Chapter 55

55

The three friends sat in the yard behind the bookshop, the sun warm through the hazy sky. Jana put an arm around Karolina's shoulders and glanced at Dasha, whose expression reflected how she felt: helpless. What could they say to console their friend? After three years of anguish about her husband, Karolina had received the news that he'd died shortly before Prague was liberated. Jana could think of no platitude that would ease her friend's pain.

‘You're not alone,' she said. ‘Anytime you need company, we are here for you. Come to the bookshop, read or just sit and watch the customers come and go.'

Karolina raised her head, her eyes hollow in a face grown haggard from grief.

‘Stop it!' she shouted, turning on Jana.

Startled, Jana dropped her arm from the woman's shoulder. ‘Stop what?'

‘This kindness. I can't stand it!'

Jana and Dasha exchanged shocked looks.

‘I don't deserve it. It was me who put the Gestapo on to you and the children. I went to them pleading for Petr's release; he had become so ill. They said if I became an informer, they would help. I didn't know anything of use, but I was so desperate that I rambled on about everyone I knew, hoping that something I said would satisfy them.'

Jana stared at her, disbelief giving way to anger. ‘What did you say?' she demanded.

‘I'd seen Dasha one Sunday after she'd talked to you at the bus stop. She laughed and said you were off to your grandmother with a whole load of children's books. I remembered how you talked about the poor children in the Jewish quarter. I told the Gestapo and when that caught their attention, I told them all about our book club and how we talked about banned books; the more I said, the more they wanted to know, the whole time dangling Petr's release in front of me.' Her words came out in a torrent. Then she sprung to her feet, tipping the chair over. ‘But the Gestapo lied to me. They never released him and let him die, and here I am a traitor.'

She screamed the last words and rushed from the courtyard back into the bookshop. A few seconds later, the bell above the door jangled and she was gone.

Jana stared at Dasha, both of them speechless. There had been moments when she had doubted Dasha but in the end, she'd been convinced that Pavel had betrayed her. And now Pavel was dead and she would never have the chance to tell him she was sorry for doubting him. It had never for a moment crossed her mind that Karolina had been the culprit. She recalled how she had pleaded with Andrej to intervene in Petr's arrest and how he'd managed to prevent him from being interrogated by the Gestapo before he was sent to Terezin.

‘She betrayed you. You were her friend and she betrayed you,' said Dasha, shaking her head .

‘And led the Germans to Babi and Papa; the children could have been murdered.'

Later that evening, once the sun had set, Jana sat in the armchair in the bookshop, reliving Karolina's words; their friendship was destroyed forever. But as Jana considered the desperate woman's motives, she knew one day, she must forgive her, but not yet. For now, the treachery sat deep in the pit of her stomach.