening again.” Like Wallis, she’d learned nothing from her life experiences.
“You can’t expect things to be cut-and-dried in this crazy world. You can only take what chances you’re given to find happiness and joy. It’s all any of us can do.”
He was right. In a time when every maxim had been crushed by German tanks and plots, the old rules didn’t apply. He’d done his job as she’d done hers, and both of them had been caught in a situation out of their control. If she could think straight, if the world weren’t so dark, she might understand and sympathize with this but she couldn’t. All she could feel was another letdown, another failure by someone she’d loved and believed in, and she’d fallen for it because she’d wanted to be loved and useful, valued and important. Despite the couture clothes, the European polish and experience, she was still the overlooked debutante suckered in by anyone who’d give her a second look.
“I want to go home to America.” At least there weren’t bombs and plots in Baltimore.
“Susan and most of the unessential staff are being evacuated to London tomorrow. You can go with them and the office there will help you find passage home. Or you could join the Windsors in Nassau, and report to us about what they’re doing and stop them from undermining Britain, the last bastion of freedom in Europe.”
“You mean spy on them the way you spied on me?”
He ignored the dig, assuming the posture of an ambassadorial official, the one who’d first greeted her at the Hotel Meurice ages ago. “The Bahamas aren’t far enough away to keep the Windsors out of trouble, not with Axel Wenner-Gren there. He’s up to no good and he’ll draw them into whatever plot he’s hatching. He’s already arranged for payment to the Windsors from the Germans through a Swiss account. America plans to build air bases in The Bahamas and, along with the British, are worried about the Windsors feeding Mr. Wenner-Gren information about American naval movements. You couldn’t stop your cousin from causing trouble before but you can help stop her from doing whatever she’s planning now.”
“You mean have my revenge.” She’d seen what it had done to Wallis and she no longer wanted to be anything like her.
“It isn’t revenge, but a way to keep bad people from doing more awful things. Charles Bedaux is already overseeing the takeover of Jewish factories, and word is, he’s leaving for Africa to help the Vichy government build oil lines. You can’t stop him, but you can help stop others.”
“By living another lie. I won’t do it again. Wallis can go to the devil for all I care, and you can go with her.”
Chapter Twenty-One
London, September 7, 1940
Four-forty. Over an hour to go before Amelia was off work for the day.
“You have a hot date tonight?” Susan teased from across the desk as her fingers flew over the typewriter keys. They both worked as typists at the American Embassy at 1 Grosvenor Square, glad to have paying positions while they waited for a berth home. The number of Americans trying to leave was growing by the day but every transport in or out of Britain was dedicated to the war effort and the movement of men and machines. Everyone else got space when it became available. “Robert, perhaps?”
Amelia stopped typing the travel request. “I told you not to mention his name.”
“He came back to London last week with the rest of the Embassy staff. He’d love to see you.”
