Page 116 of Villa of Secrets

Fritz waited in Spartili Street while Naomi and Rebecca entered the cottage.

‘Where are the boys?’ Naomi asked. ‘They haven’t left you on your own?’

‘Don’t fret, child. They’ve gone to the café for an hour.’ She turned to Rebecca and then nervously glanced at the door.

Rebecca sat on the footstool by her grandmother’s chair and took her hand. ‘Bubba, Fritz is outside. He wants to speak to you, but if you’re not up to it, we’ll go straight to our rooms.’

Bubba dropped her head to one side and thought for a moment. ‘Send him in,’ she said, her eyes narrowing.

Rebecca stepped outside and Naomi followed her. ‘Be gentle, Fritz,’ Naomi said.

He nodded, pulled a shoebox out of his overnight bag, and entered the cottage. The top half of the front door swung open as he closed the bottom half. Naomi slipped her arm around her sister’s waist and they watched their grandmother.

‘Mrs Cohen, may I speak with you?’ Fritz said.

‘No need to be formal. You’re family now.’ Bubba’s words had such a venomous edge Naomi feared this would not end well.

‘Pandora?’

‘Bubba will do just fine.’

‘I read the first two diaries, and now I understand why you dislike me so much. I represent all the evil that came into your young life, don’t I?’

Bubba nodded.

‘It’s a miracle you survived, but it’s another miracle that I found your granddaughter and that she fell in love with me.’

‘Sit down. You’re making me uncomfortable looming over me like that,’ Bubba said flatly.

He sat on the footstool next to the chair. ‘I’m mortified to come from a country that, in the past, was shamefully cruel to so many people, and I’m sorry beyond words for what they took from you and what they did to millions of others. But it wasn’t me – and I can’t change history. Nevertheless, I’m asking you to accept me for who I am. I don’t want to come between you and the woman I love. Do you think you can you do that, Bubba?’

Silence hung in the cottage. Naomi watched, tightening her grip on Rebecca, hoping her grandmother could find it in her heart to let the past go. Time seemed to go on hold, the world and millions of Jewish souls waiting for Bubba’s reply.

Bubba reached out, her fingertips touching Fritz’s white-blond hair. She stared for a moment longer, her lips trembled, and her eyes glazed over.

‘Don’t take my papa,’ she whispered. ‘I’m begging you.’ Tears spilled onto her cheeks.

Naomi stepped into the cottage. ‘Don’t worry, she’ll come back in a moment. She turned to Bubba and patted her hand. ‘Come on, Bubba. You’re having a bad dream. Wake up, now.’

Naomi noticed Fritz’s shoulders slump and realised how tense he was. He turned to her and said, ‘There’s more. Will she be all right, or should I stop?’

‘Why shouldn’t I be all right, young man? Don’t talk about me as if I wasn’t here,’ Bubba said.

‘I’m sorry, Bubba, but I have an appalling secret,’ Fritz said turning back to her. ‘It concerns your past, and I don’t know if you are strong enough to hear it . . . or if I am strong enough to tell you.’

Bubba nodded and thrust her jaw forward. ‘I was right, wasn’t I?’

She recalled the oath she had made all those years ago. A frightened girl under a lorry watching her world being taken away from her and the man responsible, arrogant and satisfied with his work.

One day, Frick Hendrick Nüller, I will find your family and I will take them from you.

Fritz sighed deeply. ‘As a baby, I was adopted by the most wonderful Austrian family. I never knew my real parents or grandparents, and when the law changed and the “right to know” came about in Austria, I had no interest in finding out about my roots.

‘However, Rebecca was deeply upset when she left you ten years ago. I wanted to prove you were wrong about me and my family, so I tried to trace my birth-mother.’ He paused, and seemed to struggle with his thoughts. ‘I discovered she was German, unmarried when she had me, and that her father had disowned her. She died of lung cancer before I got the chance to meet her.’ He swallowed. ‘Her surname was Nüller.’

Bubba’s jaw thrust forward again and her hand flew over her mouth to stifle a whimper.

Rebecca clutched Naomi. ‘Oh, God!’ she whispered. ‘Bubba was right all along.’