Page 106 of The Gathering Storm

‘But—’

‘I have to tell you, I have no heart. I gave it away a long, long time ago.’

She looked suspicious. ‘We’re not talking about Rose, are we? Really, that would be so—’

‘Of course it’s not Rose! It’s not anyone in Hollywood. Please, can we drop the subject now? I’m as sorry as can be, but I can’t marry you.’

The waiters arrived with their first course, and she subsided into silence. Lennie was afraid she might storm out, make a scene, but when they were alone again, she addressed her plate with the appetite that was one of the things he had always liked about her – some stars didn’t like to be seen to eat in public, preferring to project an image of a spirituality above food. After a few forkfuls she said, ‘Well, that’s a bust! Still, can’t blame a girl for trying. At least smile at me, can’t you? Try to look as if we’re having a romantic evening.’

He realised that, knowing the press was down below watching, she would not want them to report they’d had a disagreement. It was a mad thing, this relationship between Hollywood and the fourth estate. Perhaps all Hollywood stars were a little mad because of it. He wondered if she would want to go on seeing him now – whether that would fit her narrative. He knew, however, that he did not want it. He had enjoyed her company all these months, but now he was not sure who it was he had been enjoying.

At the end of the war, Austria had been a broken country, stripped of its empire, its economy in ruins. The idea of Anschluß – joining together – with Germany to form the new country of Greater Germany had first been raised in the 1870s. It was expressly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain, but still it enjoyed some support in Austria; though nationalists, along with Jews and many Catholics, were hostile to the idea.

‘This is one of those European problems that’s been simmering for generations,’ Bertie said to Jessie, as they rode side by side one fine, blowy March day. ‘Originally it was Austria that proposed a union of all Germanic states, under Austrian leadership. But of course Prussia wanted to be top dog, and after a couple of quick wars, Bismarck got his way, united Germany under Prussia, and excluded Austria entirely.’

‘Didn’t that settle it?’ Jessie said, turning a lock of mane back the right way. The horse turned an enquiring ear back to her, then pricked it again, knowing they were heading home.

‘A lot of Austrians are German by blood, and most of them are National Socialists, so union with Germany is back on the agenda.’

‘Who cares?’ said Laura, riding up on his other side. One of Polly’s dependants, she lived nominally at Morland Place, but spent more time at Twelvetrees than there. She’d been having difficulties with the youngster she was riding, and had hung back to teach him some manners. ‘Austria, Germany – it’s nothing to do with us, is it?’

‘We can’t let German expansion go unchecked,’ Bertie said. ‘If they’re allowed to take the rest of Europe, they’ll come for us next.’

Jessie knew that Bertie was abstracted. The subject had been triggered that morning by an item in the newspaper saying that the Austrian chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, a nationalist, had announced a referendum on Austrian independence.

‘Are you really worried, dear?’ she asked him. ‘Will the Austrians vote for union with Germany?’

‘I’m afraid it hardly matters,’ he said. ‘The Germans take what they want. They took the Saar, they took the Rhineland. Austria is the obvious next step. Hitler is Austrian by birth, you know.’

‘I didn’t know,’ said Jessie.

‘He’ll have heard all the unification arguments in his youth. It’ll be like the religion you absorb from the cradle. And Austria might be in decline, but it’s got raw materials, it’s got skilled workers and factories lying idle, it’s got large gold and foreign currency reserves. It’s a rich prize.’

Laura had lost interest and had taken the young horse off to the side of the path where some fallen saplings – victims of a recent windy period – made natural cavaletti.

‘We needn’t get involved, though. We don’t have a treaty to defend Austria, do we?’ Jessie said.

‘No,’ he said. ‘But you can see the pattern. Small states, weak states fall, or get absorbed, Germany gets bigger and stronger, and sooner or later Hitler goes for the big prize, France. Then we have to act.’ He stared ahead bleakly. ‘Five years,’ he said. ‘They took five years of my life – of our lives, yours and mine. I’m too tired to face all that again.’

‘You won’t have to go,’ Jessie said quickly. Their eyes met, and she knew that didn’t help – or not very much. Thomas was nineteen, her precious son; and then there were Jeremy, John and Martin at Morland Place, Jack’s Basil and Michael, Violet’s sons. And the girls – though they would not fight at the Front, they would suffer too, as her generation of women had suffered: privation, struggle, loss, heartbreak. ‘It can’t happen again,’ she said fiercely. ‘It mustn’t.’

‘We should have finished them the first time round,’ Bertie said. Laura came cantering back, and he made a small movement of his hand, cancelling the subject.

‘Did you see?’ Laura called, elated. ‘He did it perfectly.’

‘We saw,’ Bertie answered, smiling. ‘Do it again.’

The referendum was set to take place on the 13th of March. On the 10th of March Adolf Hitler moved two army corps into position on the Austrian border and in the morning of the 11th demanded the cancellation of the plebiscite, the resignation of Schuschnigg, and his replacement as chancellor by the Nazi-supporting Seyss-Inquart. Schuschnigg desperately sought support from other nations, but it was not forthcoming, and under the threat of invasion he resigned at eleven p.m. that day. At two o’clock in the morning of the 12th, the German 8th Army crossed unopposed into Austria. Later that morning, Seyss-Inquart assumed presidential powers as well, and raised a bill in Parliament to revoke Austria’s sovereignty and declare it to be a province of the German Reich.

‘As easily as that, Austria ceases to exist,’ Basil commented. In the Messenger newsroom, everyone was poring over bulletins and analyses coming in over the wire from correspondents in Europe and America.

‘Hitler wouldn’t have objected to the referendum if he’d thought it would go his way,’ said Jimmy Cutler. ‘He wouldn’t have needed to invade with an army.’

‘There was a telegram from Seyss-Inquart last night, saying people were rioting and he needed German troops to restore order,’ said Palmer, another junior reporter.

‘Those riots were faked,’ said Digbeth. ‘Local correspondents say they were organised by Nazi supporters to justify the invasion.’

‘Obviously, it was all planned,’ said Cutler.