The Charlemagne Pursuit

SIXTY-FOUR

DOROTHEA WATCHED FROM HER CRACKED-OPEN DOOR AS HER sister entered Cotton Malone's room. She'd seen her mother speak with Christl after dinner and wondered what had been said. She'd seen Ulrich leave and knew what task he'd been delegated. She wondered what her role would be. Apparently it was to make amends with her husband, as they'd been given a room together with one small bed. When she'd inquired to the proprietor about another he'd told her there were none.

"It's not that bad," Werner said to her.

"Depends on a person's definition of bad."

She actually found the situation amusing. They were both behaving like two adolescents on their first date. In one sense their predicament seemed comical, in another tragic. The tight confines made it impossible for her to escape the familiar miasma of his aftershave, his pipe tobacco, and the cloves from the gum he loved to chew. And the smells constantly reminded her that he was not one of the myriad men she'd enjoyed of late.

"This is too much, Werner. And far too fast."

"I don't think you have a whole lot of choice."

He stood near the window, arms clasped behind him. She was still perplexed by his actions in the church. "Did you think that gunman would actually shoot me?"

"Things changed when I shot the other one. He was angry and he could have done anything."

"You killed that man so easily."

He shook his head. "Not easily, but it had to be done. Not all that different from bringing down a stag."

"I never realized you had that inside you."

"Over the past few days I've realized a lot of things about myself."

"Those men in the church were fools, thinking only about getting paid." Like the woman in the abbey, she thought. "There was absolutely no reason for them to trust us, yet they did."

The corners of his lips turned down. "Why are you avoiding the obvious?"

"I don't think this is the place or time to debate our personal life."

His eyebrow raised in disbelief. "There's no better time. We're about to make some irreversible decisions."

Their distance these past few years had dulled her once perfect ability to know for certain when he was deceiving her. She'd for so long ignored him-simply allowed him to have his way. Now she cursed her indifference. "What do you want, Werner?"

"The same things you want. Money, power, security. Your birth right."

"That's mine, not yours."

"Interesting, your birthright. Your grandfather was a Nazi. A man who adored Adolf Hitler."

"He was no Nazi," she declared.

"He just helped their evil along. Made it easier for them to slaughter people."

"That's preposterous."

"Those ridiculous theories about Aryans? Our supposed heritage? That we were some sort of special race that came from a special place? Himmler loved that garbage. It fed right into the Nazis' murderous propaganda."

Disturbing thoughts swirled through her mind. Things her mother had told her, things she'd heard as a child. Her grandfather's admitted right-wing philosophies. His refusal to ever speak ill of the Third Reich. Her father's insistence that Germany was no better off postwarthan prewar, a divided Germany worse than anything Hitler ever did. Her mother was right. The Oberhauser family history needed to stay buried.

"You must tread lightly here," Werner whispered.

There was something unsettling about his tone. What did he know?

"Perhaps it eases your conscience to think me a fool," he said. "Maybe it justifies your rejection of our marriage, and me."

She cautioned herself that he was an expert at baiting her.

"But I'm no fool."

She was curious. "What do you know of Christl?"

He pointed at the door. "I know she's in there with Malone. You understand what that means?"

"Tell me."

"She's forging an alliance. Malone is connected to the Americans. Your mother chose her allies carefully-Malone can make things happen when we need them to happen. How else could we get to Antarctica? Christl is doing your mother's bidding."

He was right. "Tell me, Werner, are you enjoying the possibility of my failure?"

"If I were, I wouldn't be here. I'd simply let you fail."

Something in his desultory tone triggered alarm. He definitely knew more than he was saying and she hated his hedging.

She repressed a sudden shudder at the realization that this man, more stranger than husband, attracted her.

"When you killed the man at the lodge," he asked, "did you feel anything?"

"Relief." The word slipped out from between clenched teeth.

He stood impassive, seemingly considering the admission. "We must prevail, Dorothea. If that means cooperating with your mother, and Christl, so be it. We cannot allow your sister to dominate this quest."

"You and Mother have been working together for some time, haven't you?"

"She misses Georg as much as we do. He was this family's future. Now its entire existence is in doubt. There are no more Oberhausers."

She caught something in his tone and saw it in his eye. What he really wanted. "You can't be serious?" she asked.

"You're only forty-eight. Childbirth is still possible."

Werner came close and gently kissed her on the neck.

She slapped him across the face.

He laughed. "Intense emotion. Violence. So you are human, after all."

Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, though the room was not warm. She was not going to listen to him anymore.

She headed for the door.

He lunged forward, grabbed her arm, and spun her around.

"You're not going to walk away from me. Not this time."

"Let go." But it was a weak command. "You are a despicable bastard. The sight of you makes me sick."

"Your mother has made clear that if we conceive she will give it all to you." He wrenched her close. "Hear me, woman. Everything to you. Christl has no need for children or a husband. But maybe the same offer was made to her, as well? Where is she right now?"

He was close. In her face.

"Use your brain. Your mother has pitted the two of you against each other to learn what happened to her husband. But above all, she wants this family to continue. The Oberhausers have money, status, and assets. What they lack is heirs."

She freed herself from his grip. He was right. Christl was with Ma lone. And her mother could never be trusted. Had the same offer of an heir been made to her?

"We're ahead of her," he said. "Our child would be legitimate."

She hated herself. But the son of a bitch made sense.

"Shall we get started?" he asked.