Page 50 of The Berlin Sisters
He’d told her little about what they had planned, and she hadn’t even tried to guess, afraid to know.
Hitler was to meet with his top military aides at the field headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, the following month. She’d been privy to the information owing to her elevated position typing Goebbels’ personal diary each day, and she hadn’t hesitated in sharing the information with Noah – she’d gone straight to the café where they were to meet, leaving a note beneath her napkin as he’d instructed her to do, saying she had to speak with him.He’d eventually caught up with her and given her an address as he passed, and after pausing to sit in the sun and walking some more to ensure no one was following her, she’d gone to him, eagerly telling him what she’d discovered.
He’d asked her to repeat everything numerous times, before leaving her and asking her to wait, but when he came back he was smiling from ear to ear.
‘Ava,’ he’d said, as he’d cupped her face and looked into her eyes. ‘There are very few civilians involved in this coup. And yet it is you who has given us the piece of information that we needed. This is what we’ve been waiting for.’
‘What should I do now?’ she asked, as he pulled her close to him.
‘You keep your eyes and ears open, in case anything changes, even the most minute detail. You come to the café after work if you need to tell me anything else.’
She nodded. ‘I will.’
Then, she’d basked in Noah’s attention, excited by what she’d done, believing that no one could ever catch her or know of her involvement. But now, as their basement rattled from bombs falling above, she wondered if she’d simply been naive. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the way Heinrich had looked at Eliana, the way he’d questioned her father. It had terrified her.
But the rational part of her brain told her that if Heinrich truly suspected anything, he’d have already returned with his SS friends to take them all in for questioning. Because she had a feeling that he wasn’t intimidated one bit by her father any more, and the fact that the man she was engaged to marry could feel superior to her own papa sent shivers of terror through her that would make it impossible for her to sleep. The only thing worse was imagining what he’d do to Noah if he ever discovered someone else had already been to bed with his fiancée.
Chapter Seventeen
It didn’t matter how many times Ava saw Noah, he always managed to make her heart skip a beat, and tonight was no different. What was different was the way he scooped her up into his arms and swung her around the moment she was through the door, his lips on hers.
‘You did it,’ he whispered, to which she pressed her mouth to his in return. She could taste the alcohol on his breath, knew that he’d been out celebrating without her, but she didn’t care. She only hoped that they had the night together without being interrupted by air raid sirens – she wanted to spend as much time in his arms as she could.
‘You did everything I asked of you,’ he said. ‘I always knew my little butterfly would be clever enough to do it, and now everything is set to happen on Thursday.’
Ava shrugged out of her coat and threw it down on the chair, spying a bottle of brandy that was open in the kitchen. She saw two discarded glasses but didn’t ask who they belonged to – she doubted he would have told her, anyway. Jealousy rose inside of her, wondering who else he’d been celebrating with, but she chose not to ask. Instead, she crossed the room and poured a small amount into each glass; she may not have been able to stand the taste only months earlier, but she’d quickly become accustomed to it over thepast few weeks. Tonight she needed it to settle her nerves – being in the office this week had been nerve-wracking, as she’d spent every minute worrying that her deception had been discovered – but it was almost over now. Although for what, she still didn’t know.
She passed one to Noah and he downed it in one gulp, before placing it down and then fixing his gaze on her again. She took a few sips as he rained kisses on her neck and started to unbutton her shirt, making it impossible for her to finish her drink, before taking her hand and leading her to the bedroom. She had so much she wanted to ask him, so many questions about what would happen next, about where he would live and what their lives would look like once it was all over, but those questions could wait, for he was clearly in an impatient mood and she was only too happy to oblige.
They could talk about their future after.
‘Slow down,’ she said with a laugh as he pushed her backwards on to the bed.
But as usual, Noah chose not to listen.
‘Have you heard any more about what’s being planned?’ she asked, as they lay in bed together. She propped herself up on one elbow to look down at him. ‘Is there anything you can share with me yet?’
He stroked her cheek. ‘It’s safer for you not to know. But you’ve done very well, little butterfly, very well indeed.’
A tingle of excitement ran through her. ‘So the information I gave you, it was—’
‘Exactly what we needed to follow through with our plan,’ he said, mirroring her pose and lifting his head. ‘You did very well, Ava. It’s not an exaggeration to say we couldn’t have done this without you.’
She smiled, secretly thrilled that she’d been involved and able to help with such important information.
‘It will be so nice to see you in public once all this is over, instead of having to sneak around,’ she said, drinking in his beautiful face, the strong angles of his jaw and his warm brown eyes. ‘Can I choose the first place we go to dinner?’ She imagined that men like Heinrich would be arrested as the regime collapsed and everything changed. ‘I can imagine us dancing all night until our feet ache, eating as much food as we can consume and drinking champagne.’
‘That sounds like quite the picture,’ he said, smiling down at her. ‘And I would love to go dancing with you, but Ava, I don’t want to think I’ve misled you.’
‘Misled me?’ She bristled. ‘I don’t think I understand.’
‘It’s not that I don’t care about you, but if what we have planned works, once the Führer has gone...’
She swallowed, realising for the first time what she’d been a part of. It wasn’t that she regretted what she’d done, because she didn’t, but just hearing him say those words, that the Führer could actually be gone, told her that it could be in part because of her.
‘I will never say no to seeing you, but I simply don’t want you to start dreaming of a life with me, of some sort of fairy-tale ending. Marriage, family, staying in one place, it simply isn’t me.’
‘You mean to say that after all this, that once the war is over, once the Nazi regime has come to an end...’ Her voice trailed off as she saw the expression on his face.
