The Dower House (38 page)

‘What d'you think?' Angela asked.

Felix told her.

‘I'm still shocked,' she said, ‘that I didn't really
hear
what they were saying until I typed out that transcript. You know how you can sometimes see the world through a window all running with condensation and you can't make out a single thing? Then suddenly you realize that one of the blobs is . . . I don't know, a car . . . or the branch of a tree. And suddenly everything else starts to make sense. It was like that. All that fog of Nazi . . .
stuff
 . . . that endless stream of propaganda on the wireless –it all fell into place. I saw it for what it actually was. Where it was going. All those things they didn't dare say . . . talking instead of the Jewish
question
 . . . the final
solution
.'

Something Felix had not realized until now: for months after her eyes were opened, she had worked against them while she continued to act the loyal Nazi, the steadfast
SS
officer, the confidante of Reinhard Heydrich. And when he died, and they took their revenge on her, even under torture she had admitted no more than what they already knew – that, yes, she had, indeed, made tape recordings of that conference.

And now he knew how she had survived when so many in Ravensbrück had not. ‘When we get back to the Dower House . . .' he said.

‘What?'

‘It will be the start of a new life. For both of us. A wonderful new life. You'll see.'

Is Felix right? You can follow the continuing lives, adventures, and misadventures of Felix, Angela, and the other Dower House families in
Strange Music
, to be published soon.