Chapter 49 Damm U
The scent came from there.
"The woman had a cup of wine waiting when I returned, and a bowl of broth. I sat down, Claudia on my knee, her head turned away from the fire towards that mysterious door. All eyes were fixed on us as before, except for the foreigner. I could see his profile now clearly. He was much younger than I'd thought, his haggard appearance stemming from emotion. He had a lean but very pleasant face actually, his light, freckled skin making him seem like a boy. His wide, blue eyes were fixed on the fire as though he were talking to it, and his eyelashes and eyebrows were golden in the light, which gave him a very innocent, open expression. But he was miserable, disturbed, drunk. Suddenly he turned to me, and I saw he'd been crying. \`Do you speak English?' he said, his voice booming in the silence.
" \`Yes, I do,' I said to him. And he glanced at the others, triumphantly. They stared at him stonily.
" \`You speak English!' he cried, his lips stretching into a bitter smile, his eyes moving around the ceiling and then fixing on mine. \`Get out of this country,' he said. \`Get out of it now. Tales your carriage, your horses, drive them till they drop, but get out of it!' Then his shoulders convulsed as if he were sick. He put his hand to his mouth. The woman who stood against the wall now, her arms folded over her soiled apron, said calmly in German, \`At dawn you can go. At dawn.'
" \`But what is it?' I whispered to her; and then I looked to him. He was watching me, his eyes glassy and red. No one spoke. A log fell heavily in the fire.
" \`Won't you tell me?' I asked the Englishman gently. He stood up. For a moment I thought he was going to fall. He loomed over me, a much taller man than myself, his head pitching forward, then backward, before he righted himself and put his hands on the edge of the table. His black coat was stained with wine, and so was his shirt cuff.
\`You want to see?' he gasped as he peered into my eyes. \`Do you want to see for yourself?' There was a soft, pathetic tone to his voice as he spoke these words.
" 'Leave the child!' said the woman abruptly, with a quick, imperious gesture.
" \`She's sleeping,' I said. And, rising, I followed the Englishman to the door at the foot of the stairs.
"There was a slight commotion as those nearest the door moved away from it. And we entered a small parlor together.
"Only one candle burned on the sideboard, and the first thing I saw was a row of delicately painted plates on a shelf. There were curtains on the small ,window, and a gleaming picture of the Virgin Mary and Christ child on the wall. But the walls and chairs barely enclosed a great oak table, and on that table lay the body of a young woman, her white hands folded on her breast, her auburn hair mussed and tucked about her thin, white throat and under her shoulders. Her pretty face was already hard with death. Amber rosary beads gleamed around her wrist and down the side of her dark wool skirt. And beside her lay a very pretty red felt hat with a wide, soft brim and a 'veil, and a pair of dark gloves. It was all laid there as if she would very soon
rise and put these things on. And the Englishman patted the hat carefully now as he drew close to her. He was on the verge of breaking down altogether. He'd drawn a large handkerchief out of his coat, and he had put it to his face. \`Do you know what they want to do with her?' he whispered as he looked at me. \`Do you have any idea?' "The woman came in behind us and reached for his arm, but he roughly shook her off.
\`Do you know?' he demanded of me with his eyes fierce. \`Savages!' " \`You stop now! she said under her breath.
"He clenched his teeth and shook his head, so that a shock of his red hair loosened in his eyes. \`You get away from me,' he said to the woman in German. \`Get away from me.' Someone was whispering in the other room. The Englishman looked again at the young woman, and his eyes filled with tears. \`So innocent,' he said softly; and then he glanced at the ceiling and, making a fist with his right hand, he gasped,
\`Damn you . .