The Quality of Mercy by David Roberts Read Free Book Online

contract but Helmut insists I return with him to Vienna. He hopes I will fascinate Herr Hitler but I hate the lot of them. Do you know, in Vienna we eat off solid gold plates? But the food tastes of dust and ashes.’
    Edward was tempted to laugh, but he again felt that, behind the language of some cheap Hollywood film, a genuine passion lurked. She turned on him for the first time the full force of her beauty. He thought he understood why she so rarely looked directly at a man because, when she did, there was something in her eyes which transfixed him. He was not in the least attracted to her sexually but he would, he knew, do anything he could to please her.
    ‘So, why not leave him? Walk away.’
    ‘I cannot. My little girl is in Vienna. You understand? She is surety for my good behaviour. If I walked away, as you put it, I would never see my baby again.’
    ‘Why are you telling me all this, Miss Miller – I mean Frau Mandl?’ he demanded, a trifle resentfully.
    ‘You can call me Joan,’ she commanded him with regal benevolence.
    ‘Why tell me all this, Joan? You don’t know me. I might report this conversation to your husband.’
    ‘I don’t know you but I know of you. I know you are a friend to my friend Georg Dreiser . . .’
    ‘You’re a friend of his? I have never met him but I was happy to support his application to come to England. I repeat, why tell me all this?’ Edward was suddenly angry. He did not need to hear this strange woman’s sob story.
    ‘I saw you and knew you were an English gentleman,’ she answered coldly. ‘Was I wrong?’
    He relented enough to say, ‘I promise I’ll think about what you have told me and how I can help. I suppose you can’t go to Lord Louis?’
    ‘No, he and Helmut are business associates. I could not expect him to help me. I don’t imagine he will want to – what is it you say? – rock the boat.’
    ‘No, quite. By the way, before you were married, what was your name?’
    ‘Hedwig Kiesler.’
    ‘You are sure your husband does not love you? Before lunch I saw him looking at you. His gaze was so intense.’
    ‘He does not love me. He loves to possess me. He has mistresses but I don’t mind that. He hates me. He uses me to impress his friends and business colleagues. I am – what do they call it? – a trophy of his success and if I humiliated him by running away . . . I think he would hunt me down and kill me. I could not leave my baby in his care. You understand?’
    ‘When you get back to Vienna you must hire a lawyer . . .’
    ‘He owns lawyers . . . I could never get away that way. But you are right, what can you do? An English gentleman . . .’ The scorn in her voice made him wince.
    ‘Let me think about it . . .’ Edward repeated, not wanting to get involved in what was by no stretch of imagination his business but compelled against his will to do her bidding. ‘Tell me – how did you meet him?’
    ‘I was in a play about Elizabeth of Austria and he came backstage. I was young. Each night he filled my dressing-room with flowers. He went and saw my parents and asked permission to marry me. He was already divorced but he was very rich and my parents thought it would be a good match. You think he’s what the French call mal baisé but I found him attractive. At least I did then. He was so . . . so fervent . We were married in the Karlskirche in Vienna. He loved me then – or at least that was what I thought. He called me “Hasi”, his little bunny, but things went wrong almost immediately. I quickly realized he wanted to own me. I was one more beautiful object in his collection. Then, while I was pregnant with Heidi, the film I had made just before I met him came out.’
    ‘ Last Night in Vienna ?’
    ‘Yes. There was a terrible scandal. I was seen running naked in the woods. At the time it was being made, it seemed not very shocking. I was merely the spirit of freedom at one with nature. I was naive. The film was a succès de scandale