The Silver Cord - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Deszo took a sip of his brandy and then spoke over the rim of the glass. “Your research is admirable though your suppositions about the Allies lack sophistication. And now you want to spend the evening discussing politics. Well I am pleased to join you another evening for such a conversation. But not while these two innocent women are sitting in a ghetto.”

“I give you the finest wine and brandy to be found in this God-forsaken city. I feed you food you haven’t tasted in years. You are so impatient! You want to see your messenger boy. He’s here!”

“Where?” I cried.

Garrick turned and looked at me. His eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips. “You see this is what I don’t understand. Your interest in the boy. He’s a thief, you know.”

Deszo shot me a warning glance. “She has a soft spot for him because he’s close in age to Mila.”

I looked from one man to the other. Both had become enigmas. Deszo downplayed our relationship to Jozef, but at what expense? Jozef’s safety? I shook my head and looked down at the table.

“Perhaps Natalie should leave now,” Deszo said. “One of your men could escort her home. Safely.”

“Again you are trying to direct things,” Garrick sighed. “No, Natalie is going to stay. It’s not every day that I get to look at such a beautiful woman.”

“From what I saw at the café you have plenty of beautiful women at your disposal,” Deszo countered.

Garrick waved away his comment, got up from the table and went to the windows on the other side of the room.

“What do you have to offer in exchange for the women?” He ran his hand along the back of one of the chairs and leaned forward, pulling the drapes to one side. “Tell me how valuable are these women to you, Deszo?”

“You overestimate the information I have access to.”

“Mila is not too young to be of service to me or my men,” Garrick said.

“She’s a child!” I cried.

“She wouldn’t be the first,” Garrick replied as he continued to stare into the black night.

I thought of Mila and for a moment realized I would rather she die than face the torture of being used by these men.

“Tell me what I can offer you,” I said. “I will take her place.”

“Natalie,” Deszo warned. “Don’t.”

“But not your sister?” Garrick turned from the curtain and looked across the room at me. “Not for your twin?”

“Mila is a child.”

Garrick ignored my response and turned toward Deszo. “You’re right, she has no place in these discussions. But I always enjoy the sound of a pleading woman.”

“Send her home, now.”

Garrick considered and looked at me. “Do you want to go home Natalie?”

“Not without Mila and Anna.”

He smiled grimly and then shook his head.

“Then you will have to stay a little longer.”