Deadlight Hall (Nell West/Michael Flint #5)(20)

Dear J.W.

As part of our search for the twins, Sch?nbrunn is going to put out discreet enquiries among jewellers and dealers in England, to see if the Reiss golem is offered for sale anywhere. I shall be helping him with that – I have a few contacts in England in that field.

The figure was not found among the possessions the twins left, and Sch?nbrunn believes this to be hopeful – indicating they were able to take it with them when they vanished, which does not suggest force. If we can trace the golem, that may provide the start of a trail that could lead us to them. Both those figures are distinctive and the hallmarks recognizable.

It is possible the family with whom the girls lodged have lied to our agents, and are keeping the Reiss golem in secrecy, intending to sell it for themselves. Sch?nbrunn thinks that unlikely, though. Our information is that the girls were with an English couple who had lived in the same small market town all their lives, and were known and respected. It seems unlikely that they would realize the worth of such an item or, indeed, know how to go about selling it.

We have never heard of Mengele’s agents casting their net as far as England, but our information was very clear that the doctor wanted Sophie and Susannah Reiss for his evil work. That intelligence came from Sch?nbrunn and I have never known him to be wrong. This may sound harsh, but truly I would rather think of those two girls begging in the streets of England – of any country – than to think of them in Mengele’s laboratories.

I will not believe that Mengele’s people found Sophie and Susannah Reiss, and took them to Auschwitz, though. I will not.

Good wishes to you, as always,

M.B.

The School House, Nr Warsaw

January 1944

My dear M.B.

We trust Sch?nbrunn to be careful, and to do nothing to draw attention to himself or, of course, to the twins.

I was glad, though, to have your more recent letter, with the news that Leo Rosendale is safe, although I fear the disappearance of the twins is likely to distress him. Those three were extremely close, and at times Leo seemed almost to share the twins’ disconcerting gift for sensing the thoughts and emotions of others.

I have made the decision not to tell the Reiss family yet that their daughters have vanished. Letters are almost impossible between this country and England now, and I believe the Reisses will not be overly concerned if they do not hear from their daughters for a little time. This is a decision I may regret, but at the moment the deceit seems justified. It will be a heavy secret for me to bear, but I will spare them the pain and the fear as long as I can.

Kindest regards, as always,

J.W.





SEVEN


Nell thought the trouble with becoming extremely close to another person was that you started to sense that person’s thoughts and emotions. She was finding she was doing so with Michael, more and more. On the whole, this pleased her. She had had something similar with her husband – almost a subliminal sensing of emotions. On the day he died in the motorway pile-up, Nell, alone in their house, had felt a sudden overwhelming sensation of panic and immense confusion before the phone rang. In the crashing pain and anger that followed Brad’s death, she had thought she would never experience that shared understanding with anyone again. She had not, in fact, wanted to experience it, because it had been something between her and Brad exclusively. And then Michael had walked into her antiques shop. Nell smiled, remembering. ‘Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight,’ he had once said, hiding behind a quotation, as he often did when he was feeling deeply emotional. But the meeting had been a happy one, and it had led to delighted intimacy. She thought Brad would not have minded her closeness with Michael, not after four years, and she liked to think he would have approved of Michael.

But that mental closeness meant you sensed the other person’s thoughts and sometimes that could make for a difficult situation. Particularly if there was something you wanted to keep to yourself.

‘I’ll be devastated to leave Quire Court,’ Godfrey Purbles, from the antiquarian bookshop adjoining Nell’s shop, had said, two days earlier. ‘But I’ve always wanted to have a shop in Stratford – well, who hasn’t? It’s going to cost me an utter fortune and I dare say I’ll end up in a debtors’ gaol – do they still have debtors’ gaols nowadays? – but the premises are quite near the Rose Tavern, which couldn’t be much better, on account of the tourists flocking and cavorting everywhere. And as a hunting ground for rare books and theatrical memorabilia it’ll be tremendous.’

‘You’ll probably end up discovering the famous unknown play,’ Nell said, smiling.

‘Yes, and I’d probably pay several fortunes for it, only to find afterwards that it’s a Victorian fake.’

‘I’m glad for you, but I’ll miss you.’ Nell liked Godfrey and found him companionable.

‘Oh, you’ll visit me, of course. And I’ll come back to Oxford. But here’s the thing, Nell. The shop.’ He looked at her hopefully, clearly wanting her to voice an unspoken thought.

Nell said, ‘The shop? Your shop, d’you mean?’

‘Yes. It’ll have to be sold, because I can’t afford both places. At least, the lease will have to be sold. Assigned, they call it, I think. How would you feel about taking it over? I mean in addition to yours, not instead of.’

Nell was very aware that life often presented you with odd twists, and quite often you had long since seen or suspected what those twists might be. But this was not a twist that had ever occurred to her.