The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy

Author:Sarah McCoy [McCoy, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780307460196
Publisher: Broadway
Published: 2012-01-24T05:00:00+00:00

Elsie went up to Mutti’s closed bedroom door and knocked. “Mutti?”

“Come in, dear.”

Inside, Mutti unpacked the suitcases, placing items into the cedar wardrobe; her face pin-straight.

“Did Julius get supper? The ham we bought wasn’t to his liking. Slightly rancid, I suppose, but what could we do? I made your papa eat it. Spoiled or not, it was something. He must keep up his strength. He’s not the young man he used to be,” she prattled on, folding one of Papa’s sweaters over and over. She looked up briefly at Elsie, the hollows beneath her eyes deeper than ever Elsie could remember. “We left in such a hurry,” she went on. “But like your papa keeps reminding me, you girls are all grown up. You can take care of yourselves. I’ve showed you how to make goulash a dozen times. At your ages, I can’t be worrying over feeding you or what clothes you wear or where you go.” She took a quick breath. “You aren’t children anymore and I haven’t the time with the bakery and customers and keeping up this drafty house, and now there is Julius who needs looking after. Of course, he isn’t an infant like the twins …” She fingered the fat cable knit of the sweater. “But he needs a mother. So, you see, you’ll need to help your papa more downstairs. I can’t be in the kitchen as often now that Julius is here and—”

“Mutti, please,” Elsie put a hand over Papa’s sweater. “Where’s Hazel?”

Mutti’s fingers slipped to her sides. “Hazel?” She blinked hard. “We don’t know. They only told us she is gone.”

“Who told you?”

“The Program administrators. Her roommates. They say she went to the market and never came home. She simply left.”

Mutti bit her bottom lip, fearful and confused. The story didn’t make sense to her, either. It wasn’t in Hazel’s nature to run away, but if she had, she’d have sent word to them. She’d have written Elsie first. Though Postmaster Hoflehner had assured Elsie that the mail was running routinely, they had not received anything from outside the Garmisch-Partenkirchen valley in weeks. Hazel’s January 4 letter to Papa was the last to arrive. What if Hazel had written and the letters had been intercepted? Perhaps she was hidden in someone’s safe house, like Tobias in hers, and could not contact them; but then she’d left Julius behind. Hazel would never have left her children without a significant reason—unless she had no alternative. Elsie’s scalp burned, as if her hair had been plaited too tight.

“Where are the twins?”

A furrow deepened between Mutti’s eyes. “They belong to the Fatherland.”

“So did Julius, but they gave him to us.”

“Julius is the son of Hazel and Peter.”

“And the others—aren’t they the blood of your daughter? Doesn’t that count for something!” Her voice pitched.

“Quiet,” Mutti hissed.

The tone chilled Elsie to the bone. She had never heard her mother speak in such a manner.

“You must always remember your place. We are women.” She locked eyes with Elsie. “We must be wise in our words and action.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.