Ernst dropped the hem of Luzi’s dress, but he didn’t release his grasp on her arm.
The man moved closer. “Must I call for thePolizei?”
Ernst snickered. “The police won’t care.”
“Any assault against a lady will greatly concern them.”
“This one’s not a lady.” He lowered his voice with contempt. “Nothing but a Jew.”
The blonde woman tugged on the gentleman’s arm, and when he took a step back, Luzi was afraid they would leave her. “I was playing with the orchestra tonight at the Rathaus,” she blurted, wanting him to know that she was a musician. That she was human.
The man didn’t reply.
“He has no right to me,” Luzi pleaded.
Ernst traced his finger down her neck, lingering on her collarbone, and she felt as if she might be sick all over his shoes. “Ihave every right to you.”
If this couple walked away, she had no doubt Ernst would force himself upon her. And her life... it would be forever ruined.
“Go home, lad,” the gentleman finally said.
“Leave us alone, and I will.”
The man lifted his arm and punched Ernst in the nose. Ernst reeled back, holding his hand over his face, but before he bolted away, he spit on Luzi as if she’d betrayed him.
“Are you hurt?” the man asked her, though it seemed that he’d lost some of the confidence in his voice.
“I’ll be fine.”
He glanced at the path. “Do you live nearby?”
“No,” she said, her entire body shaking. “I was planning to take a taxi home.”
He responded with a brisk nod. “We’ll follow you out to Universitätsring, to make sure he doesn’t return.”
“Danke.”
Her body was still shaking as she climbed into the cab, down to the toes hidden in her mother’s narrow dress shoes.
“Number 69 Elisabethallee,” she told the driver.
“You shouldn’t be out by yourself,” he said as he turned south.
“I know.” The conductor shouldn’t have made her stay so late at the hall, but she couldn’t blame him. Max shouldn’t have distracted her, and she never should have danced with him.
She must stay focused on what was best for her parents and her sister, not what her heart might urge her to do. Music, she prayed, would be her family’s ticket out of Austria.
The taxi stopped, and after she paid the driver, Luzi looked both ways before stepping onto the sidewalk, as if Ernst mighthave followed her all the way home. But she didn’t see him, nor did she smell cigarette smoke.
She rushed into the building, up the steps. Inside their apartment, her mother waited for her in the sitting room, hurrying toward her with arms outstretched. “We were so worried.”
“I’m sorry I’m late.” Luzi set her case on a chair, her voice sounding as hollow to her as the belly of her violin.
“The ball was supposed to end two hours ago.”
“I was delayed,” she said simply. Tomorrow she would tell her mother about Max, but she’d never tell anyone about Ernst. Her father might retaliate, and if he did, she feared no one would fight for him.
“Where’s Papa?”
