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Chapter 40
Elspeth gazed around the place, taking in the bare walls of the summerhouse. They had just settled back into their seats after sitting out on the wooden decking of the summerhouse overlooking the lake, eating sandwiches and drinking lemonade.
They were intending to remain outside on the deck in the afternoon sunshine while Elspeth finished her story. Unfortunately, a lone photographer had hired a rowing boat. He floated past, snapping their picture with a zoom lens. They knew that where there was one, there were bound to be others; the rest would soon figure out that the rear of the house could be seen from the lake, where you could hire rowboats and canoes. It was the group’s cue to scuttle back inside and shut the door.
‘Would the police believe me if I said I knew nothing of all this, even though it was right under my nose at the end of the garden, in the grounds of my marital home?’ asked Elspeth.
Lili stared at her. She was thinking of the previous day, when she had returned to the house to find artworks she’d never seen before being taken away and Joseph’s entire family being arrested. It was lucky for everyone in the room that they had a brilliant solicitor. She turned in her seat and smiled at Alex. He’d dropped everything and come to their rescue. She hadn’t expected that – at all.
‘It wasn’t about me, though,’ Elspeth continued. ‘I was afraid I’d lose you, Sarah, and couldn’t live with the anxiety that someone else might stumble upon the secret. I wanted Otto to inform the authorities. I begged him to let the collection go, but he said he’d done nothing wrong. I knew he was no criminal, just a broken-hearted young man, swept up in the horror of war, who’d signed up to be a Nazi art officer to save the woman he loved. Otto had taken the artefacts, it was true, and he wouldn’t give them up. He wanted the collection to stay together so he could hand it over to—’
‘Quick question, excuse me for interrupting,’ Alex apologised. ‘If Otto was so concerned about his past catching up with him, why take the risk of returning to the summerhouse? What if someone had recognised Joseph? A curious, nosy neighbour, perhaps. Who knows where that might have led?’
Elspeth turned in her seat to look at Alex, perched on a stool from the kitchen. ‘Yes, he took a risk, you’re quite right. But there was a reason for that. Joseph told me that Otto and Alena had made a secret pact. If the worst – the unthinkable – happened, and they were separated by war, then they would find their way back to each other and meet at their English friends’ summerhouse.’
Elspeth frowned. ‘Although I believed Alena had been taken on a death boat and had died – and that Joseph had too – Otto could never come to terms with that possibility. He never gave up hope that one day they would find each other again. He even had the Hebrew betrothal rings made, and he converted to Judaism, intent on marrying her when she returned.’
‘That is so sad,’ Lili commented, fingering the ring on the chain around her neck, now understanding its significance.
‘Yes, it was,’ Elspeth agreed. ‘That was why he never demolished this old cabin, and it was the reason he stored this precious art collection that once belonged to Alena’s parents here.’
Sarah and Ray exchanged a glance. Ray said what they were both thinking. ‘He wanted to return it to the family whence it came. It was her legacy.’
Elspeth frowned. ‘It was his dying wish.’
There was a long silence. Everyone was taking a moment for all of it to sink in – especially Lili when she realised that she wasn’t related to this family, not by blood, but that she was bound to them in the most extraordinary way. That meant the world to her.
Lili could hear the children playing with Bella in the garden. She turned to Elspeth. ‘Do you know how my mother found out about Otto?’
‘I’m not entirely sure. Joseph may have mentioned it once, but I’m afraid I don’t recall. We kept in touch over the years.’
‘All I know is that my mum was estranged from my grandmother, Miriam,’ Lili added.
‘I’m afraid that was true.’
‘Was it because of Otto?’
‘Yes. The Greek family who took Miriam in, they’d heard the rumours about Alena and her friendship with a German artist friend of her family. I believe it was a member of staff at the house, a cook or a cleaner, who recognised the Nazi officer who came to take the family’s collection. She looked at Miriam and put two and two together. So did Otto when he first set eyes on the toddler. It was with the aid of that loyal employee that they got the children out of Corfu and into the hands of another Greek family on the island of Zakynthos.’
Lili sat there thinking about the old man in the British Cemetery. His mother had told him the two children he had once played with were safe. How had she been so sure, unless she was the loyal employee who had helped in their escape? Was it some of her relations in Zakynthos who had taken them in and knew the truth about Miriam’s parentage? Lili suspected it was. She also had an idea that her grandmother had found out later in life about her true parentage but had kept her father’s identity a secret from her daughter.
Lili asked Elspeth if this was the case.
‘From what Joseph told me about your mother’s visit, I gather Miriam wanted nothing to do with Otto. He’d been a Nazi officer, after all. Don’t forget, Miriam had been brought up by a Greek family who’d felt forced to give up their country, their roots, and start again in Israel – all because of the German occupation.’
Lili understood. Her grandmother would have thought it was a betrayal of her adopted family if she contacted her father. ‘But my mother didn’t see it that way?’
‘When she found out about her grandfather, she wanted to visit him and give him a chance to tell his side of the story.’
Lili was confused. Her mum had already located her grandfather, which was clear from this photo. She had made the trip to England so that Otto could meet his great-grandchild. So, what had she been doing on Zakynthos the day she and Lili’s father died? Lili asked Elspeth the question, wondering if she knew.
‘I think she was visiting some descendants of the Greek family who had looked after her mother and the little English boy during the war. Not all the relatives moved to Israel.’
Elspeth fixed her gaze on Lili. ‘Joseph told me it was the happiest day of Otto’s life when your mother turned up. Otto had written a letter, sealed in an envelope, tucked in little Miriam’s dress. The family who took her in must have given it to Miriam at some point when she was older. That’s how your mother found out about the summerhouse in England. He’d written in the note, their rendezvous place in England, in case his daughter ever wanted to seek him out.’
Elspeth breathed a sigh. ‘I suspect your mum came across that letter. That’s how she discovered the secret of the summerhouse.’
‘The secret of the summerhouse,’ Lili repeated. ‘Are you talking about Otto?’
