“So,” he said. “Where’s Renata?”
Indeed. Where was she? Magda shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. Where are you taking the Taubers?”
“Magdalena—”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Fine. If you want to survive this, if you don’t want to end up in a ghetto with your beloved Taubers, I would begin answering my questions.”
The door opened, and Magda jerked her head in its direction, but Walter waved whoever it was away. They were alone again.
“I don’t know where she is. She wasn’t here today. We told you that already.”
“Right.” Walter sighed. “You sure that’s your final answer?”
He dropped before her again and brushed some hair away from her shoulders. Magda squeezed her eyes shut.
“They made fun of me, you know? Taking the virginity of a girl with such a face as yours. You know what I did?”
She kept her eyes closed, but if the tears could not squeeze by, the pain had to come out of her somewhere, she had to breathe somehow. She took great gulps of air. Saliva hung from her mouth and landed on the hand in her lap.
Walter scoffed. “Yeah. You’re quite the mess. I fought them, Magda. That’s what I did. I beat Gustav up. Badly. He kept his mouth shut. Didn’t turn me in. Question is…”
His hand came on her forehead, and he shoved her head back on her neck as he stood before her. She forced her good eye to focus on him.
“The question is, can you? Can you keep your goddamned mouth shut?”
Magda blinked several times. “Yes. Yes, I can.” About what? She had no idea.
“Good.” He released her head. For the first time, she saw that he was deeply conflicted. “As far as I’m concerned, you know nothing. I’m gone tomorrow anyway. I have my marching orders.” He strode to the door and held it open. “Maybe I’ll see you. Maybe I won’t. Either way, Magda, all you need to do is survive. Stay smart and you’ve got a better chance than me. You’ve got one hour to get… Get your things out of here. One hour and they’ll all be back. Koenig’s taking over the house.”
He started to go out the door, stopped, and turned again. “I’ll put in a good word for you. You and Jana.”
When the last truck drove out of the gates, when the house was emptied of the invaders and Magda dared to leave the kitchen, it was she and Jana who stood staring at one another. Magda sprinted to the third floor, lifted the floorboards, and withdrew Samuel—fast asleep—out from beneath. She checked his breathing. It was shallow, but his pulse was steady. Jana reached for him, and Magda gave the baby to her.
“I don’t know where to take him,” Magda wailed.
“I do,” Jana said.
“Give him to me.”
Magda whirled around. Renata stood in the doorway.
Jana and Magda fetched a coat hanger to try and get deeper into the floors. They found a flashlight and pointed it inside until Magda finally found the remaining pillowcase beneath. Magda pulled it out and opened it. She recognized the bottles of liquids and pills. It was not a lot, but it was what they had been able to salvage from Dr. Tauber’s destroyed office before Koenig had returned. They had brought it all upstairs to put with the rest of the personal items and valuables.
“I knew there would be a time when these would be useful,” Jana said.
Magda squeezed Jana’s hand and stood up. Robert was crawling beneath the bed. Jana lay on the floor and fished him out.
Magda finished stuffing the medicine into her military bag. Robert was looking at her with more curiosity. She lowered herself onto the bed. “What happened after I left?”
Jana put him down again. “It took a day or two before either one of them realized. Frau Koenig insisted that the boy had been born this way. She still does. But the Obersturmbannführer went on a rampage.”
“Did he go after you?”
Jana made a noise and shrugged. “I’ve had to work hard to win their trust again, to at least the point where they leave Robert with me all the time now. Koenig won’t allow his son anywhere near anything to do with the party or official business.”
“What are they doing in Berlin?”
“What do I know?”
“Did you hear about Stalingrad?”
Jana nodded. “I imagine there’s an important emergency meeting, but he took Frau Koenig, so there might be something more ceremonial in all this than mere strategy meetings. You understand?”
“But he rejects his own son?”
“Koenig wanted to send them both away. Frau Koenig threw a fit. She even threatened to expose her husband. Apparently there are rumors that he is or was having an affair with a Slovakian woman. She held that over him and—” Jana shook her head. “She’s not a stupid woman by all means. I feel sorry for Frau Koenig.”
Magda sighed. Up to a point, she had felt sorry for the commander’s wife as well.
“Anyway, she threatened him. So the Obersturmbannführer punishes her in return by not allowing the boy to go anywhere. That’s how it goes. So he’s with me.”
“They never hired anyone new?”
“They didn’t want to.” She hesitated. “I suspect they think you’ll come back if I’m here.”
Magda considered this. “How are you managing?”
Jana shrugged, then looked down at the boy. “You know, if the tides really do turn—if Germany has to turn on its heel—they might use Robert to their advantage.” She eyed Magda. “As their pass out, that is. A Jewish family that has managed to hide this long. Look, my son is Jewish—he’s circumcised.”
Magda stared at the boy. They were all quiet.
“Well.” She stood. “We can’t let that happen, can we?”
Jana sniffed. She pulled Magda to her. “It’s good to see you, son.”
Magda laughed a little.
“It’s quite the elaborate costume to come to an empty house.”
They both laughed.
“I’m being tested,” Magda finally said. She was serious once more. “They
