“We have to leave at once,” Amelia insisted, tired of being timid. “We aren’t safe here.”
“Nonsense, there’re always rogue pilots trying to make names for themselves.” The Duke picked up a broken bottle. “Who did this? Clean up this mess at once.”
“That wasn’t a one-off. The pilot deliberately targeted the village. I saw it. He could’ve done the same to us if he’d wanted. If we stay, there might be more planes next time and more than shattered wine bottles to worry about.”
“Come with me at once.” Wallis grabbed Amelia by the arm and pulled her up the front stairs and into the sitting room. The cool ocean breeze, heavy with salt and moisture, made the tall yellow curtains flanking the open windows move. “Why are you scaring everyone?”
“Because if you listen carefully you can hear the French shelling Genoa.” Amelia shook out of her grasp. “Why are we still here? Why haven’t we left?”
“Because there’s no reason to go traipsing around France like vagabonds, leaving our precious things to be looted.”
“They’re just things. They can be replaced.”
“They aren’t just things but a part of our wealth, and if we can’t get our money out of French banks, we’ll need them to live on. I won’t be poor again. You of all people should understand that.”
“You won’t need money if you’re dead.”
“No one is going to die.” Wallis took a steadying breath. “I have assurances that no matter what happens, we’ll be safe.”
“From whom?” Her cousin had gone mad over flatware.
“Herr von Ribbentrop. I’ve spoken to him numerous times and he’s promised that we and our things will be perfectly safe.”
“Is that who you’ve been holed up in your room talking to?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is when my life is at stake too. What if you’re wrong or he’s lying and the Italians march in here and hand you over to the Germans, then what? Queen Elizabeth won’t lift a finger to help you; she’ll probably be glad to be rid of you or say you threw in with the Nazis and everyone will believe her because of those pictures of you and the Duke saluting Herr Hitler in Germany. Whatever deal you think you’ve got, whatever you’re planning, if we leave, you’ll have a stronger position to bargain from than if you fall into their hands.”
Wallis turned her emerald engagement ring around on her finger. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It’s always better to have choices, especially since you have no diplomatic papers or safeguards, and if the Duke is captured, they might treat him as a combatant because of his military rank.” It was every argument Sir Walter had given her to try and reason with them.
“His position was only an honorary one.”
“They don’t know that, and you don’t know what nefarious game Herr von Ribbentrop is using you for. Stop playing into their hands. We’ve got to go while we still can.”
Wallis began to pace, contemplating everything Amelia had said. Amelia hoped she’d come to her senses. If she didn’t, Amelia would call Prime Minister Churchill herself and tell him to make them leave at gunpoint.
“I think you’re right. We can better bargain with them if we aren’t in their hands,” Wallis said at last.
“Bargain about what?”
She didn’t answer but faced her as she had every morning when she’d given Amelia her daily tasks. “I’ll speak with David. Prepare the household for our departure.”
“You wanted to see me?” Amelia joined Wallis in the sitting room. “The cars are filled to the brim. We can’t squeeze much else in.” The packing list had grown like a fungus over the past twenty-four hours. Major Hugh Dodds, the British consul at Nice, had told the Duke the only way out of France was by car through neutral Spain and then on to Lisbon. Amelia hadn’t been able to find a truck driver willing to drive that far.
“It isn’t about the luggage. I left my safe in Paris when we fled. I can’t leave it behind. I’d like you to go to Paris and arrange to have it shipped to us in Lisbon.”
Amelia stared at her, unable to believe what she’d heard. “You can buy new jewels. I did the insurance paperwork myself. I won’t risk my life for things you can replace.”
“It’s not about my jewelry but some personal papers and correspondence.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “What kind of correspondence?”
“The sort that in the wrong hands could be read in the worst light.” Wallis rearranged the flowers in the vase on the abdication desk, the last bit of furniture left to pack. “I’m friends with very influential German men. I’ve known them since London, it’s all perfectly innocent, but you know how quick people are to disparage me and they would over this. Then I and everyone associated with me will be dragged through the mud, the way they dragged you over Jackson. I know you don’t want to go through that again. I can’t bear it, and in these uncertain times, anything taken in the wrong light could mean the difference between being safe and being at risk.”
She didn’t want to be dragged again but she didn’t want to end up with the Germans either. “Why didn’t you bring the safe with us when we left?”
“You saw everything abandoned on the road. I couldn’t risk it being dropped in some field for anyone to find, and I didn’t believe, I never imagined, we couldn’t go home or that France would fall. I can’t risk desperate people breaking into Boulevard Suchet and stealing it.”
“Then have your German friends send it to Lisbon.”
“They’re much too busy to bother with something like this, and I don’t want them digging through my things either. I have to send someone I trust.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“You’ll be perfectly safe. The Germans are being generous with Americans, they don’t want to drag us into the war by mistreating those still in France. You’ll have not only the protection of the U.S. Embassy but the highest German officials.” She opened the top drawer of the abdication desk and removed a few papers and handed them to Amelia. There was a ticket on the Blue Train to Paris and German travel documents signed by Herr von Ribbentrop granting Amelia free movement through France and Paris. “Here’s a list of some other things I’d like you to get from the house. You can use them to hide the safe when you ship it. Once you finish in Paris, you’ll meet us in Lisbon and travel with us to England. It’s all been arranged.”
“You did this without asking me?”
“I trust you, and you know all the right people, the correct routes, how to arrange things so no one will ask questions. I’d do it myself but David is helpless without me, and if we have any hope of getting back to England, I must stay with him.”
She was right. Without Wallis, the Duke might linger somewhere inappropriate and place everyone from Mademoiselle Moulichon to Mr. Phillips in danger. Amelia had to think of their welfare too. If they stayed with the Windsors they’d get out of Europe with them, assuming Wallis didn’t waste precious time demanding the Duke use this opportunity to gain more titles and honors for her.
There’s opportunity in chaos.
