Pegasus by Danielle Steel

Author:Danielle Steel [Steel, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345530998
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2014-10-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

At the end of November, while Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, things continued to get worse in Europe. Polish Jews were forced to wear a yellow star of David on their chests, or an armband, to identify them to others. Five days later, the first Polish ghetto was established.

In Germany, rationing had been introduced when war was declared, but only to a mild degree. Hitler didn’t want Germans severely deprived, and to affect morale negatively, so despite ration cards, the changes were not too extreme. There was enough food and clothing, although shortages of fuel. And Jews were allotted lower food rations, in keeping with Hitler’s views about them.

Young men were drafted when war was declared, and men in uniform were everywhere, even in the sleepy Bavarian countryside where Alex and his daughter lived. And although they had enough food, it was almost impossible to heat the schloss now with the fuel available to them. They constantly built wood fires in the fireplaces, but the schloss was large and drafty and Marianne was cold all the time. She had stopped attending classes, and spent her time at home, running the household for her father, and rolling bandages for hospitals to be used for the injured men.

All Alex’s grooms and stable boys were gone, drafted into the army, and he and Marianne were caring for the horses themselves, with the help of young boys from their farms, who were still underage to be drafted. It was a full-time job tending to the horses now, and Alex had been warned that the Wehrmacht might commandeer them, since they were so fine. Civilians no longer needed horses of that caliber, he’d been told, when two officers of the cavalry came to visit him, and examined his stables. They were a country at war.

The meals Marta served them were still healthy. She used their rationing cards with “marken” on them to obtain the food they needed, even if in slightly lesser quantity. But she managed to prepare the same excellent meals. The only things noticeably missing were coffee, oranges, bananas, and chocolate. But they had enough meat, eggs, and produce. The rationing cards were used in restaurants too.

Alex was just grateful that he had no sons to send to war and could keep Marianne with him. He was relieved for Nick now that he had escaped with his boys before war broke out in Europe. Alex hated Hitler and everything he stood for with a passion, and he knew that Nick’s father felt no differently, after what had happened to them. The revelation about Nick’s mother had left Paul alone and lonely in the manor house on his estate, hungry for every letter Nick sent them.

Alex went to see Paul almost every day, and he had watched him age radically in the year since Nick had left. He was a different person, angry, bitter, disgusted by everything he saw happening around him. He went for days without speaking to anyone, unless Alex came to visit. He had no desire to go anywhere, and was losing interest in running his own estate.

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