AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Frieda said: "Are you saying you won't help us?"
"Yes."
"Because you want to keep your job?"
"It's pointless--you can't beat them!"
Carla was furious with him for his cowardice and defeatism. "We can't just let this happen!"
"Open confrontation is insane. There are other ways to oppose them."
Carla said: "How, by working slowly, like those leaflets say? That won't stop them killing handicapped children!"
"Defying the government is suicidal!"
"Anything else is cowardice!"
"I refuse to be judged by two girls!" With that he stalked off.
Carla fought back tears. She could not cry in front of two hundred people standing outside the church in the sunshine. "I thought he was different," she said.
Frieda was upset, but baffled too. "He is different," she said. "I've known him all my life. Something else is going on, something he's not telling us about."
Carla's mother approached. She did not notice Carla's distress, which was unusual. "Nobody knows anything!" she said despairingly. "I can't find out where your father might be."
"We'll keep trying," Carla said. "Didn't he have friends at the American embassy?"
"Acquaintances. I've asked them already, but they haven't come up with any information."
"We'll ask them again tomorrow."
"Oh, God, I suppose there are a million German wives in the same situation as me."
Carla nodded. "Let's go home, Mother."
They walked back slowly, not talking, each with her own thoughts. Carla was angry with Werner, the more so because she had badly mistaken his character. How could she have fallen for someone so weak?
They reached their street. "I shall go to the American embassy in the morning," Maud said as they approached the house. "I'll wait in the lobby all day if necessary. I'll beg them to do something. If they really want to they can make a semiofficial inquiry about the brother-in-law of a British government minister. Oh! Why is our front door open?"
Carla's first thought was that the Gestapo had paid them a second visit. But there was no black car parked at the curb. And a key was sticking out of the lock.
Maud stepped into the hall and screamed.
Carla rushed in after her.
There was a man lying on the floor covered in blood.
Carla managed to stop herself screaming. "Who is it?" she said.
Maud knelt beside the man. "Walter," she said. "Oh, Walter, what have they done to you?"
Then Carla saw that it was her father. He was so badly injured he was almost unrecognizable. One eye was closed, his mouth was swollen into a single huge bruise, and his hair was covered with congealed blood. One arm was twisted oddly. The front of his jacket was stained with vomit.
Maud said: "Walter, speak to me, speak to me!"
He opened his ruined mouth and groaned.
Carla suppressed the hysterical grief that bubbled up inside her by shifting into professional gear. She fetched a cushion and propped up his head. She got a cup of water from the kitchen and dribbled a little on his lips. He swallowed and opened his mouth for more. When he seemed to have had enough, she went into his study and got a bottle of schnapps and gave him a few drops. He swallowed them and coughed.
