Waiting until she could find Marta.
Waiting until someone stopped Hitler.
Waiting the four months until her baby was born.
Annika wanted to hate Luzi Weiss because Max loved her, but she couldn’t do it. Luzi’s beauty on the outside, the beauty thatAnnika had tried to burn away when she clipped the newspaper photograph, was embedded inside her as well. And now she was expecting Max’s child.
Annika had known it for a few weeks, but she hadn’t dared voice the truth, for voicing it would make it into a reality. She kept hoping that she was wrong, that Luzi had gained weight as the gash on her leg had healed, but each day it became more apparent that Luzi was pregnant.
Annika’s heart had shattered at first, knowing that Max would always see her as a kitten, but there was more to care about in this world than her heart. She still loved him, always would. She just couldn’t tell Luzi—or anyone else—of her feelings.
“When do you expect the baby to arrive?” Annika asked as they ate their dinner of broiled trout on the veranda. The air was cold, but neither of them wanted to be inside. No matter how big the house was, the walls seemed to close in on them.
“In August, I think,” Luzi said quietly, her voice sad. “Why do you care for me, Annika?”
She almost said because Max asked her to, like he’d asked her to hide the heirlooms for their Jewish neighbors, but it was about more than Max. The words in Mama’s Bible swept back to her. “Jesus said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”
“Aren’t you afraid?” Luzi asked, her voice trembling with the question.
“Terribly.”
Luzi rested her hands on her stomach. “Do you think Jesus was afraid when He died?”
In her heart, Annika believed that this man who loved and healed would be deeply grieved by what was happening in theirworld. Like Pastor Dietz said, He came to heal, not to kill. But she didn’t know if He was afraid.
“I’m not certain, but I don’t think we have to fear if we serve a God who can conquer death,” Annika said, trying to cling again to those words.
Hermann joined them on the veranda as he often did in the evenings, sitting beside Luzi. He blushed when she looked at him, and Annika’s defenses flared again. He shouldn’t be watching Luzi like that. Surely he must know that Max’s baby was coming soon.
Hermann nodded toward Annika. “Herr Pfarrer needs to speak with you.”
She glanced over at the parish church perched on the hill across the water. The Dornbachs had attended Mass there, but she’d never been inside. “Why would he want to talk to me?”
“He has to arrange a time to transport the Eyssl casket.”
Annika cringed. With the changes in their country, the Dornbachs gone, she’d thought the church would surely forgo those plans.
Hermann scooted his chair toward her. “The Nazis want parishes to go about their business as if nothing has changed in our country. Herr Pfarrer thinks this will help with morale.”
“But everything has already changed,” Annika insisted. Their lakes, her family, her home. In the past year, Germany had swallowed up the heart of her country. She no longer recognized the parts that remained.
Moving a box of old bones across the lake wouldn’t rejuvenate anyone.
“Annika—”
She shook her head.
“It’s only for one night.”
The thought of having the man’s bones in the chapel... She would never sleep until they took them back to the church.
“If you refuse, the Gestapo will ask questions. Maybe even return for another visit.”
AKuddlemuddel—that’s what her mother would have called this.
“I don’t want his remains here.”
“It’s necessary, Annika.”
