‘A room, a home, it’s a place to hide, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’ She blew out a cloud of smoke, sighed. ‘Meanwhile, out in the world, things were getting worse. Next year Hitler took the Sudetenland, then in 1939 he made Slovakia an independent puppet state, and then the war broke out. Father was retired by then, but he had money and I was working as a translator so I was able to take care of Peter. I looked after him for two years. Father helped too, but he was old, he did not really understand.’
‘Peter was lucky. Having someone to look after him.’
‘I did what I could. Then in 1941, the Germans invaded Russia. The Slovak government sent soldiers to help them. My brother was conscripted, he was young and fit and they didn’t care about his mental state. He fought all the way to the Caucasus. He came back with a shattered leg. It healed, but the effects on his mind –’ she shook her head sorrowfully – ‘he was terrified people were going to come for him, terrified. Communists or Fascists or priests – I don’t know who, anybody. Father had died while he was at war. In the end he jumped out of the window.’ She gave Frank a long, hard look. ‘It was a terrible thing to do to me.’
‘He couldn’t live with his fear,’ Frank said simply.
‘The whole world has had to learn to live with fear now.’ She got up, her knees creaking. It reminded Frank that she was his age, she wasn’t young. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly. ‘I did not mean to talk of all these sad things.’
‘It’s all right.’
She walked over to the window, pulled the curtain aside. The fog was as bad as ever, thick, cloying, almost liquid; there was nothing to see but darkness. ‘No sign of this ending,’ she said. Then she turned to face him, smiling. ‘Thank you.’
‘What for?’ he asked, surprised.
‘Because you understood about Peter.’
After she had gone Frank thought, was her brother really like me? He felt a little awed that she’d talked so openly to him. Then David had come to check on him. He’d tried to doze again but he was restless now, all the conversations he had had that day coming back into his head. After a while he decided to go downstairs. As he passed the door of the next room, he was surprised to hear low voices. He wondered whether they were talking about him. He stood next to the door. He heard Natalia’s voice, very quiet, ‘You need a woman as much as I need a man.’ He stepped away, suddenly filled with betrayal and loss and jealousy. Then he felt numb.
Downstairs Ben was sitting with the O’Sheas, still playing cards. He looked up. ‘A’ right? Thought you were asleep.’
‘No. No, I – I couldn’t settle—’
Ben looked at him keenly. ‘Sure you’re all right?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s a bit early for your bedtime pill. I’ll give it you in an hour, that’ll get you to sleep.’
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Eileen asked with a smile. ‘A bit of cake maybe?’
‘No, no thanks. Where’s Geoff?’
She nodded to the door of the front room. ‘He’s asleep in there. Why don’t you go and see how he is?’
Frank opened the door. He felt their eyes on his back. The light was on; Geoff was asleep in an armchair but he woke as Frank came in. He coughed.
‘I’m sorry,’ Frank said. ‘Did I wake you?’
‘I was only half asleep.’ Geoff sat up, coughing again, a harsh rasp. He didn’t look well, there was sweat on his brow. ‘What time is it?’
‘Nine o’clock. How are you feeling?’
‘A bit rotten.’ He looked at Frank. ‘How are you? Holding up?’
‘Yes. Yes, I suppose so. I’ve got a bit of a tickle in my throat, but it’s not getting any worse.’
‘I think I might go up to my room and lie down.’
Frank raised a hand. ‘No, I don’t think –’ he stumbled over his words – ‘not yet.’
Geoff gave him a puzzled frown. ‘Why not?’
‘I – I think David and Natalia are up there.’ Frank felt himself blush. ‘Together.’
Geoff nodded his understanding, gave a sad little smile. ‘I wondered if something was going on there. Thanks for the warning.’ He frowned. ‘But I wouldn’t have thought –’ he looked at Frank intently – ‘listen, if we get to meet up with Sarah, David’s wife, you mustn’t say anything. He and Natalia – well, these things happen when everyone’s thrown together, under such a strain—’
‘I won’t say anything. I promise.’
Geoff sat back wearily in his chair. ‘I suppose I’d better stay down here for a while then.’
‘David and Natalia,’ Frank said. ‘His wife. They shouldn’t—’
‘Who are we to say?’
Frank looked down. ‘I don’t know.’
Geoff shook his head. ‘Only fifteen years ago you and I and David were at university. It was a different world then, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, it was.’
Geoff smiled. ‘Do you remember the day when we were all in this pub, and there was that idiot loudmouth from our college, I’ve forgotten his name now, arguing that Hitler only wanted to revive Germany’s national spirit, just wanted territories that were historically German and he was entitled to them—’
‘Carter,’ Frank said.
‘That’s right. And you said, “They’re not territories, they’re places where people live and it’s the people that matter.” I remember he just sat and stared at you. I think he was a bit surprised you’d answered him back.’
Frank said, ‘You remember that, after all this time?’
‘Oh, yes. I—’
Geoff broke off suddenly, at the sound of a tremendous crash from the front door. Frank turned, so fast he almost lost his balance, as another followed. Geoff looked at him, then threw open the door from the front room to the hall. Outside, in the hallway, Sean had come out of the lounge and stood, a gun in his hand, facing the front door. As they watched it splintered and flew open. Three men burst in from the fog, pistols drawn. Two were uniformed Auxiliary Police. One was carrying a sledgehammer and the other a pistol. The third was in plain clothes and to his horror Frank recognized Syme, the tall, thin policeman from the hospital. He had a gun too. Sean fired at the Auxiliary who had the pistol, a tremendous noise in the confined space. The policeman toppled back onto the other two, unbalancing them, blocking the doorway, blood gushing from his neck. The plain-clothes man, though, had time to fire at Sean, and the big Irishman went down with a crash, his body hitting the floor with an impact that shook the boards.
Frank stood paralysed. As the two intruders struggled with the body of their dead colleague in the doorway, Geoff grabbed his arm and pushed him towards the open doorway of the lounge. Ben stood there, also holding a gun. There must have been guns in the table drawers. Behind him Eileen stared through the door at her husband’s body, eyes wide with horror. Frank glanced at Sean’s face; the blue eyes whose gaze had scared him were still and dead now.
There was a clattering on the stairs and David and Natalia appeared, running down, David frantically buttoning up his clothes. In any other circumstances it would have looked ridiculous. Natalia, too, was holding a gun. Syme and the other Auxiliary were in the hall now and both raised their firearms but Natalia fired first, Ben following from the doorway a second after. They missed Syme but Natalia hit the other Auxiliary in the arm. He yelled and staggered. Just outside the house, they heard the sound of a police siren.
Geoff had Frank inside the lounge now. Natalia and David followed and David banged the door shut.