Page 260 of Winter of the World (The Century 2)

"You're not a fool. It's just that I know you too well."

The tram approached Carla's stop. "Wish me luck," she said, and she got off.

When she entered her house she heard hesitant notes on the piano upstairs. Maud had a pupil. Carla was glad. It would cheer her mother up as well as providing a little money.

Carla took off her raincoat, then went into the kitchen and greeted Ada. When Maud had announced that she could no longer pay Ada's wages, Ada had asked if she could stay on anyway. Now she had a job cleaning an office in the evening, and she did housework for the von Ulrich family in exchange for her room and board.

Carla kicked off her shoes under the table and rubbed her feet together to ease their ache. Ada made her a cup of grain coffee.

Maud came into the kitchen, eyes sparkling. "A new pupil!" she said. She showed Carla a handful of banknotes. "And he wants a lesson every day!" She had left him practising scales, and his novice fingering sounded in the background like a cat walking along the keyboard.

"That's great," said Carla. "Who is he?"

"A Nazi, of course. But we need the money."

"What's his name?"

"Joachim Koch. He's quite young and shy. If you meet him, for goodness' sake bite your tongue and be polite."

"Of course."

Maud disappeared.

Carla drank her coffee gratefully. She had got used to the taste of burned acorns, as most people had.

She chatted idly to Ada for a few minutes. Ada had once been plump, but now she was thin. Few people were fat in today's Germany, but there was something wrong with Ada. The death of her handicapped son, Kurt, had hit her hard. She had a lethargic air. She did her job competently, but then she sat staring out of the window for hours, her expression blank. Carla was fond of her, and felt her anguish, but did not know what to do to help her.

The sound of the piano ceased and, a little later, Carla heard two voices in the hallway, her mother's and a man's. She assumed Maud was seeing Herr Koch out, and she was horrified, a moment later, when her mother entered the kitchen, closely followed by a man in an immaculate lieutenant's uniform.

"This is my daughter," Maud said cheerfully. "Carla, this is Lieutenant Koch, a new pupil."

Koch was an attractive, shy-looking man in his twenties. He had a fair mustache, and reminded Carla of pictures of her father when young.

Carla's heart raced with fear. The basket containing the stolen medical supplies was on the kitchen chair next to her. Would she accidentally betray herself to Lieutenant Koch, as she had to Frieda?

She could hardly speak. "I-I-I am pleased to make your acquaintance," she said.

Maud looked at her with curiosity, surprised at her nervousness. All Maud wanted was for Carla to be nice to the new pupil in the hope that he would continue his studies. She saw no harm in bringing an army officer into the kitchen. She had no idea that Carla had stolen medicines in her shopping basket.

Koch made a formal bow and said: "The pleasure is mine."

"And Ada is our maid."

Ada shot him a hostile look, but he did not see it: maids were beneath his notice. He put his weight on one leg and stood lopsided, trying to seem at ease but giving the opposite impression.

He acted younger than he looked. There was an innocence about him that suggested an overprotected child. All the same he was a danger.

Changing his stance, he rested his hands on the back of the chair on which Carla had put her basket. "I see you are a nurse," he said to her.

"Yes." Carla tried to think calmly. Did Koch have any idea who the von Ulrichs were? He might be too young to know what a Social Democrat was. The party had been illegal for nine years. Perhaps the infamy of the von Ulrich family had faded away with the death of Walter. At any rate, Koch seemed to take them for a respectable German family who were poor simply because they had lost the man who had supported them, a situation in which many well-bred women found themselves.

There was no reason he should look in the basket.

Carla made herself speak pleasantly to him. "How are you getting on with the piano?"

"I believe I am making rapid progress!" He glanced at Maud. "So my teacher tells me."

Maud said: "He shows evidence of talent, even at this early stage." She always said that, to encourage them to pay for a second lesson, but it seemed to Carla that she was being more charming than usual. She was entitled to flirt, of course; she had been a widow for more than a year. But she could not possibly have romantic feelings for someone half her age.

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