The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (26 page)

Jonah observed the change in Johanna with amazement and happiness. Not only did she seem less hostile, she was becoming more content in herself and was almost on the verge of developing a sense of humour and irony. Once again the Weissensteiner family see
med favoured by a lucky star which had delivered them to this safe place right next to their benefactor and new friend Johanna.

Jonah
’s main worry now was work. The Countess had assured him of her belief in him and his art but she had failed to secure the commissions she had so optimistically predicted and the remote location of his workshop had effectively cut him off from some of his suppliers. Just how strong were her connections? Could she grow tired and bored of him and drop him from one day to the next for a new and less controversial protégé?

Might
Lady Edith demand some personal favours of his daughter to whom she had taken such a fancy or was that thought just an absurd product of his over-active worrying mind?  He found it difficult to count his blessings every day and be grateful for the obviously rather pleasant circumstances he found himself in at present. Fear and even resentment against the people that had put him into this golden cage were rising within him and he had a hard time fighting them efficiently.

He could not understand why the Countess was wasting so much money on him and his family when she probably could have relocated him
to Palestine for much less to manufacture all his art work for her. Little did he know that this had been her original plan until she had learned of the sinking of the Struma, a boat full of Jewish refugees that had been blocked from the shores of Palestine by the British. The Romanian Captain had tried to disembark his passengers in Istanbul but the Turkish authorities had also turned them away and towed the vessel into open waters where it was sunk by a Russian torpedo. She had never had the heart to tell him about such incidents and so he remained under the impression that the Countess had not exhausted all of her options in order to have him near her, while in reality her options were limited and the gamble that she was taking with his life was, under the unpredictable circumstances, the best educated guess she could venture.

In April the Countess finally got hold of the promised weaving materials and life for the Weissensteiners could at last return to a state of normality.

Greta and Wilma had
completely reorganised and improved the entire library and all that remained was to compile an itemised index of the books, which was a task neither of them had ever looked forward to with any sort of enthusiasm. Going back to weaving was not only a welcome excuse to abort the dull exercise of classifying the book collection, it symbolised a break from the melancholic mood they had lived in during their library work over the past few months.  Resuming their craft was the beginning of a new chapter for both sisters and they were suddenly full of energy and optimism again.

From time to time Wilma
still experienced what Jonah had come to term as 'funny turns': short and usually completely unprovoked bouts of anxiety and hysteria. Alma seemed to handle these situations the best by holding Wilma’s hand or shoulders and sitting with her until the attack was over.

In the time the women spent working together
, Alma would talk about her life in Budapest before and after the Great War and they would speculate what would happen to the pieces of the former Empire when this current war finally came to an end. Alma believed that the Soviet Army was likely to get to Slovakia first and that there would be a big influence from the Bolsheviks but in the end that phase would fade not only here but also in Russia.

“I am not sure about that,” contradicted Greta. “The Bolsheviks have been in power for a very long time now and people say that all their important oppone
nts have been eliminated. A counter revolution is increasingly unlikely. Our government in exile has relocated to Moscow. They will follow right behind the Red Army all the way to Prague. In that I agree with you, but they won’t be much more than a puppet government for the Reds.”

“I am not sure that Stalin would bother with such a farce,” Alma guessed. “My guess is he will install his own
communist government right away. We have communists in the Resistance and allegedly there are a lot of army deserters fighting with the Red Army against our own troops and the Germans. He won't need the exile government.”

“I wonder what the Countess is going to do?” contemplated Wilma. “Will they confiscate all of her property or leave her some?”

“They will take it all,” Greta supposed. “It is too big a house for her, it will become a barracks or hospital or a party building. Everything for the people. Maybe they will allow us to stay, but I am not sure where they stand on the issue of art. It may be regarded as a bourgeois luxury that we manufacture here and we might be told to go back to producing practical goods instead.”

“Would you rather everything stayed the way it is now?” asked Wilma provocatively.

“I don't know,” Greta replied.

“Our situation really is quite bearable,” Alma contributed to the conversation. “You must agree w
ith that. The question is can we carry on like this? If there was a truce would the current government and the Hlinka Guard stop sending the Jews to Poland or Berlin? Will we be hiding here for ever? We can't do that. Something is going to happen and it will change the way we live.”

“Wouldn't you want to flee the country if the Bolsheviks take over?” Wilma asked her. “You could have stayed in Hungary if you had wante
d to live under communist rule.

“No
Wilma. I love it here, I am happy with your father, I cannot give that up. I don't want to run any more. The Reds are lesser enemies of the Jews than the Nazis. I would try my luck with them if they come here,” she replied.

“Whatever happens we will stick together,” Greta said.

Wilma nodded but as usual those type of discussions and speculations only made her more nervous and anxious.

Jonah had used his 'idle' time of waiting for the materials wisely and had improved upon the original designs for the new carpets drastic
ally. He had added beautiful details to the depicted scenes, had worked on the colour schemes and experimented with dyes to give the carpets a more intense and lively feel. The Countess was in awe and so were Esther and Edith. That man clearly was a genius if they ever had used that word for a weaver. Jonah had needed to keep himself busy to keep the reoccurring thoughts about Egon and his possible death at Stalingrad from his mind. They had heard nothing from the military or from his son. So many soldiers had been reported as missing since the battle had begun but if you believed Allied propaganda on the wireless that could mean not just death but also captivity or desertion.

Egon
’s fate could be many things. For all they knew he might well be one of the soldiers liberating Slovakia from Hitler. Anything was possible. The not knowing was the hard part. He had asked the Countess if she could try and find out any news about his son’s location for him and she had promised him to look into the matter but so far her enquiries had produced no results one way or the other. The Slovak army was not as organised as the families of fallen soldiers would have liked it to be and information was hard to come by in the prevailing chaos. Jonah frequently woke up in the middle of the night with a stabbing pain in his chest and he was convinced it was a sign that his Egon had been killed by a bayonet, but Alma told him that his imagination was getting the better of him. He admitted freely to that possibility but in his heart of hearts he was certain it was the connection from father to son that made him feel this pain and that his worst fears had already come true.

For the sake of peace and Wilma
’s sanity he kept these thoughts to himself and if he ever needed distraction from his gloomy mind he would take his grandson Ernst into the workshop and teach him the basics of weaving. Ernst proved surprisingly dexterous and capable for a five year old but he preferred it when his grandfather told him stories or read to him from a book. The two had a great relationship but Jonah was getting on in years and realised that his grandson really preferred the company of the younger adults.

When
production resumed at the workshop there was less time available for the adults to play with Ernst, who had grown accustomed to the increased attention. He now lived for the visits of the ladies Esther and Edith, who would take him almost daily for walks around the lake and read to him from brand new books they had delivered to the manor house especially for him.

Esther was his favourite new aunt, always full of spark
s and laughter and a complete natural with children it seemed. Strangely enough Esther confessed to Greta that she had always hated children. In Ernst, she had for the first time found a boy with such pleasant and unspoilt manners that she could just take him with her and never bring him back.

On hearing this
Jonah felt sorry for her and her unfortunate inclination that meant she would always be deprived of the pleasure of having children of her own. He wondered quietly if a desire to have children could ever be enough for her to change her mind about the whole Edith thing. Esther was much better looking and would find it easy to land a good catch – even in war times when men were becoming a minority outside the battlefields. Alma scolded him for thinking so low of their love, just because he did not understand it but when she was honest with herself she had to confess she did not understand that strange relationship either. She had never desired another woman and while she had to believe the two ladies when they assured her that they were really happy in their life together, she still secretly doubted that this could be true.

Wilma had told her father that the couple
’s money was all Edith’s and that Esther was completely dependent on her 'friend' to survive. Edith had been disinherited by her Viennese father when he opened a incriminating letter sent to her by a former lover. Edith found shelter with a more understanding, liberally minded and conveniently childless sister of her mother who took Edith under her wing and – after her death in 1928 - left her all her belongings. Since then Edith had toured Europe and searched for a place to settle down. In Paris she had met and fallen madly in love with the then cabaret artist Esther, daughter of a Spanish mother and a French father. Even though Esther could prove her gentile bloodline for many generations, she looked and often was treated as a Jew wherever she went. The two ladies in love faced a similar dilemma to that which Greta and Wilhelm had to battle when they were still married. Very few places in Europe were safe for them as a couple and no country outside the Axis powers would issue a visa for the Austrian-German Edith. The Germans in the Allied countries had been rounded up in concentration camps to prevent spy activities and that was a life definitely not suitable for two lesbians.

So they had decide
d to bet on the protection of the Countess and her idyllic country estate. The friendship between the lovers and the Countess was based on a shared appreciation of the classic and modern arts but had recently taken on a new dimension. Edith had ventured to make the odd remark and the occasional very polite suggestion on how to improve the way the Countess was running the Estate. Being a wealthy and childless widow with few obligations her Highness had been able to overlook wastage and inefficiency but with the arrival of war rationing and food shortages Edith and her talents were much needed indeed. Her efforts in that department relieved the Countess of the mundane worries she hated to waste her precious time on. It enabled her to focus harder on the increasingly complex tasks of diplomacy and public relations. Wining and dining army officials, party leaders and the local aristocracy were more important than ever and the Countess wanted to remain in everyone's good books. Edith in the meantime acted as the new estate manager with Esther being her right hand and advisor. The three of them combined the business of the material world with the pleasure of their trust and friendship.

Deprived
of a more prominent, glamorous and aristocratic social life like the one they had enjoyed in Paris and Vienna before the war, the ladies had to look for company in more secluded provincial circles and under less exciting circumstances.

Jonah
, with his gentleness and philosophical simplicity, appealed to them and ever since that New Year’s Day when they had shared a breakfast table with him they had deliberately sought him out for company. Even when there were visitors to the manor house they never neglected the Weissensteiner family and kept appearing regularly. Jonah was the one who would come up with the right proverbs, the one to disarm them with humour and charm when the sisters had disagreements with each other and he provided them with a father figure that both of them could accept without feeling patronised. His advice was always sound and his judgement always impartial. 

Since March the Countess had also given shelter to the Dutch painter Visser but the ladies were not really interested in him and when he came to visit Jonah at the same time they usually took their leave soon afterwards.

Visser’s arrival at the Estate had been very sudden. He had recently run into some serious trouble. First his name had appeared on a list of Jewish artists in the Netherlands and a warrant for his arrest had been issued. However, all of this had happened about two years ago and nothing serious had ever come of it. Only much more recently an artist from that very list had been captured in Belgium and had tried to bargain with his captors by offering to reveal the location of other Jewish or communist artists in hiding - in exchange for his escape. The Gestapo in Amsterdam agreed to the deal and after he had told them where he thought his fellow Jews were currently placed they started their hunt and shot the traitor anyway.