Soon after two o'clock it broke up. Ribbentrop and Szalasi both had large cars waiting for them, and from the point of the island their ways lay in opposite directions across the two halves of the bridge which joined it to the opposite banks. As the Germans and Sabine were staying in Buda they offered Count Laszlo a lift, and the Szalasis, who lived in Pest, said they would drop Gregory at the Vadaszkürt. But before they parted he managed to get a brief word with the Count.
'It was a near thing,' he confided, 'but I'll only have myself
to blame now if she gives me away. I'm spending all tomorrow with her; so please let the others know why I shall not be able to turn up at our meeting. I can't make any further contribution, anyhow, so I'd be only a listener. But do press them to get something definite from General Lakatos. It is more urgent than ever now that I should get away from Budapest. I want to leave on Saturday.'
Count Laszlo had proved himself the most reasonable and helpful member of the Committee, and he promised to do his best; so Gregory took such comfort from that as he could, but he knew that during the next day or two he would be faced with a most tricky piece of tightrope walking.
In spite of his light-hearted fooling with Sabine during the first part of their dance together, he had soon realized that the only way to prevent her from turning him over to the police was to invoke her happy memories of their love affaire. That had not proved difficult; but, with her slender body pressed to his and her lovely face so close, his own memories had flooded back to him with most unsettling clarity.
He wondered now just how much that had influenced him in suggesting that they should spend the whole day together when an hour's talk over a drink before lunch would probably have been sufficient to satisfy her curiosity and secure her silence but he decided that, although it had been an added incentive, he would have done the same with any woman in similar circumstances solely because she was Ribbentrop's mistress. It was certain that a conceited man like the Reich’s Minister talked freely with his intimates, so Sabine must be privy to many Nazi secrets. She might prove as close as an oyster but such a chance to pick up. red-hot inside information about the enemy was one nothing would have induced him to miss, and to make the utmost of that chance necessitated his getting her to himself for as long as he could.
The disturbing fact was that when he had proposed this long session he had had in mind no more than a day spent together as old friends, whereas she seemed to have read into it more than that. Recalling the words he had used to win her over, he could not blame her; but just before they left the floor she had called him 'darling,' and she had said it in a tone which implied her expectation that, if only for a few hours, when next they met they would resume their old relationship.
Such a prospect had no strings to it provided that it was only for a few hours. But later, in conversation at the table, it had emerged that, while Ribbentrop was returning to Berlin on Saturday afternoon, Sabine was staying on in Budapest to attend the wedding of an old friend the following Tuesday before driving back to Berlin in her own car. That meant that from Saturday evening she would be her own mistress; and Gregory foresaw that if he had not left Budapest by then, a situation was likely to develop which would put him in a pretty fix.
He did not want to be unfaithful to Erika, but he knew his Sabine; and one of her attractions for him had been the frank joy she took in giving rein to her passions. He knew, too, the truth of the old saying that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' After a long day spent together, and with Ribbentrop out of the way, it was a certainty that she would expect matters to reach their logical conclusion. And if, after having again aroused her passion for him, he refused to play…?
It was that he had had in mind when he had told Count Laszlo that, if she gave him away, he would have only himself to blame. If he was not out of Budapest by Saturday Me would be safe only if he put his scruples behind him. And even that was not the final issue. If he did find that Sabine was inclined to be indiscreet about Nazi affairs, and that with patience he could wheedle really valuable information out of her, to make the utmost of such a marvellous opportunity he would feel it his duty to stay on in Budapest as long as she did. Then there could be no escape from becoming her lover again.
He was honest enough with himself to admit that should that happen one side of him was going thoroughly to enjoy it; but the other side was his private conscience, and as far as that was concerned, Sabine was no longer just an old flame. She had become fire and he was playing with it.
Divided Loyalties
Chapter 10
The St. Gellert Baths were, perhaps, the nearest thing of their kind in the modern world to those palatial establishments for health, social intercourse and sensual pleasure that had been such a prominent feature of Roman civilization. The great building stood facing the Danube on the slope of the Gellert hill at the southern end of Buda.
In its lower floor there were marble halls and corridors leading to scores of rooms in which patients consulted their doctors and every variety of treatment could be given. On the next level there was a true replica of a Roman swimming bath. Towering columns flanked its sides, on its broad paved surround stone seats, where the bathers could rest awhile, were interspersed with larger than life-size statues of the gods and goddesses, and the water in it bubbled; for it was known as the 'champagne bath,' from being aerated by pipes set in its bottom so that swimmers should enjoy additional friction as they passed through these aerial fountains. On the same floor there were long corridors of rooms in which dozens of male and female attendants plied their trade as masseurs.
Above, and set still further back into the slope of the hill, was another swimming pool open to the skies. The tiles with which it was lined gave the effect of the water in it being blue, and at regular intervals a mechanism connected with it created artificial waves, so that bathers could take their choice of going in either when it was rough or smooth. The pool was set in a horseshoe shaped arena, the base of which was occupied by a restaurant. Outside it there were tables shaded by gaily coloured umbrellas. Round the rim of the horseshoe there was every type of well sprung lie low, swing seat and basket chair, and the whole was protected from the wind by a sixty foot high bank planted with flowering shrubs and flowers.
At a few minutes before eleven Gregory was waiting for Sabine on the broad flight of steps outside the entrance. She arrived shortly afterwards, driving herself, in a pale blue and silver Mercedes. When she had parked the car she greeted him without a smile and a shade hesitantly.
'I can't think what got into me last night. I behaved like a sentimental schoolgirl. This morning I was in half a mind not to come; but I couldn't quite bring myself to have you arrested without first having heard what you have to say.'
'I'm glad of that,' Gregory replied with becoming seriousness, 'because if you had I am quite sure that for ages to come you would have suffered the most terrible remorse from having sent me to my death.'
'You seem to be more concerned for me than about yourself.'
'Naturally.' He grinned suddenly. 'Once dead I wouldn't have anything to worry about.'
She gave him a reluctant half smile. 'Aren't you even a little bit afraid that I might put my duty before sentiment, and tell the police I know you to be a British secret agent?'
From the higher step on which he stood he smiled down on her, then shook his head. 'No, not even a little bit. You are far too nice a person to betray an old friend; and, anyhow, you're quite wrong about me being here as a spy.'