She chose to throw herself into her mission with Weber. They went out at least twice a week for dinner, dancing, or drinks. Sometimes she asked for the Roths to join them again, told Weber she’d gotten on so well with Gerta. It was an exaggeration, as Gerta spent most of her time on the dance floor, but she seemed to collect friends like other women collected handbags, and Audrey had a mind to leverage Gerta’s sociability to get closer to her. At the office, Frau Schulze hardly had a word for her anymore, and had bonded with Inge just as swiftly as she had with Audrey in the beginning. But Audrey didn’t care; all that mattered was Weber’s view toward her, and she did all she could to make herself sparkle in his eyes.
The conversation with the cell began swiftly, as it always did, the volume and intensity increasing with each emptied glass. Their meetings had been more sporadic lately. Both Ludwig and Claus had been out of the city on military business, and Aldous had been ill. There was a lot to catch up on.
“Have you been able to learn any more about the White Rose group?” Audrey asked Aldous, who perched on the edge of the sofa next to her, his cane resting between his knees.
“I’ve been trying to narrow down the print shop that produced the leaflet, but obviously there’s no identifier on the paper itself, like there normally would be. I’ve poked around a little with a couple of friends I trust at the University of Munich, trying to get a contact name. No luck yet, but these things are delicate. It takes time to find people who know when to talk, and when to shut up.” He sighed, shifted his thin legs. “These kids are brazen though. They’ll have to be careful unless they truly don’t care about getting caught.”
Ludwig was in his usual spot, standing near the doorway between the sitting room and front hall. Despite his vehemence that they all risk everything for this cause, he always seemed to have one foot out the door, as though readying for a quick exit. He was an enigma, Ludwig. He was an adamant resister of Hitler, but not entirely to all the regimens of the Third Reich. He believed strongly in the importance of rank, and rarely violated societal mores or etiquette. He was in full flow about the recent invasion of Bohemia and the fall of Prague to the Nazis when a child’s scream floated down from the floor above.
Audrey froze, coffee cup halfway to her lips.
All the men stared at the ceiling.
“What was that?” Ludwig demanded, turning to Friedrich, dark brows narrowed over his black eyes.
Daniel let fly another shriek that was quickly muffled.
“Who’s upstairs?” Claus asked.
Audrey’s mind whirred, searching for a plausible explanation.
“Audrey’s friend, with her child,” Friedrich said calmly. “She’s just staying for the weekend, on her way to visit her grandmother in Hamburg.”
“Audrey’s friend?” Ludwig barked.
Another shriek from above. Blood pounded in Audrey’s ears. “Yes,” she said.
Ludwig’s face was a storm. “You fucking fool, Müller. You let her have a friend come to stay? On a meeting night when we are here discussing, among other things”—he dropped his voice—“how to destroy Adolf Hitler?”
Disbelief painted Claus’s normally amused features. “What the hell are you doing, Fred?”
“You can’t have visitors,” Aldous added. “They could expose what we’re doing—”
“She won’t,” Audrey snapped.
“How can you possibly know that?” Claus asked.
Audrey bit her tongue.
“She won’t,” Friedrich echoed. He looked pointedly at Audrey, imploring her for help.
“Don’t look at her, look at me,” Ludwig snarled. “I’ve about had it with your exceptions and excuses, Müller. You are gambling our lives with your recklessness!”
“We were—”
“In case you have forgotten,” Ludwig said, “we agreed at the outset that it would only ever be we five. Us and Vogt. And then you moved in here and hired her.” He practically spat in Audrey’s direction. “Because you and Vogt wanted to get your cocks wet—”
“Steady on, Ludwig,” Aldous began, glancing apologetically at Audrey.
Friedrich took a step toward Ludwig, chest heaving with anger.
“And what’s happened since you brought her into the house?” Ludwig continued. “Vogt died in what you said was a bar brawl—”
“It was!”
“—and now you’ve gone and let her have friends come to stay, like this is some fucking holiday home. Friends who might very well turn round and—”
“She will not turn on us!” Audrey shouted.
Ludwig swatted the air as though wishing he could actually hit her. “You cannot know that!”
“Yes she can,” Friedrich snapped.
“Why?”
“Because the woman is a Jew!”
His words reverberated off the papered walls of the Kaplans’ sitting room in the profound silence that followed. Audrey’s breath was coming in shallow spurts, heart hammering against her collarbone.
“Friedrich,” she breathed, but he didn’t look at her this time.
“What the hell are you doing, Fred?” Aldous asked, watching his friend’s face. He wasn’t angry, but concerned, as though he feared Friedrich had taken leave of his senses. They had known each other a long time, after all. “Ah,” he said after a beat. “She isn’t just staying for the weekend, is she?”
“No,” Friedrich said, holding his chin up. He was pacing back and forth, as agitated as a wet lion. “She’s living here. For now, at least. For safety. But no one knows, and she will not—”
Audrey cut across him as anger came to her aid. “How can any of you object to this? Are we not trying to save Jews? Isn’t that why we’re risking everything—”
“We are not trying to save Jews, girl,” Ludwig shot at her. “We are trying to save Germany, our Fatherland, from the retribution of England and the other states that will flay us alive for what we are doing, just like they did after the war!”
