Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!



Part Two On Thursday morning, Chaviv and Galia's nineteen-year-old daughter Sarah greeted Arianna with a concerned air. Ometz and Chava's 10-year-old twins, Joseph and Joel, played quietly on the rug with their seven-year-old sister Keren. The younger children's silence was unusual. Five-year-old Abie, who was, according to his father Chaviv, "too small to carry the weight of the name ‘Abraham' yet," was missing. None of the adults were present, and Arianna sensed something amiss.

"What's wrong, Sarah?"

"It's Abie. He woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and a rash. Mamma thinks he is just tired from all the heat."

Arianna absentmindedly handed the basket to Sarah and followed the low voices to one of the bedrooms. Abie's father and Uncle Ometz were just leaving the room with Galia, insisting that she rest for a while and leave Abie with his aunt.

The little boy rested on a blanket on the floor, and upon closer inspection, Arianna observed that he was very flushed and slept fitfully. Chava applied a cool, damp cloth to his forehead and brushed his hair away from his face as Arianna entered.

"How is he?"

"He'll be fine soon. He has a bad fever, but I'm sure that it is just the heat," she responded softly, not lifting her concerned eyes from his face.

Arianna abruptly excused herself and returned to the room where the other children were eating. She found the two men attempting to convince Galia to rest.

"Galia, why don't you and Abie stay in the big house for a few days, until he gets better? My husband is out of town, and we'll tell the servants that you're a friend of a friend who just happened to be in town or something like that."

One of the men suggested that they change their names as well, and all agreed that the plan was a good one. Arianna had to wheedle and promise that Galia and Abie would be no trouble, but late that afternoon, "Maria and Alex Krause" were installed in one of the guest rooms.

The next morning, Galia was descending the stairs to get a glass of water for Abie when the doorbell rang. She proceeded to the kitchen as Karl answered the ring.

"Leutnant Schneider, guten morgen " Karl greeted him. "Please come in."

"Guten morgen, Karl." The Leutnant entered the house, removing his hat. "Is Fräu Albrecht at home?"

Karl took the hat from Schneider and turned as Arianna stepped from the hallway across the foyer.

"Guten morgen, Leutnant! I thought I heard your voice!" Her shoes tapped on the hardwood floor as she crossed to greet him.

"Guten morgen, Fräu Albrecht. But I am sorry; you have company." He gazed at someone behind her.

Galia struggled to hide her terror. This German officer would certainly see that she was a Jew, but she came forward and maintained a composed stature.

"No bother. Maria, this is my husband's assistant, Leutnant Schneider. Leutnant, Fräu Krause here is a neighbor of one of my dear school friends from Prague."

"How do you do, Fräu Krause?" He bowed, concealing his shock.

"I am glad to meet you, Leutnant." She answered him in perfect German. "Pray forgive my rudeness, but my son is not feeling well, and I need to get this water to him. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir." She smiled, and he excused her with a nod.

"Arianna, Eduard wired me to send some papers that he needs, they are on the conference table in the library, or so he says."

"Well come, I'll see if I can help you find them." She led the way to the library. The doors on either side of the library were closed, but Christoph knew them to be only a ballroom and a water-closet.

He held the door for Arianna and closed it behind himself. He clasped her wrist and pulled her away from the door. "Arianna, are you sure you know who that woman is?" he hissed. "She most decidedly does not have a Czech accent and looks very Jewish."

Arianna's heart stopped in her chest, but she forced herself to answer calmly. "Christoph, Maria is a friend of my dear school friend Ekaterina Baumann. She had a handwritten note from Ekaterina, and I recognized the handwriting and signature."

Schneider interpreted her cool manner as one of offense, because he suspected her new friend of committing the worst of crimes–Judaism. His suspicion remained, but he decided not to address the matter to her.

"If that is the case, I apologize for my irrational suspicions. Let's find those papers so I can get them to Eduard."

They located the necessary documents without difficulty, and Christoph bid farewell to Arianna, who then went to check on her guests.

Karl retrieved the Leutnant's hat. Schneider pulled the butler aside.

"Karl, have you noticed anything suspicious about Fräu Albrecht's house guests?"

Karl demurred, saying it was not his place to interfere in his employer's business, but Schneider pressed him to tell anything he knew.

"Well, sir, again, it is not my job to meddle in my mistress's affairs. However, I have noticed that she and her guests have been behaving rather strangely. Fräu Albrecht always hesitates to ask for anything–she has always been very independent–but since her company arrived, she is even less inclined to receive assistance. She and Fräu Krause are the only ones who attend the little boy. They have not sent for a doctor, and when my wife or Fraulein Gretchen try to do anything for the ladies, they almost rudely refuse their assistance." Karl's blue eyes were troubled.

"Thank you, Karl. I'm sure it's nothing, Fräu Krause probably just does not wish to cause any bother in a stranger's home." He pretended to dismiss the matter. Absentmindedly thanking Karl for his help, he took his hat and left. Arianna couldn't know the woman was a Jew, could she?

Karl watched him leave, knowing full well that the Leutnant did not believe a word of what he himself had just said. However, it was none of his business.

That night, Eduard rested in a Bonn hotel room after a long day of conferences. The window was open, and he could hear various late-evening sounds in the city street. Aromas from the nearby restaurant where he had dined earlier wafted through the window. He relaxed, reading A Tale of Two Cities for the twentieth time. A knock sounded, disturbing his rest, and a military messenger delivered a package.

"Ah, Schneider, you're always so prompt," he addressed the room as he slid the papers out of the envelope. A smaller envelope fell out of the sheaf, and Eduard picked it up, slit the flap, and read,

Generalleutnant,
Please return as soon as possible. Your wife has visitors
and I have reason to believe that they have deceived
her and are imposing on her hospitality under false
pretenses.
Leutnant. C. Schneider

It was a worried Eduard that finally arrived home on Friday afternoon. He barely acknowledged Karl before he followed the sound of voices to the parlor.

"Eduard!" Arianna rose. Fear flashed across her face, and he saw it, although it lasted only a moment.

"I didn't know we had company." He briefly kissed her fingertips before dropping her hand and bowing to Galia.

"Yes–Maria, dear, this is my husband, Generalleutnant Eduard Albrecht. Eduard, do you remember Ekaterina Baumann, my friend from Prague? You met her at our wedding. This is Fräu Maria Krause, a neighbor of hers." Her voice shook and she clenched her hands behind her back. "She and her son Alex are on their way to stay with her sister in France. Her husband is in the infantry."

"Fräu Krause, it is a pleasure," he bowed.

"I am pleased to meet you, Generalleutnant; Arianna has told me so much about you."

The ladies returned to their positions on the forest-green sofa, and Eduard followed suit, choosing the matching chair nearest Galia. He sat back and trained a piercing gaze upon his visitor.

"Would you like some tea, Eduard?"

"Please." The intensity of his gaze did not waver.

Her hands were clammy as she poured his tea, and they shook so much that the teacup rattled on the saucer as she passed it to him.

Eduard's feelings struggled within him. Half of his mind refused to believe that his wife, whom he loved, would blatantly defy his wishes and assist Jews, whom he hated, to escape the Nazi regime. The other half of his mind moaned in agony, because somehow he knew that she was sweet, sensitive little girl who had done that very thing.

He reasoned with himself, however, and decided to ignore her actions this one time. She was helping one woman and one child. However, he swore to himself that he would not treat another such action so lightly. He felt, however, a cold sinking in his heart with this resolution. Somehow, he knew that this would not be the last time.

Maria excused herself to check on Alex.

Eduard rose as she left the room. "Arianna, I need to do some paperwork." He gazed into her eyes for no more than a second, but in one look he communicated that he knew exactly who "Maria" and "Alex" were, that he knew what she was doing, and that it had better not happen again.

Eduard was not at all surprised when Maria announced at dinner that Alex had made a full recovery–and, consequently, the two of them would leave on the Saturday morning train.

When Eduard wakened the next morning, the house was silent. Karl reported that Fräu Albrecht, Fräu Krause, and young Herr Alex had left before six in a cab, and that Fräu Albrecht had informed him that she would be back by eleven.

When she returned, she greeted her husband with a reserve that had never before existed between them. They avoided each other's company as much as was possible all afternoon.

The barn was silent on Sunday morning when Arianna arrived. She almost felt guilty at the relief that flooded her spirit when she found a note from her brother tacked on the back of the smallest bedroom door. She tore it from the pin, not noticing a second small scrap of paper that fell from the same tack. In the note, Charles informed her that he had arranged transportation faster than he had originally expected, and that they would be safely on a boat crossing the Baltic by the time she read the note. She relaxed for the first time in a week and quickly glanced into each room before closing the doors.

"It's over," she assured herself as she closed the last door, the door of the room where she had found Charles's note. The draft from the action blew the paper that had fallen across the room to the stack of boxes to the right of the door, the boxes packed with books, but she didn't notice. She closed and locked the doors to the stairs, returning the keys to their rightful positions.

SIS:
BUSINESS IN MALMÖ, SWEDEN. STOP.
ARRIVED SAFE, BUT SO CLOSE TO YOU IT
HURTS. STOP. WANTED TO WIRE AND
SAY HELLO, WISH I COULD SEE YOU. STOP.
LOVE,
CHARLES

"Anything serious, Arianna? Most people don't send wires on Sunday night unless it's urgent."

She silently passed the paper to him and studied the other messages that had arrived while they had spent the evening at the Schneiders'. She knew that the wire meant that everyone had arrived in Sweden safely.

"What a pity that Charles is so close but can't visit," Eduard commented.

"Yes, I know," she agreed.

Eduard grew more irritated by the moment as he furiously searched through the volumes in his library. It was Tuesday night, and he needed some information from a certain book for a meeting the next morning. Suddenly, he paused, his hand hovering over the spine of David Copperfield.

He ascended the dim stairway and raised the lamp to find the key to the door. He lifted it from its nail and unlocked the door to the servants' quarters above the barn. He made his way to the last room on the left of the hall and opened the door. The clouds prevented any moonlight from shining through the east windows. He was kneeling to open one of the boxes when a small slip of paper on the carpet caught his eye.

Arianna returned from visiting an ill neighbor and noticed that the house was strangely quiet. She followed the sound of conversation to the library, and when she saw several men in German uniform through the open door, she turned to leave, but her husband bade her to remain.

She stepped through the door, and the room grew silent. She turned to her husband for an explanation. "What," he grimly demanded, "is this?" His face was white with fury.

Arianna reached for the scrap of paper he extended, casting a puzzled look into his icy eyes. Her look of bewilderment deepened to terror as she read.

Fräu,
Thank you for everything you did.
You have been instrumental in
saving ten lives, and we are well
aware of the risks you took.
Shalom.

A cold knot formed in her heart, as she looked back into Eduard's eyes.

"How could you?" he whispered. "You know how I feel about this. I even overlooked the two you had in the house because I loved you, but ten?" His voice shook.

"Loved" rather than "love" ripped through her heart and seared into her mind. Her eyes flamed. "Yes, Eduard, I do know how you feel about this!" she flashed, but her tones softened. "Don't you see? That is why I had to do it." Hot tears threatened to spill, but she blinked them away. "What you are doing to those people is wrong." Her voice shook as she finished in a whisper, "But I still love you anyway."

Eduard was completely numb. He felt nothing, not even the searing pain that tore through his heart at her last words. He mechanically moved to the black walnut conference table. Leutnant Schneider held a pen, for which Eduard reached. Christoph's face showed no emotion, but he knew the scrawl that his superior had just placed on a single sheet of paper was composed of some of the most expensive ink in the history of the mother country–ink that cost a life.

Arianna blinked and turned her head. Every muscle in her body ached, no doubt because of the wooden bench that had served as her bed. The morning sun burned through the barred but glassless window, but even the muggy August morning failed to warm her.

A uniformed young man unlocked the cell door and entered, bearing a plate and a cup. He silently placed them on the bench next to her and exited, relocking the door.

Arianna disdainfully eyed the dry crusts and murky water, and decided to ignore them. She was certain of at least one thing: she would not die of starvation in that place.

She heard a small clock chime ten and then heard a key rattle in the lock of her cell door. She rose, and the same boy who had brought the food entered and bound her wrists. Another guard waited outside the cell, and together they escorted her through the prison to an empty courtyard.

They halted in front of a stone wall, and the young boy bent to tie her ankles.

A door in front of her and to her left opened, and three men bearing rifles marched into the courtyard, followed by Eduard Heinrich Albrecht himself. Had her face been able to show any less emotion, his presence would have caused it to do so. However, she could only avert her gaze. Arianna was completely numb. She chose a stone on the wall a good meter above the riflemen's heads, and locked her gaze on it.

The four men formed a line twenty meters in front of her, and Eduard stood stiffly, the last man on the right. He stared at his wife, knowing that if she looked at him just once, he wouldn't go through with this. He would take her home and hold her, and he would forgive everything.

"Ready. . .aim. . ." the man next to him ordered.

She didn't look. Eduard heard the rifles' report and saw the tiny form of his wife collapse. Pain ripped through is body and he cried out in agony. He rushed across the yard. He reached for her, but recoiled in horror as he felt her lifeless skin.

"My dear Father in Heaven–my little girl! My precious baby!" he sobbed. "What have I done?" Eduard collapsed to his knees, clutching her tiny form to his heart, tears streaming down his face. Blood stained his uniform, but he took no notice. He buried his face in her hair and wept.

back