“That’s why it’s important to differentiate the Germans versus the Nazis. The Nazis are a humorless creed, and a damned creed, carrying misery and fear where they go. In addition, they’re dreary sentimentalists. The kind who go to a whorehouse, and then, after it’s over, show the whore pictures of their wife and children back home and cry. They’re not terrible, and they’re not even all that interesting when all is said and done. Crashing bores, really.
“Miss Hope, you don’t have much family, do you?”
Maggie tried not to guffaw in the presence of the Prime Minister. That’s an understatement. “No, sir.”
“I didn’t, either, you know. In that way we are alike.”
“Sir?”
“Like you, I was an only child. My father was absent more than he was present—was absent even when he was present. And my mother—well, she was like a movie star to me, just as glamorous and just as real as an image on the silver screen. We moved so much, when I was young, and then I went to boarding school … and then she died …”
He shook himself from his reverie. “That’s why I married Clemmie, why we built Chartwell, why we had children. Family, Miss Hope, family is what’s important!” he roared, raising his glass. “And while we can’t choose the one we come from, we can create our own.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Think you’ll settle down, get married?”
Maggie blushed. “Maybe after the war is over, sir.”
“My advice is—don’t wait too long. Get married and have children. Four, if possible—one for Mother, one for Father, one for Accidents, one for Increase.”
Maggie cleared her throat. “Mr. Churchill, your mentioning family brings me to another thing I wanted to ask.”
“What? Speak up, Miss Hope!”
“I’m actually not an only child. In Berlin, I learned that I have a half-sister, Elise Hess.” Maggie chose her words carefully. “If you promise to do everything in your power to get Elise Hess out of Germany, then I will come with you to Washington, DC.”
The Prime Minister sat down and pondered his drink for a moment. Then he looked up. “You think I have time to locate and save one German girl—the daughter of a high-ranking Nazi, no less?”
“She’s on our side, sir. She’s a nurse and an aspiring nun, and she put herself in great danger to help John Sterling and a Jew named Ernst Klein, who’s now patching up the British army in the Mideast. And she’s my sister.”
The P.M. smoked, then took another swig of his drink. Ash fell on his vest. “Well played, Miss Hope, well played. And so I say to you—I will do everything in my power to rescue your sister, if you agree to come to Washington with me. We leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Sir?”
“Tomorrow. Get your things in order and return bright and shiny in the morning.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
He waved his cigar at her. “Go. Go away now.”
Maggie stood. She had won. She would save Elise. “Yes, sir.”
Back at the party, David was waiting. “How did it go with the Boss?”
Maggie smiled. “Looks like I’ll be coming to DC with you.”
“Wizard!” David exclaimed, clapping her on the back. “We’re going to have an excellent time. No rationing there, remember?”
Maggie lowered her voice. “I’m worried about Mr. Churchill.”
David’s smile faded. “The pressures are starting to get to the P.M., I’m afraid. It’s a horrible thing to say, but the attack on Pearl Harbor couldn’t have come at a better time. Things were quite grim for a while there. Grimmer than most people knew.”
The pianist segued into “There Will Always Be an England.” People stood to sing.
As voices drew out, “Britons, awake!,” the P.M. burst into the room. “We’re going to watch That Hamilton Woman,” Churchill declared, “in honor of our voyage to America! We have moved into a new phase of this war, and while it might not be the beginning of the end, I do believe—now that we stand side by side with the United States—that it just may be the end of the beginning, the part where Britain stood alone.
“The film’s been set up. Move along, then, move along!”
“Again?” someone whispered.
David mouthed to Maggie, “He’s obsessed.”
“So I’ve heard.”
The assembled guests found seats in the long Pillared Room. The lights were dimmed, the projector began to roll, and the film started.
The Prime Minister mouthed the words Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh spoke as Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton along with them in the darkness. “ ‘Tell him we’re not the guardian angels of every country too lazy to look after itself. You’ve got to do something too! At the battle of the Nile, we cleared them off the seas, but as long as those madmen had their armies on land no country in Europe is free, they want to get hold of the whole world. If you believe in freedom, stir yourselves! Prepare and help drive them off the land!… You cannot make peace with dictators! You have to destroy them, wipe them out!’ ”