Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [200]
“But, Colonel,” Ernestine persisted, “he may not have it left in him to give. He has done enough and deserves a few years of peace.”
“Some men are never born for peace.”
“My uncle is very, very tired. I hear him thrash during the night and cry out reliving the horror of Schwabenwald. I see the exhaustion and the deterioration that others don’t want to see. This will kill him.” At the moment, Sean felt a touch of compassion for the girl.
“Let him continue as the spiritual head of the party but find a younger and more vigorous man and begin to groom him,” she pleaded.
Sean shook his head. “History chooses people. It is never the other way around, fraulein. He is the man who can rally Berlin. Each day here the battle becomes broader and clearer. Your uncle is a general who must assume his command. Like all soldiers, we are expendable if God wills it.”
“I’ll fight you,” she said.
Sean’s eyes narrowed. He was damned angry. He leaned forward almost hissing his words at her. “Did you fight to keep your brother out of uniform? Did you fight to keep your Nazi boy friend from butchering innocent, defenseless people? Not one of you fine German women seemed to fight too much to keep your men from marching off to die for the fatherland. Now you listen to me. There are things in this world more worthy of dying for than Deutschland Uber Alles.”
Ernestine came to her feet, watery-eyed. “I am sorry that your beautiful democracy has no mercy for its weary fighters.”
“Not if we are going to win.”
“I have seen men like you before, Colonel O’Sullivan. I have seen them in this very building, in these very offices. Blind obedience to duty. They were in Nazi uniform.”
Chapter Thirty-one
SEAN WRESTLED ON THE floor with Shenandoah Blessing’s two roly-poly boys, held them fast, tickled them, then allowed himself to be pinned and mauled. Lil Blessing finally pulled the boys off Uncle Sean and hustled them to bed.
After dinner, Shenandoah buckled on his duty belt, kissed Lil, told Sean he’d see him later and went off.
Sean settled with a cognac while Lil checked the boys and warned them of dire consequences if they weren’t asleep immediately. The German maid was dismissed. Lil picked up her knitting.
“That was a hell of a dinner,” Sean said. “I haven’t had hush puppies since I was a kid. I had an aunt and uncle in North Carolina. My brothers and I visited them one whole summer. Hush puppies, grits, hawgs’ knuckles. No wonder your old man is so fat.”
“I like him fat. Gives me something to bounce around on.”
“How’s garrison life?”
“Can’t complain. It’s good for the boys seeing another part of the world. Kind of feel bad about how hard things are for those folks in Berlin.”
“They can’t expect any better.”
“I’m having tea with some of the ladies from the British garrison tomorrow. We’re going to have us a forum on the problems of raising kids in the occupation. How about that?”
In the few months that Lil and the kids had been in Berlin they had become like old friends. Sean gave up his cottage to them, a neat little wooded place in a development once belonging to SS people. He took a flat in Dahlem large enough to suit him.
“Sean. You’re sure not yourself, tonight.”
“It’s all this damned preparation for the Foreign Ministers’ Conference.”
“That’s not all that’s bothering you.”
Sean rolled his cognac glass in the palm of his hand.
“You’re sure wonderful around the kids,” Lil went on. “Any man who gives up all his off-duty time to coach them ought to have a couple of his own.”
“Hell, you women are all alike. None of you can stand a happy bachelor.”
“You’re talking to Lil, honey. You’re not happy.”
“I didn’t know I set off a signal.”
“Any man who works as hard as you do for the privilege of coming home to an empty room can’t be happy. Things aren’t made that way.”
“About once every three months I get to wondering about the bargain I made to come to Berlin, but it always passes.”
“Time is passing,