“He stayed,” she says again.
Two words.
A lifetime inside them.
I look down at my hands for a moment, trying to absorb everything she’s just said.
Then I look back up.
“And you sent Lenzin to school where you did,” I say slowly, “because you saw that same thing in him.”
She nods once.
“My mother used to say something,” she says.
“What?”
“That the world never runs out of people who hate.” Her eyes meet mine. “But it also never runs out of people willing to open a door.”
Chapter 34
Oceans
Lenzin
Leah Margarethe von Hohenwald rarely travels anymore; as a matter of fact, this trip never happened. If my parents knew she was flying across the Atlantic alone, they would assume it meant she was well enough to travel whenever she pleased. Which would mean accepting invitations to appearances, charity events, and being around too many people, something she has always avoided, and now I understand why.
Grossmutter has spent the better part of her life on the estate; she preferred a simple life.
Only she could orchestrate something like this without anyone noticing until it was already done.
Behind me, Lucy’s voice carries as I enter the house, “Daddy?”
I turn and see her coming down the stairs, on her bottom, which Hildy insists she does when we are not with her. Her hair half escaping the braid Hildy put in it this morning, the stuffed rabbit —a Steiff, of course— that Grossmutter gave her is tuckedunder her arm as it has already been part of Lucy’s life for years instead of a day and a half.
“Did Oma get on her plane yet?”
“She has,” I say, picking her up, loving that she calls her Oma, and loving it even more how her eyes sparkled when Lucy called her that.
Lucy nods like this information fits neatly into whatever system her three-year-old brain uses to understand the world. “She said we have to come see her castle.”
I can’t help but grin at her adorable face. “It’s not a castle.”
Lucy gives me the unimpressed look children reserve for adults who clearly don’t know anything. “She said it has towers.”
I open my mouth, then close it again, and finally concede, “Yes, towers.”
“She said I can ride the horses.” She states.
“She probably meant the ponies.”
Lucy considers this. “I like horses better.”
Of course she does.
Hildy appears from the kitchen and leans her shoulder against the doorway with that soft smile she gets when Lucy asserts herself with complete confidence.
Grossmutterhad been an open book with Hildy when she arrived, and when we returned from the arena, she asked her questions in that calm way that somehow always reveals more than people intend to share. Hildy answered every one of them.
