If only they could help the people today...
No one in this region remembered Christoph or his family, only the reputation of a peculiar salt administrator who had built this castle and ruled over this area as if it were a kingdom. And his strange request to return home every fifty years.
Better, Annika supposed, that his casket visit here than he haunt the place, but she would much rather his remains stay in the crypt where they belonged.
Minutes later, the Catholic priest knocked on the front door, and Annika hurried through the hall to meet him.
“Are you well?” Herr Pfarrer asked.
“I am getting along well enough.”
“The casket is secure in the chapel,” he said as if he’d brought her a gift. “We’ll return in the morning.”
She nodded in acknowledgment, her fingers tightened around the iron door handle. Being agreeable was one of the best things she could do to ward off suspicion, but she would be counting down the hours until the body of Baron Eyssl von Eysselsberg returned to his crypt across the lake.
When the priest and men were gone, Annika knocked five times on the panel near the fireplace. Luzi unlocked it from the inside before pulling it open. She had what she needed in the small space to last for days if necessary. Pillow and blanket. A flashlight and chamber pot. A thermos with water, brown bread, and pickled eggs.
Annika’sBambibook was now hidden in this space as well, in the metal box that she’d rescued after the fire, but Luzi had never mentioned opening the box or seeing Max’s picture taped in the back of the book. Annika almost wished that she had seen it, that she would ask about it, even. They talked about all manner of subjects, but they rarely spoke about the man who’d brought them together.
Luzi scooted out of the space, and Annika reached out, helping her to her feet.
In the past weeks, Luzi’s belly had swollen under the clothing she’d managed to alter from Frau Dornbach’s wardrobe. Hiding inside this space must be far from comfortable, but Luzi never complained. She knew much better than Annika what might happen if the Gestapo found her here.
“When will they return?” Luzi asked.
“In the morning.”
Luzi excused herself to use the bathroom before they began preparing dinner. Nights like this, Annika was even more grateful that Luzi was here with her. She didn’t think she could bear to be alone in this huge place, even on the nights when there wasn’t a casket behind the house.
She brought a loaf of sourdoughHausbrotto the library along with butter and a jug of goat milk for them to drink. Before Annika returned to the kitchen for plates and cups, Luzi stepped back into the room, her skin a pale pink from washing, her peroxide-bleached hair wet around her face.
“Please sit,” Luzi said. “I’ll bring the rest of the things.”
“No—”
“Please,” she insisted. “You need to rest, and it’s good for me to stretch my legs.”
“Thank you.” But Annika had sat only for seconds when someone rang their doorbell again. She turned and stared at the archway that separated the library from the hall.
“The priest must have forgotten something,” Annika said, trying to drown the familiar pangs of fear inside her.
The bell rang again, and Luzi pressed the edge of the panel, opening it into the wall. “I’ll spend the night in here.”
Annika shivered. “It shouldn’t be necessary.”
“My hiding protects us both.”
Annika nodded before Luzi pushed the panel closed from the inside. The seams between the panels stitched up neatly.
When the doorbell rang for a third time, Annika took a deep breath, praying that it wasn’t another mob returning to finish what they’d started with the fire.
If they barged inside, how would she get Luzi out of here?
Instead of answering the front door, she opened the one to the parlor, the room where Vati had died. She hadn’t been back inside since the fire—and she didn’t want to go now—but she couldn’t answer the door until she saw who was on the other side.
Carefully she stepped over remnants of burnt wood and ash-laden furniture piled on what was once a finely carpeted floor. Through the broken window, she saw Hermann on the stoop, the bell ringing through the house again.
She rushed back into the hall, opening the door. “What is it?”
