The Ring (30 page)

Thank you, Mr. Liebman. You make me glad that I'm here.

You should be. He smiled tenderly at her, touched by the kiss. This is a great country, Ariana. It was the first time he had called her that, but now he felt he could. You'll find out what it's like here. It's a new world, a new life for you, you'll meet new people, new friends. But her eyes only looked sadder as she listened. She didn't want new people, she wanted the old ones, and they were gone for good. But as though seeing the pain that had returned to her eyes then, Sam Liebman touched her hand. Ruth and I are your friends now, Ariana. That's why I came here to see you. And then, as she understood what he was saying, that he had come to see her, there in the hospital, in that hideous ward, that he had come there because he cared about her, her eyes filled slowly with tears. But behind the tears there was a smile.

Thank you, Mr. Liebman.

As he watched her, he had to fight back tears, too. He stood up slowly, still holding the small hand, and then he squeezed it for a moment. I have to go now, Ariana. But Ruth will be back to see you tomorrow. And I will see you soon, too. Like a child being deserted, she nodded, trying to smile, and desperately fighting the tears that threatened to get out of control. And then unable to hold himself back any further, Samuel Liebman took her into his arms. He held her that way, bearlike, for almost half an hour, as Ariana gave way to uncontrollable sobs. At last, when she stopped, he handed her his handkerchief and she blew her nose long and hard.

I'm so sorry ' I didn't mean to ' it was just that '

Sshh ' stop it. He stroked her head gently. You needn't explain, Ariana. I understand. . As he looked down at the elflike golden girl, bowing her head into his handkerchief on the big bed, he asked himself how she had survived it. She looked too frail to have survived even one rugged moment, yet he sensed also that beyond the delicately carved features, the thin frame, the little, graceful figure, there was a woman who could have survived almost anything, and still would. Something tough and invincible had allowed her to survive it, and as Sam Liebman looked at the girl who had just become his third daughter, he thanked God that she had

The preparations for Ariana's arrival were undertaken with a mixture of rejoicing and awe. Sam had returned to the house after he had met her and all but ordered Ruth to get the child out of that ward by the next day. As long as the doctors felt that she was not ill in any way that endangered his children, he wanted Ariana brought to the house on Fifth Avenue, as quickly as could be arranged. The girls were called to his den after dinner and it was explained to them that Ariana was about to join them, that she was German, had lost her entire family, and that they would have to be gentle with her for a while.

Like their parents, Julia and Debbie were compassionate. They, too, were overcome with the shock of what the news brought daily about Germany. They, too, wanted to lend their support. The next morning they pleaded with Ruth to let them come along on her visit to the hospital. But in this the elder Liebmans held their position firmly. It would be time enough for the girls to meet Ariana at home. And as worn-out as Ariana had been since the disastrous sea voyage, Ruth was afraid that their visits would be too much. In fact, at the doctor's suggestion, she was planning to keep Ariana in bed at home for the first week. After that, if she felt stronger, they could take her out with them for lunch, or dinner, or even a movie or two. But first, it was obvious that she was going to have to build up her strength.

Ruth appeared at the hospital and announced to Ariana that she and her husband wanted her to move into their home, not for the six months she had first told Sam, but for as long as Ariana needed a family. Ariana stared at her in total amazement, sure that her English had momentarily led her astray and she hadn't properly understood.

I'm sorry? She had looked at Ruth inquiringly. It was impossible that she had heard what she thought she'd heard. But Ruth had taken both of Ariana's small hands into her larger ones and sat down on the bed in the ward with a smile.

Mr. Liebman and I would like you to come and live with us, Ariana. For as long as you'd like. After he had seen her, it was Sam who had dropped the stipulation of six months to a year.

At your home? But why would this woman do that? Ariana already had a sponsor, and this woman had already taken so much time just to be with Ariana. She looked at her benefactress now with nothing less than awe.

Yes, at our home, with our daughters, Deborah and Julia, and in a few weeks our son will be coming home, too. Paul has been in the Pacific, but he recently took some shell fragments around his kneecap, and soon he will be well enough to travel. She didn't tell her about Simon. There was really no point. She simply rambled on happily, telling Ariana about the children, giving the girl time to sort out her own thoughts.

Mrs. Liebman ' Ariana stared at her. I don't know what to say. For a moment she lapsed into German, but Ruth Liebman's knowledge of Yiddish somewhat helped her out.

You don't have to say anything, Ariana. And then suddenly the older women smiled. But if you do, you should try to say it in English, otherwise the girls won't understand.

Did I speak German again? I'm sorry. Ariana blushed and then for the first time in weeks she looked at Ruth Liebman and laughed. Are you really taking me home with you? She looked at her friend in total astonishment, and the two women exchanged a long smile as Ruth nodded and held tightly to the young girl's hands. But why will you do this? For what reason? It's so much trouble for you and your husband. And then suddenly she remembered Max Thomas during the two days he'd stayed with them. He had felt just as she did now ' but that had been different. Max had been an old friend. And her father hadn't offered to house him forever. But as she thought of it, she knew that her father would have. Perhaps this was the same kind of thing.

Ruth was looking at her seriously now. Ariana, we want to do this. Because we're sorry about all that has happened.

Ariana looked at her sadly. But it's not your fault, Mrs. Liebman. It was just ' ' the war' . Ariana seemed so helpless for a moment, and Ruth Liebman put an arm around her shoulders, running a hand over the soft golden hair that hung down her back.

We've felt the teeth of the war, the unfairness, the horror, the anguish, even here. As she said it, she thought of Simon, who had died for his country, but truly for what? But we have never known what you experienced in Europe. Maybe in some way, if we can, we could make up one tiny bit of what happened to you, just so that you can forget for a moment, just so that you get a fresh start. , And then she gazed at the girl gently. Ariana, you're still so very young.

But Ariana shook her head slowly in answer. Not anymore.

Several hours later Sam Liebman's chauffeur-driven Daimler drove Ariana sedately to the Fifth Avenue house. Across the street Central Park beckoned with lush trees and bright flowers, and clipping slowly along the park's paths, Ariana could see hansom cabs and young couples in each other's arms. It was a beautiful spring morning at the end of May. And this was Ariana's first glimpse of New York. She looked like a small child as she sat there, tucked in between Samuel and Ruth.

Sam had left his office to go to the hospital, and he himself had carried Ariana's one pathetic little cardboard suitcase to the car. In it she had once more packed her few treasures, and from it she had planned to pull out whatever she had to wear home when the Liebman's picked her up. But Ruth had stopped briefly at Best & Co. that morning, and the box she proudly handed to Ariana yielded a pretty pale blue summer dress, almost the color of Ariana's eyes, with a tiny gathered waist and a huge softly flowing full skirt. Dressed in it, Ariana looked more than ever like a fairy princess, and Ruth stood back to look at her with a warm smile. She had also brought her white gloves, a sweater, and a pretty little natural straw cloche hat that tilted to one side and showed off Ariana's face. And miraculously, the pumps she had bought fit Ariana's tiny feet. When they emerged from the hospital, she looked like a different girl, and sitting in Sam Liebman's handsome maroon car, looking at her first glimpse of the city, she looked more like a tourist than a refugee.

For an instant Ariana found herself wondering if it could be a game of let's pretend ' if she closed her eyes just for a minute, would it feel as though she were back in Berlin, on her way to the house in Grunewald ' but as in testing a too fresh wound, she found that touching it still brought back waves of unwanted pain. It was easier to keep her eyes open, look around her, and drink it all in. Now and then Sam and Ruth smiled at each other over her head. They were happy with the decision they had made. Fifteen minutes after they had left the hospital, the Daimler drew to a halt and the chauffeur got out and held the door. He was a distinguished-looking, careworn black man in a black uniform, a black cap, white shirt, and bow tie.

He touched his cap as Sam alighted and then offered Ruth his arm. She declined it with a warm glance, looking back over her shoulder at Ariana, and then she gently helped her out herself. Ariana had not yet retrieved all her forces, and despite the pretty hat and dress, she was still looking very pale.

Are you all right, Ariana?

Yes, thank you, I'm fine. But Ruth and Sam watched her with caution. While she had been dressing, she had felt so faint that she had had to sit down, and it was lucky Ruth had been there to help. But it was something else about her that Sam was watching, her finesse, her poise, the calm with which she had moved the moment she got into the car. It was as though she had finally entered a world in which she was entirely at home, and he found himself wanting to ask questions. This was not just a well-brought-up, nicely educated girl; this was a young woman of the uppermost echelons, a diamond of the first water, which made it an even greater tragedy that now she had nothing at all. But she had them now, he consoled himself, as she stood next to Ruth for a moment, looking out at the park with wonder and a long, slow smile. She had been thinking of the Grunewaldsee and the trees and boats. But that might as well have been on another planet as she stood there, feeling far, far from home.

Ready to go home now? Ariana nodded and Ruth led her slowly inside, to the main hall, which rose for two floors above them, draped in rich, gem-colored velvets and filled with antiques they had acquired on trips to Europe before the war. There were medieval paintings, statues of horses, long Persian runners, a small marble fountain, and a grand piano visible in the conservatory at the end of the hall. And in the center of the entrance a stairway that spiraled skyward, on which stood two wide-eyed, gangling, dark-haired girls.

In silence they stared at Ariana, then their mother, then back at Ariana again, waiting for some silent signal, and then suddenly, not seeming to care about what was expected, they tore down the staircase and threw their arms around Ariana, shouting, giggling, jumping up and down, and dancing with glee.

Welcome, Ariana! Welcome home! It was a harmony of shrieking that brought fresh tears to Ruth Liebman's eyes. Gone the solemn moment among the elders the girls had even obscured Ariana's bittersweet moment and turned it into the celebration that it was. They had a cake waiting, and balloons and streamers, and Debbie had cut a huge bouquet of fresh roses from the bushes in the garden. Julia had baked the cake, and together they had gone out that morning and bought Ariana all the things that they felt a young lady of Ariana's advanced years out to require; three deep pink lipsticks, several powders and two huge pink puffs, a jar of rouge, several hair ornaments and tortoiseshell hairpins, and even a funny blue hairnet that Debbie insisted was going to be the rage by the fall. They had gift wrapped each and every item and piled them high on the dressing table of the guest room Ruth had set aside for Ariana the night before.

When Ariana saw the room, she was moved to fresh tears. In some ways it reminded her of her mother's long-closed rooms in Grunewald. This, too, was a paradise of silks and satins done in a spun-candy pink, but this room was even prettier, the bed was larger, and everything was fresh and perfect and cheerful, just as one would have expected a room in America to be. The bed was covered by a huge white organdy canopy, the bedspread a lovely pink and white satin quilt. There were a desk all intricately covered with trompe l'oeil designs and flowers, a huge antique armoire for her clothes, a white marble fireplace topped by a handsome gilt mirror, and an abundance of small, elegantly upholstered chairs covered in pink satin, where the girls could come and sit with Ariana, chatting until the wee hours. Beyond the bedroom was a small dressing room, and beyond that a pink marble bath. And everywhere Ariana looked there were pink roses, and on a table set for five was Julia's cake.

Unable to find the words to thank them, Ariana simply hugged them and continued alternately to laugh and cry. Then she hugged Sam and Ruth again. What miracle was this that now she should wind up in such a home? It was as though she had come full circle, from the house in Grunewald, to the tiny cell where Von Rheinhardt had left her, to the women's barracks, and then to the safety of Manfred's house, and after that out into the world to nothing, and now back into the luxurious comfort of a world she knew, a world she had grown up in, a world of servants and large cars and pink marble bathrooms, like the one she stared at now in disbelief. But the face she glimpsed briefly in the mirror was no longer the face of the young girl she had known. This was a gaunt and tired stranger, someone who did not really belong in this house. Now she belonged nowhere, to no one, and if they wanted to be kind to her for a while, she would let them and be grateful, but she would never count on a world of pink marble bathrooms again.

In solemn celebration, they sat down to eat Julia's elaborately decorated cake. She had written Ariana in pink rose petals in the frosting, and Ariana smiled as she tried to fight the desperate nausea she never seemed able to escape now as they cut her a slice of the cake. She found that she was barely able to eat it, and although the girls were lovely, she was grateful when at last Ruth shooed them out. Sam had to get back to the office, the girls had to visit their grandmother for lunch, and Ruth wanted Ariana to go to bed now. It was time they left her alone to rest She laid out the robe and one of the four nightgowns she had bought for her that morning at Best's, and once again, Ariana stared at the gifts in amazement. White lace and satin ' pink lace ' blue satin ' it was all so wonderfully familiar, and yet now it all seemed so remarkable and so new.