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Chapters (46)
  1. The Man Who Loved Mata Hari
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PART I: The Early Years
  5. Prologue
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. PART II: The Middle Years
  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. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. PART III: The War Years
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. PART IV: The Last Year
  31. Chapter Twenty-Three
  32. Chapter Twenty-Four
  33. Chapter Twenty-Five
  34. Chapter Twenty-Six
  35. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  36. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  37. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  38. Chapter Thirty
  39. Chapter Thirty-One
  40. Chapter Thirty-Two
  41. Chapter Thirty-Three
  42. Chapter Thirty-Four
  43. Chapter Thirty-Five
  44. Montserrat
  45. Author’s Afterword
  46. Table of Contents

The painting had been propped against a teachest like any piece of worthless junk. But it's really me! He ran his hand along the frame —rather the worse for wear. He stepped back to examine those half-forgotten brush strokes. You should have told me that you could paint like that. He picked it up.

“I’m sorry, monsieur, but that painting has been sold.”

He turned to face a woman in a blue smock with a canvas ledger. "Sold?"

"Yes, monsieur. All these items have been sold."

"To whom?"

"Monsieur?"

"Who bought the painting?"

She frowned. "I believe that it was purchased through an intermediary on behalf of a foreign collector."

"Yes, but what's his name? Can't you just tell me his name?"

She sighed, obviously exasperated. "I must consult the record." Then, confirming what somehow he already suspected: "Spangler. Rudolph Heinrich Spangler."

Beyond this there were only hints and rumors. In Berlin she was said to have lived with a lieutenant from the Westphalian Hussars, but there was no indication that Spangler approached her, no indication that anything lay beneath the facade: receiving lovers in a rented chateau, naked under a cotton frock, a limousine waiting beneath rustling poplars. Her letters during that season abroad were also quite innocent, with references to places she had never seen and men who would never really love her.

PART II: The Middle Years

PART II

The Middle Years

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

SHE usually received her lover in the evenings, often waiting at the window with Chopin played on the gramophone. From here lay a long view of the Nachodstrasse below a silhouette of the Berlin skyline. Apart from these encounters her stay in this city was fairly subdued. She tended to live nocturnally, appearing at unorthodox hours, strolling through the cold roses of deserted parks.

Her lover was a wealthy Junker named Kierpert. They had originally met in Madrid, a chance arrangement across a dinnertable. Although married to a Hungarian beauty, he would always be remembered as Margaretha's splendid lieutenant from this summer of 1907: displaying her along the Friedrichstrasse, escorting her to the Imperial Army maneuvers in Silesia. On occasion they were even seen in cabarets and music halls with friends from the theater. But mostly this was a private affair, conducted after dark in Margaretha's room.

He would usually arrive at half past eight on Monday and Thursday evenings. He would enter without knocking. In deference to his fantasy Margaretha wore something reminiscent of the East: a blue kimono slipping from her shoulder, trailing silk loosely pinned at the waist.