Chapter 26: Loaned To The General

The Colonel knew that the East End girl called Polly something had been sent packing by the General at some point during the previous night. He neither knew, nor would he have cared, that she was actually still in the hotel, being passed around the top floor among the soldiers manning the various guard posts and checkpoints. He was concerned that the General should have a companion for his bed, so immediately after lunch he ordered Jane to go to the General's suite and to do whatever the General wanted.

When she protested he said, "Lady Johnson, you are, in effect, an auxiliary member of the Schutzstaffel and will obey my orders. You decided that just after we saw your husband in the dining room. Now go to the General and obey his orders. When you reach his suite you will take off your dress and offer yourself to him, irrespective of who else is present."

A soldier escorted Jane up to Suite 601 where she was told to sit and wait in the suite's hall until she was called in to see the General.

Half an hour later the call came and she was escorted into the General's bedroom where he sat reading some papers. As she had been ordered, Jane pulled her dress over her head, leaving her completely naked.

The General looked up and said, "Yes?"

"Colonel Esser sent me," Jane said, "He seemed to think you might want company."

The General stood up and walked over to her with a critical expression on his face. He walked slowly round her, inspecting the woman he had been offered.

When he had completed his circuit he reached out and hefted one breast for a moment, letting it drop back to its natural position.

"Much to old," he said to the orderly, "Get rid of this one and find something half its age. Grab something off the street if necessary."

Jane was hustled out of the room and only just managed to get her dress back on as they waited for the lift. When it came the orderly pressed the button for the ground floor.

"That's not where Room 210 is," she protested, "I am going back to Colonel Esser's room."

The orderly merely stared at her and said nothing.

When the lift stopped he took her arm and started to rush her through the lobby and out into the Strand, ignoring her protests. Fortunately for Jane, Colonel Esser's orderly happened to be in the foyer and intervened. A long argument ensued about whether "get rid of" meant "return to sender", or "throw out of the building".

As the argument continued a young woman who Jane thought looked no more than eighteen was forcibly taken into the Savoy, protesting uselessly that she had no reason to meet any German officer, and that she would be late for her work if she was delayed.

Eventually the Colonel's orderly compromised. The General's man would deposit Lady Johnson in the doorway outside the building and the Colonel's man would bring her back in.

When Lady Johnson was returned to Room 210 and Colonel Esser she was by turns worried and angry.

In the angry phase she railed at the Colonel, "In spite of what you promised, with your Count's and Colonel's honour, I suppose I am still just a toy, a trophy of the conquest of England, to be lent to anyone you want, just on a whim?"

In the worried phase she pleaded with him, "If you must get rid of me, please don't give me away to somebody I won't like."

He made no reply to either of these pleas, since he really had no idea what to do when he returned to Germany, as he would undoubtedly do, probably sooner rather than later.

He knew that all he really wanted was her body, but that if his next posting was to anywhere in Germany, then his wife would join him. Leaving this quandary to be solved when it became necessary, he gathered his things together and they left to return to Camp VV.

As they left the Savoy, Jane spotted Polly sitting on the pavement crying. She realised that the girl was only dressed in a tattered evening gown and looked very much the worse for wear.

"Look, Joachim," she pointed at the girl, "Isn't that the girl who was with the General yesterday?"

"Perhaps," he said without looking, "but I really don't think it is anything to do with us."

She stared at him, wondering how he could be so unfeeling. She sincerely hoped he had more regard for her, although she feared in her innermost heart that he had no more feeling for her than the lust which had impelled her abduction in the first place.