Secret for a Nightingale by Victoria Holt

Author:Victoria Holt [Holt, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780613096270
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Published: 1999-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

The door of the cottage opened and a woman appeared. I had seen her once before and knew that she was Gerda’s grandmother.

She called out: “You young ladies will be soaked to the skin. Come along in. It will pass soon. It is only a shower.”

I was pleased to be invited into the cottage, for I was very interested in its occupants. Frau Leiben was, I guessed, in her late fifties, yet she was sprightly and her cottage was very clean.

“It is good of you to offer us shelter,” I said.

“It’s the least I can do. Do please sit down.” We did so and she went on: “We’re all very grateful to you ladies of Kaiserwald. You do great good. And you are English … come to study our ways?”

I told her that we had come for three or four months and then we should go home.

She said: “People come from time to time.”

“Where is Gerda?” I asked.

“Can she be out in the rain?”

“She’ll stand up somewhere. She’s got that much sense.” She shook her head sadly.

“She is a beautiful girl,” I commented.

“She looks so picturesque with her geese. If I were an artist I would paint a picture of her.”

Frau Leiben sighed.

“I worry about her. What will become of her when I am gone? I ask myself. Who will care for her? If she were like others she would marry and have a husband to look after her. Perhaps her mother will come for her.”

We were silent for a few moments, then she went on: “She was five when my daughter and her husband left her with me. I thought they would come back but they never have. They are far away in Australia.” She looked very sad.

“Herman, my husband, was here with me when they went away. And now Herman is gone. The blessed Deaconesses did what they could for him but they could not save his life and now I am alone. For three years I am alone.”

“The people here are friendly with each other,” said Henrietta.

“It must be comforting to live in a place like this.”

She nodded.

“It’s true. They were good to me when Herman died. I didn’t feel the burden so much when he was here. There were two of us to share it.”

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