The House by the Lake (6 page)

There was a pause. The woman seemed to be deliberating.

“The lawyer’s name is Wil Jager,” she said. “He works at a firm called Lang Meisner in Berlin. I do not know if he will help you.”

Right then, Anna’s food arrived at her table. She was starving. As she turned to leave, she fought an urge to lean down and kiss the woman who had spoken on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate your help.” She wanted to ask more, but it seemed that the conversation was over.

The moment she sat down, Anna took out her phone and added the name of the firm and the lawyer to the list she had created for her trip. But her thoughts took on a life of their own.

It seemed brutally unfair to blame Max’s family—specifically him—for the ruination of Siegel. The Albrechts had been forced from their home. They had no choice but to leave. Anna hated to think of this bitterness—this unfairness—being directed at the man she loved most in the world. The only man she loved in the world.

She ate her dinner methodically. The meatballs were delicious, and in a fit of determination—not wanting the people at that other table to think they had bullied her away—she ordered a lemon mousse for dessert.

The next step was to talk to this lawyer. Maybe she could find a way to convince him to allow her to retrieve Max’s ring from the Schloss. And now she had another mission—to restore Max’s good name in the village. Although she hadn’t realized that was part of her plan, it now struck her as an essential reason for her being there.

Anna finished the last crumb of her dessert. She charged the bill to her room and stood up. She would call the lawyer’s office first thing in the morning and make an appointment to see him in Berlin.

CHAPTER FIVE

Anna phoned Berlin while holding her mobile phone to her ear and packing her suitcase with her free hand. She could have an appointment that afternoon. Wil Jager had a cancellation and this was most unusual. There might not be another opportunity to meet with him for weeks.

Anna had tossed and turned most of the night. Jet lag combined with irritation kept her awake, and she kept asking herself the same questions. What had happened to Max seventy years earlier? What had caused him to turn his back on his entire past, and why did the villagers blame him for the decay of their home? And then there was the love affair with Isabelle de Florian. What about it was the biggest regret of his life?

When Anna checked out of the hotel, the receptionist on duty was one of the waitresses who had been working in the restaurant the evening before.

The sound of her suitcase wheels scratching along the road was the only thing to break the silence in the village square. It was as if the place were speaking to her now—the connection she felt with it was indefinable, and yet strong. The church sat there, benevolent, overlooking the scene as it must have done for centuries. It was easy to imagine the villagers in the past, meeting there, chatting outside in the square. And her family, Anna’s family, would have been part of it all. They would have known everyone here, presumably, been part of a close-knit community. But Anna had never known about them, and when she added that to the fact that she had not had a proper family—not after her mother died when she was twelve, not after her father left, not unless she counted Max—it made his walking away from his past even harder to understand. But now he had made it clear that he had lost many things that mattered too.

She stopped at the edge of the square, just before she turned in the direction of the railway station. The rattle of her suitcase came to an abrupt stop, like the rattle of a train on a line that was at its end point. The sun shone over the old buildings, highlighting their signs of decay, their age, their beauty.

Someone had to revive them.

Several hours later, Anna walked out of her hotel in Berlin, which was located a few streets into the old East Berlin, directly behind the Brandenburg Gate. Elegant shops and restaurants lined the street outside the hotel. Their glass fronts and attractive window displays spoke of prosperity and success, and the freshly paved sidewalks were busy with shoppers, office workers, and tourists wielding cameras.

The old East Berlin had been obliterated, that was certain, but Anna could still sense its presence beneath the gleaming surface. Somehow, the past crept into her bones here just as it had done in Siegel. She walked farther into the old East and turned up a narrow street, passing two empty spaces that must have held buildings, once.

The lawyer’s firm was on a wider street nearby that was filled with handsomely renovated and gleaming new buildings. Anna stopped outside an ultramodern glass and stainless steel office.

The glass doors slid open for her and she stepped into a tall atrium. Immediately, she felt a sense of calm. The place radiated luxury and success.

She had rehearsed several possible opening lines in her head until she finally settled on one. It was anybody’s guess how the lawyer was going to react.

As Anna stepped out of the elevator onto the fourteenth floor, she was awed by the sparkling office foyer, a vast space with gleaming marble floors and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.

She took a deep breath and headed toward the well-groomed woman who sat at the sprawling reception desk. Once the receptionist had tapped Anna’s name into her computer, she nodded and asked Anna to sit in the waiting area.

“Would you like a coffee?” Another woman appeared at Anna’s shoulder.

“Oh, thank you,” Anna said. She hated to think how much this little visit was going to cost.

Ten minutes later, Anna was attempting to make sense of a German financial magazine when a male voice called her name. She looked up and put her magazine aside.

“Anna Young.” The man standing in front of her said her name pleasantly enough. “I’m Wil Jager.” He walked toward her and held out a hand, which Anna shook. The first thing that struck her was that his eyes were sea green. With his skin tone, she would have thought he would have brown eyes, so the green was both unexpected and very charming. Anna checked her thoughts. What on earth was she doing? She was not here to analyze German men, let alone one whom she needed to ask a singular question—one that he would no doubt find nonsensical.

Anna looked away. Had he known what she was thinking? He indicated for her to follow him. She was glad he knew how to speak English.

“You’ve come over from the US?” he asked.

“I just arrived in Germany yesterday and came from Siegel this morning.”

Wil Jager stopped at the entrance to one of the corridors behind the reception desk. He had his back to her, and he ran a hand over his jaw before turning. “Siegel?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Yes,” Anna said. “That’s what I came to talk to you about.” She had thought about how to approach this all morning. Seemed best to come straight out with it.

Wil started walking again. He went to the end of the airy hallway and held the last door on the right open for Anna. Anna was tempted to stop and admire the view from the large windows at the end of the corridor, but she did not want to appear too dazzled by Wil’s office. And she was very aware that she must not waste even a few seconds of his expensive legal time.

“Come in,” Wil said, but he sounded wary now.

Wil’s office was also framed with floor-to-ceiling glass. Several cranes hung suspended over the city, and there was a stunning view of the rebuild of the Royal Palace and the old Imperial part of the city. Anna forced herself to turn away and face Wil.

He was right behind her, and she almost bumped into him. “Sorry,” she said. “The view . . .”

“I know,” he said. He was watching her now, and a slight frown had appeared on his face. But then he shook it off and asked her to sit down.

“How can I help you?” he asked.

“This is going to sound a little odd.”

“Please go ahead.”

“Okay.” Anna shifted in her leather seat.

One side of Wil’s mouth curved up a little now. He seemed to have moved on from his previous surprise at the name Siegel.

Anna took this as encouragement. “My grandfather’s family used to own Schloss Siegel. His name is Max Albrecht.”

Wil leaned back in his seat. Those green eyes narrowed and the smile disappeared. “Really,” he said, his voice quiet.

Anna went on. “I understand that the new owners are clients of yours.”

There was a silence.

“Okay.” Anna cleared her throat. Why was this so hard? Why did everyone respond to this information with reticence? Best to just plow on. “The thing is, my grandfather asked me to come all the way here because he left something in the Schloss. In 1940, as it turns out. It’s been a long time, obviously.” This sounded utterly mad. “And he wants—needs—it back. Kind of soon.”

“Nineteen forty?”

“Yes.”

Wil raised a tawny brow.

“I was wondering if the owners might let me inside so that I can retrieve his property. It shouldn’t take long.”

Wil shook his head and almost chuckled. But then he looked serious again. “The owners would never let you inside. And I wouldn’t advise them to.”

Anna was prepared for this. “My grandfather is ninety-four. This means a lot to him. I was hoping you could help. He’s not asking to be given anything—the past is the past—but he has this one wish.”

Wil shook his head. “Are you telling me you’ve come all this way for this?”

Anna held his gaze. “Max wants his—item—back.”

“We’ve established that,” Wil said. “But I am one hundred percent certain that my client will not let you in. Sorry. I can’t help you.”

“Could someone accompany me into the Schloss while I get it?”

Wil chuckled.

This irritated Anna even more, but she waited for him to answer.

“It’s unsafe. The Schloss is abandoned. Empty.” He leaned forward now, clasped his hands on the desk. Looked straight at Anna as if he were ready for a debate.

“So how do I get this—thing—back for my grandfather then?” Anna kept her voice even.

“I can’t see how you possibly can.”

Anna held back the derisive laugh that was forming in her own throat. “Could you give me the owner’s name, please? I think I should contact them directly.” Maybe they would be more reasonable than their lawyer. She could only hope. They would surely understand that she didn’t want to interfere—she just wanted to give an old man his wish.

“I can’t give out clients’ names, Ms. Young.”

“It’s Anna. Are you the only lawyer handling this client’s interests?” Maybe there was someone more senior who could help. But Wil was a partner in the firm.

“I handle this client myself, Anna.” Wil looked at his watch.

“But the property inside the Schloss belonged to my grandfather. Surely you can’t just dismiss that out of hand.”

Wil still didn’t move. “It belonged to him once. Not now.”

“Oh, but if he left it there, doesn’t it still belong to . . . ,” Anna stopped. She did not want to show that she was rattled. That seemed important if there was any hope of his taking her request seriously.

There was almost a twinkle in Wil’s eye. “What was your grandfather thinking?”

“He’s never asked me to do anything before and . . . ,” She stopped. She did not want to reveal too much about Max. The man in front of her was an expert at drawing people out. He would want to know all the particulars, then write them down and keep them on file, in case her grandfather decided to write to him and push the matter further. She would have to be careful about what she said. She raised a hand to her head.

Anna did not want to deal with these complications—and she had not asked for them, that was true—but this was her beloved grandfather, and she was not going home without finishing her task.

Wil stood up. He held out a hand. “It’s impossible. Surely you knew that.”

Anna stood up too, but then her phone rang. Cass’s number flashed on the screen. She let the call go through to voice mail, but it was very early in San Francisco. Anna sometimes went into the café early to help with the baking, but Cass . . .

She pulled her thoughts together. “Couldn’t you at least call the owners and ask their permission? It is their property, after all—their decision. If they know it’s a family member wanting to go inside, surely they would see reason.”

The phone rang again. Anna looked at it for a second, her finger poised over the keypad.

“Someone wants you,” Wil said.

Anna shook her head.

“Feel free to answer it.”

“I’ll just be a moment.”

Anna took the call and went to stand by the window.

“Anna . . . ,” Cass said.

A couple of minutes later, Anna had collapsed in the chair opposite Wil Jager’s desk. She knew that the numbness that had formed around her body was a blanket of shock. Her mind swirled with questions. Max had always been so healthy—why did this have to happen while she was away? Then she felt annoyed—at both herself and Max. Why had he sent her away? Why had she fallen for her grandfather’s mad scheme without thinking about the implications of leaving him alone when he was so old?

Suddenly, Anna was fighting back tears. This was unbelievable. She hadn’t cried for years. In fact, she prided herself on being able to hold her emotions in check. What would this hard-nosed lawyer think? She brought a hand to her eyes, took a deep breath.

As soon as Cass had told her Max was in the hospital, Anna’s thoughts had run to a heart attack or a stroke. It had taken her several moments to take in that Max had fallen in his kitchen while preparing dinner. Anna always popped in to see him at that time of day. Why hadn’t she arranged for someone to take her place while she was away? Why had she thought that a ninety-four-year-old would be fine while she was out of the country? She had, of course, stocked his freezer and his pantry with enough food to last for a month and had organized fresh fruit and vegetable deliveries, but still. Wil Jager was right. She had been drawn into a crazy, hopeless scheme. And on top of that, Max was in real trouble and on his own.