Page 20 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
‘He’s not,’ Beatrice said with a laugh.‘He’s a clerk.But he does like to paint.’
‘Only streets and parks, never people?’
‘He says Berlin is his inspiration, that he wants to capture the changing light and shade and atmosphere of the city.’
They talked about art then, about Hannah’s school – ‘I am on summer holidays now,’ she clarified – and then Beatrice asked what Doris knew she would eventually: ‘Where are you from?’Her German was good enough that she passed as native in brief conversations.But anything more and she could feel the question building.
‘England,’ she said.‘But my mother is German.I moved here a year ago, a little more.’
‘England,’ Beatrice repeated.
‘We remember when you arrived,’ Hannah said.
‘You do?’
‘We knew you were one person,’ Hannah said, ‘because thehausmeistertold us, and we thought we’d never seen so many dress boxes and trunks for just one person before.’
Doris laughed.
‘And because you played such wonderful music on your gramophone,’ Hannah said wistfully.‘American, I think?’
‘Sshhh.’Beatrice nudged Hannah sharply, making an alarmed O with her mouth.
‘But you don’t play it anymore?’the girl continued.‘Only classical?’
‘I prefer that now,’ Doris said evasively.She had quickly understood that her records – Cole Porter, Duke Ellington – were a bad idea, viewed with suspicion, even disgust, by the people she needed to get to know.And so she had thrown them away, wrapping them in many layers of newspaper before putting them in the bin, in case thehausmeister, whom she mistrusted, dig through and see them.She had replaced the emptiness with Bach, Wagner, Handel.
‘Let me show you the trick I learned with the bow.’She and Hannah went to the girl’s bedroom and Doris tried to teach her what she remembered.‘You must hold with the very ends of your fingers, and play as if your arm is on a string suspended from the ceiling.The string takes all the weight, so there is no weight in your hand.’
‘Yes, I think I see …’ Hannah said, grasping the bow firmly.
She didn’t see.Doris, squashing a laugh, understood immediately that there was no way the girl would be able to learn what she taught, but so solemn was Hannah in her efforts, so honest in her determination, that Doris sat with her anyway and called encouragement.‘Yes, jolly good, I think you are really getting it now …’
When she went back to the drawing room, Beatrice was turning a stocking.She smiled at Doris.‘How kind you are.I don’t think she will ever trouble the people of the Philharmonie, but she wants so badly to learn.’Then, ‘May I ask you something?’
‘Of course.’Doris wondered would she ask her to come regularly, to give Hannah lessons.If she did, she would say yes, Doris decided.She hadn’t realised how much she missed the company of her own little sisters and brother.To spend her afternoons with Hannah would be a pleasure.
‘How do we get to England?’Beatrice asked bluntly.
Doris felt her eyes open wide.
‘I’m sorry,’ Beatrice said.‘I know that’s abrupt.Probably uncomfortable for you.But we don’t have time … We have been trying to get to England, and we have found no way, except to try and send Hannah on her own and we don’t want to do that.’
‘Of course you don’t,’ Doris said automatically, trying to catch up.
‘Is there any way that you know of that we can go?I thought maybe, because you are English, you might know things that we do not?’
‘I don’t …’ Doris stalled.Then, ‘Forgive me … you are Jewish?’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t realise.’
‘It’s not a thing one wants anyone to realise these days,’ Beatrice said bitterly.‘It’s why we want to leave.Hannah doesn’t know yet, but after the summer she won’t be going back to her school.They don’t want her.There is another school she can go to but it is further away … But it isn’t that.Not just that.My husband has lost his job.He is out, with his paints, but he no longer works.We want to get away, but there is nowhere for us to go.No country we can reach that will take us.’
‘You have family?’
‘In Poland, where my husband is from.But we cannot go there.Better even to stay here than that.Please.I know this is unexpected, even rude,’ she shook her head, ‘but the chance of meeting you, of your being English, I couldn’t not.’
