The Sins of the Father - By Jeffrey Archer Page 0,53

quite happy for you to call me Terry,' he said, 'that is, when we're on our own, but never in front of the men, you understand?' he added, giving a passable imitation of Fisher.

Giles punched him on the arm.

'Court martial offence, that,' Bates reminded him, 'a private soldier attacking a non-commissioned officer.'

Giles punched him again. 'Now answer my question,' he demanded.

'Nothing moves quickly in this place. You'll just have to be patient, Giles.'

'You can't call me Giles until we're sitting down for breakfast in Zurich.'

'Suits me, if you're payin'.'

Everything changed the day the camp commandant had to host lunch for a group of visiting Red Cross officials, and needed an extra waiter.

The Sins of the Father

'Don't forget you're a private soldier,' said Bates when Giles was escorted to the other side of the wire for his interview with Major Muller. 'You have to try to think like a servant, not someone who's used to being served. If Muller suspects, even for a moment, that you're an officer, we'll both be out on our arses, and you'll go back to the bottom of the snakes and ladders board. I can promise you one thing, the brigadier won't ever invite us to throw the dice again. So act like a servant, and never even hint that you understand a word of German. Got it?'

'Yes, sir,' said Giles.

Giles returned an hour later with a large grin on his face.

'You got the job?' asked Bates.

'I got lucky,' said Giles. 'The commandant interviewed me, not Muller. I start tomorrow.'

'And he never suspected you were an officer and a gentleman?'

'Not after I told him I was a friend of yours.'

The Sins of the Father

Before the lunch for the visiting Red Cross officials was served, Giles uncorked six bottles of merlot to allow them to breathe. Once the guests were seated, he poured half an inch of wine into the commandant's glass and waited for his approval. After a nod, he served the guests, always pouring from the right. He then moved on to the officers, according to rank, finally returning to the commandant, as host.

During the meal he made sure no one's glass was ever empty, but he never served anyone while they were speaking. Like Jenkins, he was rarely seen and never heard. Everything went as planned, although Giles was well aware that Major Muller's suspicious eyes rarely left him, even when he tried to melt into the background.

After the two of them had been escorted back to the camp later that afternoon, Bates said, 'The commandant was impressed.'

'What makes you say that?' asked Giles, fishing.

'He told the head chef that you must have worked for a grand household, because although you were obviously from the lower classes, you'd been well taught by a consummate professional.'

'Thank you, Jenkins,' said Giles.

'So what does consummate mean?' asked Bates.

The Sins of the Father

Giles became so skilled in his new vocation that the camp commandant insisted on being served by him even when he dined alone. This allowed Giles to study his mannerisms, the inflections in his voice, his laugh, even his slight stutter.

Within weeks, Private Barrington had been handed the keys to the wine cellar, and allowed to select which wines would be served at dinner. And after a few months, Bates overheard the commandant telling the chef that Barrington was erstklassig.

Whenever the commandant held a dinner party, Giles quickly assessed which tongues could be loosened by the regular topping up of glasses, and how to make himself invisible whenever one of those tongues began to wag. He passed on any useful information he'd picked up the previous evening to the brigadier's batman while they were out on the communal five-mile run. These titbits included where the commandant lived, the fact that he'd been elected to the town council at the age of thirty-two, and been appointed mayor in 1938. He couldn't drive, but he had visited England three or four times before the war and spoke fluent English. In return, Giles learnt that he and Bates had climbed several more rungs up the escape committee's ladder.

Giles's main activity during the day was to spend an hour chatting to his tutor. Never a word of English was spoken, and the man from Solihull even told the brigadier that Private Barrington was beginning to sound more and more like the commandant.

The Sins of the Father

On December 3rd 1941, Corporal Bates and Private Barrington made their final presentation to the escape committee. The brigadier and his team listened to the