The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (33 page)

“I am sure you understand that we would have been ill advised to dress up nicely for the journey,
officer,” replied Alma. “We don't want to be robbed of the little that we have left. I am a seamstress and I have been able to save a few of the valuable dresses from my shop.”

Jonah was proud of his 'wife' and her clever answer, which would explain the beautiful and fancy costumes in the suitcases.

At this moment there was a sudden shouting from a different part of the queue. One of the officers had opened a trunk and found a man hiding in it. The soldier called for reinforcements and so the old border patrol turned away from Jonah and their luggage, grabbed his gun and limped over to deal with his colleague’s find.

“Just go!” hissed
the young officer to Jonah. “If you really are Jews you are going in the wrong direction, trust me. Anyway, good luck! Hurry!” and he waived them on past the barricade.

“Well that was a bit of your famous Weissensteiner luck!” exclaimed Alma.

“Don't jinx it! Anyway, from now on we will have to call it the Finsterwalder luck. Look in your passport, wife. The old soldier would have had us if they had not found the man in the trunk over there. What luck is it that relies on someone else's misfortune! God help him.”

“The papers must be very good if he could not see anything wrong with them. We have to thank her Highness for that,” said Alma.

“We do indeed,” agreed Jonah.

“How lucky
was it that Wilma was not even asked one question? That has been my biggest worry,” Alma confessed. “I always knew that you and I would get through but I thought that it would be difficult with Wilma. You know what the Germans are meant to be doing with mentally ill people? If they had made her talk there wouldn't have been much hope for her.”

The two carriages met soon after. The Countess had spoken to other refugees on the road and had found out that the Americans were believed to be well a
dvanced in the west. She wanted to avoid the Russians at all cost and decided not to risk their luck by going too far north. She suggested changing direction to a southwesterly route where the front line should be. As expected Jonah refused to come all the way to France and insisted on staying in the vicinity so he could return to Bratislava at the earliest opportunity.

“This is where our ways part,” he said decisively.

“I knew you were going to do this,” said the Countess disappointedly. “My dear Jonah, it is no use. I will not watch you getting yourself killed. This is why I told that farmer woman Johanna to tell your son that you would come to Paris with us. “

“You did
what?” asked Jonah in disbelief.

“You heard me. I told her you were coming with us. You have to join us now. Egon will not be staying in Bratislava once he has spoken to Johanna but he will set out and try and find you in Paris. He has my address
there, he will know where to go and who to look for. All is taken care of,” she said triumphantly.

“Your Highness, what on earth have you
done!” Jonah shouted. “Forgive me but that was a foolish thing to do. Just how do you think he will be able to find us? You don't know if your apartment in Paris is still yours! The building might have been bombed, your contacts could be dead or living in America
by now. It was always going to be difficult for the two of us to find you but for him who has never spoken to you and has not even met the ladies, it will be impossible. Now I could not come with you if I wanted to. I have to go back and tell Johanna. The only way to make sure I meet my son is by staying here.”

“You ignorant
, ungrateful putz!” Edith cried out before the Countess could answer. “You can't abandon everyone here for your son. Are we nothing to you? Do you not realise that we all need you to protect us? A group is always safer if there is a man with them, even if it is an old and stubborn one like you. What about your own girls? Do you want to endanger your daughters' lives as well?”

“Nothing of the
sort,” Jonah said, not rising to the bait.  “If I could do both I would. Believe me! But I can only be in one place at any given time. Judging from your glorious performance by the border you ladies will be fine by yourself. Remember how easy that was for you. If anything I am going to be a hindrance and a burden to you when it comes to contact with officials, as we just have seen for ourselves. As for robbers: I am not strong enough to deter anyone, we know that.  Alma and I are going to walk from here to Brno, so you can keep the vehicles. We have talked about this on our journey and have decided on it. We will wait until the war is over and things have settled. I have friends where I can hide if necessary. Greta can steer one cart, Edith the other. I am so very grateful for everything you three have done for us. Please don’t think I am abandoning you! It is just that my conscience forbids me any other course of action. I sincerely hope we will reunite after the war. Goodbye my ladies.”

“Are you going to let your father leave you just like that?” Esther asked Greta, hoping that family pressure might change Jonah's mind.

“Of course,” Greta replied calmly. “If you knew him as well as I do you would realise that there is nothing in the world that will stop him from going through with his plan. We are safe so now he can try and save Egon.”

Jonah hugged his
daughters goodbye. Wilma reacted with surprising calm, undoubtedly due to her medication. He kissed his grandson, wished them luck and without any further ado he took his one suitcase and hand in hand with Alma he walked north in the direction of Brno, not once looking back at the friends and family he just had left behind so as not to lose his strength and resolve.

The shock and sadness over the sudden separation fortunately passed quickly amongst the remaining members of the party. It had not come as a huge surprise and after a while a fresh sense of direction emerged.

“Fine!” said the Countess eventually. “We better get going then.”

Without saying anything Greta got on the
telega with her son Ernst and waited for the ladies and the Countess to get into the fiacre cabin. The two carts headed west to reach Bavaria via the Austrian roads north of Vienna. They saw more Germans and Austrians fleeing from the south and from the east. The positions of the Americans and the Soviets given to them by those refugees joining the convoy were vague, unclear and often contradicted each other. After lengthy consideration and weighing up of the likeliness of each new story they had heard, the Countess and Edith decided to head for Budweis in the north, abandoning the original plans to travel towards Linz and Passau in the south, which in their calculations of which tales could be trusted, was deemed to be still too close to the advance of the Red Army. 

Wilma luckily w
as doing rather well. Being in the open air and travelling with her sister and her nephew on the telega made for a welcome change from the stuffy sunless existence in the basement and she was too dazed and confused to fully grasp the nature of their journey.

Esther occasionally joined the remaining Weissensteiners on the cart and they would all sing together
and play road games with Ernst. Greta was amazed at just how much strength she found in herself to cheer her sister on and to ban all the worries and grief she was feeling about her father from her mind. She could not afford to let her sadness get the better of her and so she carried on as if this trip was really just a long awaited holiday for everyone.

The delay at the border and their change of direction forced them to spend the night by the side of the road
.
Edith and Esther stayed awake during this first night of their journey to protect the group.

Despite being exhausted from the travelling
nobody really slept very well. The blankets were not thick enough for the cold temperatures and there was too much noise on the road. Everyone was slightly worried about thieves or a surprise visit from a control unit of the Gestapo. Someone had lit a fire not far from the road and was roasting some strange smelling meat. Several refugees decided to camp where the fire was.

People exchanged stories about the houses
and the wealth they had left behind, about the family members they had lost in the war or who were still fighting for the Fatherland somewhere in the world, about their hunger and about their unbroken spirit to defeat the communists and those arrogant Americans. Edith and Esther heard the talk but tried to keep out of it. It was easy to fool a soldier at the border but to keep up your assumed identity amongst regular folks and Nazi supporters over a period of time was much more difficult.

Talking to these tra
vellers was risky. They were likely to know villages and towns in the east and might ask them for the names, professions and addresses of alleged relatives. It could be tricky not to give away the lack of substance to their new assumed life stories. Better to keep quiet and not attract attention.

During the next day Edith and Esther took turns to ca
tch up with their sleep on the telega and the Countess had to learn fast how to steer a cart herself. Luckily she was good with horses and soon got the hang of it. The roads were packed with refugees most of whom acted subdued.

During
the second night they repeated the same routine. Edith and Esther stayed awake again as the carts were pulled off the road for a rest. Greta had offered to take one shift of the vigil but Edith was the only one who could effectively fire the gun and Esther insisted on staying with her lover.

Greta was also needed during the day to keep Wilma and Ernst
company.

The group had taken shelter
by the ruins of an abandoned farm building close to the road. It was surprising that nobody else had spotted it and taken up residence there. The Countess took this as a sign that they had to be close to a city and she was tempted to continue on their journey a little longer to see if they could reach Budweis. Edith however welcomed the solitude. Not having to mingle with the fleeing Germans had the advantage of not having to lie.

The people on the roads were all too concerned with their own misfortune to really listen to each other's life stories but Edith felt one could do without the risk. Halfway through the day
, the road had split and a surprisingly large number of people took a turn towards the south. When the Countess questioned some of them as to why they were heading towards an advancing Russian army many replied they were returning to places in Austria where their ancestors had come from, whereas others did not want to be trapped in Czech territory under any circumstances.

The next day they arrived in Budweis and found shelter on a farm that was run by a mother and her four daughters. Rooms were available for a small sum and the Countess paid for three of those, so that the entire group could get a good rest. There was also hay for the horses. The women thought it would be wise to give the poor animals a
day to recover. During their stay at the shelter fellow travellers told them that the Red Army had begun a siege of Vienna. Enemy troops were now likely to be moving towards Prague from both the east and from the south.

Edith and the Countess decid
ed to head further towards the west as quickly as possible, hoping to reach Pilsen, a city south west of Prague and close to Bavaria, as their next stop. The entire group was delighted with the progress Wilma was making. They had run out of serum for her injections on the day they had arrived in Budweis and had not many of the tablets left either and so were forced to split the night time tablets, administering one half during the day and one half during the night. Edith had used their day of rest in Budweis to investigate the possibilities of buying more but had to return without success. The hospital was crowded with wounded soldiers from the front and Edith felt she could not risk trying to bribe anyone. Wilma however seemed stable. Too dazed to interact with the other travellers but looking content.

Esther stayed in her room the entire day finally catching up with her sleep. The nights on the r
oad had taken their toll and now that she was sleeping in a real bed nothing and nobody could wake her.

Ernst was as well behaved and
as easy to handle as he ever was. Greta kept practising with him the new names they had assumed by way of their new passports.

“What is your name?”

“Edwin Finsterwalder.”

“What is my name?”

“Margarethe Finsterwalder!”

“What is the name of your aunt?”

“Wilhelmina Finsterwalder!”

“And my name?”

“Margarethe Finsterwalder.”

“And your grandfather's name?”

“Joseph Finsterwalder!”

“And his wife is?”

“Anna Finsterwalder.”

Ernst loved this 'game' and repeatedly asked to play i
t again. The Countess had complimented Greta on his behaviour and said it was a credit to her loving and careful upbringing that the boy had not caused any problems on their journey at all. He had been very patient and fitted in amazingly, nothing compared to some of the crying and screaming toddlers and children that they had witnessed on the road.

The Countess had become the most worried of their travelling party, especially since they had learnt about the siege of Vienna, where she also used to have a house. Travelling under these chaotic circumstances was differe
nt from what she had expected and she was beginning to lose her confidence, realising that her money and position no longer were any protection. Her bravery and fearlessness had been the product of complete naivety.