Page 102 of The Last Kingdom

SUBJECT: Confidential TOP SECRET

DATE: July 18, 1945

We have interrogated 19 prisoners relative to Operation Last Kingdom. Nazi high command was definitely searching for documents relative to the possible deed you and I spoke about. One prisoner informed us that the tomb of Ludwig II was breached, but found to be empty, the king’s remains gone. We have yet to ascertain why that is significant, but it seemed so to them. The current members of the House of Wittelsbach have offered assistance to us but, in return, they want a restoration of the monarchy and an independent Bavaria. That is impossible under the current political scenario, as Germany is divided into distinct quadrants under Allied control. There is no practical way to separate Bavaria. The current Duke of Bavaria, Rupprecht, who is the senior member of the Wittelsbachs, flatly refuses to offer anything useful until those two conditions are met. We will have to proceed without his assistance. In my opinion we may be stymied to make any further progress without the family’s help. The German prisoners knew little more than we already know. It might be that the best course is to allow whatever may be out there to stay hidden. The war itself may have muddied the trail to the point that nothing can ever be located. That would not be an unacceptable outcome, considering the risk of exposure. For now I am suspending Operation Last Kingdom until something, if anything, more substantive surfaces.

Chapter 56

STEFAN FOLLOWED ALBERT ACROSS THE GROUND FLOOR OF THEschloss to his parents’ former bedroom. He and Albert had occupied first-floor bedchambers, but his mother and father had preferred the ground floor. They both died a long time ago, but their room had remained relatively unchanged. Since Albert lived alone, and Stefan had no intention of ever occupying this dreary place, the makeshift memorial had remained untouched.

They entered the bedroom and Albert switched on the lights. He caught the musky scent of his father’s stale tobacco that still infected all of the fabrics. The room was spacious, with an eclectic mixture of Bavarian furniture and personal items special to his parents. The same rich velvet portieres draped the tall windows, another wall dominated by an oil painting of Kaiser Wilhelm II in full imperial regalia. His father had been a fan. Family photos dotted one of the side tables. Images of his mother, father, aunts, uncles, Albert, and himself. Different places and time periods. Lots of whiskers, choker collars, and Iron Crosses. Several of the images were quite old, the men dressed in uniforms cut in the style of the kaiser’s day, the military officers wearing spiked nickel helmets, their breasts encrusted with ribbons. Others were of the family. The Wittelsbachs were noted for large clans. Eight-plus children per marriage was not uncommon. But in his immediate family there’d been only two.

Albert stepped over to Kaiser Wilhelm’s portrait and swung it out on its hinges. Behind was a wall safe. His brother spun the dial and worked it left and right. Stefan knew of the safe, but had never been privy to its combination. Why would he? Second sons were not included in such things.

He’d not lived here in decades, leaving on his twentieth birthday to start a home of his own. Thankfully, his wife’s family possessed great wealth and made sure she brought a huge dowry with her. Mainly cash. He had a knack for investments, and it helped that he employed one of the savviest financial firms in Germany. He’d escalated that initial dowry into a substantial fortune. Once he was king he’d also control all of the confiscated Wittelsbach property, both real and personal, which he planned to repatriate to the family with the same vigor in which it was taken.

Albert finished entering the combination and opened the safe.

The only thing inside was a single volume of what appeared to be a writing journal, its leather bindings singed by time.

“This was our great-grandfather’s journal.”

“Ludwig III’s?”

Albert nodded. “He started it after relinquishing the throne in 1918. It was meant only for the family and passed to Grandfather, then to Father, and finally to me.”

The message came clear.

Only for dukes.

“You will soon be duke, perhaps even king,” Albert said. “So it’s time you become aware of what is in this journal.”

He was beginning to understand. “This is how you know the secrets?”

His brother nodded. “Firsthand information.”

“So Father never told you a thing about Ludwig’s tomb being empty.”

“All he knew came from this journal.” Albert laid the book on the bed and untangled its leather straps. “I will not live long enough to see the fruits of your labor. But that does not mean I do not want you to succeed. Quite the contrary, in fact.”

He was a bit unnerved. He and Albert had never experienced anything remotely considered brotherly, except the sharing of parents. Their entire lives they’d remained aloof. Normally, he would never even be in line to succeed. But Albert had broken with Wittelsbach tradition and not married.

Which was rare, indeed.

“What are you saying?” he asked, listening with careful concentration.

“I have not the strength, nor the health, to mount this fight. You chastised me last evening for not wanting to be king. You are wrong. I would have loved to be king. Regaining what is ours is important to me. But achieving that goal is now up to you.”

Stefan could not believe what he was hearing.

“Why did you chastise me for opening Ludwig’s tomb? Why not simply show me this journal beforehand?”

Albert gently laid a hand on his shoulder. “Brother, please do not take what I am about to say in the wrong way. But I always considered you vain, arrogant, manipulative, and incapable of accomplishing anything other than satisfying your own personal wants and desires. You are married to a good woman, yet you cheat on her continually. Your daughters are precious, yet you hardly know them.”

He kept the growing anger within him in check.

For once.

“But last night,” Albert said, “when you toppled that table I saw, for the first time, a glimpse into your soul. You love Bavaria. You want it back, as it was for so long, as an independent vibrant nation. You want what belongs to our family restored. The injustices heaped upon us reversed. I saw all that clearly in your eyes.”

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