“I have. And I only intend for it to get better. Despite the growing rumors and fears about how this war is going, there are a great many plans in place to see the dream carried out in myriad of ways.”
I swallowed and snuck a look at Paulina, but she was staring down at her plate, her interest seemingly piqued by the remaining potatoes on her plate.
I startled at the scrape of Catrin’s chair against the floor as she pushed away from the table.
“While this has been lovely—Paulina, the dinner was wonderful as always—I must get to bed.”
“You are staying?” Paulina asked, her eyes wide as she got to her feet.
“It is dark now so I don’t have much choice,” Catrin said. “And of course, my sister is home. How could I leave now when Gisela has returned from the dead? There is so much more to discuss.”
Paulina shot me a look, but I was too busy staring at my sister to look back.
“I have errands to run tomorrow,” Catrin said to me. “But perhaps we can have dinner together when I return?”
“I would like that,” I said, my voice faint.
“Good. Then I shall say good-night to you both.”
She was gone a moment later and I found myself staring at the seat she’d vacated.
“Gisela.” Paulina’s voice was soft.
I turned and met her eyes, seeing worry laced with fear.
“She’s in shock,” I said. “She thought I was dead and now here I am, very much alive.”
“Gisela—” There was a warning in her voice now.
“Just let me talk to her tomorrow,” I said. “Let me tell her my plan. Tell her about life in New York. Tell her about the baby and how she’s going to be an aunt.”
Paulina’s hand was a vise around my wrist.
“Whatever you do,” she said. “Donottell that girl about your baby.”
Paulina and I cleaned up the kitchen in silence. The dessert she made went uneaten, neither of us in the mood. The wine she’d chosen but never poured was dumped in the sink.
“Good night, Paulina,” I said, standing by the door.
“We’ll talk more in the morning,” she said. “After she’s gone.”
I nodded, opened the door, and headed upstairs to my room.
From the end of the hall I could see light beneath Catrin’s bedroom door. But as I passed by on the way to my own room, the light turned off.
I entered my room and stared through the door of the adjoining bathroom to her door at the other end. Turning on the light, I saw a small bag on her side of the counter beside her sink, a toothbrush and hairbrush laid out just so.
Hurrying, I washed my face and brushed my teeth. As I turned to leave, I hesitated, glancing back at the door to my sister’s room and staring at the lock, the warning in Paulina’s voice earlier still echoing in my mind. But there was no point in locking it. Catrin had learned how to unlock it from the other side using a hairpin at an early age. I was the one who taught her.
Sighing, I turned out the light and shut the door on my side, then climbed in bed and fell asleep.
39
I woke witha start the next morning, a feeling that I wasn’t alone causing me to sit upright in bed, my eyes bleary as they searched the darkness.
But there was no one there, and as I lay back down, I realized I must’ve had a dream. A dream that Catrin had lain beside me in the night like she had when we were girls, her hand in mine, our breath becoming one. My eyes pricked with tears. I could still feel her hand in mine, as if it had been real. I could feel the imprint of her body beside mine. I wanted so badly to have my sister back. To be the girls we once were. But Paulina’s words of warning the night before had startled me. Was I fooling myself? Had I come too late?
Unsettled, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and pulled my valise from beneath my bed, and then ran my hand along the lining until I felt my engagement ring. I closed the case and slid it back to its hiding place and then made my way to the bathroom. The door, which I was positive I’d shut the night before, was open just a crack. I stared back at my bed. Had it been a dream? Had she been here? Rather than be comforted at the thought, a shiver ran down my spine.
