part 4
Katia had been the first one through the door in the morning, and after seeing that he was free of fever and rested invited Garrison downstairs for breakfast so the brothers could have some time alone to talk. Actor looked into the face that stared down at him and could almost believe he was looking into a mirror. Leonzio was older by a few years, his skin darkened by the sun, lines etched around his eyes and across his forehead, the dark hair was shot through with silver. The neatly trimmed beard his brother wore was real, but he'd seen this image look back at him from the mirror before after he'd donned one of his disguises.
"You might start by explaining why you deserted us." It wasn't what he expected to say.
"But I never did." For all his air of sophistication and his attempt to sound as if it didn't matter the raw emotion of abandonment was clearly ringing in his younger brother's voice.
"You stopped writing... You never sent word where you were." Actor was surprised at the emotion welling up from deep inside him and shocked at his inability to master it. "Papa couldn't reach you when Mama got sick and I couldn't find you when she died." This wasn't supposed to be happening. He and Garrison talked it over when he awoke in the morning. They had to know if they could trust the people these two had turned into and he was supposed to carefully feel his brother out while the Warden talked to Katia, but this question had come of its own, and he had no desire now to call it back.
"She never told me she was ill, Beppe. And if Papa ever even cared where I was he never contacted me... I never stopped writing, even though it had been months since I got a response." Pulling a chair up to the bed Leonzio settled in it and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Beppe, the letters, the sketches I sent... the last one was only a month after Mama died." He took a deep breath and continued. "She hadn't answered the last few times... I only knew the city you were in and the name of your school." Leonzio smiled at his brother, the childish jealousy forgotten now. "She was so proud of you! She told me everything about your studies in her letters, but she never sent an address where you were living. I always wrote to the post master. When I came to the city I looked for you at the school but by then you were gone, no one there could tell me where or how to reach you."
When he arrived in the town and finally found the area where they had been living he knew why she would keep their situation from him. She had been the one who encouraged him to pursue his desire to make a living with his art, something his father derided as mere scribbling. She kept where they were a secret, telling him they traveled too often between the countryside and the city, between the homes of friends and family to have a permanent address. "I finally wrote the last letter while I was in the city, and just waited to see if someone would come for it."
"And it was Papa."
"Yes. I hardly recognized him. I think if I hadn't heard his voice when he asked for the letter I never would have known it was him. I still wasn't sure when I followed him." Leonzio remembered trailing the shambling form as he made his way from the center of the city out to the slums that crowded its edges. "He took the letter and opened it and took the money..."
"Money?" And Actor knew without hearing the rest of the tale what had happened, and what it had cost them.
"Yes. I sent as much as I could... always. I followed him into a tavern." He watched as his younger brother just nodded his understanding. "The money didn't last long. And the letter, you remember, they were mostly my scribbled sketches..."
"I remember." He reached out and grasped the hand that was held out to him. "I came looking for you after she died. I went to the last address I could remember, but you had moved. I wasn't even sure I'd remembered the town correctly. It was your sketches that let me know I was in the right place." Smiling at the puzzled frown on his brother's face he assured him. "You are quite good you know. As I wandered around the city I kept having the feeling that I had been there before because I'd seen it through your work. It was almost like following a map." And he shook his head and continued. "I was finally approached by a young woman in one of the caf�s who knew you and saw the resemblance between us. She told me you hadn't been there for four months. No one knew where you'd gone."
Leonzio shook his head. "Four months after I left there I was sitting in a postal office waiting to see if anyone would ever come to pick up my letter." Moving to sit on the side of the bed he pulled the man in it up into an embrace. "So much time wasted." Pushing away he asked. "When was the last time she got one of my letters?"
Actor thought back. "It was nearly a year before she died." That's when the small amount she'd been giving him for school stopped. He'd believed her when she told him she couldn't get as much for the laces she made and offered to cut back on his school in order to work to supplement the loss but she refused insisting he use whatever he could make to meet his own needs. Protecting his father's pride to the end she convinced him the old man finally had found work. And, he thought, he allowed himself to believe the lie. "She was almost confined to the apartment where they lived and I suppose she sent Papa to check for the letters. I can understand him taking the money once he knew, but the letters...."
"Destroyed." Leonzio watched the shock and anger in his brother's eyes fade to saddened resignation. "I watched him. He took the envelope to a little shop and sold the artwork. I assume the note I sent with them was burned, he could hardly bring it to her without the money and sketches. Imagine that... all of his ridicule for my not being a 'real' man, not having a proper profession, and he was selling my 'scribblings' and drinking away the money."
"And that's what must have happened to the rest of your work and letters. She asked me to get them for her right before she died, but I couldn't find them."
"What a miserable old bastard we had for a father."
"Yes, at the end... But not at the beginning." He smiled at the look of understanding on his brother's face. They'd both lived too long and seen too much, to see the world as only black and white and he had no desire to let the anger and despair he felt over what their father had done color the pleasure of their reunion. "Now, tell me everything...."
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They gathered in the room around Actor's bed. He recounted some, not all Garrison thought, of his past for Katia when she got there, and he wondered if he'd told everything to his brother. And Leonzio gave him a quick rundown on what he'd been involved in during the years the brothers had been out of touch. Like Actor, he felt the man was holding something back, and he was almost certain it hadn't been revealed during the brotherly talk.
Now it was up to him to decide how much of their present situation he was willing to risk... And he found he wanted to protect the two from the consequences of helping enemies of the Third Reich so he kept it to a minimum, and told a minor truth. They'd finished a job and Actor got shot before they could get out, leaving out just who the job was for. He had enough background on the woman to hope she'd believe they would be involved in something self-serving.
"I wish I could offer you the car, but I'm afraid it might draw attention that you would do well to avoid." There was a touch of humor in her voice as she considered them. These two were obviously keeping something back.
"Katia what have you gotten into?" Alarm fired off old protective reflexes even though Actor had no claim on her.
"That is none of your affair." She leaned across and patted Actor on the cheek. "As I said it would be irresponsible of me to offer you the car however there is something you might find a great deal more useful."
They all waited for her to enjoy letting the suspense build before she told them.
"I would wager you are in need of making contact with the people you did this little 'job' for. I used to have a radio transmitter that worked..., it is still up in the attic."
"A radio!" Garrison was across the room and kissed her before he considered the possibility of a jealous reaction from her companion, or his younger brother, for that matter.
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He fired the radio up after dusting off the tubes, cleaning up the contacts and cranking a charge back into the battery. There was too much static for the unit to be of any use to them, until she explained that the antenna that was secured to the large tree that guarded the entrance to the house had probably been damaged. A quick search through the basement netted him a roll of electrical cable, a set of cutters and a pair of gloves. As Garrison left the safety of the roof for the tree branches he thought all he lacked was a hard hat and a pair of spiked boots.
Actor's room was at the opposite end of the house and he waited impatiently through the whole operation for word of its success or failure. Leonzio obligingly paced the floor for him. As soon as the door opened he launched his question.
"Did you get it to work?"
"Yeah." Garrison was still picking pine needles out of the cuffs of the shirt Leonzio loaned him. "After two trips up that damned tree." He gave up and took the shirt off, shaking the irritating prickles out onto the floor and brushing them off the back of his neck. "Now all we have to do is wait two hours for an answer."
"Two hours?" Actor's brother split a frown between them. "Why so long?"
"Because they have to check us out, make sure the message isn't a trick." And then, he thought, they have to send back on the next frequency rotation, and I have to I hope to God I remember it.
He'd kept his message short, just the basics. Even though Katia had assured him the Germans had given up monitoring the area for radio traffic after deciding the surrounding hills blocked transmissions in and out of the area. Even though she'd insisted the only reason her radio worked was the carefully concealed antenna high up in the tree Garrison paired his transmission down to a quick burst, sending a code along to insure the answer be sent in the same manner. When this was over, he thought... when they were finished with the unit he'd have to convince her to let him destroy it. For her safety as well as their own.
Katia leaned back in the chair next to the bed and examined the young man standing shirtless in front of her. His trousers were torn out at the knees, his undershirt stained with sweat and the grime of several days of wear. Dust and dirt from the tree dulled his hair and caked across his face, masking the bruises he'd collected on his jaw and the side of his head, even the one on the back of his neck she'd help him to. After a few days without a razor his beard, several shades lighter than his hair, was becoming noticeable too. Her need for lovers had vanished when she found Ilario--- Leonzio she corrected herself, and then wondered if even that name was genuine, as she was certain 'Carlo' was a fabrication. No she didn't desire another young lover.., but he was lovely to look at. Sighing she rose from the chair, stooping to drop a kiss on Carlo's forehead, another on Ilario's before hooking the young man by the arm and towing him towards the door.
"Come along, Herr Hessmann. Ilario lit the boiler when he locked you up in the basement last night. I'm sure you would enjoy a chance to clean up, and I'm certain it can do nothing but improve your looks."
"But..."
"Don't argue. There's more than enough time." Turning to wink at the brothers before she tugged him out into the hall Katia continued. "Especially if I help."
g
It was over two hours before the Warden reappeared. Clean and refreshed, if not rested, and wearing another set of borrowed clothes.
"Did you enjoy having your back scrubbed?" Actor kept his tone level and struggled not to laugh as he watched his commander color.
"I, uh..., didn't let her stay." Garrison glanced at his second and then shot a worried look at the older brother, brooding in the shadows.
"A pity" Leonzio said from the corner. "It's actually quite invigorating." Pushing to his feet he gave a laugh as he stepped around the end of the bed. "I am surprised she allowed you to turn her out. She can be very insistent.... at least with me." He laid a hand on the Warden's shoulder as he limped by on his way to the door. "I imagine you will be more comfortable discussing your radio messages alone. I think I will see if she still has a mind to get wet." He stopped in the door and turned back to face them. "And I suggest that you remain up here with the door closed unless one of us comes for you. It might prove less embarrassing for all of us."
Waiting for the door to close and Leonzio's steps to fade off down the hall Garrison turned on his confidence man. "I thought you said she was an older woman."
Laughing at the cocked eyebrow Garrison turned on him Actor only shrugged. "I was much younger and ten years seemed like a great deal of difference then."
"And you got to her by passing yourself off as the son of one of her old lovers?"
Actor laughed again, he hadn't remembered telling that story. "It worked."
"Only here in Europe!"
"Did you get an answer?"
"Yeah. But they ordered us to stay put. There'll be another transmission in an hour."
"Which means they have something they want done...."
"Actor that's not very likely." He said it with conviction, but the possibility had occurred to him too. "It's more likely they're just having a little trouble working out our escape route and contacts..."
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"What are you lads doing out 'ere on the firing range?"
"What's it look like?" Chief squeezed off a round and turned to face the NCO.
"It looks like you're taking a fair bit of frustration out on them targets." Rawlins eyed the splintered wooden figures at the far end of the range.
Casino ejected the clip from his pistol before laying both in the box at his feet. "You come out here to complain about the noise or'd you finally hear somethin'?"
Gil walked behind Chief and Casino and stepped up next to Goniff. Lifting the pistol out of his hand he laid his arm across the cat burglar's shoulder and turned him towards the house. "You 'aven't been cleared by the doctor for this yet."
"He said I could exercise it." the pick pocket huffed. "Besides I've got bored a liftin' that ruddy bean bag."
"Come along, all of you. I've 'ad a message from Colonel Reynolds about an hour ago and he's due to call back in another five minutes. "I know you'd just as soon 'ear what he has to say yourselves as to 'ave me carry the tale to you."
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"You want them to what?!"
They'd gone from back slapping celebration to pin dropping silent disbelief. Casino was staring at the speaker on the desk as if he thought by pure concentration he could turn it into Reynolds just long enough to get his hands around the man's throat.
"It's a simple enough operation." the tinny voice from the box assured them. "And he's confirmed that he can do it."
The men gathered around the desk shared a look and rolled their eyes. There was one thing you could say about the Warden, he sure was an optimist.
"We're working up their escape route now and he's to send a radio message through when the job's done. I'll ring you back when they're started on the way home." The line went dead before Sergeant Major Rawlins could even start on his 'Thank you, sir.'
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By the look on his face it was obvious the Warden had received more than just the instructions for their escape back to England. "What is it they need for us to do?"
Garrison hesitated a moment knowing the response he would get as soon as the truth came out. He saw the look of determination settle on his second's face as he pushed himself up onto his feet. "There's an experimental plane based near here. They want me to get a look at it. And there's no 'us' to it Actor. I can get in there on my own easily enough."
Actor had argued with the Warden after the first radio contact, if they were to be on the move soon he needed to try and walk some strength back into his legs. Reaching out as his leader came to his side he rested his right arm firmly over Garrison's shoulder leaving his left free to gesture, which he was doing expansively. "Just how do you propose to accomplish the job on your own?" They continued to pace the room as he marshaled his thoughts for the argument. "I have a very high regard for your abilities Warden but you know that I am right. What if they discover you and you get caught? What then?"
They'd made their tenth circuit of the room and Garrison stopped by the chair and swung his confidence man down into it, crouching by his side to exam the bandages while he tried to come up with an argument to counter the man's logic. "Then Switzerland's close, and you make your own way back to England as soon as you're strong enough to travel. I'm sure your brother will help you."
"I'm certain he will. But I have no intention of leaving you behind if something goes wrong." The Italian con artist said with conviction. "Just as I have no intentions of letting you go on that base alone."
"This isn't up for discussion..."
"You're right, it isn't." Actor continued to stare at his commander, he could be just as stubborn as the Lieutenant when he needed to be. "It makes as much sense for you to go in there alone as it did to accept this assignment in the first place. Besides" he softened his tone slightly. "It will save time if you don't have to come all the way back here for me." Actor studied the younger man and could see the far away look that had crept into his eyes. "You have no intention of leaving that plane on the ground if you can get anywhere near it... And it will be a much faster way back to England."
Garrison's mouth quirked up in a quick smile. They'd worked together long enough he knew Actor wouldn't leave him if he got in trouble, but he hadn't been sure he wouldn't take the opportunity to stay with his brother now that he'd finally found him again. And he wasn't certain he would have ordered him to, even if he thought he had a chance of making the order stick.
"When do you plan on going in?"
"Well, if you're determined to go, that leg of yours could use a little more time to heal. And I'll have to collect the uniforms and some other things we'll need...." The sound of a car's engine and the crunch of tires on the gravel drive stopped their planning. Garrison slipped over to the window and pulled the curtains back far enough to see out.
Katia and Leonzio moved across the drive and greeted the German officer that stepped out of the car as if he were an old friend. Slipping her arm through his Katia led him back towards the back of the house. The door below them closed and in a moment the sound of voices drifted up from the hall below. Garrison moved over to the door and carefully opened it, trying to catch the conversation in the hall but the group had already moved into the parlor they'd used when they first arrived at the house. Turning to lean against it as he closed the door behind him he shared a long look with his second before moving back to sit silently next to the bed.
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It was more than two hours before they heard voices in the hall below again. Garrison stepped to the window once more and watched as a package was loaded in the back of the car. The German officer turned for a handshake from Actor's brother before collecting a kiss from Katia. He opened the door and slid in under the wheel and after a few more minutes of polite conversation the engine revved to life and the car and its driver left. Within moments the soft sound of steps on the stairs reached them and they waited for the door to open. Katia came through first, followed by Leonzio.
"You see, I told you it would be much more comfortable for you if you stayed up here in your room."
"I think it's time you told us what's really going on around here. Who was that guy and what was he doing here?" Garrison was still leaning on the wall next to the window.
"He is a client, and he came to collect a piece of work he... commissioned...."
"Leonzio, what are you doing?" The possibilities that ran through his imagination weren't at all comforting. Actor waited for Katia to arrange herself on the chair and his brother to settle himself on the edge of the bed. "Katia what kind of trouble have you led him into?"
Leonzio laughed. "If half her stories are true, you are no stranger to the 'kind of trouble' we are in."
When they'd first met and he found that Katia had known his younger brother he couldn't believe the stories that she'd told. But after finding him again, and in the company of the man he called his 'business associate', he found that he could accept her accounts of their activities together as truth. At first he'd been disappointed at the direction his brother's life had taken and the part Katia had played in it. He had imagined a far different life for him over the years before he met her and found out what had happened. As he grew to know her and as the conditions in Europe changed and he had to change his own way of life to survive his view of Beppe's choices mellowed and her stories took on the note of fable and legend. Now he found himself almost amused that they had followed a similar path and he was eager to reveal his own past in order to hear what Beppe had been involved in since he left Katia to strike out on his own.
He reached out and took her hand before turning back to consider his brother. "And don't look at her like that 'little bother'... I was willingly led."
Katia considered her two guests a moment before beginning the explanation she hoped would ease some of their tension. "Now Major Siemans has no reason to return to the villa. He has what he wants and I assure you he poses no threat to either of you. It wouldn't do our business any good for him to know of your presence here. We have one other meeting that is arranged for tomorrow and then we will be left quietly to our selves." Turning her attention from Actor to Garrison as he lounged against the wall she continued. "I suggest that it is time to be honest with each other and to help you to trust us I will begin. The package I'm sure you watched us help the Major load in his car contained a forged copy of a painting he wanted to add to his collection.... Fortunately he does not realize it is a forgery. If someone were to tell him I'm afraid things would go very badly for us." She smiled serenely at the young man she'd determined was the leader in this 'partnership.'
She'd given him information that could ruin them if he chose to use it. "And when you're done, where is the original, still hanging on the wall where it belongs?" Garrison thought he knew the answer but what she told him next would determine how much he'd trust her.
"Of course not!" She laughed. "When we are approached to replicate a painting and see the original safely into the 'collectors' hands Ilario always produces two copies. The original is stored safely in a vault here at the villa."
"To add to your own collection, or to be sold after the war?"
"Hardly. Carlo will tell you that I have always admired the old works, but I prefer to collect from new artists." When Leonzio leaned forward to kiss her hand she ran her fingers through his hair. "And I have the perfect combination of talents right here. I can have anything I wish.... No Herr Hessmann.., if that is your name. Along with the collection I have a very detailed account of where the pieces belong, who the rightful owners are, and who has the forgeries. If we are lucky enough to survive this war they will be returned... if the owners and the galleries and museums still exist."
If it was a con, Craig thought, it was a good one. "Alright." He'd made his decision to finally trust her with the truth when she told him about the records she kept and dropped the soft German accent he'd let color his speech. "We're part of an allied special forces unit. When Actor... Carlo... got hurt we were separated from the others."
"So you need some assistance to get back to England?"
Actor took over before the Warden could answer her, cutting off the possibility of being left behind. "Lieutenant Garrison and I need some help getting on an airbase near here. We can get back to England from there if all goes well."
"How? By impersonating German officers and stealing a plane?" Leonzio's laughter died away as he studied his brother. "You can't be serious!" He shot a look at Garrison before turning back to stare at the man in the bed. "And just what kind of trouble has this man led you into Beppe?"
"Like you, fratello, I was willingly led." Actor glanced up at Garrison and shrugged. "At least after the first few jobs."
"Do you really propose to steal one of their planes?" Katia asked, the look on her face and the tone of her voice carried a combination of admiration and amusement and just a touch of something Garrison couldn't quite identify.
"A new type of plane is based there. The orders are to get in and just get a look at it," he shrugged, "but Actor's right, it would be a fast way back to England for us if we could get our hands on one...."
"... And it might offer a solution to a problem we have as well." She studied the young man a moment before continuing. "What do you think your chances of getting safely back to England are?"
"Depends on how quickly they find out we've got the plane." He recognized the look now and watched as possibilities lit her eyes. "If we had a good twenty, thirty minutes we'd be far enough away that I don't think they'd be able to track us."
Katia considered them for a moment, her eyes drifting from one to the other, lasting longest on Leonzio. "What would you say if I told you I know the commander of that base?"
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It had been easy enough to get on base as the driver of Katia's car even if it had taken a little work to cover the bruises on his face. The commander must have been an old friend indeed, the guards at the gate merely waved them through. The road to his quarters took a winding path through the facility and gave Garrison a good look at the set up. The plane was there alright and because the area was secure the base itself was loosely guarded. He noted the pattern of their movement and numbers as he waited for her visit to end. An hour later he was out, opening the door for her as she took a relaxed leave of the commander.
"Well?" He watched her in the mirror as she settled herself comfortably in the back seat.
"I have invited him to come to dinner, I'll call tomorrow with the details. He is a very polite man, very correct. Once he has eaten with us he will return the invitation and I believe we will be back here before the end of the week." Glancing at his reflection in the mirror she let the offer go unspoken and smiled. "You will need to make a turn to the right when the road branches. I will need some things from town."
As he drove into the town that lay between the base and the villa he considered what he could do and the steps he needed to take to get ready. Circling through the town he found the area he needed for his own 'shopping' and was pleased to see it was far from the markets she would be using.
When they returned to the house they each had bundles and parcels to bring in from the car. As soon as Garrison hauled her purchases into the kitchen he gathered up the things he'd collected and headed up stairs.
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"Are you going to let Reynolds know what we are planning?" Actor had approved of the rudimentary plan and the uniforms. They were due to check in again and Garrison had just pushed up to his feet to climb up into the attic to use the radio.
"Not until we've actually got our hands on the plane...." The Warden turned back from the door and shrugged. "I don't want to raise his hopes."
Actor laughed. "You don't want him to order you not to do it!" Before Garrison could turn the knob on the door it was opening into the room. "Leonzio.......what have you done?"
Garrison turned and stepped back to let the man into the room. The beard was gone, the hair trimmed and darkened to Actor's rich almost black brown. Katia came in behind him and studied first one brother then the other. "You could be mistaken for the same man by people who do not know you well." Smiling as she settled onto the edge of the bed she waved Garrison out of the room. "You have a call to make, do you not? And we have things we must discuss with Carlo." Beppe, she corrected herself as her smiled deepened. She really would have to insist they each settle on just one name.
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When Garrison approached the room twenty minutes later the sounds of a heated argument could be heard halfway down the hall. When he stepped inside the conversation slid seamlessly from Italian to English as Actor turned his anger on his commander.
"How dare you involve these people! I've contracted to risk my life, but theirs...?! You had no right!
"What are you talking about?" Garrison had never seen the Italian confidence expert lose control. He was furious now and the only thing keeping him in his chair was his brother's heavy hand on his shoulder. "Actor..."
"Don't try and con me, Warden." He snapped. "Using Katia to get on base today was dangerous enough but expecting that she and Leonzio will provide cover for us when we go back........"
"Silence, Beppe!" Leonzio had been standing stiffly by the side of the chair his brother was seated in, dropping into a crouch in front of him he gripped the arm of the chair and shook it in irritation. "This is my idea, not his! Do you think I would allow you to take such a risk without trying to help you?"
"But what you want to do is far too dangerous!" Actor turned some of his anger and frustration on his brother. He was a fool to think he could pull something like this off. A dreamer, an artist whose perception of the world was colored by his desire to see only the beauty in it? The Germans would see through him in a moment.
"What's going on here?"
"Simply this Lieutenant. Ilario and I have come up with a way to get you back on that base and all you have to do in payment is take our collection and records with you when you leave."
Actor turned to glare at him again, still waiting for him to admit his part in the plotting his brother had done but all he got was a puzzled frown. Garrison studied the woman and her companion as he settled himself on the edge of the bed. "Getting that man off the base is going to be more than enough help. I told you that." Glancing from his second to the, now almost identical, brother he thought he knew what the plan might be and he shared Actor's concern.
"But this could get both of you on base without them knowing you are there." Katia purred persuasively.
"And unless I miss my guess, leave you two there after we leave... Actor's right. It's too dangerous. Nothing doing." In the ears of the two strangers the comment rang with authority, only Actor saw the gleam light his eye and the wheels start to turn as he considered the possibilities.
"I told you, No!"
"Beppe you are not the only ones who could benefit from this if we do it our way. Do you know what the Germans will do to us if we are caught with the art work?" Leonzio continued seriously when Actor turned to stare at him. "They are shooting people who steal from them."
"I think you'd better describe just what your plan is to me." Garrison put his hand up to silence his confidence man and concentrated on the other two as they explained their idea. Ten minutes later it was his turn to request a little time to have a private conversation with the frustrated younger brother, and an hour after that they were all engrossed in a full blown plotting session.
"This colonel of yours isn't one of the 'art collectors? He doesn't know the others or anything about that?"
"No. Our relationship was on a more... personal level." She turned and caressed Leonzio's face. "Before the war, before I met you, darling."
"Did he ask about me? Did you have to explain who I was?"
"No, it never came up... but he knows I've always used a driver..."
Garrison remembered the story Actor told of their travels to this house in the past. "Your drivers... Have they been part of a permanent staff that traveled with you?"
Katia shrugged. "I haven't kept a staff of servants since Agnieska died. I usually hire someone from the local area. It's easier that way."
"Good. Then this is what you're going to tell him over dinner tomorrow night...."
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As soon as he'd set the first course out and poured the wine Garrison collected a plate from the kitchen and ran it upstairs to Actor's room. Leaving his injured second to his meal he headed back downstairs to be available to refill the wine glasses and clear the table. Standing just inside the dining room he kept a watchful eye on the diners and listened as Katia drew Colonel Bachen out, questioning him about his current assignment. As the evening progressed and the wine glasses were filled and emptied he gathered enough information to be comfortable with the plans they'd made. The base saw routine traffic as officials moved in and out of the area. Aside from a small unit that flew security for those transports there were no other fighters on base. And as there had been no Allied air attacks in the area, they had yet to install the guns that protected the fields to the south. The same lack of other strategic targets that had left the area free of Allied air attacks made it the perfect base for the new aircraft. If she could get their invitation they should have no trouble getting to that plane.
Once he'd cleared the table of the final course and carried the fruit and cheeses into the parlor Katia released him to find his bed in the servant's quarters after he'd cleaned up in the kitchen, assuring him that they would see to pouring the brandy themselves. Garrison rolled up his sleeves and had the mess cleared away before they started on their second glass of brandy and lit up the cigars. Heading quietly upstairs he settled on the chair in Actor's room and waited for the guest to finally leave. It was after midnight before Katia opened the door on them.
"Thursday. We are to be there at five o'clock." Sharing a satisfied smile with them she continued. "And Ilario made such an impression on him with his new found enthusiasm for planes that we have been promised a tour of the base before dinner."
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The brothers spent the days leading up to the colonel's dinner together, and though both of them knew the time was short they hadn't done more than engage in casual conversation, the way strangers might. As they were getting ready for the evening's charade and he saw Beppe dressed as a German officer Leonzio accused him of playacting, they way they had when they were children. After sharing a laugh they finally started to talk and eventually the conversation turned to the dramatic changes in their childhood.
"When did you first know we were poor?" Leonzio asked and watched as his brother considered his answer.
"I suppose the word had no meaning at first...." Actor thought about it as he studied his older brother. "How could we be poor if there was food on the table and clothes to wear? We couldn't be poor if we had a roof over our heads that didn't leak, if there were servants, and gardens to play in. Poor people didn't have a stable full of fine horses, art on the walls and shelves full of books. How could we be poor when we had all of that?"
"But we were." Leonzio held his brothers eyes in the reflection of the mirror. "That was the truth of it, the rest was a pretense held together by the fragile binding of our father's good name."
"I know. And then even that was lost and the world started to slowly collapse around us." Actor sighed and broke eye contact, caressing the SS runes as he pulled the uniform collar into position. "But I was still too much of a child... and the changes were exciting to me. A new house, a different town." He turned and fixed a conspiratorial smile on Leonzio. "A new tutor who didn't know what we had already been taught..."
His brother laughed. "And thought when we completed his lessons so easily it was a sign of our genius!"
"When some of the first servants were let go even the new responsibilities of caring for the horses, or laying out my own clothes to wear, rather than having it done by someone else was novel and amusing." Actor turned away and studied his reflection in the mirror again with a critical eye. He adjusted the collar and tugged at the jacket. The Warden had finally managed to find a uniform that actually fit well. He smiled at his own reflection and turned back to face Leonzio.
"I suppose by the time I was ten the word started to have some meaning, but still no real impact. We still fought duels and won battles together in the hills around the newest house..." He watched as Leonzio remembered the pleasure of those days.
With each move the house and grounds grew smaller, the servants fewer and the list of new chores longer. But there was still enough help to lift the burden of household chores from their mother's shoulders, leaving her free to take the place of the tutors their father could no longer afford. And her method of teaching encompassed the environment in which they found themselves, and made use of their boundless energy and curiosity.
"Everything was a lesson with her, even play!" Leonzio did remember and it was pleasurable. After his mother's death, after he'd finally given up looking for his brother, all he seemed to be able to remember was the bitterness and shame of the family's accelerating decent through the social strata of the day and he forced himself to stop remembering. But they had managed to have wonderful times together he realized, the three of them, as she taught them by encouraging each of them to play the part of some character in the lesson. "She could make anything into a drama. How could we know when she was showing us how to aim that little brass cannon, or how to be mad scientists in her kitchen she was really teaching us mathematics?"
Actor laughed. "Or that the Great Expedition to Africa was only a way to master map reading or study the plants around the cottage, or the weather."
"As I recall you became lost on that expedition and I had to save you from being eaten by lions, little brother." Leonzio cocked an eyebrow at him and smiled.
"You shut me up in the barn!... And those were hogs, not lions." He laughed. "And we ended up eating them!"
"Only one, Papa sold the rest."
By then the servants were gone and it was finally just the family in a small cottage on the edge of the newest town. The horses were gone, the ponies sold and only a few books left on a shelf near the fireplace. Instead of the free ranging lessons of their mother that used their endless energy in imagination and play, it was the regimented colorless droning of the village schoolmaster. But even that provided moments of amusement.
"Do you remember acting out the school day for her as she prepared dinner?" Leonzio asked.
"Your impression of the master was nearly perfect... Especially when you put on Papa's good black coat."
"The coat hadn't collected any patches yet." The light of amusement faded from Leonzio's eyes. As time wore on the impact of their loss of station took up a more destructive turn. With each change their father had grown more despondent and distant. Instead of finding solace by surrounding himself with the love of his family when his investments first started to fail he found it in the numbing effects of brandy and the exhilaration of gambling.
Actor watched as remembering the past turned from pleasure to pain on his brother's face and knew what he was thinking. "At first he won. At first he kept our way of life intact."
"But then he lost!" Leonzio countered bitterly, "And when he lost he just made a larger wager."
"He was dreaming of the grand return he would realize, rather than the risk he was taking."
"He was a fool! When he exhausted his own fortune and turned to the family..., when they grew sickened by his demands and turned their backs on us... That's when I finally understood that we were poor."
"You were more perceptive than I. I still didn't realize... not until I found him in the street." When he was barely thirteen he first knew the real meaning of the word... Poor. When he found his father bleeding and unresponsive in the gutter the meaning was burned into him. As he ran to bring his brother back so they could carry their father home it was carved into his heart. And as they listened to their father mutter drunken threats against the money lenders who had beaten him, and he heard the taunts of the people they passed in the streets and saw their disgust it was etched into his soul. Once he knew the true meaning of the word he swore he would do anything he could to avoid the reality of it.
Leonzio considered him a moment before turning away to gaze out the window. "I should have stayed."
"You had to leave. You could not have concentrated on your art if you had stayed." Actor stopped unbuttoning the uniform tunic and moved over to stand behind his brother. "We knew that."
"Then I should have taken you both with me." he said quietly.
"And how would you have supported us? It would have been as if you hadn't left. You would have worked in a factory somewhere to earn the money and neglected your painting. Mama would still have worked at her lace and sewing. And we still would have had to beg help from the family." He reached a hand out and laid it on Leonzio's shoulder, turning him back so they were standing face to face. "She wanted you to go. And she would not have gone with you in any case. She loved him."
Leonzio still couldn't understand it. His memory of his father was clouded by the last years, the shame that he felt for him when his failure led him to drunkenness. He could no longer remember the man of his early childhood, the one who was able to win their mother's heart. That man had dreams and was full of hope and laughter and promise. The man he remembered was bitter, broken. And because his dreams had failed him he could not believe in the dreams of his own children, and he undermined their hope in the future and in themselves with ridicule and scorn. "Why?"
"Who can tell," Actor saw the doubt in his brother's eyes and smiled It had been hard for him to understand, it still was, but he had stayed longer, had more time to discuss such things with their mother. "But it was true. I think the only thing that shook her faith in him was the way he treated us. She saw him for what he was when he ridiculed us, but it never changed the fact that she still loved him."
"So she sent me away..." Leonzio followed Actor and settled in the chair as he sat on the bed, leaning forward he rested his elbows on his knees and faced his brother over the years they had been apart. "What was it like for you after I left?"
"It was lonely." Actor decided to tell the truth and shrugged, "I didn't fit in anywhere, at least not as who I really was. All the practice playacting our lessons turned to pretending I was someone else altogether." But even that caused him to smile. "She was my conspirator even in that! You know she had a fine ear for accents and she noticed every detail of how someone moved or dressed. When I wanted to join in with the boys from the town she made sure I had clothes like theirs and worked with me so that I sounded and acted like just them. Even though we had been to school together they didn't know who I was, not until I forgot myself and corrected one of them during a game."
"What happened?" His brother's voice was light, his face smiling and he seemed to recall the time with pleasure, as some sort of amusing, exciting game. But every word pierced Leonzio's heart with a new pain, a renewed feeling a shame and responsibility for allowing it to happen.
"I'm afraid I got rather badly beaten for it." Actor laughed. "Not for correcting the boy, but for fooling the group in the first place!"
Leonzio shook his head "You see. I should have been there! They wouldn't have dared touch you if I had been there."
"They wouldn't have let me anywhere near them if you had been there...And I wouldn't have had the chance to know them, know what it was like to be one of them." Actor smiled at him again. "And that knowledge has saved my life on occasion."
But that didn't console the man who studied him and Leonzio pushed to his feet and started pacing the room. "How did you come to this, Beppe? What happened to cause you to leave school and turn to this life of pretense?"
"Pretense got me into school in the first place! Do you think they would have let me in if they had known what our family's circumstances really were? As soon as they found out they turned me away...." He could see the guilt even for that in his brother's eyes and realized with a shock that all of the time they had been apart he had secretly dreamed of seeing just such a look. Waves of regret washed over him. The path he'd taken in life was his own, the consequences his responsibility. His older brother had made mistakes of his own and Actor no longer wanted to add the responsibility for his failure to the load that he carried. "And I chose not to continue. I could have started over after Mama died but I chose not to, Leonzio. My choice."
"Why did you make that choice? You could have done anything... You could have gone to the family."
"And been treated like they treated Papa?" The grandparents were dead, most of the uncles and aunts as well. He'd tried to contact them, but the cousins were in no mood to support a relative with no skills, no prospects. "I was bitter with the way they treated me. I was ashamed of what Papa had become. And I was impatient for change. Do not be fooled Leonzio I could have found another school that would have taken me but it would have taken too long and I wanted a different life. Then, at that very moment! I didn't want to spend years working for it."
Leonzio studied his brother's face. He should have tried harder to find him. He should have kept looking... But after he found out about their mother's death, after he faced what their father had become, his only thought had been to get away again, to go back to the life he was building for himself. When the old man took his last breath and died after squandering the money he'd given him on one last monumental drunken binge all he'd felt was relief. Leonzio buried their father and tried to bury his own past with him. Changing his name he turned his back on his family and abandoned his brother. He left him stranded in the world without anyone to turn to for support. "I could have helped you..."
"By then I doubt I would have been satisfied, even with that."
"Would you be satisfied now?"
It was Actor's turn to study his brother. He knew what he was offering. A new life, a chance to escape his past and the bargain he'd made that released him from prison. A chance to be together again. He would be a fool not to accept.
"No." He said quietly, and before the disappointment that shone in Leonzio's eyes could turn to a sense of failure he continued. "I have made a pact with the government to work for them in return for a parole from prison... My choice again, not yours."
When he had made that promise he had no intension of keeping it. It still surprised him that somewhere during the training exercises that plagued his existence at the London manor house, on one of the jobs he'd done for the Allies, or in one of the arguments he'd had with the Warden, he'd discovered a shimmering sense of honor and patriotism hidden deep under the layers of deceit and duplicity. Even more surprising to him was his secret desire and determination to nurture it. It was a private hope, still too fragile to share, even with his brother.
"And don't look at me like that. I hardly think someone who produces forged paintings should stand in judgment." He smiled. "If you have successfully passed your work off for the pieces in your 'portfolio' I believe you must have been doing this for longer than just the years the world has been at war..."
Leonzio stood in the middle of the room and protested. "It is an accepted practice... to learn by copying the masters!" But then he relented and accepted the absolution of his brother's smile. "Is it my fault if some fool mistook my poor effort for the real thing?" He explained with a shrug. "It was how I supported myself while I was finding my own style, before my own work sold for more than just a few pennies... But I never represented them as originals..." Then he laughed. "Only as family pieces. It is amazing how much pleasure some people seem to derive from buying a valuable work of art from some desperate soul who doesn't know its true value."
"And when Katia found out she knew just how to use that talent?" Just as she knew how to use his latent abilities, he thought.
"By then there was need, Beppe." It was how they'd met. She'd seen his works done 'in the style of' and asked around the darker edges of the artistic community. "These criminals should not be allowed to strip a country of its art!" A note of indignation had krept into his older brother's voice.
"Do you hear me arguing against what you are doing?" Actor soothed. "But it is every bit as dangerous as what we do, and I would see you safely out of it. Once you reach Switzerland will you promise me you will not leave again?"
"I can promise you that, Beppe. We have no intension of coming back once we are settled." Leonzio cocked an eyebrow and smiled. "Besides... our clients can find us easily enough."
Actor shook his head and laughed but fear for his brother clutched at his heart. "You are impossible! Maybe it would be best if we found room for you on that plane and took you back to England where I could keep an eye on you myself."
"You.., keep me from getting into trouble? If you are determined to continue working for the Allies I think you will not have the time it would take to do that." He sobered as his brother continued to joke.
"Then I will have to hope you have the good sense to stay safely out of trouble on your own."
"And I will have to trust you not to take too big a risk...." Leonzio stood in front of him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I have just found you again, I have no desire to lose you."
"You won't. I have determined to survive this. We both will." Actor stood and faced his older brother a moment before pulling him into an embrace.
"Is that a promise?" Leonzio asked.
"...I promised Mama, once..."
"Then I will put my trust in the pact you made with her and expect to see you again after this is over." And we will make up for all of the lost time, he promised himself.
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