The Secret of Spandau Read Online Free Page A

Marx Brothers Go West,
was to be screened after dinner.
    Churchill was puzzled by the message from Colville. He knew the Duke of Hamilton as a friend and former colleague in the House, but he could think of nothing of ‘urgent Cabinet importance’ that the Duke would need to discuss with him. He sent Brendan Bracken, the Minister of Information, to the phone. Bracken came back with a more sensational version: the Duke had an ‘amazing piece of information’ to report, so sensitive that it could not be divulged over the phone.
    Churchill decided to summon him to Ditchley. His own car was sent to meet the Duke at Kidlington airport.
    Dinner was almost over when the Duke was admitted. Churchill stood to shake his hand. ‘My dear Douglas, what a pleasure this is! Have you eaten?’
    â€˜Not yet, sir, but—’
    â€˜Then you must certainly join us.’ Churchill beckoned a servant. ‘A chair for his Grace, if you please.’ Then, turning back to the Duke, ‘You have whetted our appetites, too. Something certain to amaze us, we were told. What is this all about?’
    â€˜Sir, it is of a highly confidential nature.’
    â€˜Classifiable?’
    â€˜Indeed.’
    Churchill took a deep breath. ‘I see.’
    Tactfully, the other guests started putting their napkins on the table.
    Churchill said, ‘I should like the Secretary of State for Air to remain.’
    â€˜Of course.’
    In a moment, the Duke was alone with Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair. They waited for the doors of the dining room to be closed.
    â€˜Well, Douglas?’
    â€˜Sir, last night a German airman crashed his plane and baled out over Scotland. He was picked up and taken to Glasgow. He was wearing the uniform of a hauptmann in the Luftwaffe and he gave his name as Horn. He repeatedly asked to be allowed to speak to me. I was asked to interview him at Maryhill Barracks this morning, and I did. As soon as we were alone, he identified himself as Rudolf Hess.’
    Nothing was said for several seconds. Churchill stared at the Duke of Hamilton in open disbelief, as if deciding whether this visibly exhausted man were suffering from hallucinations brought on by too much flying.
    â€˜Do you mean to tell me that the Deputy Führer of Germany is in our hands?’
    â€˜That is my conclusion, sir. The man I saw this morning bears a striking resemblance to Hess. He was carrying these photographs of himself and, I presume, his wife and child.’
    Churchill put on his glasses and examined the photographs. He passed them to Sinclair. After another long pause, he pushed back his chair and said, ‘Well, Hess or no Hess, I am going to see the Marx Brothers.’

6
    Jane Calvert-Mead was in bed in her second-floor flat in Brook Green when the doorbell rang. She pulled the duvet around her ears and moaned. Caught again. A hangover: an occupational hazard for a newspaper diarist. But it should never have happened. If a peer of the realm so adored his daughter that he had hired Hever Castle to announce her engagement, wouldn’t you think he would use genuine champagne in the bucks fizz?
    One of the tenants downstairs could answer it.
    Jane stretched and turned on to her stomach. Then there crept into her mind a recollection of something said earlier in the week when she was on her way down with the milk bottles. Both sets of people below were away for the weekend. Bugger. No one else was going to answer that bell.
    It rang again. Bloody cheek, disturbing people on a Sunday morning. Probably boy scouts collecting jumble. How they ever grew up into passably attractive men, she couldn’t imagine.
    It was going like a fire alarm. Little fiends!
    She couldn’t stand it any longer. She hurled aside the duvet, wrapped her bathrobe around her shoulders, shuffled across the room, let up the blind, opened the window and looked out. The cold air made her sneeze.
    The guy on the doorstep moved