The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) (65 page)

Only late at night as he lay there shoehorned into a makeshift bed in the room he now shared with Bo, longing for Karine’s sensual, naked body beside him, did he reflect that nothing was
ever completely perfect.

As a balmy August drew to a close, there were serious conversations to be had amongst the Halvorsen household about the future. The first was between Pip and Karine, late one
night on the terrace after everyone else had retired. Karine had at last received a letter from her parents, who had decided to stay in America until the storm clouds of war had rumbled past.
Karine’s parents advised her not to travel back to Germany for the new term. Equally, they thought it unnecessary for their daughter to make the long and expensive journey to America right
away, given she was safely tucked away in Norway for the present. ‘They send their love and thanks to your parents,’ Karine said, folding the letter back into its envelope. ‘Do
you think Horst and Astrid will mind if I stay on longer?’

‘Not at all. I think my father is a little in love with you. Or at least, with your oboe playing,’ Pip said with a smile.

‘But if I am to stay on here, we cannot continue to impose on your parents’ hospitality. And I miss you,
chérie
,’ Karine whispered as she snuggled into him and
delicately nipped his ear with her teeth. Her lips searched for his and they kissed, before Pip broke away as a door opened upstairs.

‘We are under my parents’ roof, and you must understand that—’

‘Of course I understand,
chérie
. But perhaps we could find our own place together here. I long to be with you . . .’ Karine reached for his hand and put it to her
breast.

‘And I with you, my love,’ Pip said, gently manoeuvring his hand away lest anyone caught them unawares. ‘But even though my parents can accept many things that others in Norway
would not, any suggestion of sharing the same bed whilst we are unmarried – whether under their roof or ours – would not be acceptable. And disrespectful of all they have done for
us.’

‘I know, but what can we do? This is agony for me.’ Karine rolled her eyes. ‘You know how I need that part of our relationship.’

‘As do I.’ Pip sometimes felt as though he was the female and she the male with regard to their physical union. ‘But unless you are prepared to convert from your faith in order
to marry me, then this is the way it is in Norway.’

‘I must become a Christian?’

‘More accurately, you would have to become a Lutheran.’

‘
Mon Dieu!
That is a high price to pay for making love. In America, I am sure there are no such rules.’

‘Maybe, but we’re not in America, Karine. We live in a small town in Norway. And however much I love you, to blatantly live with you under the noses of my parents is something I just
could not do. Do you see?’

‘Yes, I do, I do, but to convert . . . well, it would be a betrayal of my people. Yet my mother was a gentile before she converted to marry my father, so genetically, I am only
half-Jewish. I must ask my parents for their opinion. They have left the telephone number at my father’s gallery for emergencies and I feel that this is one. And if they agree, can we marry
soon?’

‘I’m not completely sure of the rules, Karine, but I think the pastor would need to see your baptism papers.’

‘As you know, I have none. Can you get it done here?’

‘You would do that? Be baptised a Lutheran?’

‘A few drops of water and a cross on my forehead does not make me a Christian in my heart, Pip.’

‘No, but . . .’ Pip felt she was rather missing the point. ‘Apart from us being able to make love, are you sure you wish to marry me?’

‘Forgive me, Pip,’ Karine said, smiling. ‘My need to answer the practical side of things has overruled the romantic part of our conversation. Of
course
I wish to marry
you! So I will do what is necessary to make it happen.’

‘You would really convert for me?’ Pip was overwhelmed and touched. He knew only too well what her heritage meant to her.

‘If my parents agree, then yes.
Chérie
, I must be sensible. And I am sure any god – whether yours or mine – will forgive me, given the circumstances.’

‘Even if I’m beginning to think you only want me for my body,’ Pip teased her.

‘Probably,’ she agreed equably. ‘I will ask your father tomorrow if I may make a call to America.’

Pip watched as Karine left the room and thought how she constantly blindsided him with her mercurial temperament and quixotic train of thought. He wondered if he would ever truly understand her
complexity. At least if they were able to marry, he’d never find himself bored in the future.

Karine’s parents returned their daughter’s call the following evening.

‘They have agreed,’ she said sombrely. ‘And not just so that I can marry you. They feel I would be safer taking your surname, just in case . . .’

‘Then I am very happy, my love,’ he said, sweeping Karine into his arms and putting his lips to hers.

‘So.’ Karine pulled away from him eventually, the expression in her eyes lighter. ‘How soon can it be arranged?’

‘As soon as you meet the pastor and he agrees to baptise you.’

‘Tomorrow?’ she said as her hand travelled towards his groin.

‘Be serious,’ he chastised her, groaning at her touch then reluctantly removing her hand. ‘Are you happy to stay here in Norway for now?’

‘There are worse places to make a life, and for the present, we must take one day at a time until we know what will happen. You know I love it here, apart from your horrible language, of
course.’

‘Then I must try to find immediate work as a musician to support us. Either in the orchestra here, or perhaps in Oslo?’

‘Perhaps I too can find work.’

‘Maybe you can, when you have at least learnt more than the words for “please” and “thank you” in our “horrible” language,’ he teased her.

‘Okay, okay! I am trying.’

‘Yes.’ Pip kissed her on the nose. ‘I know you are.’

Astrid cooked a celebration dinner for the six of them when Pip and Karine announced that they wished to marry.

‘Will you and Karine settle here in Bergen?’ she asked.

‘For now, yes. If you can help us find musical employment, Far,’ said Pip.

‘I can certainly make enquiries,’ replied Horst, at which point Astrid stood up and clasped her future daughter-in-law in her arms.

‘Now, that is enough about practicalities. This is a special evening. Congratulations,
kjære
, and I welcome you to the Halvorsen family. I am especially happy as I believed
that we would lose Pip and his talents to Europe or America. And you have brought our son home.’

Pip translated his mother’s words and saw tears in her eyes, and in those of his wife-to-be.

‘Congratulations,’ Bo said suddenly, toasting them. ‘Elle and I hope to follow your lead soon.’

Astrid, who knew the pastor of the local church well, went to talk to him. Whatever she said to him of Karine’s Jewish heritage, she kept to herself, but the pastor
agreed to baptise her immediately. The Halvorsen household attended the short service, and later back at the house, Horst drew Pip aside.

‘It is a good thing that Karine has done today, in more ways than one. I have a friend in the orchestra who has just returned from playing in a concert in Munich. The Nazi campaign against
the Jews is growing apace.’

‘But surely it will never touch us here?’

‘One would think not, but when a madman has caught the attention of so many, and not just in Germany,’ Horst added, ‘who knows where it will all end?’

Soon afterwards, Bo and Elle announced that for now, they too were staying in Bergen. Bo’s plaster had been removed, but his elbow was still too stiff to play the cello.

‘Both of us are praying it will recover quickly. He is so very talented,’ Elle confided to Karine in their shared bedroom that night. ‘All his dreams depend on it. For now, he
has found himself work at a chart maker’s shop in the harbour. There is a small apartment above it which we have been offered. We have pretended we are already married and I will clean for
the chart maker’s wife.’

‘You can both speak enough Norwegian to do this?’ Karine asked her friend jealously.

‘Bo is a fast learner. I just work hard. Besides, the chart maker is German, which as you know is a language we both speak quite well.’

‘And will you marry for real?’

‘We long to, yes, but we must save the money. So for now, we must live a lie. Bo says the truth belongs in a heart, not on paper.’

‘And I agree.’ Karine reached her hand across to Elle. ‘Promise we will remain close when you move into the town?’

‘Of course. You are my sister in all but name, Karine. I love you and cannot thank you and Pip enough for what you have done for us.’

‘And will we too soon have our own roof over our heads?’ Karine asked Pip the following morning, after telling him Elle and Bo’s news.

‘If the interview tomorrow goes as I hope, then eventually yes,’ Pip agreed. Horst had secured him an audition with Harald Heide, the conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic
Orchestra.

‘It will,
chérie
,’ Karine reassured him with a kiss, ‘it will.’