Patrik limped between Éva and Ernő, leaning most of his weight on them. No longer did his leg burn, but it did ache with a fierceness he never imagined possible. At least his mind had cleared. The fog and haze that had enveloped him had lifted.
Behind them came the clacking of cranes and bulldozers along with the ring of hammers as the train’s remains were cleared and the tracks repaired. They hadn’t gone more than a kilometer, and already he was breathing hard. If only they could travel by coach as they did before. But Reka was still around.
In their quick getaway, a strand of Éva’s hair had escaped her pins and brushed his cheek. She brushed it away and turned to him. “Last night when I brought the doctor, in your delirium, you said something strange. Friedmann Avraham. Is that your name? Your given name?”
Patrik went cold all over, and probably not from his weakened state. He couldn’t utter a single word.
“That’s answer enough for me.”
Patrik’s heart skipped a beat. There could be no more denying of the truth. Éva had learned his secret. And though he had been the one to tell her, he didn’t do it in the way he wanted. It was a wonder she was speaking to him at all.
He grimaced as he turned his ankle on a rock and leaned on her shoulders. “I’m sorry.”
“For tripping? That is nothing. For lying about your name?” She shrugged her shoulders and gazed at him, her eyes asking the question as much as her lips, their fragile trust hanging in the balance.
His stomach was in knots. She needed the truth. She deserved it. “Igen, I hid my name.”
“Once again you deceived me.”
“Do you truly not understand why I would take an Aryan identity? Do you think I did it easily?” He’d never spoken the awful truth, and he wasn’t about to in front of Ernő and Zofia. Even Zofia didn’t know.
“More secrets and lies.”
“Nem, just things that are very difficult for me to speak about.” He panted as the sun rose higher in the sky along with the temperature.
“Just answer one question. Are you even a Christian? Deep in your heart, not on your identity card.”
“I was raised in the Jewish faith and didn’t begin to attend church until I changed my name. With that, I thought I owed it to myself and to my guise to learn more about what I was supposed to believe. When I did, true faith came. All that has happened in my life, including being forced to change my name, was God’s way of drawing me to Himself.” By the time he finished speaking, he was gasping for breath.
Ernő called a halt. He and Éva and Zofia were tired as well, dragging Patrik along with them. They ate the bread Éva had procured and took turns drinking from the single teacup.
For the next few days, they pressed forward in much the same way, resting as often as Patrik needed relief from his pain and making slow progress toward Nagyvárad. Their promised land.
On the fourth day, they saw it at last, rising above the plain. Patrik stopped and closed his eyes, just for a moment. In his mind, he could picture the Sebes-Körös River running through the town, and the Black Eagle palace with all its rounded windows and roof lines, and the city hall with clock towers at either end.
And beyond, Romania. Freedom within grasp.
The sight of Nagyvárad in front of them brought a surge of strength Patrik hadn’t experienced since the night of the train bombing. They were so close to their liberation, the word sweet on his tongue. “Here we are.”
“Now what?” Éva shaded her eyes against the late afternoon sun. “I’m in need of a bath, and you should have a clean place to sleep so you can fully recover.”
“I have some contacts here we can get in touch with.”
Éva clasped her hands together. “What about Reka? She lives here, you know.”
“Thankfully, Nagyvárad is a big city. Not too much chance of running into her. It would be good, though, if we could get to our contact’s house as soon as possible. The less time we spend on the street, the better. A little bit to rest and regroup, and we’ll cross into Romania.”
He wouldn’t breathe easy until they had.
Éva picked up her pace to match his. “Do you know where you’re going?”
“I’ve been here before.”
“You mentioned coming here a time or two with some of your orchestra members to play concerts. Were you really … ?”
“I was.” More times he hadn’t been truthful with her.
“Doing this very thing?”
“This very thing. And urging my sisters to leave the country.”
“Did they?” She whispered the question.
“Nem.”
She fell silent, and they made their way through the city’s back streets until they came to an unassuming house on a dead-end road. Patrik’s leg burned. What a relief it would be to take his weight off it and get it cleaned out.
He knocked on the plain door. Not much time elapsed before a young man Patrik only knew as H opened the door.
“Wait. Stop.”
The sound of that voice behind them. It was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over Patrik. Nem, it couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.
Ernő and Zofia gasped. Éva shrank against Patrik. He pivoted and stared into those eyes. The eyes of the woman he had come to dread. “Reka?”
“Imagine running into you here.” Pinned to the collar of her dress was that red rose brooch.
The one the woman wore who had watched him watch his sisters herded into the trains. That’s how she’d known about him.
While she made it sound like a coincidence, it was anything but. Patrik chuckled a tight laugh. “What are you doing here?”
She touched the back of his hand, sending goosebumps up and down his arm. “You know I live here.”
Patrik eyed H’s home, then Reka.
“Not here here. In Nagyvárad. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive.”
Patrik didn’t dare to breathe. “Arrive?”
“I want to invite you to stay at my home until the concert.” For the first time, she directed her attention to Ernő and Zofia. “Imagine my surprise at seeing you here too. Éva said she didn’t know where you were, Zofia. How fortunate you have run into each other. Have you come for the concert?”
Ernő stared narrow-eyed at Reka while Zofia gave a slow single nod.
“Zofia, congratulations on the little bundle of joy. Now, why don’t you come to my home and stay? You’ll be much more comfortable than here.”
Patrik’s skin prickled. “Köszönöm. But we have accommodations already arranged. And not at this place.” Did he say that too fast? “Um, elsewhere.”
“I insist.”
Éva clung to Patrik by the hand. “We don’t want to be an imposition.”
“You wouldn’t be.” Reka’s syrupy tone curdled Patrik’s blood. How had she known where to find them?
There was only one answer. She had been tailing them. Or had someone do it for her. She was the one who had tipped off the Gestapo to Zofia. The one who had been watching at Tóth Asszony’s house. And his flat.
They had to get out of here. He squeezed Éva’s hand. “We really have to be going. You’ve been kind.” He almost choked on that sentence. “We’re expected elsewhere.”
The worst part was that they had led her right to their contact. The Gestapo was probably waiting around the corner to cart them all away to prison. If they didn’t do away with them on the spot.
He made a move to wriggle around her. She blocked him with her bulk. “Not so fast.”
At Reka’s command to stay put, Éva could no longer move a muscle. “What?”
“I said you’re coming to my house.”
Patrik moved in front of Éva. “We have other plans.”
“You don’t.”
Éva attempted to peer around Patrik, but he pushed her back. “We’re leaving now.”
“Not if you value the Bognárs’ lives.”
Her heart forgot to beat.
“At this moment in Budapest, I have operatives ready to take Bognár Úr and Asszony into custody. And don’t think that because they are older, the interrogators will go easy on them.”
“My parents?” Everything inside Éva was mixed up. What was going on?
“Igen, you little Jew lover. If you value the lives of your mother and your father, you will come with me. There are two ways we can do this. We can have the soldiers who are waiting around the corner come and take you to Gestapo headquarters for questioning, and have the ones in front of your parents’ house arrest them, or you can come with me to my house where you’ll be much more comfortable. The choice is yours.”
Éva’s throat tightened, as if she were trying to change the tuning of her clarinet. “How do we know you are about to arrest them?”
“How do you know I’m not? But don’t worry. We’ve been watching the house since you left. You’re sneaky. Slippery, the lot of you. You couldn’t get away forever, though. Do you want to play Russian roulette with your parents’ lives? I know how dedicated you are to them. What a close family you are. Something I never had. A love like that is too strong to take any risks. Whose lives do you value more? Those of your parents, who have given you everything, or your own?”
What an impossible choice. How did you price one life above another? Who had more worth? “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
Reka crossed her arms. “Not really.”
Patrik turned to Éva, his eyes misty, his voice low. “I’m sorry.”
“We can’t let anything happen to my parents.”
Ernő grabbed Patrik by the shoulder. “But Zofia.”
“Apu and Anya have always been there for us. Now it’s our turn to do the same for them. We don’t have a choice.”
“She could be bluffing.”
“Do we take that chance with our parents’ lives?”
Ernő cradled his head. In that moment, he resembled Apu more than ever. “Nem. Nem.”
Zofia rubbed Ernő’s back. He gazed at her with such warmth, such love, such devotion, it stole Éva’s breath. He kissed her forehead and turned and nodded at Reka.
At least they weren’t going to prison. Not for now, anyway.
She herded them to her large, yellow house near the center of the city. Reka unlocked the carved oak door and motioned for them to enter.
Her home was beautiful, from the dark wood in the entrance hall and on into the lounge, to the well-maintained antique furniture in the living area, to the tasteful art on the walls. Where had she gotten the money? Growing up, her family had been middle class at best.
Éva glanced at Reka, her mouth set in a hard line. Of course. This well-appointed place was paid for with Jewish blood.
A little girl, maybe three years old, with curly, white-blond hair and pudgy little legs came racing to Reka, demanding to be lifted.
“Who is this?”
“My daughter, Marianna.”
Éva furrowed her brows. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were married.” Reka wore no ring, and from the impression her house gave, she could afford one.
“I’m not.”
“Oh.” Éva stood dumbfounded. Marianna could well be the offspring of a German man.
Reka pointed to the davenport in the living room. “Sit.”
Ernő drew Zofia close to his side. “We’re pretty dirty, and we’d hate to ruin your fine furnishings. If you show me to the bathroom, I’ll see to getting Zofia settled. She’s quite tired. And Patrik needs to have his leg tended to.”
“I said to sit.”
The four of them, as filthy and as smelly as they were, plopped to the sofa. Éva settled beside Patrik. “How is your leg? Maybe you should elevate it?”
“I’m okay.”
“Silence.” Like a general reviewing his troops, Reka marched in front of them.
Éva swallowed hard. “What do you want with us?”
“Information.”
“You won’t get any.” Patrik clasped the edge of the flowered cushion.
“Cooperate with me and it will go well for you. And for the Bognárs. All of them. Give me trouble, and you’ll find yourself in more trouble yourselves than you could imagine. I have connections. I have ways of getting what I want.”
Éva clasped Patrik’s hand, his own palm moist. He wasn’t as calm as he appeared on the outside. Or was it another fever spiking?
“I don’t understand any of this.” Éva sat forward. “I never knew you to be unkind.”
Reka spun and faced Éva, her features hard in her round face. “You never knew me. Never. All you had, I wanted. It was within my grasp. A few years ago, I had an audition with the Budapest Symphony as a clarinetist. And then that Jewish boy you had taught slithered in and stole my spot. The place that should have been mine.” She spat the words. “Then Ernő, the man I wanted, fell in love with a Jewess. The lowest of the low. I have this way of discovering what people are hiding, though. I found out her secrets.”
Next to her, Zofia stiffened, her belly protruding.
“If you are so good at detecting secrets, why do you have to question us?”
“I don’t know it all. I need names. Places. Details.”
Zofia shot to her feet. “Which you will never get.”
Reka stormed closer, her nose almost touching Zofia’s. “Sit down.”
Zofia obeyed.
The little girl peeked around the corner, and Éva gave her a faint smile. She popped out of view. Marianna shouldn’t be subjected to this. Shouldn’t see her mother’s bitterness and hatred.
If Reka noticed her daughter’s presence, she didn’t acknowledge it. “Let’s start with an easy question. Why are you all here? And why weren’t you together on the train?”
Éva jumped in to answer. “I told you already. We’re here for a concert. You need to let us go, so we don’t miss it.”
“Where is this concert?”
“Um—”
“At the State Theater Hall.” Patrik came to the rescue. “Éva is right. If we don’t get going, we’ll be late. We need time to make ourselves presentable and get organized.”
“Why were you traveling so early, so many days ago, if the concert wasn’t until tonight?”
Reka was clever, you had to give her that.
Again, Patrik came to the rescue. “Ernő had some business prior to the concert. We all thought we’d come early and spend time together.”
“How fortuitous that you found Zofia. I think I need you to fill in some details for me.” Reka licked her full lips.
“She was in custody. And now she’s not.” Patrik clenched his jaw.
“Liar!” It was a wonder her shout didn’t rattle the crystal chandelier. “She’s not even wearing her star.”
Éva jumped up and stomped toward Reka. “Please, don’t turn her in. You can see she’s pregnant.”
“Did I tell you to move?” Reka shoved Éva, and she stumbled into her seat once more. If only she had her reed knife. She should have grabbed it from her charred clarinet case.
But no matter what Patrik or Zofia or any of them said, Reka wasn’t satisfied. She badgered them, the questioning dragging on throughout the day. Éva had long since passed the hungry stage. Her stomach didn’t even rumble anymore.
At last, as the twilight softened into evening, a broad man in a German uniform marched into the house. He pecked Reka on the cheek. “Well done, my dear. We have that pesky smuggler in custody too. Why don’t you get us some dinner? I’ll keep an eye on them. Finish with them for you.”
His words sent Éva trembling from head to toe.