Fire and Steel, Volume 3 Read online

  “How did Adolf take that?” Emilee asked, reaching out and rubbing Hans’s back briefly.

  Hans stood up, removing his shirt and trousers. “He never said a word as everyone left. Just stared out at nothing, his face totally expressionless.” He pulled back the covers and lay down beside her. “I wasn’t sure what to do, but I waited there with him.”

  “Good. I’m glad you didn’t leave him.”

  “And finally he started talking. About what went wrong. About what we needed to do better. About reaching out to more people.”

  “So he’s not giving up?”

  “Oh, no. Not yet. But I think that was my last meeting.”

  Emilee’s head came up quickly. “Why?”

  “It’s a waste of time. It takes almost half an hour to get there. The meetings are supposed to last an hour and a half to two hours. By the time they’re over, trolley service is less frequent, so it will take longer for me to get home. I’ll be gone almost four hours, leaving you home with the baby. It isn’t worth it.”

  “You can’t give up after only one time. For Adolf’s sake. He’s counting on you.”

  Hans turned on his side to face her. “In just over a month from now, you go back to work at the hospital, and you know they’ll put you on an afternoon or night shift. So—”

  “I’ve already arranged to have a nanny for those days when I’m working. She’s agreed to stay later on nights you have to be gone.”

  “And you know how much I like that idea.”

  “So,” Emilee said slowly, “what if I had a solution to that dilemma?”

  “What?”

  She hesitated. She had actually been thinking about this for some time but only tonight had come up with the idea of how to broach the subject with him. “Hans? What if I don’t go back to the hospital?”

  She heard his sharp intake of breath and rushed on before he could object. “Let me tell you why before you say no. First of all, I believe in Adolf. Crazy as it sounds, when he talks, I believe him. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says, but I do believe that he does have the right vision about how to save our country. You need to give it some time. If it fizzles, then you quit.”

  “But—”

  “In the second place, I hate the idea of a nanny. I can’t bear the thought of someone else being the one to see Alisa’s first smile, hear her first words, help her take her first step. And that will happen, because the hospital will make me work six days a week since I will be new.”

  “I don’t like that any better than you do.”

  “Good, ’cause I don’t like it at all.” Emilee hurried on. “The shop is doing well. We’re even saving a little money after we pay for food and rent. And with the money our parents gave us for our wedding and the money Adolf got you from the army, we have no debt.” She took a quick breath. “And the nanny will cost us seventy-five marks a month, Hans. That’s almost a third of what I will earn.” She laughed softly. “Why don’t you pay me that much and I’ll tend your little girl even better than the nanny does? And I’ll do it for free on Wednesday nights.”

  Hans lay there silently. Emilee said nothing more, letting him work it out in his mind. Finally, he drew in a deep breath. “I don’t like it,” he said.

  “Why?” she cried, ready to do battle.

  “Because you get to spend all day with Lisa and I have to work. Why don’t you fix the trucks and I’ll be the nanny?”

  With a squeal of joy, Emilee threw her arms around him. “Really? Are you serious? I can stay home?”

  “Of course I’m serious. The real question is, if I’m to be the nanny and you the breadwinner, how long will it take you to learn how to be a truck mechanic?”

  November 25, 1919, 2:55 p.m.

  Emilee looked up as the back hall door opened and Hans came into the kitchen. “Hi!” she said in surprise. He was already out of his coveralls and was hanging them on the hook behind the door.

  “What are you doing?” He came over and stood beside her, but he was looking at Alisa, who was stretched out on the sofa beside Emilee, sound asleep. Emilee smiled when she saw the flicker of disappointment. “She’s fed and burped. I was just going to put her to bed.”

  “I’ll do it.” Hans bent down and carefully picked up the baby, cuddling her in both arms and crooning softly to her as he took her into the bedroom. When he came back out, he walked over and stood in front of Emilee. “She smiled at me this morning,” he said proudly.

  Emilee nodded solemnly. “It was probably just gas tickling her tummy.”

  Hans shook his head. “No. I can tell the difference. While you were taking a bath, I was holding her. She was looking all around and then finally she looked up at me. Her head stopped moving and she stared up at me for several seconds. It was like she was thinking, ‘So, are you my papa?’ And then she smiled at me.”

  “Yes, dear,” Emilee said. “I’m surprised she didn’t say hello.”

  “Go ahead. Laugh if you want. I know what I saw.” Then he sat down beside her.

  She gave him a puzzled look. “Are you through for the day?”

  “I finished that truck I’ve been working on for the last two days,” he explained. “I just got back from delivering it to the owner. And I have something I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Oh?”

  “Ja, several things, actually.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Well, first of all, I got a call from Fritzie Kharkov a couple of hours ago, while you were sleeping.”

  “Kharkov?” Emilee’s brow wrinkled for a moment, and then she remembered. “Oh, your old boss from the restaurant.”

  “Ja, ja. He got our number from the telephone exchange. He’d heard that I was in Munich now and has been trying to find me. He and Liliya and their family, along with Uncle Anatoly, are moving down here next week.”

  “Really? Were you expecting that?”

  “No, but it’s not a big surprise. He said that he finally got the insurance money for the restaurant. He got the police to write a letter saying that the cause of the fire was arson, so the insurance company agreed to split the difference with him. And it was more than he expected. So he’s down here looking to buy a new restaurant and start up again. He said that there is still so much unrest in Berlin that he wants to get his family out of there. I think what happened really frightened Liliya.”

  “She probably demanded that they leave. I would have if it were us.”

  “Yeah. He also has a cousin from Belarus who had to flee from the Red Communists a few months ago. He will become a third partner in the restaurant with them.”

  “Wonderful. Was he calling to offer you a job?”

  “I think so, but when I told him about the shop, he wasn’t too surprised. He knows I’m never going to be satisfied being a cook. But he gave me his telephone number. Said that you were to call him if I’m not treating you right. Says he’ll come and box my ears for you.”

  Emilee laughed. “He was more than a boss to you, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, we were good friends. And me and Uncle Anatoly, too. And,” he added, “here’s another thing. They have two trucks now, so he wants me to service them and repair them when needed.”

  “Wonderful,” Emilee said. “When they get moved down, let’s invite them for supper.”

  “Great idea. Liliya and you really hit it off too, I thought.”

  “We did. I like them both very much. Fritzie is like this gruff old bear who’s more of a pussycat than anything.”

  He laughed and then quickly grew more thoughtful. “So, do you plan to take a nap while Lisa is asleep?”

  “I was thinking about it, why?”

  “That wasn’t the only thing I wanted to talk with you about.”

  “Oh. I’m fine. Go ahead. You have my curiosity up.”

&n
bsp; He gave her a look of mock severity. “Are you going to fall asleep on me?” he asked.

  “Probably. You do have that effect on me.”

  Chuckling, Hans got up, retrieved a chair from the kitchen, set it down in front of her, and sat down and faced her.

  “My goodness,” Emilee said. “This looks serious.”

  He watched her for a moment and then said, “I’ve been thinking about something ever since Sunday. I really appreciate what you said about me joining the GWP with Adolf. I’m not sure I’m as positive about the future of the party as Adolf is, but it does intrigue me. And the more I’m around Adolf, the more I wonder if that passion of his isn’t going to take him places. He really is driven.”

  “I agree that Adolf’s aspirations for the group seem a touch too optimistic, but I do believe that it could help satisfy your desire to be doing something meaningful at this point in your life. So I’m glad you’re going to do it.”

  Hans reached out and touched her hand briefly. “And that means a lot to me, Emilee. And that’s why I’ve been thinking about what I could possibly do to repay you.”

  “Hey, you already did. I can’t tell you how relieved I am not to have to go back to work.”

  “That wasn’t just for you. I don’t like the idea of a stranger mothering my children, even on a part-time basis. So, anyway, I think I’ve come up with a way to express my love and gratitude to you.”

  “Go on.” Hans’s face was such an odd mixture of excitement and gravity that she was intrigued.

  “First, tell me again what Onkel Artur said when he called you yesterday afternoon.”

  “Well, he started by talking about the baby. He asked how she was, of course, and how I was doing. He was so delighted that you agreed that he would be Alisa’s godfather, just as he was mine. He said he was sending a present from him and Mama and the family. It should be here in a few days.”

  “That’s nice. But there was the bad news, too, right? About Ernst. Tell me that again.”

  This piqued her curiosity even more, but she did as he asked. “He said that because meat is so scarce and so expensive right now, Ernst’s butcher friend has had to cut back how much he works. He’s down to only one or two days a week. And sometimes not even that. He’s out looking for another job, but you know how that is right now.”

  Hans was nodding. “And then Artur said that even though your mother desperately wants to come down and see her first grandchild, her health is such that she can’t possibly make a thousand-­mile round-trip journey by train, especially in the winter and when conditions are so tenuous with the railroads, right?”

  Emilee cocked her head to one side. “This isn’t a case of your bad memory, Hans. I told you all of this yesterday. What’s going on?”

  “Humor me for a moment, okay? So that news really depressed your mother. To the point that your Onkel Artur is quite concerned about her.”

  “Of course he is. Mutti won’t come right out and say this, but Onkel Artur thinks she’s afraid that if she doesn’t come down, she may never get to see Alisa.”

  Hans’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa! You didn’t tell me that yesterday. What did Onkel Artur say to that?”

  “That’s what worries me. When I asked him if he thought she might be right, he refused to answer me.”

  That made up Hans’s mind. “Okay then. I may have a possible solution.”

  “No, Hans. I know you are willing to take me and the baby up there to see her, and I appreciate that. But in the first place, you can’t be gone that long from the shop. Even over Christmas. In the second place, the round-trip train tickets would be close to fifty marks.”

  “And,” he broke in, “in the third place, we’re not going take Lisa on a thousand-mile train trip in the winter.”

  “I know,” Emilee said forlornly. “So we’ll just have to wait until spring, I guess, and hope Mama is not that sick.”

  To Emilee’s surprise, her words brought a faint smile to Hans’s face. “Or,” he said nonchalantly, “maybe there’s another solution.”

  “What?”

  “Well, first off, you need to know that there’s more bad news.”

  She stiffened. “What! What else?”

  “This morning when Ernst went to work, his boss told him that he is shutting down his wholesale meat business.”

  One hand flew to Emilee’s mouth. “No!”

  “He’ll keep his little butcher shop in the village, but that’s all. Which means Ernst has no job at all as of this morning.”

  Emilee dropped her head into her hands, covering her face. “Oh, Mama!” she whispered. “What is that going to do to your heart?” Then suddenly her head jerked up. “Wait. How do you know that?”

  “Onkel Artur told me.”

  She gaped at him. “When?”

  “About an hour ago.”

  “What? I was awake by then. I didn’t hear the phone ring.”

  “After I returned the truck to its owner, I stopped at the telephone exchange.”

  “And you called him?” Emilee was incredulous.

  “Ja. I had something I wanted to ask him. Is that all right?” His smile broadened. “He was actually quite surprised too.”

  “But. . . . What did you ask him?” she finally managed.

  “Before I answer that, let me just say that though the news about Ernst surprised me, I actually think it could prove to be a good thing for him and for you.”

  “Have you lost your mind? He was the only source of income for our family besides Papa’s meager pension.”

  Hans scooted his chair closer to her and reached out and took both of her hands. “Okay, Emilee. This is what I want to talk to you about.”

  She jerked free of him. “No! Why are you smirking like that? Is this some kind of a joke?” she hissed. “If you’re teasing me, I am not amused. Not in any way.”

  “No, it’s not a joke. I called Artur to make a proposal to him. Actually, four proposals.”

  “You have my avid attention,” she said, still openly skeptical.

  “Good. But I have to ask you some questions first.”

  Emilee rolled her eyes but said nothing.

  “First question. Is Artur helping your family financially?”

  “I’m pretty sure he is. Mama refuses to say anything, but I think he gives her money from time to time. And I think it’s more than just a little when he does.”

  “That’s my guess too. Next question. When I first met you, you were renting your home there in Pasewalk, right?”

  “Yes, but after we sold Mama’s home in Königsberg, we used that money to purchase the home from the landlord. He had been trying to get us to buy it for some time.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Hans took a quick breath. “One last question. As you know, I am very happy with the shop downstairs except for one thing. It has only one bay, so I can have only one truck at a time inside. Like today. If I’d had another bay available, my next customer would have dropped his truck off this morning and I wouldn’t be up here talking to you right now. I’d be downstairs working on his truck.”

  “But—” Emilee was taken aback by this change of subject. “I understand all that,” she said slowly, “but we’ve talked about it. There is no way right now that we can move to a—”

  “I know,” he cut in. “Just like there’s no way we can go to Pasewalk and no way that your family can come down here. And that’s what I’ve been thinking about all morning. So hear me out, because I think I may have an answer to all four of our current problems.”

  She rocked back. “Four? We have four problems?”

  “Yes. And I have four proposals for solving them. That’s why I called Artur today. I wanted to lay it all out for him and—”

  “Stop!” Emilee threw up her hands. “What four problems? Other than the fac
t that you are very rapidly raising my anxiety level. What are you cooking up here? And why haven’t you said anything about all of this to me before?”

  “I am saying it right now, Emilee. That’s why I’m here. It all came together just this morning, and before I talked to you, I needed to see if this was just another one of my so-called pipe dreams. So if you can just hang on to that Prussian temper of yours for a few more minutes, I will explain.”

  Emilee felt her anger rising. Prussian temper? But she took a deep breath and finally nodded. “All right. But this had better be good.”

  “Oh, it’s much better than good,” Hans said almost gleefully. “And afterward, I will humbly accept whatever apologies you feel compelled to make.”

  “You’re pushing your luck, Herr Eckhardt,” she muttered. “Get on with it.”

  “All right. Before I called Artur this afternoon, I made another phone call. I called Fritzie back.”

  “No, Hans!” Emilee exploded, almost shooting out of her chair. “You’re not going to work a second job. We’re not that desperate yet.”

  He waggled a finger at her. “I know this is frustrating you, Schatzi, but let me finish, and then you can throw the kitchen sink at me if you have a mind to.”

  When she finally nodded and sat back, he went on. “Fritzie had told me that he hopes to open the restaurant in time for Christmas. They’re remodeling the interior now and making a small garden area with tables and chairs out front. Keep that in mind. Okay. Now to the four problems we’re facing.” He held up one hand and ticked his fingers off as he spoke. “Problem one, getting your mother and her first grandchild together.”

  Emilee immediately nodded. “Good. That is a major concern for me and Mutti. Thank you for seeing that.”

  “Problem two, helping Ernst find full-time employment.”

  “I. . . . Agreed. I’m not sure that’s our problem, but. . . .”