The Fragile Hour (22 page)

Chapter
Twenty

Anna had been ten days at the shop before she wrote her first letter to Margot. She had waited until she could be sure that Greta had been informed personally through the Resistance of her friend’s arrest. It was impossible to give any details of it in a letter, for it could be opened by the German censor, a spot check being made on mail as on almost everything else.

It
made her guard her words and she made no mention of Christina’s help or of seeing the arrests. She wrote that when she had found the hotel shut by the German authorities, she’d had to look for other work immediately and was helping in a shop. Next morning she took the letter downstairs to take it later to the nearest postbox. She was dusting the display stands when Christina arrived. One look at the woman’s face was enough to tell her that something terrible had happened.

“
Is it Karl?” she burst out frantically, all her colour draining away.

Christina
shook her head quickly. “There’s no news of him yet.” She took Anna by the arms. “I have to tell you that your friends at the Alesund hotel, Greta and Margot Sande, have been arrested, as well as several of the local Resistance group there.”

Anna
uttered a desolate cry. “No!”

Christina
led Anna into her office. “Sit down in here. The two sewing-room women will be arriving at any minute and you don’t want them to see you in this shocked state.”

Anna
sank down into a chair. “How did it happen? And why?” she stammered.

Christina
perched her weight on the edge of her desk. “I don’t know that either,” she said sympathetically. “I’m afraid it looks as if the somebody must have talked under Gestapo pressure.”

“
Don’t you mean torture?” Anna said bitterly.

“
Yes, I do,” Christina admitted. “It must have been bad, because Andreas told me the hotelier was the last man ever expected to give way, no matter what was done to him.”

Anna
groaned despairingly. “Aren’t those Nazis ever going to halt their barbarism!”

“
No, they’re not,” Christina answered wearily on a sigh. Getting up, she patted Anna on the shoulder as she went past to answer the outside bell and admit her two employees. After giving Anna some time to recover in private, Christina returned to find her on her feet and tearing up a letter that had been put ready to post.

“
I hope the Resistance won’t be distrustful of me after what has happened,” Anna said in a drained voice.

“
But you’ve had nothing to do with it. They know how you saved Magnus. Surely that’s proof enough of your integrity.”

Anna
’s eyes were dark blue depths of unhappiness. “But we know that sometimes an infiltrator is allowed to get away with something by the Germans to give false assurance to the Resistance. Perhaps that is what the Oslo group are thinking about me already.”

“
Why on earth should they be suspicious in your case? There’s no reason.”

“
But doesn’t it strike you as odd that hotel arrests should take place after I’ve left Alesund and then again just before I arrive at the next one? It’s as if I were being protected from involvement!”

“
It was chance and nothing more. Stop tormenting yourself! You’ve received dreadful news about your friends and you’re still in shock. Later you’ll think more logically. Take the day off. Go for a walk or rest for a while. Anything you like. After all, you’re only here to have cover against German questioning, and you’re a free agent, able to come and go as you like. I’m not even paying you a wage.”

“
Neither are you charging me rent. That makes us even.” The tinkling of the shop-bell just then announced the arrival of a customer. “I’ll go, Christina.”

Anna
left the office and Christina heard her greet the new arrival. There was a slight quiver to her voice, but a complete stranger would not notice it.

The
days went by, warm and full of sunshine for many hours every day and remaining light at night. Anna concentrated on her shop work and it was quite a busy time. Women brought in winter coats that showed signs of wear and these were turned whenever possible, making them look new. Wider pads in the shoulders in military style followed fashion, which seemed to pass along an invisible grapevine even in wartime, taking no heed of international barriers. Anna often thought to herself that the style was about the same as that followed by women in Britain before she left and probably anywhere else where it was possible.

Sometimes
a woman brought in one of her husband’s suits to be made into a jacket and skirt for herself, the more elegant resulting from dinner wear or tails. Anna was reminded of Scarlet O’Hara many times when curtains were turned into skirts and blouses. Once a blue and white checked tablecloth made a smart summer jacket.

Anna
never went down Karl Johan Gate if she could avoid it, not wanting to risk being seen by her aunt from a window, and she kept a sharp lookout wherever she was in the city. Rosa had always been one for getting out and about, meeting friends, taking walks in the park and sipping coffee at one of the outdoor cafés. There was no reason to suppose that even a war would have changed the pattern of her ways, even though her enjoyment of shopping would have been curtailed by circumstances.

Yet
it was in Karl Johan Gate when Anna had been making an important delivery on Christina’s behalf, unable to reach the address by any other route, when a woman’s voice called out shrilly to her. It was just after she had passed her aunt’s home without looking in its direction.

“
Fröken Marlow! Stop!”

In
horror at being addressed by her own name within earshot of everybody going by, a German or two among them, she spun round in alarm to see her aunt’s house-keeper running breathlessly towards her.

Anna
reacted swiftly. “Frida!” she exclaimed with pleasure, throwing her arms around the woman. “How good to see you! I’m just back in town.”

Frida
thrust herself away. “Don’t try to softsoap me! Why haven’t you called on Fru Johansen? She’s very upset!” Her voice was high-pitched in her outrage, the bright spots of colour in her cheeks as much from anger as from the exertion of hurrying.

“
Just give me a chance to explain.” Anna was aware that several people were glancing curiously in their direction. “I’ve wanted to visit her.”

“
You’ve chosen a very strange way to show it,” Frida snapped back angrily. “Never a look or wave whenever you went by.”

“
Please keep your voice down,” Anna implored in a whisper. “Do you want the whole street to hear what you’re saying? I’m here in Oslo secretly. Surely you can understand why?”

“
I understand all right.” Frida wagged her head knowingly from side to side. “You didn’t want your aunt to find out that you couldn’t stay away from that young man.”

Incredulously
Anna grasped what might be forthcoming, but they could not stand talking. “Come along, Frida. We must keep on the move or else some German will shove us on. We’ll go as far as the National Theatre and then we’ll go our separate ways. I’ll take your arm.” She took it before there could be any argument about it, but Frida hung back.

“
You’re going in the wrong direction away from the apartment. Aren’t you coming back there with me?”

“
I can’t. We have to talk about it. Now tell me which young man you mean.”

“
Don’t pretend that you don’t know,” Frida declared, allowing herself to walk on and subduing her tones, although she was no less angry. “Nils, of course. He was the only one you ever had eyes for! He knew how your aunt opposed a marriage between you, and so he persuaded you to return to Norway without her knowledge. After all, you’d lost your father — my sincere condolences there, of course — and there was nobody to stop you doing anything you wanted. Although Great Britain was already at war, you must have come back to Norway on a neutral country’s ship just before the invasion.”

“
You really have been putting two and two together, haven’t you?”

“
That’s not all. I know it’s Nils, who’s keeping you away from your aunt. He’s told you not to visit her and you’ve taken notice of him, which has hurt her deeply. I know your move to Oslo must be recent, or else Fru Johansen or myself would have spotted you long ago. Your aunt said that one day you were even wearing the
kofte
I knitted you. Sooner or later, I’d have picked that out in any crowd.”

“
So I’ve been found out,” Anna said with apparent guilelessness, taking advantage of Frida’s assumption as to why she had returned to Norway.

“
I’ll remind you that your aunt is no fool and neither am I.” This time Frida nodded in a self-congratulatory manner. “How you thought you could get away with it, I don’t know. Where is the young man? Are you meeting him somewhere?” She looked about sharply as they walked along, like a hen ready to peck an enemy.

“
No, I’m not.”

“
It’s just as well. I’d have given him a piece of my mind. I remember him as a boy, always ordering the other children about and they obeyed like sheep. You were one of them. Then every time he walked into your aunt’s country house, even when he was young, and later when he came to the Oslo apartment, he always made himself at home as if he owned the place, airing his political views that your aunt opposed, and knowing better than anybody else.”

“
Frida! Stop it! You’re being spiteful and vindictive! All because you and Rosa had somebody else in mind for me. I liked him, but I’d always loved Nils.”

“
So you’re still doting on him! Then I’ll say no more, except to ask you straight out if you’re going to continue to slight your aunt, or are you coming back with me?” They had reached the National Theatre and slowed their pace to a standstill.

“
I can’t see her yet. You’d do her and me the greatest favour possible if you’d forget you have seen me. Let my aunt think she was mistaken and you followed a stranger who looked a little like me. I’ll not use this street again, whatever the circumstances, and arrange to leave Oslo as quickly as possible.”

“
I’ll do no such thing!” Frida expostulated angrily. “What’s happened to you, Anna? Has Nils changed you so much?”

“
I’m just the same. He’s got nothing to do with my staying away.”

“
You always did defend him. I’m not telling your aunt anything but the truth.”

Anna
knew from past experience that Frida never made idle threats. “Then I’ll ask you to give her a message. Tell her I can’t visit her in the foreseeable future, but one day I’ll explain everything. Say also that I still love her as I always did. Will you do that?”

“
No, I won’t. If she draws her own conclusions that you no longer care what happens to her, that’s up to you.”

“
Why should anything happen to her?” Anna demanded anxiously. “Isn’t she well?”

“
She’s not as you remember her and rarely goes out these days. The doctor comes to see her now and again. Then there’s the danger of arrest too. When the Jewish family in the top apartment feared imminent transportation, they entrusted her with their valuables, some of religious significance. She has it all hidden in the apartment under the heavy bookcase. In the meantime we get enemy house-searches from time to time and if those possessions were discovered the Nazis would know the origin immediately. Surely you want to call on your aunt while you still have the chance? You wouldn’t want to add to her misery in some dreadful camp by letting her believe that she no longer matters to you?”

“
Stop it! This is emotional blackmail, Frida!”

“
So now will you come and see her?”

Anna
gave a reluctant nod. “I’ll come.”

There
was a triumphant bounce in Frida’s walk as they retraced their steps. She had missed Anna almost as much as her employer, and it would breathe new life into the home to have the girl around once again. At her side Anna was full of misgivings, uncertain of how her aunt would receive her. There had never been anything but harmony between them, but it sounded from Frida as if Rosa were deeply and irrevocably hurt. It was understandable in the light of the misinterpretation both women had put upon her staying away.

As
the lift ascended to the floor of her aunt’s apartment, Anna began to dread the meeting, for she could give no explanation to clear the air between them.

“
We’re here,” Frida said when the lift stopped, as if hinting that Anna had probably forgotten everything in her supposed infatuation with Nils.

They
entered the apartment and Frida went into the kitchen, letting Anna go alone into the drawing-room where her aunt awaited her. Rosa was standing with her back to the windows, making it difficult to see her expression, but she came forward at once and threw out her arms in welcome before Anna could speak.