Traitors' Games

Hugh Robertson

Description

"Suspicions mount as Secret Service reports reveal ever more damaging information about the Duke of Windsor and his bride..."Traitors' Games - Volume Two in the saga The Fools'Crowns - continues to weave fact and fiction leading up to the wedding of the Duke of Windsor to Wallis Simpson and the events that followed. Whilst he is in Austria and she is in the South of France waiting for her divorce to be finalised, rival governments and factions strive to exploit or control the couple.They marry in a fairytale castle in France,snubbed by his family and friends. The castle's owner is Charles Bedaux - a sinister multi-millionaire admirer of the Nazi ideal and member of the powerful international group of industrialists, bankers, and politicians known informally as 'The Fraternity', who aspire to a New World Order. The Fraternity sees the Third Reich as the blueprint for their ideal and the Duke and Duchess as its titular heads.The behaviour of the Duke and Duchess causes mounting concern to British and American security services as they strive to achieve the status and influence that the Duke abandoned by abdicating.At loggerheads with his family in Britain, are the Duke's ambitions merely focused naively on status and that of his wife in particular? Or is there a more sinister agenda - has he become a traitor?

Informations

• Publié par: eBook Versions
• Date de parution: 09 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781843962977
• Langue: English

Extrait

Published by Alresford Publishing

Copyright 2014 Hugh Robertson
All rights reserved

Hugh Robertson has asserted his right
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
to be identified as the author of this work.

This work is registered with the
UK Copyright Service - Registration No. 284677965

ISBN-13 978-1-84396-297-7

Also available in paperback
ISBN-13 978-1-49603-131-0

As Time Goes By
Lyrics and music by Harold Hupfeld
Copyright 1931
Warner Bros. Music Corporation, ASCAP

A CIP catalogue record for this
work is available from the British Library.

eBook production
www.ebookversions.com

Edited by Kelia Revitt
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Cover by coversbykaren.com

This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, businesses, places, events and
incidents are either the product of the
author’s imagination or used in a fictitious
manner. Any resemblance to actual living
persons is purely coincidental. It is acknowledged
that there is a historical basis for this novel
and the events it portrays or refers to, but
it does not purport accurately to represent such
or the persons involved in such.

This book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be
lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated
without the author s prior consent in any
form other than that in which it is published
electronically or otherwise and without a similar
condition being imposed on any subsequent purchaser.
To my family and friends
THE FOOLS' CROWNS

Volume Two


TRAITORS
GAMES


Hugh Robertson



ALRESFORD PUBLISHING
Contents


Cover
Copyright Credits
Dedication

Title Page
Epigraph
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Epilogue
Postscript
The man who pauses
on the path of treason halts on
a quicksand and the first
step engulfs him.

William Shakespeare - Henry V Act I Scene I
Foreword
The following background is to assist
any reader unfamiliar with the first volume in
this series of novels, King or Pawn?


Lord John, or Johnny Johnstone, as he was known in the international art world, in which he was a successful dealer, was sitting with his controller in the British Security Service, officially known as MI5, Lt Colonel Tar Robertson. With the agreement of Sir Vernon Kell, the Head of the Service and its founder, he had recruited his lover, Lady Celia Ffrench-Hardy, the daughter of a Marquis, to work with the Service. He had yet to reveal to her that he was a long term serving officer in the Service.
He and Celia enjoyed a close relationship with the Duke of Windsor, who had been the King before he abdicated, and was previously Prince of Wales for many years. Through that friendship they had also become close to the woman the Duke wished to marry, the American married divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson. Tar had wanted to see Celia to hear first hand of her experiences acting as a go between on behalf of the German Ambassador to the Court of St James, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the then King and Mrs Simpson. The bisexual Mrs Simpson had not only been von Ribbentrop s lover but had also seduced Celia.
On reviewing Johnny s previous reports about Celia, Tar had originally formed the impression that she was a spoilt, self-indulgent and promiscuous young woman from an immensely wealthy aristocratic family.
She had inherited a fortune in her own right on the death of her doting grandmother who was herself the heiress of one of America s richest railway tycoons. Celia had her own fully staffed fine house in exclusive Hyde Park Gate, and was chauffeured around in her powerful Lagonda saloon. She was a party girl whose natural beauty had caught the eye of the Prince of Wales, as he then was, when she came out as a debutante and was presented at Court.
It was natural for her to become one of the King s chosen circle with whom he indulged his hedonistic and selfish pursuit of pleasure, including a love of night clubs, sport, and in fact anything that gave him pleasure. Judged against the rigid mores of Tar s stern Presbyterian upbringing, there was nothing to choose between the King and his set of friends when it came to decadent excess.
That self indulgent excess was in itself most unfortunate when so many so many of his subjects in both Britain and the Empire were experiencing true poverty. Only months after acceding to the throne on the death of his father on 20th January 1936, the King s actions threatened the very fabric of the nation and the Empire.
The King would not accept that as the constitutional monarch he could not do as he pleased, and marry Mrs Simpson. To do so would be entirely contrary to the rules of the Church of England of which he was head and styled Defender of the Faith. There was strong political opposition both in Britain and the Empire. The government of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin had made it clear that they would resign, and no other political party was willing to accept that the King could marry Mrs Simpson and remain on the throne. The Archbishop of Canterbury had made the Church s absolute opposition abundantly clear and even openly expressed his doubt as to the King s sanity and ability to rule.
The British press had observed a self-imposed embargo on the affair of the King and Mrs Simpson. By contrast, the foreign press had been running with the story in lurid, and at times salacious detail for months. The British press were divided with regard to the King s position. The King was aware that he could expect strong support from some of the popular press.
The King had also relied heavily on his belief that his popularity with the people as a whole would persuade the government and the Church to find a solution that suited him. He failed to understand that the reasons for such strong opposition to his marrying his lover on the part of the government, were not solely those of which he was told.
Tar Robertson had been instructed to maintain surveillance on Mrs Simpson and also Lady Celia, who was known to be intimate with von Ribbentrop and a friend of Wallis Simpson. The telephones of the King s brother Albert, Duke of York, second-in-line to the throne, and of the King s personal country retreat, Fort Belvedere, were intercepted as was the telephone in von Ribbentrop s permanent suite in the Grosvenor House Hotel. There were strict instructions that the Prime Minister be kept fully informed of all developments. That task had fallen on Sir Vernon.
Prologue


Tar had decided to meet Celia and Johnny on neutral ground and had booked a private room at the Savoy. He had arranged for a light lunch to be served.
Johnny ushered Celia into the room where Tar was waiting for them. He was wearing a well-cut three piece suit, a white shirt with a starched stiff collar and his old school tie. Tar stood and greeted Celia. Lady Celia - thank you not only for agreeing to meet but also, importantly, agreeing to help us, as has Johnny. I do not believe in formality between colleagues as we shall be once we get down to business. Please call me Tar - everybody else does. In case you are wondering, my nickname spells out my initials. I was given it at prep school and it has stayed with me ever since.
Very well, Tar, I shall do so, provided you call me Celia, responded Celia, smiling warmly.
Drinks were offered, but both Celia and Johnny followed Tar s example and asked for water. They had settled themselves in the comfortable armchairs. Tar lit Celia s State Express 555 cigarette which she had taken from her gold cigarette case and fitted to an elegant holder.
Tar then asked, Celia, I know that you are a close friend of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs Simpson; also that you have been enjoying a relationship with Joachim von Ribbentrop for some time, and have been to Germany as his guest. Could you please tell me about these relationships, and the reason that you have indicated to Johnny that you would be willing to assist in the observation work in which he will be engaged?
Whilst Tar s tone was warm and friendly, Celia could see that his eyes of palest blue were penetrating as he held her in a steady gaze. Instinctively she knew that this was a man that it would be hard to bluff. She decided to be totally frank. She told him of her friendship with the former King and how that had started. She said that she did not want to go into detail about the King s sexual inadequacy that had prevented them from becoming lovers. Tar was keen to break down any barriers or modesty on Celia s part. Precisely what is the inadequacy of which you speak?
Celia glanced at Johnny, who gave her an affirmative nod. The King, who was Prince of Wales at the time wanted to go to bed with me. He was very persuasive and I was flattered, quite apart from finding him very attractive. I agreed and visited him at Fort Belvedere. We had dinner, danced a little and then started kissing. He took me upstairs and undressed me, then he undressed himself. I was not particularly experienced then but I could immediately see that although he was erect, his penis was very small, in fact, abnormally so. Also, he was totally without body ha