Page 271 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Grandmother Maud joined in the conversation. "You can't tell what a tyrant is going to do," she said. "Uncertainty is one of their weapons. I've lived under the Nazis as well as the Communists. They're depressingly similar."

There was a knock at the front door. Lili opened it and was horrified to see, standing on the doorstep, her former brother-in-law, Hans Hoffmann.

Lili held the door a few inches ajar and said: "What do you want, Hans?"

He was a big man, and could easily have shoved her out of the way, but he did not. "Open up, Lili," he said in a voice of weary impatience. "I'm with the police, you can't keep me out."

Lili's heart was pounding, but she stayed where she was and shouted over her shoulder: "Mother! Hans Hoffmann is at the door!"

Carla came running. "Did you say Hans?"

"Yes."

Carla took Lili's place at the door. "You're not welcome here, Hans," she said. She spoke with calm defiance, but Lili could hear her breathing, fast and anxious.

"Is that so?" Hans said coolly. "All the same, I need to speak to Karolin Koontz."

Lili gave a small cry of fear. Why Karolin?

Carla asked the question. "Why?"

"She has written a letter to the comrade genera

l secretary, Walter Ulbricht."

"Is that a crime?"

"On the contrary. He is the leader of the people. Anyone may write to him. He is glad to hear from them."

"So why have you come here to bully and frighten Karolin?"

"I'll explain my purpose to Fraulein Koontz. Don't you think you'd better ask me in?"

Carla murmured to Lili: "He might have something to tell us about her application to emigrate. We'd better find out." She opened the door wide.

Hans stepped into the hall. He was in his late thirties, a big man who stooped slightly. He wore a heavy double-breasted dark-blue coat of a quality not generally available in East German shops. It made him look larger and more menacing. Lili instinctively moved away from him.

He knew the house, and now he acted as if he still lived here. He took off his coat and hung it on a hook in the hall, then without invitation he walked into the kitchen.

Lili and Carla followed him.

Werner was standing up. Lili wondered fearfully if he had taken his pistol from its hiding place behind the saucepan drawer. Perhaps Carla had been arguing on the doorstep in order to give him time to do just that. Lili tried to stop her hands shaking.

Werner did not hide his hostility. "I'm surprised to see you in this house," he said to Hans. "After what you did, you should be ashamed to show your face."

Karolin was looking puzzled and anxious, and Lili realized she did not know who Hans was. In an aside Lili explained: "He's with the Stasi. He married my sister and lived here for a year, spying on us."

Karolin's hand went to her mouth and she gasped. "That's him?" she whispered. "Walli told me. How could he do such a thing?"

Hans heard them whispering. "You must be Karolin," he said. "You wrote to the comrade general secretary."

Karolin looked scared but defiant. "I want to marry the father of my child. Are you going to let me?"

Hans looked at Alice in her high chair. "Such a lovely baby," he said. "Boy or girl?"

It made Lili shake with fear just that Hans was looking at Alice.

Reluctantly, Karolin said: "Girl."

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