Max nodded. ‘Good.’
‘I will be back here tomorrow morning with a plan and everything in place. Be ready to move at a moment’s notice.’
‘We have a new leader, it seems,’ said one of the men.
Clara wasn’t sure she actually wanted that accolade. ‘I am just a cog in the wheel. Now, I must leave, I am meeting my husband soon.’
With a final check on Anna and words of reassurance, Clara left the cellar and the apartment building. She paused on the pavement, taking in several large lungfuls of cold but fresh air. She checked around her to make sure no one was watching. It had become an automatic action in recent weeks, that often she didn’t even realise she was doing it.
If she hurried she would be on time to meet Friedrich. He had booked a table at the Café Kranzler. It was the café that he had taken her to on their first date and a place they frequented on special occasions such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries.
Café Kranzler stood like a jewel on the Unter den Linden, its tall windows gleaming beneath ornate cornices that spoke of Berlin’s grander past.
Friedrich was already waiting outside when she arrived. His expression looked unconcerned, but she could see the tension in his shoulders and the way he was scanning the pavement. His gaze found her and there was a palpable relief on his face. He smiled and her heart gave an extra beat.
‘Liebling,’ he said softly, kissing her cheek.
‘Sorry, have you been waiting long?’ She was only a few minutes late, but she realised that even that short time was enough to cause anxiety.
‘Not really, but, well, you’re here now. Let’s go in.’
As they were shown to their table, Clara noticed the subtle changes to the café. There were fewer patrons, hushed conversations and a faint undercurrent of tension that had never been there before. Crystal chandeliers still illuminated the elegant marble tables and white-aproned waiters moved with practised precision between the tables.
It wasn’t until Friedrich took her coat from her that she realised she had a dirty mark on the bottom of her skirt. As the waiter seated them and left menus, Friedrich’s trained eye had already found it.
‘What happened to your skirt?’ he asked quietly.
Damn. She should have known nothing escaped her husband’s notice. ‘I had to carry out an emergency visit. Must have been when I was kneeling.’
Friedrich’s frown deepened as he studied her face. ‘Was the visit successful?’
‘Only temporarily.’ Clara chose her words carefully as the waiter returned with wine. ‘The patient will need some further help tomorrow but at a different medical facility.’
‘Not in Berlin?’
Clara waited for the young man to leave them alone again before answering. ‘Outside Berlin. I will need to accompany my patient tomorrow. Once the necessary paperwork has been approved.’ She looked pointedly at her husband.
Friedrich’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. When he spoke, his voice was steady, but she caught the flicker of fear in his eyes. ‘I’m sure you’ll have all the necessary paperwork by tomorrow.’
Clara nodded, her throat suddenly dry. ‘Yes. I hope so.’
The elegant café continued its gentle hum around them, crystal and conversation creating a facade of normalcy that felt fragile and brittle.
Chapter 24
Friedrich spread the city map across the dining table of their apartment, weighing the corners down with his coffee cup and Clara’s medical books. After their lunch earlier that day, they had walked arm in arm back towards the Bendlerblock. In hushed tones, Clara had given Friedrich an account of where she’d been that morning and how she needed to keep her promise of safe passage out of Berlin for the women.
She felt guilty for having to impose on Friedrich straightaway, or at all, but she couldn’t turn her back on the women and the squalid conditions they were hiding in. They deserved more. They deserved empathy and humanity.
‘I know it was reckless of me to make such promises to them,’ she had said through a false smile for anyone noticing them. ‘But—’
Friedrich had patted her hand. ‘You don’t have to explain. Leave it with me. I’ll get what you need.’
And he had delivered on his promise, just as she knew he would. The lamplight cast long shadows across the street grid as he traced a route with his finger. ‘Tomorrow’s patrol schedule,’ he said quietly, consulting a small notebook. ‘There’s a spot check planned here which is directly on your route. It’s the quickest way out of the city to your destination.’
‘How will we get through?’
‘There’s a very short window of no more than five minutes when there’s a change of guard,’ said Friedrich. ‘Everyone will be distracted. The old guard wanting to get home and the new one settling in. You need to be there at one minute before the changeover at six in the morning.’
