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“To prove that Karl is indeed Mr. Castillo’s son, we’re going to have to have a sample of Karl’s blood.”
“Really?” she replied, icily.
“And as quickly as possible,” Lustrous said.
“I suppose it was naïve of me to think I would be taken at my word, even by you.”
“I take you at your word,” Lustrous said.
“Do you, really?”
“Yes, I do,” Lustrous said, flatly.
“We all do, Erika,” Netty said.
“Very well, we will bleed my son,” Erika said. And then she smiled. “Shall we go into the dining room?”
Karl Wilhelm von und zu Gossinger—surprising all the Americans—was standing behind a chair at one end of the table politely waiting for the others to take their seats.
Neither he nor his mother gave any sign that he had lost his temper.
Wine was offered and poured.
Frau Erika held her hand over her wineglass and said, “I think I would like another taste of the cognac, please. Bring the bottle.”
Halfway through the main course, Frau Erika said, “Karl, it will be necessary for you to have a blood sample drawn.”
“The Americans won’t take your word for what you have told them?” he replied.
“You will give blood,” Frau Erika said. “Tomorrow, you will give blood.”
“What I thought I would do, Karl,” Allan Naylor said, “was come out here in the morning, drive you past the kaserne—Downs Barracks?—and, afterward, take you to Saint Johan’s.”
The boy studied him a moment.
“Wouldn’t it make more
sense, Herr Major, for Mother’s driver to take me to school as he usually does and for you to meet me there? That would save you the drive all the way here.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, Karl, it would,” Naylor said.
“Then it is settled. I will see you just inside the gate tomorrow morning.”
“Deal,” Naylor said.
The rest of the dinner was a disaster.
Erika—suddenly, Naylor thought—got very drunk, knocked over her glass, and then stood up.
“You will have to excuse me,” she said. “I suddenly feel ill.”
Netty and Elaine, seeing she was unsteady on her feet, jumped up and helped her out of the dining room.
“Mother’s in great pain,” Karl Wilhelm von und zu Gossinger said, matter-of-factly. “The cognac helps, but then she gets like that.”
“We’re all very sorry your mother is ill, Karl,” Naylor said.
“Yes,” Karl said. “It is a very unfortunate situation.”
