She crept to the window. The Nazis, she feared, had returned for her father, not knowing he was dead. What would they do when they discovered he was gone?
Hitler had a group for young women—the League of German Girls. She didn’t want to join Hitler’s group, but how could she refuse if they insisted?
In the dim light of the stars, the body of the car came into focus, and she realized it was the Dornbachs’ black Mercedes. Herheart leapt when she saw Max step out into the courtyard. Finally, after all these months, he was home.
She prayed that he didn’t hate her for what she had done.
He opened the passenger door, and at first she thought he was helping his mother, but a much smaller woman emerged beside him, bent over as if she needed a cane.
She rushed outside, wanting to explain what had happened with the necklace, what had happened with the house.
“Annika,” Max said sadly when she joined his side, as if her name was a burden. “I’d like you to meet Luzi.”
Annika stared at the young woman before her who looked so frail, her cheeks gaunt, her dark hair a tangled mess. Luzia Weiss, the woman she’d cut out from the newspaper picture. The one she’d burned in the stove.
But the glamour was gone from this woman. She looked more like Frederica the cat, when she’d first arrived, than a debutante from Vienna.
“She’s been injured,” Max said.
“Should I prepare a bath?”
Max nodded. “I have salts for you to put in it. Will you help me clean her wound?”
“I’ll do my best, but I’ll have to use the bathroom in the castle. Our cottage has burnt down.”
Max glanced over at the trees, at the charred remains of the building, but he didn’t seem surprised. “Is Herr Knopf in town?”
She shook her head. “He died... in the fire.”
Luzi’s head rose slightly, her eyes dull. “My father is gone as well.”
Annika reached for Luzi’s other arm. “You will be safe here.”
“Thank you,Kätzchen,” Max said.
The jealousy in her heart roared, but he must know that she’d never intentionally harm him. Nor would she hurt Luzi.
The woman cringed when Annika helped lower her into the warm bath.
She didn’t ask what had slit Luzi’s leg. Soon they would have to be honest with one another, the three of them, but they would keep their secrets tonight.
Luzi wasn’t her friend, but Max was, and her love for him ran deep.
For Max, she would lay down her life.
In the hour before dawn, Max stood on the dock beside the boathouse, wondering what had happened to all of them. And what would happen to them now.
His arms and legs were weak, as if one of the military trucks had driven over him and then backed up for a second round. His body was spent, but his mind was as alert as it had ever been.
The Gestapo, he feared, wouldn’t stop looking for Luzi. After finding Ernst’s body in her apartment, they would surely continue their search.
No one knew where Max had taken Luzi, but Schloss Schwansee could only be a temporary resting place until she was able to travel again. His family owned a mountain hut up on Sarstein, but the trail was steep, treacherous, even for those physically able.
Luzi wouldn’t be able to climb with her injured leg, but perhaps in the weeks ahead he could help her up to the hut. Then in the summer, they could hike through the mountains into Switzerland and up to find his mother and Marta in Paris.
A boat puttered along the bank, and he turned to run again. Luzi could hide in the crevice in the library, the space his ancestors had built to stash money and people alike. Then he’d find another hiding place on the estate for himself. Unless the Gestapo brought dogs, they’d never find him hiding in the trees.
But before he stepped off the dock, a flashlight beam crossed over him, and he froze until he heard Hermann’s voice, calling his name.
