The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) (62 page)

Pip searched for Karine amongst the chaos and found her staring out of one of the arched windows. She jumped as he placed a hand on her shoulder and when she turned to him he saw the tears in
her eyes. She shook her head wordlessly as he took her into his arms.

All classes were cancelled that day by the principal of the Conservatory, Walther Davisson; tensions were running high in the area, and it was deemed too dangerous for the students. Karine said
she was meeting Elle in a coffee shop on the corner of Wasserstraße and Pip offered to accompany her. When they arrived, Elle was sitting with Bo in a discreet alcove.

‘Now that this has happened, we have no one to protect us,’ said Karine as she and Pip joined them. ‘We all know that Haake is an anti-Semite. Look at how he tried to enforce
these horrible laws from the rest of Germany. How long before they stop Jewish doctors from practising and Aryans from consulting them here in Leipzig?’

Pip looked at the three pale faces surrounding him. ‘We shouldn’t panic, but wait until Goerdeler returns. The newspapers say it will be in a few days. He went from Munich to Finland
on an errand for the Chamber of Commerce. I’m sure that when he hears of this, he will head back to Leipzig immediately.’

‘But the mood in the city is so hateful!’ Elle blurted out. ‘Everyone knows how many Jews are studying at the Conservatory. What if they decide to go further and raze the whole
place to the ground, like they have done with synagogues in other cities?’

‘The Conservatory is a temple to music, not to a political or religious power. Please, we must all try to keep calm,’ Pip reiterated. But Elle and Bo were already deep in a whispered
conversation between themselves.

‘That is all very easy for you to say,’ Karine remarked to him in an undertone. ‘You are not Jewish, and will pass for one of their own.’ She studied his light blue eyes
and wavy red-blond hair. ‘It’s different for me. Just after the statue was taken down, I passed by a group of youths on my way to the Conservatory and they screamed out
“
Jüdische Hündin!
”’ She dipped her eyes at the memory. Pip knew perfectly well what it meant: ‘Jewish bitch’. His blood boiled, but it would not
help Karine if he lost his temper.

‘And what’s more,’ she continued, ‘I cannot even speak to my parents. They are in America preparing for my father’s new sculpture exhibition.’

‘My love, I will keep you safe. Even if I have to take you back to Norway to do it, no harm will come to you.’ He grasped her hand in his and smoothed a strand of glossy black hair
from her anxious face.

‘Do you promise?’

Pip kissed her forehead tenderly. ‘I promise.’

To Pip’s relief, things did calm down over the next few days. Goerdeler returned and promised to rebuild the Mendelssohn statue. The Conservatory opened again and Pip and
Karine did their best to avert their eyes from the wreckage every time they walked past it. It seemed the music played by the students was now infused with a renewed passion and poignancy. As if
they were all playing for their lives.

The Christmas break arrived but it was not long enough to allow either Pip or Karine to return home. Instead, the two of them spent a week in a small hotel, checking in as man and wife. As he
had been brought up in a Lutheran household with strict views on sex before marriage, Pip had been surprised at Karine’s
laissez-faire
attitude towards it when she’d suggested
they sleep together only weeks after they’d met. He’d discovered that she wasn’t even a virgin, as he was. Karine had found it amusing that he was so shy about the whole thing
when they’d made love for the first time.

‘But of course, it is a natural process for two people in love,’ she had teased as she’d stood naked in front of him, arranging her long white limbs with effortless elegance,
her small perfect breasts jutting upwards. ‘Our bodies are made to give us pleasure. Why should we deny them?’

Over the past months, Pip had been schooled in the art of physical love and had happily drowned in what his local pastor had called the sins of the flesh. It was the first Christmas he had spent
away from home, and Pip decided that being in bed with Karine was far preferable to any present he might have received at home from St Nicholas on Christmas Eve.

‘I love you,’ he whispered constantly in her ear as he lay next to her, whether asleep or awake. ‘I love you.’

The new term began in January and Pip, knowing he had limited time left at the Conservatory, concentrated his energies on imbibing all he was taught. Throughout the freezing
Leipzig winter, he hummed Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky’s
Symphony of Psalms
as he trudged through the snow. And as he did so, his own tunes began to form in his head.

He’d arrive at the Conservatory, grab some blank sheet music from his satchel, and with half-frozen hands, scribble them down before they were forgotten. He’d gradually learnt that
the method of composition that worked best for him was one that relied on thinking freely and letting his imagination flow, rather than that favoured by other students which involved meticulous
planning of themes and writing only one carefully-arranged bar at a time.

He showed his work to his tutor, who critiqued, but encouraged him. Pip lived in a state of high excitement, knowing that this was only the beginning of his unique process. His blood pulsed with
energy and pumped faster through his veins as he began to listen to his inner muse.

The city was still relatively calm as Goerdeler was standing for re-election in March. The entire Conservatory supported him, distributing pamphlets and posters urging the city to vote, and
Karine seemed confident he would win.

‘Even though he has so far failed to have the statue rebuilt, surely, once the people have spoken and he has been re-elected, the Reich will have no choice but to support him in the
venture?’ she’d said hopefully as they drank coffee with Elle after returning from a long day of canvassing.

‘Yes, but we all know Haake is openly against his reelection,’ Elle had countered. ‘The destruction of the Mendelssohn statue fully revealed his stance on Jews.’

‘Haake is just drumming up tension to feather his Nazi nest,’ Karine had agreed darkly.

On the night the votes were counted, Pip, Karine, Elle and Bo joined the crowds outside the city hall. And cheered euphorically when they heard that Goerdeler had been re-elected.

Sadly, as the blossoms appeared on the trees in May and the sun finally came out, the euphoria in the city proved to be short-lived.

Pip had been working all the God-given hours in his practice room at the Conservatory. Karine sought him out with the latest news. ‘Word has come from Munich – the statue won’t
be rebuilt,’ she said breathlessly.

‘That is terrible news, but please, my love, try not to worry. We have only a short time left until the end of term and then we can take stock of the situation and make a plan.’

‘But Pip, what if things deteriorate more quickly than that?’

‘I’m sure they won’t. Now, go home and I will see you this evening.’

But Karine had been right and Goerdeler resigned a few days later. Once again, the city was thrown into chaos.

Pip was busy preparing for his formal examinations, as well as perfecting his very first opus, which was to be performed at a graduation concert just before the end of term.
Staying up late into the night to complete the orchestrations, he struggled to come up for air to comfort a despairing Karine.

‘Elle says that she and Bo will leave Leipzig immediately at the end of term in two weeks’ time and will not return. They say it is too dangerous to be here now, with the National
Socialists free to demand the sanctions against Jews that other cities are enforcing.’

‘Where will they go?’

‘They don’t know. France perhaps, but Bo is worried the trouble will follow them there. The Reich has supporters all across Europe. I will write to my parents for advice. But if Elle
leaves, so will I.’

This news grabbed Pip’s full attention.

‘But I thought your parents were in America?’

‘They are. My father is thinking of staying there whilst the anti-Semitic storm in Europe continues.’

‘And you would follow them?’ Pip felt a surge of panic twist his guts.

‘If my parents think it is wise, then yes, I will go.’

‘But . . . what about us? What will I do without you?’ he said, hearing the selfish whine in his voice.

‘You could come with me.’

‘Karine, you know that I do not have the money to make the journey to America. And how would I earn a living there if I don’t graduate from the Conservatory and get some experience
before I go?’

‘
Chérie
, I do not think you understand the gravity of the situation. German-born Jews who have lived here for generations have already had their citizenship taken away. My
people are not permitted to marry Aryans, or join the army, and are forbidden from flying the German flag. I’ve even heard talk that in some regions they are rounding up whole neighbourhoods
of Jews and deporting them. If all this has already been allowed to happen, who can say how much further it may go?’ She squared her chin in defiance.

‘So you would sail to America alone and leave me here?’

‘If it will save my life, then yes, of course. For God’s sake, Pip, I know that you are involved with your opus, but I assume you would rather have me alive than dead?’

‘Of course! How can you even suggest I would think otherwise?’ he said, anger rising in his voice.

‘Because you refuse to take this seriously. In your safe Norwegian world, there has never been danger. Whereas we Jews understand that we will always be open to persecution, just as we
have been throughout history. And now is no different. We feel it, all of us. Perhaps it is simply a tribal thing, but we know when there is imminent danger.’

‘I can’t believe you’d go without me.’

‘Pip! Please, grow up! You know I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but this . . . situation is not new to me. Even before the Reich made our persecution legal, we
have always been disliked. In Paris, my father had eggs thrown at him at one of his sculpture exhibitions years ago. Anti-Semitic feelings have existed for thousands of years. You must understand
this.’