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Chapters (117)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. The Cast of Characters
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. The Recruits
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. The Missions
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  64. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  65. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  66. The Game
  67. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  68. CHAPTER SIXTY
  69. CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
  70. CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
  71. CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
  72. CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
  73. CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
  74. CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
  75. CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
  76. CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
  77. CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
  78. CHAPTER SEVENTY
  79. CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
  80. CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
  81. CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
  82. CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
  83. CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
  84. CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
  85. CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
  86. CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
  87. CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
  88. CHAPTER EIGHTY
  89. CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
  90. CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
  91. CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
  92. CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR
  93. HOME
  94. CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE
  95. CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX
  96. CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN
  97. CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT
  98. CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE
  99. CHAPTER NINETY
  100. CHAPTER NINETY-ONE
  101. CHAPTER NINETY-TWO
  102. CHAPTER NINETY-THREE
  103. CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR
  104. CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE
  105. CHAPTER NINETY-SIX
  106. CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN
  107. CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT
  108. CHAPTER NINETY-NINE
  109. CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
  110. CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ONE
  111. Acknowledgments
  112. Discover More
  113. About the Author
  114. Reading Group Guide
  115. Discussion Questions
  116. A Conversation with Leila Meacham
  117. ALSO BY LEILA MEACHAM

Time passed quickly after all. Students and parents passed through the reception room and stopped to chat, and the desk crew invited her to eat her sack lunch with them in the anteroom behind the reception counter. By nine o’clock she was bored with her book and tired of her chair and decided to walk across campus to mail Steve’s letter. A breeze had risen, fanning her face and discouraging the mosquitoes, and she found herself enjoying the walk before she returned to Columbia Hall to bathe in the floor bathroom she’d have all to herself tonight.

Bridgette had just left the campus post office when she glanced toward Walter Hall and saw a light briefly flare in the first-floor window of the fashion design department. She stared, thinking she may have imagined the flash, but there it appeared again, the brief beam of a flashlight. It had come from the room holding the exhibits. Startled, alarmed, curious, Bridgette ran toward the entrance of the building and let herself into the front door of Walter Hall quietly, her heart knocking. Someone unauthorized was in the exhibit room; otherwise, why not turn on the lights?

Without thinking beyond the numbing fear that the exhibits were in danger, Bridgette marched to the closed door of the design room and flung it open. She flipped on the blinding overhead fluorescents, and her mouth fell open. The dress stands stood denuded of their muslin shrouds and beautiful gowns, and standing in the mounds of shredded shantung, crepe, foulard, organza, tulle, and scarlet jersey, scissors in hand, stood Gladys Bradbury.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

Chris / Lapwing

New Braunfels, Texas

So what do you hear from Dirk?” Chris Brandt asked his friend’s father, Ernst Drechsler. The man appeared ten years older since a year ago when Chris had stood at the same bar in the banquet hall of the biergarten and asked his one-time best friend if he was really serious about his decision to go to Germany to join the Nazi Party.

Dirk had raised his beer stein to his lips and regarded Chris over its brimming foam with the stare he believed members of the Abwehr assumed when interrogating prisoners. The Abwehr was the intelligence agency of the German Army, which he planned to join when he returned to “the Fatherland and the Third Reich,” as he boasted to all and sundry. All and sundry in New Braunfels, Texas, had been happy to see him go, and those who still had affection for the Drechslers had gathered in the large banquet room of the Frieldholm Biergarten at the end of May 1941 for a combination send-off and graduation party since Dirk, after a struggle academically, had managed to eke out a bachelor’s degree from Texas Lutheran College.

“You’ll regret not throwing in your lot with us as well, Christoph, when our mother country rules the world,” Dirk had told his friend.