“We can be thankful for that, sir.”
Thompson paused and turned his eyes away. Churchill knew Thompson’s usually repressed emotions had risen to the surface. He was having similar difficulties. His eyes welled with tears. Then both men seemed to recover simultaneously. Churchill cleared his throat.
“I wonder, Thompson, if the trip was worth the candle.”
“You said what had to be said, sir. They will understand soon enough.”
“Do you think so, Thompson? I am being pilloried by friends and enemies alike.” He lowered his voice. “Mr. Attlee, I’m afraid received a bit of a shock preview of what I was trying to say. I informed him about Maclean. I must confess that I enjoyed his reaction.”
“Did he have his doubts about the information?”
“I must tell you, Thompson,” Churchill chuckled. “He did not. And it didn’t surprise me. He has come to believe that the upper classes are the ruination of our country, forgetting that despite his Labour credentials he is one of its members.”
“Do you think he will shut Maclean down?”
Churchill smiled.
“He did understand the benefits of keeping the man in our sights for the time being. I did not have to suggest it. He may be dull, but he is not stupid.”
“So Maclean will stay at his post?”
“I believe so. As long as he is useful to us.”
“I’m sure Miss Stewart will be relieved.”
“Ah, yes, Thompson,” Churchill remembered. “I did receive a letter from her a few days ago. She sends her regards to you, Thompson, and calls her experience one of the most memorable in her life. Poor child. She wrote she had not a shadow of doubt about the first secretary’s devotion to Great Britain.”
“Poor child, indeed,” Thompson said. “I’m afraid she will one day learn the truth the hard way.”
“They will all have to learn the truth the hard way.”
Churchill reached across the garden wall and grasped Thompson’s hand. The wall separating them foreclosed on the possibility of an embrace, which would have been out of character for both men.
“Good-bye, old friend,” Churchill said, eyes moistening, his voice cracking.
Thompson nodded and swallowed hard.
“Do you remember, sir, what President Roosevelt said to me when you introduced me to him at your first meeting at sea?”
“I do.”
“With respect, sir, it bears repeating at this moment. I shall always cherish the words until the end of my days. He said: ‘Take care of the prime minister. He is the greatest man in the world.’”
Churchill’s eyes could not contain his tears, which trickled down his pink cheeks. For the first time in his life, he felt unable to find words. All he could do was nod.
“God keep you….” Thompson paused and cleared his throat, “…Prime Minister.”
Through blurred vision, Churchill watched him turn and disappear down the garden path.
Epilogue
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister again in 1951. He served until 1955. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature, accepted the Order of the Garter, and became an Honorary Citizen of the United States. He died on January 24, 1965, at the age of ninety-one, the same day and time as his father, as he had predicted.
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was arrested while Nikita Khrushchev was premier of the Soviet Union. He was executed in December 1953 for crimes against the state.
Josef Stalin, who has been blamed for the death of millions, died on March 5, 1953, exactly seven years after the date of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech. He is buried in the Kremlin.
Donald Maclean escaped to the Soviet Union from London in the spring of 1955. His wife, Melinda, and their children joined him two years later. He learned Russian, worked in a Soviet foreign policy think tank, and died in Moscow at the age of sixty-nine. His escape was shrouded in mystery, and in the opinion of many, could not have happened without the tacit consent of MI6.
Harry Truman died in his hometown of Independence, Missouri, in 1972 at the age of eighty-eight. Although he left office as an unpopular president, he is now one of the most revered presidents of the twentieth century.
W. H. Thompson died in the seventies. He wrote a book entitled I Was Churchill’s Shadow. The last words in his book stated: “I acknowledge Winston Spencer Churchill as the greatest man I have ever known, and no words can express adequately my pride to have been some service to him.”
Victoria Stewart returned to England, founded a secretarial school in Hampshire. She married an accountant, had two children, and died in 2001.
Franz Mueller’s body was never found, although in 2002, a construction crew building a shopping mall near Jefferson City uncovered a World War II German PPC 7.92 Mauser and a Luger pistol of the same vintage. Some small traces of clothing and paper currency were found nearby. The currency was too damaged to determine the denominations and, therefore, was presumed counterfeit.
Stephanie Brown’s disappearance remained on the books of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for ten years. Her parents offered a reward of $10,000 for information about her whereabouts, later raising it to $25,000. Both parents died in the eighties, broken-hearted and still believing that their daughter was alive. The area in which she was buried became a national park. Her body was never found.
The “Iron Curtain” speech grew in influence as time went by. It became the clarion call of the Western democracies and made it easier for the Truman Doctrine to succeed and save Europe from further Communist incursions.
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1992.
About the Authors
Acclaimed author, playwright, poet, and essayist Warren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses, his masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce adapted into the BAFTA- and Golden Globe — nominated hit film starring Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, and Kathleen Turner. Adler’s internationally acclaimed stage adaptation of the novel will premiere on Broadway in 2015–2016.
Adler has also optioned and sold film rights for a number of his works, including Random Hearts (starring Harrison Ford and Kristen Scott Thomas) and The Sunset Gang (produced by Linda Lavin for PBS’s American Playhouse series starring Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould, and Doris Roberts), which garnered Doris Roberts an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries. In recent development are the Broadway production of The War of the Roses, to be produced by Jay and Cindy Gutterman, The War of the Roses: The Children (Grey Eagle Films and Permut Presentations), a feature film adaptation of the sequel to Adler’s iconic divorce story, Target Churchill (Grey Eagle Films and Solution Entertainment), Residue (Grey Eagle Films), Mourning Glory, to be adapted by Karen Leigh Hopkins, and Capitol Crimes (Grey Eagle Films and Sennet Entertainment), a television series based on his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series.
Adler’s works have been translated into more than 25 languages, including his staged version of The War of the Roses, which has opened to spectacular reviews worldwide. Adler has taught creative writing seminars at New York University, and has lectured on creative writing, film and television adaptation, and electronic publishing. He lives with his wife, Sunny, a former magazine editor, in Manhattan.