Chapter Seventeen

The next morning, Nessa woke Kate up early and spirited her away. “Come. There’s something I want to show you.” She handed Kate an apple and led her up a dirt path, going around the back of the castle. The sun rising over the hills revealed dark clouds covering half the sky.

“What do you think of my cousin?” Nessa asked once they were a distance away from the house. She began tossing her apple up and catching it.

Kate relaxed. She had been expecting Nessa to bring up the dog tags again. Last night by the end of dinner, it had become the general consensus that Kate’s discovery was a happy coincidence to bring her family closure. She had given up arguing about it, but noticed Nessa watching her closely.

“She’s been through a lot,” Kate said tentatively, and bit into her apple. She had woken up ravenous and was already looking forward to Mr. De Luca’s breakfast.

“True. But so many have. How long should a girl nurse her grievances?”

“I suppose it’s different for everyone.”

“Did she tell you where Babcia’s people found her?”

“A work camp. They were looking for your sister?”

Nessa caught her apple and put it in her pocket. “Babcia was hoping. But my sister was dead before the camp was liberated.”

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“To start, she took too many chances. She was a spy and got found out. That was how she was killed.”

A spy? Nessa’s sister was one of those courageous girls she’d read about. “What did she do?”

Nessa wrapped her arms around her middle, as if comforting herself. “All kinds of things, most of which she wouldn’t talk about. She was out at all hours sneaking around. There was a boy. She met him on one of her missions.” Nessa sighed. “They went off and got married. Babcia nearly had a fit when she found out.” She looked at Kate. “Now that I’ve seen the family wedding dress, I understand. She gave all that up. She didn’t want to wait.” Nessa frowned. “Good thing she didn’t, either. She was captured just two months later and shipped off to that work camp. Her husband risked his life coming to our place to tell us in person. He was a wreck. My sister had his heart. He still hangs around whenever his job lets him.”

“I’m sorry. That’s such a sad, romantic tale.”

“I guess it is, if I wasn’t so close to it. Babcia says she sent him to America to find Elsie after the war, but he had no luck.”

Kate sucked in a breath. “In his twenties? Blond, and has a habit of twisting his hat?”

Nessa laughed. “How did you know? My sister was constantly fixing hats for him. Why?”

“I turned someone away once who was looking for Adalbert and Elsie.” How different things would have been if Kate had known who he was at the time. “And what about Lidka? You don’t seem to like her very much.”

“It is that obvious?” Nessa picked a wildflower by the path and twirled it as they walked. “She is hard to get to know. She doesn’t let everyone in. She has my babcia wrapped around her little finger. Lidka even moved into my sister’s room when she came to stay with us. Can you imagine? A whole villa full of rooms and that is the one she chooses. Babcia said it was nice for the room to have life again. Bah. I was happy when she left. She was lazy, wouldn’t help with anything. She expected me to wait on her all the day long.”

Kate quirked a smile, imagining Nessa playing the part of maid when all she seemed to do was hand off chores to other people. “She had been in a work camp; I’ve heard about how terrible they were.”

Nessa rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I know. It was her excuse for everything. You would think after a year that she would have gotten over it.”

Kate was speechless.

“You think I sound cruel?” Nessa tossed the flower into the ditch. “I know she was traumatized. We have a nation of people who have been traumatized, but with Lidka, it is different. She is angry and she continually fuels her anger. Babcia thought she could save her, but then one day Lidka disappeared. We searched for her, but she took her things—and some of my sister’s belongings—and ran away. Not even a thank-you to Babcia and Dziadek. It devastated them. They could not fix her, and despite their kindness, she hurt them. I am not happy to see her come back. I know my babcia. She thinks this is another chance to save the girl.”

From far away, the stone building looked untouched from the years, but as they got closer, Kate saw the pieces of stone that had fallen away, the grass and the weeds that had attempted to reclaim the land to its wild state. They had to pick their way around various obstacles to get to the front door.

“During the war, we hid the Australian soldiers in here,” Nessa said as she stepped across the threshold. There was half a wooden door still hanging. “Babcia wanted to repair the door for them, but Dziadek thought it best to keep the castle looking as abandoned as possible.”

“Wasn’t that dangerous for you?”

“We started small, taking children from the city. Because of the farms, we had food, and there was less danger of bombs. We would hand out provisions to those who were passing through. Hiding a friend, then friends of friends, then strangers. I was the runner who warned them to head to the woods whenever an inspection came through. They got pretty fast at cleaning up their stuff and running.”

“And you never got caught?” The air cooled off immediately when Kate followed her through. The light was dim, coming mostly from the open-air windows, though farther inside they entered a room where the roof had caved in and birds had taken up residence. “This seems like an obvious place to hide.”

“True, but there is the saying of hiding in plain sight. It does seem obvious, and every time they looked, there was nothing to find. We had a few close calls, but I would sneak around the back way as the cars were driving to the villa. We could see the cars from far away so I had time to slip out. Dziadek let the road to the castle fall into disrepair, and we made it worse by digging big holes.”

“Hidden in plain sight,” Kate repeated.

“Kind of like you putting the Kopciuszek dresses in the department store window.”

Kate smiled. She couldn’t tell by Nessa’s tone whether she was giving a compliment or a dig.

“This part of the castle is the most run-down, and we let it stay as dirty and smelly as possible during the war. We let it be known wolves frequented it at night. Dziadek even found some animal bones to scatter in here to scare off soldiers who had options, those who didn’t need to hide with us. Babcia had it cleaned out since. I think she wanted to erase as many bad memories as possible.

“People were always watching each other. Babcia and my parents helped anyone who was in need. Neighbors, soldiers, partisans. There are several farms on our land. Many hiding places. And we were known for taking in children from other areas where the fighting was the worst.”

Kate couldn’t help but be impressed. Nessa’s whole family had risked their lives to help those in need. Kopciuszek would be proud of her descendants.

“The fresco I wanted to show you is in here,” Nessa said, pointing through a wide arch.

The painting was a ballroom scene showing ladies with billowing ball gowns of various soft colors. It was obviously old, with chunks fallen out and cracks splitting the image like shattered glass. Nessa walked up close to it, looking for something. “Ha, I was right. Now that I’ve seen the real thing. Look over here. It’s the Kopciuszek dress.”

The white and blue dress was left of center. It stood out from all the others, being the fanciest of all.

“I never paid much attention to this fresco before,” Nessa said. “I mean, I liked it well enough and I used to picnic in this room when I was little so I could imagine myself into the painting, but once I saw the real dress, it tickled something in my memory. It took a while for me to pin it to this image.”

“Do you think that girl is Kopciuszek?” Kate asked. She gently touched the figure, knowing that she probably shouldn’t even be doing that because of her finger oils. Close up it was hard to see any details of the painting. She stepped back to get a better look. The woman in the dress had her hair in an updo and a necklace around her neck, but Kate couldn’t tell if it was her necklace. She felt the amber to see if it warmed. It did not. “Did she ever live in this castle?”

Nessa joined her, tilting her head as she studied the image. “Don’t know for sure, but I doubt it. After they left Poland, I think they moved into Northern Italy first, and this land was a later purchase. I do think the fresco reflects what this room used to look like. Instead of a big set of mirrors to reflect the dancers, they had this scene.”

“Look at the shoes,” Kate said in dismay. They were faded such that the girl’s legs disappeared into the wall.

“No glass slippers,” Nessa said. “This might mean the shoes are truly gone. What if the painted shoes faded off the fresco when the real shoes disappeared?”

“Don’t say that.” The shoes weren’t lost, they were just being held by the wrong family. Kate wanted to mention the reason she needed to find the shoes so badly, but Nessa seemed pretty convinced Kate’s dad had been missing for too long to be found now. Her hope was so vulnerable she didn’t want to risk Nessa bruising it. Kate pressed on despite Princess Kolodenko’s wishes. “Do you know who Malwinka is?”

Nessa shook her head. “No. Should I?”

“Your grandmother doesn’t want me to talk to you about her. She’s from the other line of stepsisters. We’ve got Ludmilla and her sons on one side tracking down the dress, and Malwinka on the other, who I think has the shoes.”

“So they might not be lost. This is great news! All we need to do is find this Malwinka.” Nessa smiled.

“Yes, but your grandmother won’t talk about her.”

“Leave Babcia to me. You know, Kate, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of trying to find the shoes. You have your quest to find out about the necklace. That’s your family’s heirloom. I should try to find the shoes. I bet they’re linked somehow, anyway. Like how the necklace warms up when the dress is around. The dress could do something around the shoes.”

For the first time it felt like Nessa’s interests were the same as hers. They were learning to trust each other, despite their tension over the proper handling of the dresses. “Speaking of the amber necklace, why does Lidka have one, too?”

“What do you mean?” Nessa bit into her apple as they wound their way back out of the castle ruins.

“She has a necklace just like mine.”

“I didn’t notice. Isn’t yours one of a kind?”

“I thought it was, at least in its, um, special abilities.” They carefully picked their way over the tumbled stones near the entryway.

“I don’t know. We could ask her, but she’d only lie. I’ll talk to my mom before she leaves today. I can even ask her about—” Nessa stepped out of the castle and left her sentence hanging in midair.

Lidka was standing near the entrance, hands on hips and staring up at the tower.

“Oh, you startled me,” Nessa said. She narrowed her eyes. “How long have you been there?”

“Why? Were you talking about me? I came to get you because there is storm coming and Fyodora did not want you getting caught.” She cocked her head in Nessa’s direction.

Sensing a fight brewing, Kate intervened. “I was asking Nessa if she noticed your amber necklace. It’s quite pretty.”

Lidka pulled the necklace out from her collar. “Yes, it is, isn’t it?”

Nessa stiffened. “Where did you get it?”

“That boy, the same one who had the dog tags. He traded me for it before I left Italy. Cost me a lot, too. He is a shrewd one.”

The sun broke from behind a cloud and shone on the amber. The flecks of leaves or insects trapped inside the resin stood out in contrast to the rich honey color. Since that boy had had it, this could be the very necklace Dad had commissioned for Mom. Before speaking, Kate checked to see if her own necklace was hidden, and it was. “My dad was on a mission to have a necklace such as yours made while he was here. I never did learn if he succeeded.”

Lidka looked back and forth between Kate and Nessa. She held up her hands. “If you think this is rightfully yours, you may have it.” She felt around her neck for the clasp.

“No, Lidka. It’s fine. There is no way to know for sure where that boy got it.”

Nessa’s gaze bored into Kate as if trying to tell her to stop protesting and take it already.

Ignoring Nessa, Kate smiled. Lidka looked like she didn’t have many nice things. If she liked the necklace, she should keep it. Besides, it wasn’t a necklace they were looking for.