They were the only ones in the room, but Victoria automatically glanced around to make sure they were alone. He’d said “Hitler,” not “Mein Führer,” as Nazi officials unctuously referred to the dictator, and most implied other grievances the colonel held against the dictator. The statement, spoken with contempt, came close to being seditious and would be dangerous for him if overheard. Had it been a careless slip of the tongue, or a deliberate ploy to lead her to believe he shared her view of the crazy man who had led the world into war? Members of the SD were not known to err in careless slips of the tongue.

“I’m afraid I cannot allow you that comfort, Colonel.”

“Well, then, if not for my comfort, for my sense of fair play. We must keep your strength up.”

“For what?” she asked sharply.

With a small chuckle, he plucked the bottle of burgundy from the bucket and poured wine into her glass, the bloodred stream catching the firelight. “Not for the reason you surmise, I assure you. Come now, Mademoiselle Colbert, after the quick dispatch you made of the lieutenant, do you think I’d be so foolish to tempt the fate you had in mind for him if you could have gotten to the swords?”

“For what, then?

“I would not feel right winning against a fencing opponent on the brink of starvation.”

“I appreciate your concern, Colonel, but I could not possibly fill my stomach knowing that those of my fellow lodgers were empty.”

“Well, we must rectify that, too.”

So early that morning, she and the nine residents of her hotel had awakened to find boxes of food deposited before their doors. A voucher for meat, cheese, eggs, and milk with information on a number to call for home delivery was attached. Her neighbors, in response to the unusual sounds heard before daylight in the hall, had stood on their thresholds in their nightwear with mouths agape at the piled boxes of fruit and vegetables, bread and coffee and tea and canned goods apparently meant for their consumption. When Victoria opened her door, all heads turned to her in unison, amazement melting to sad awareness of the cost for such bounty. Last evening, she had been noticed arriving back at the hotel in a German staff car seated beside a handsome young colonel recognized as a member of the security service of the Reichsführer.

As the evening had progressed at the café, the colonel had regaled her with stories of his days at Harvard and his trips around America, speaking English almost like a born native and coaxing a laugh from her at his mimic of a Texas drawl. “Ah even got down to Texas way and spent a spell in Foat Wurth. Found it hot as blazes and dry as a creek bed in drought,” he said.