Andrew Taylor – The Second Midnight (страница 19)

She spoke calmly, as if the events they were discussing were remote from them both. Hugh wondered if she had heard him. He tried again.

‘Dr Spiegel was killed today.’

‘So? We shall all die soon. I think the Gestapo will come tonight.’

Hugh frowned. ‘How do you know?’

‘The riots. The Germans will use them to justify a purge. They always do. Many people will disappear in the next few days. Communist intellectuals will be among the first.’

‘Can’t you escape?’

Madame Hase shrugged. ‘Where? How? The Provisional Committee might have helped – you remember Jan and Bela? But they turned against me when your father did not keep his promises. They think I’m a traitor. No one wants me.’

To Hugh’s embarrassment she began to cry. She wept with abandon, making no attempt to control or conceal her tears. Hugh sidled nearer the stove.

Eventually the sobbing died away. She looked up at Hugh, her lips still trembling.

‘I could have been a heroine, you know. But no one would let me. I made my housekeeper go – she was Jewish. My mother was half-Jewish. Oh, my God, my God—’

‘Madame Hase,’ Hugh said abruptly. ‘May I stay here?’

She emerged from the private world of her fear. ‘If you want. It does not matter to me. But the Gestapo will find you when they come tonight.’

Madame Hase was wrong: the Gestapo did not come.

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