Empire and Honor (Honor Bound 7)

“With two children. Hansel and Alicia have one, a boy . . .”

“And yours?”

“Two boys,” Frade said. “Jimmy, the point of this is that Frau von Wachtstein will be part of the family. Hansel, his bride, and mine will see that she’s taken very good care of.”

“Good,” Jimmy said, looking at Elsa.

Jimmy thought he saw her tears forming.

“And that’s all you get, Jimmy,” Frade said. “Maybe sometime down the pike . . .”

“Yeah.”

Mattingly interjected: “You fully understand, I presume, Lieutenant, what Colonel Frade said, that you are to tell no one, no one, what you saw or were told?”

“You didn’t see any of us here, Jimmy,” Frade added, his tone deeply serious, “except Colonel Mattingly. Keep your mouth shut, Jimmy. It’s really important.”

“I got it,” Jimmy said.

“Well, let’s go have our breakfast,” Mattingly said.

“I don’t want any breakfast,” Jimmy blurted.

“Well, in that case, Lieutenant,” Mattingly said, “why don’t you go to Frau von Wachtstein’s room, bring her luggage down, and put it in my car? Then, you’re relieved of your duty here and can report to Major Connell for duty.”

“No,” Frade said, looking from Mattingly to Cronley. “Come have breakfast, Jimmy. We’ll send someone for Frau von Wachtstein’s luggage.”

“Please,” Elsa said softly.

Jimmy met her eyes, then nodded.

—

Fifteen minutes later, standing outside the Horch, Elsa kissed Jimmy on the cheek, and told him she would never forget how kind he had been to her.

Then she climbed in the Horch, and the others followed.

Jimmy, hands on hips, stood and watched as, tires spinning and throwing gravel, the Horch raced away with the Opel Admiral in pursuit.

[FIVE]

“You have a problem, Cronley?” Major Connell asked, waving him into his office.

“No, sir. Sir, Colonel Mattingly came to the Kurhotel this morning and took Frau von Wachtstein away.”

Connell waited for Cronley to go on. When he didn’t, Connell asked, not pleasantly, “Well, what happened?”

“Sir, I just told you. Colonel Mattingly took Frau von Wachtstein away and told me to report to you for duty.”

“Where did he take her?”

“Sir, I can’t tell you.”

“What do you mean, you can’t tell me?”

“Sir, Colonel Mattingly ordered me to tell no one anything I heard or saw at the hotel just now.”

“Certainly he didn’t mean to include me in the ‘no one’ category, Lieutenant.”