Gilded Nightmare Read Online Free PDF Page B

people, the time came when Bruno had to get back to West Berlin to meet a film commitment. It was then that the old Baron called him into his study. He asked Bruno how much money he was making in films, and then offered to double it if Bruno would stay on the Island. Charmian wanted him as a permanent possession.
    “Bruno thought the old man was kidding, but he wasn’t. The whole situation was suddenly revolting to Bruno. He refused, politely, and asked when he could be flown back to Athens. The Baron then made the position quite clear. Bruno was not going to be flown back to Athens. If Charmian wanted him, Charmian was going to have him. He was a prisoner. Bruno thought it was a miserable joke, and then he found out it was very much not a joke. Charmian had been prepared to buy him, and if he couldn’t be bought she would keep him anyway.
    “A few days later there was actually a storm at sea. That was when word was sent back to the mainland that Bruno had died in a yachting accident. The whole situation was unbelievable. There were no telephones to the mainland, no way Bruno could manage to communicate. He told himself that if he continued his relationship with Charmian for a few days she would tire of him and the whole ghastly situation would resolve itself. But presently he realized that it didn’t matter whether she tired of him or not. He became aware of other people on the island for the first time. He recognized some of them. The Baron’s island was being used as a haven for some of the most wanted German war criminals. Knowing this he was lost. He realized they would never let him go back to the world again. But she didn’t tire of him. He began to be torn to pieces by a terrible panic. It was for real. He began to try to plan some sort of escape. There was the plane, and Bruno was a licensed pilot. There were half a dozen powerboats. He was very cagey about it. He watched the comings and goings carefully. His idea was that he would steal one of the powerboats. He decided he would select one that had been recently used, so there’d be no question of a cold motor. He picked his moment, after dark, and raced for the boathouse. He chose the launch he’d been watching, its engine still warm to the touch. His finger was on the starter button when John Masters, the lady’s bodyguard, whom you saw in the lobby, rose up out of the cockpit, grinning.
    “ ‘We’ll always be miles ahead of you, Mr. Wald,’ Masters said. ‘So go back to the house and tend to your knitting.’
    “That’s the way it was, not for a few days or weeks but year after year. He could no longer make love to the lady. The sight of her made him retch. But in spite of this he was kept there, brought into her presence every day, pawed, insulted, on occasion actually stripped and flogged in her presence by one of the menservants. This seemed to provide her with some sort of erotic excitement.”
    “Ten years of this?” Chambrun asked, in a low, hard voice.
    “So Bruno told Stephen that day in New York. Toward the end Bruno came down with some illness. Dr. Malinkov took care of him, but was noncommittal. Whatever it was, Bruno began to waste away physically. The lady seemed to lose interest in torturing him. The guard against escape seemed to relax a little. Bruno wasn’t capable of any great physical effort. But one night he made it, in, of all things, a rowboat. There was no moon and the sea was angry. Still, he struggled away from the Island, pulling on the oars with hands that began to bleed. He knew they would come after him. They wouldn’t dare let him get back to the mainland to tell his story. He knew what he would do if he heard one of the powerboats coming toward him through the night. There was a fisherman’s knife on the rear seat of the rowboat. He would take it, systematically cut his throat with it, and slip over the side into the cool death of the sea. He was dizzy with exhaustion when a big wave hit the little boat