The Serpent's Egg (16 page)

Adam slapped him on the back. “That’s normal.”

#

Libertas hugged Anna like a long lost sister when they met. She had offered her house to Anna and her witness, Ebba, as their base of operations. Anna
asked her hostess if she could borrow some foundation cream.

Libertas laughed. “I can do better than that, child. Come with me.” She took Anna and Ebba to her private rooms and sat Anna down at an actor’s makeup station. Anna had never seen so many different creams, eyeliners, and lipsticks. There were unlabeled jars of mysterious creams whose purpose she could only guess at. Libertas opened a few and showed her how to use them.

When all three women were content with Anna’s makeup, Ebba helped Anna to put her wedding dress on.

“Isn’t that what you wore to the embassy ball?” said Libertas, rather tactlessly, Anna thought.

“Yes, I’ve adjusted it slightly. Do you like it?”

“I love it,” said Libertas.

While she waited for Adam to arrive, Anna showed Ebba her wedding presents: a cuckoo clock from Ebba, a complete set of bed linen from her own parents, an antique vase from Libertas, the latest model electric kettle from the Kuckhoffs, and a set of pots and pans from Frau Noack.

#

Adam picked up Max from his apartment and drove him in his battered green Horch to the Schulze-Boysen’s house. The house was no more than a stone’s throw from the registry office. Anna’s witness, Ebba, was wearing a blue dress with a heart-shaped neckline. Anna was wearing bright red lipstick and rather more make-up than Max was used to. She looked stunning, dressed in a long, fine wool dress in cream, decorated with gold thread and lace that looked vaguely familiar. She wore matching gold sandals.

Anna introduced Ebba to Adam. Adam shook her hand warmly, flashing his charming smile.

From there, Adam drove them the short distance to the city registry office. The office was busy. Hordes of people stood around in the corridors and outside on Schönstedtstrasss with anxious looks on their faces, waiting their turn to get married.

Anna threw her arms in the air. “My God, Max. Look at the crowds. We’re going to be here for hours.”

Max was secretly pleased. Perhaps a registrar under pressure wouldn’t scrutinize a Gestapo signature too closely. “We have an appointment for eleven o’clock. I don’t expect they’ll delay us too long.”

“It’s already past eleven!”

By 11:30 the crowd had thinned slightly. A clerk called their names and they hurried into the registrar’s office.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” said the registrar. “You have your Authorization?”

Max handed over the document and the registrar glanced at it.

“These are your witnesses? What are your names?”

Adam and Ebba gave their names, and the registrar took them through the ceremony at the speed of lightning. Once they had exchanged rings, everyone signed the register, the next couple and their witnesses hurrying in as they left.

“What just happened?” said Anna.

Max laughed. “I think we got married.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.

Adam put a hand on Max’s shoulder and pulled them apart. “You can do that later, you two. Give me the rings.” Anna and Max slipped the rings off their fingers and handed them to Adam. They would be needed again in the church. “Now get in the car.” 

Chapter 45

March 1939

Adam drove to the Schulze-Boysen mansion where he dropped Anna off and picked up Max’s mother. Then he drove Max and his mother to the church. Libertas and Harro had made their sleek Daimler-Benz saloon car available for the bride and her father.

Max was pleased to see his mother there, looking herself again, not happy, exactly, but he could tell her melancholia had lifted. She wore an outlandish outfit in canary yellow that she must have bought for the occasion.

On the stroke of noon, Max and Adam took their places side by side at the top of the aisle. A warm breeze wafted through the open door of the church. Max couldn’t have felt any worse if he’d been waiting to face a firing squad. Getting through the civil ceremony had been a minor miracle, but he had a premonition that his luck had run out and a disaster was about to befall him. A bead of sweat ran down his back.

Adam said, “Take it easy, Max. I’m sure she’ll be here in a minute or two.” He gripped Max’s arm. “Are you all right? You look a bit queasy.”

Max waved a hand. He was having difficulty breathing.

“Sit down for a minute. Catch your breath.”

Max sat on the pew. He wiped his brow.

Adam babbled on. “It’s just nerves. I was the same when I married my first wife. I was a bit calmer the second time around, and Greta was a breeze. Mind you, Greta was four months pregnant at the time. Take a few deep breaths. You’ll be fine.”

Sitting directly behind Adam, Max’s mother touched him on the shoulder. “Did I hear you say you’re divorced?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

Sitting beside her with Ule squirming on her knee, Greta smiled. “I’m Adam’s third wife, Frau Noack.”

Frau Noack tutted. “Divorced people cannot be witnesses in a Christian marriage. You’ll have to find someone else, Max.”

Adam hurried into the vestry. “The bridegroom’s mother says a witness can’t be divorced. Is that true?”

Vigo was half dressed in his priestly garments. “Yes, that’s true. Who is Max’s witness?”

“I am.”

“You’ll have to find him someone else.”

Adam went back to his place. “It’s true. I can’t be your witness.” He looked around the church. “The only other males here are the photographer and the usher. You could ask one of them. Or you could wait and ask Harro. I’ll have a word with him when he gets here.”

On the bride’s side of the church sat Anna’s mother corralled amongst a murmuring gaggle of Anna’s workmates, wearing bright colors and strange hats. Amongst the guests, red seemed to be the predominant color. Greta wore a red floral dress and red hat, two of Anna’s workmates wore red, Adam Kuckhoff and the bridegroom wore matching red ties. The exceptions were the bride’s mother, who wore beige, Ebba in blue, and Max’s mother in her bright yellow suit and matching hat.

Near the door at the back of the church, the photographer fiddled with his camera. Then the smooth purr of the Schulze-Boysens’ car signaled the arrival of the bride. A murmur ran through the assembled guests. The organist, who had been playing something unrecognizable, launched into the wedding march with gusto. Father Vigo emerged from the vestry carrying a book. Max snuck a glance over his shoulder and saw Anna walking down the aisle on her father’s arm. Everyone stood up. The photographer took a few pictures as the bride and her escort strode down the aisle, followed by Ebba.

Max’s knees turned to rubber. Adam grabbed his arm and held him up.

Libertas and Harro slipped into the church and joined the congregation on Max’s side in the pew behind Greta. Adam went back to explain the situation and hand over the rings to Harro. Looking very smart in his Luftwaffe uniform, Harro joined Max in the first pew.

The bride and her father arrived at the altar. She was wearing the same dress, but had added a white veil . She knelt on the kneeler to the left. Max knelt beside her. She smiled at him through the veil. He did his best to smile back.

The organ music died away, the usher closed the church doors, and Vigo began the ceremony. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God to witness the joining together…”

Max tuned out, praying silently that nothing would go wrong, that Vigo would hurry and complete the ceremony.

“…If anyone here knows any reason why these two people may not marry, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”

Vigo paused. Max held his breath. No one spoke. Max exhaled. And Vigo continued. “Please stand.”

Max and Anna stood.

“Do you, Max-Christian Noack, take this woman, Anna Weber…”

They repeated the words of the wedding vows. They exchanged rings. Vigo smiled and raised his voice. “I now pronounce—”

The doors at the back of the church flew open with a loud crash. Four men in jackboots and gray uniforms charged down the aisle.

One of them shouted, “There he is.”

Vigo held up a hand like King Canute trying to turn back the tide. “This is the house of God.”

The Gestapo men charged toward Max. Max braced himself, but they pushed him aside and seized Harro Schulze-Boysen. Libertas shouted and beat the nearest man with her fists. The young women on the bride’s side of the church all screamed. Anna’s witness fainted. Anna went to her aid.

The Gestapo hauled Harro down the aisle and out to a waiting Kübelwagen while Libertas screeched like a banshee caught in a bear tap. Max grabbed Vigo’s arm. “For God’s sake, man, finish the ceremony.”

Part 3

Chapter 46

March 1939

“I now pronounce you man and wife,” said Vigo.

Anna tossed her bouquet over her head. No one caught it. Then the couple and Ebba rushed into the vestry to sign the church register. Anna wondered fleetingly if it mattered that they had only one witness signature. Then she remembered that they had two signatures on the official register in the registry office in Schönstedtstrasss. They were definitely married.

When they emerged from the church, the photographer took a few pictures. He seemed as shocked as everyone else. Anna thought all her wedding photographs would probably be blurred. While Adam and Anna’s mother did their best to console Libertas, Max’s mother gravitated toward Anna’s father, who took her arm.

Anna clung to Max. “Your mother looks pale, and I don’t like that distant look in her eyes.”

Max said, “Don’t worry about Mother. That yellow outfit she’s wearing makes her look paler that usual, and her eyes always look like that.”

Adam asked Libertas if they should make alternative arrangements for the reception. Libertas was furious. She insisted that the reception would go ahead as planned. Everything was ready. She wasn’t going to let the Gestapo ruin the young people’s wedding day.

The Schulze-Boysen’s car was unavailable. The key was in Harro’s pocket. Libertas took the front passenger seat in Adam’s car. Max, Anna and Greta all squashed together like sardines in the back with Ule on Greta’s knee.

Adam started the car. He checked his back seat passengers before moving off. “Everyone all right back there?”

Libertas replied, a snarl in her deep voice, “They’re fine, Adam. Just get us home as quickly as you can.”

Ule formed an instant attachment to Anna, crawling onto her knee from Greta’s. Anna held onto the infant to stop him from falling off. “What happened? Why did the police arrest Max’s witness?”

Libertas whispered, “
That witness
was Harro, my husband.”

“I’ll explain later,” said Max.

The maid was waiting for them at the front door, her eyes red from crying. Libertas swept past her into the house before the girl could say anything.

Anna and Max heard Libertas’s howl before they reached the door. They stepped inside.

The mansion had been ransacked. Everything that could be moved had been thrown on the floor in every room. Only three books remained on the bookshelves that covered three of the four walls in the study. The rest were piled high in a mountain on the carpet. White boot marks littered the carpets in the hall and on the staircase. Following them back to their source, Anna came to the kitchen where the floor looked like a giant cake in the making with ingredients tossed in a heap and stamped into the ground by heavy boots.

Max called Anna to the front parlor. The food for their reception lay scattered on the floor. Something stirred in Anna’s stomach. She righted one of the chairs and sat down.

Max hunkered down beside her. “Anna? Are you all right? Should I fetch a glass of water?”

“Go outside and send the guests away. I don’t want them to see this.”

“What should I tell them?”

“I don’t know. Think of something. Tell them the reception has been called off.”

“What about Ebba?”

“All of them. Just send them all home.”

More howls from Libertas in the upstairs rooms.

Adam climbed the stairs after Libertas. Greta took one quick look around and went into the garden with Ule.

Anna found the maid, Pauletta. “Who did this?”

The maid whimpered. “Three men in gray uniforms. They had a piece of paper. They said it gave them the right to search the house.”

Anna was distracted by the thought that just three men could cause so much mess in – what – an hour? Through the front window she saw Max standing at the gate. When the wedding guests arrived in two taxis, he gave them her message. Ebba took some persuading, but both taxis drove away. Anna’s parents arrived in their car and hurried into the mansion. Anna rushed into her father’s arms.

“I warned you,” said Anna’s mother. “Didn’t I warn you not to marry him?”

Anna left her parents in disgust and went looking for Max.

Libertas came back down the stairs accompanied by Adam Kuckhoff.

Greta stood by the front door keeping a firm grip on her wriggling, whining offspring. “I’d like to get home as soon as we can, Adam. I can’t let Ule loose in the house. He’d spread the mess around even further.”

Libertas waved an arm at Adam. “Greta’s right. You need to get home.”

Adam nodded. “I’ll drop in to Arvid’s house and warn him. We should ring the Communists and Dr. Himpel.” He picked up the telephone on the hallstand.

“Leave that to me, Adam. That telephone is not safe.” Libertas looked distracted. “I’m going to need help cleaning up all this mess.”