Diana and the Three Behrs

by Fleeta Cunningham

  “Oh, Adler, I don’t want to put anybody to that much trouble. Everyone has better things to do than that. I don’t think I need a constant escort.”

  Apparently weighing her objections, he looked out the window where Elizabeth was tossing bread scraps to the squirrels. “No, Diana, there might be some inconvenience, but compared to the kind of danger you may be in from these people, there’s no option. It would make a good bit more trouble if they found you alone, considering the lengths they could employ to keep you from identifying them, I think.”

  The thought sent sharp chills down her back. “If you put it that way, I have to agree, but I probably won’t be here too much longer. If our academic friends are becoming uncomfortable, or suspicious, I’ll be very surprised if they don’t end their studies a little early and go home, back to their safe Eastern college where the most exciting thing is probably the faculty tea.” Not that she wanted to leave. She didn’t want to be anywhere but in this room, part of the warmth that filled it. Where she could imagine that one day Adler would look at her with the tenderness, the exquisite delight, she’d seen when he took little Elizabeth into the dining room for tea. She’d seen that side of the man, the gentle, sensitive side, before, but she’d never realized he could put aside his adult exterior and play a part in a child’s fantasy…or create longing in a woman’s heart.

  “Trey may encourage his friends to come earlier than they planned, if he’s concerned about their safety,” Adler agreed. “I know he’s better at managing them than they are at managing for themselves. It’s necessary for you to be here, isn’t it, since they expect to find you here? You have all that material for their work; they’ll be anxious to have it.”

  Diana had to agree with his view. Her fussy owls would want to examine, and pick apart, the interviews she’d recorded. She’d not yet heard from Pete about his friend who might—or might not—have information that would help establish Dr. El’s theory about Butch Cassidy. If nothing else, she wanted to talk to that old cowboy about riding with the dashing outlaw.

  “No, I see your point. I really must stay here until Trey gets the group here. Once we’re together, we can talk about the next step. Evaluate the possible risks.” The clock on the mantel chimed five, and she realized the afternoon had slipped past her. She picked up her bag and stood. “Thank Elizabeth for tea, will you, please? I must get going. I’m going to be late for Frau Hepple’s dinner, and as you know, she doesn’t look kindly on tardiness.”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Papa Behr agreed. “I wouldn’t want you to raise her ire. Lotte Hepple has quite a temper when riled. I can swear to that. I’ll get the car and drive you home. Just wait here while I bring it around.” He was out of the house and hurrying down the walk before she could object.

  From a stack of paper on the table, Adler handed her a file of pages. “I wrote out a few letters for you while Elizabeth was napping. I’d planned to take them over to the bank later, but I can give them to you now.”

  “That will give me something for the morning.” She took a quick look. “Shouldn’t take long.” She saw the long, blue car begin backing down the narrow drive. “Your papa didn’t actually have to bother. I could easily walk home.”

  “I think we should start taking precautions now, and besides, we don’t want to deprive him of the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Lotte Hepple. No, let him have his moment. Maybe, one day, they’ll kiss and make up, put their stubbornness and pride aside.”

  “You mean…?” Diana wasn’t quite sure how to frame the question.

  “They’ve been dancing around each other for years, not quite keeping company but not quite not keeping company, either. I’d like to see them come out and admit there’s something more between them, but they’re both obstinate. They quarreled several years ago; both were wrong, but neither one will admit it. Maybe one day, when they realize they’re not getting younger, one of them will make a move.”

  “Your papa is such a genial man, I can’t imagine him carrying a quarrel that far. Frau Hepple is a bit set in her ways, but so warm hearted.”

  “Kind hearted but immovable as old burros, both of them. If anything could bring them together, I think it might be Elizabeth. She’s like Greta, and they both adored my sister. They quarreled because they both loved her so much.”

  Diana had never heard Adler speak of his sister, other than to say she’d been ill and had passed away leaving little Elizabeth in his care. “Why would that lead to a rift between them, if they both loved her?”

  “Greta was headstrong and accustomed to getting her way with Papa, especially after Mama died. She had a sweetheart. They were both too young, too impetuous and unrealistic, to take a serious step, like getting married, but they were in love, as if they knew what love was at fourteen and seventeen. The boy was a dreamer, a good boy, but not ready for life any more than Greta was. The war came, and being full of the romantic notions of youth and thinking he’d ride off looking handsome in his uniform and come back in six months a hero, the boy joined the army. He came back, not in six months and not a hero. Shell shocked from what he’d seen and what he’d been part of, he wasn’t the same boy who went blithely into battle two years earlier. Greta was sixteen, full of noble ideas about taking care of her injured man, with no experience to tell her how disillusioning that life would be. He still had dreams and was still asking her to marry him. They both believed their love would overcome what doctors and medicine couldn’t. Papa could see they didn’t have a chance. The boy couldn’t work; he had no skills and was a frail wreck, a shadow of himself. Greta was certain she could put him back together. She and Papa butted heads. He refused to consent, wouldn’t permit the banns, and Greta…well, Greta hadn’t heard the word ‘no’ from Papa a half dozen times in her life. She threatened to elope with the boy. The battle escalated, both of them determined and angry, and Papa said if she did elope, she’d never be welcome in this house again.”

  “Oh, no! She did it, of course. Defied him?”

  “The next night after another round with him. If I’d been home, I might have intervened, but I was away, still in the army myself. She slipped out of her bedroom upstairs, the same one Elizabeth has now, and she and the boy were gone, out of the county, before daylight.”

  “Frau Hepple took Greta’s side?”

  Adler shook his head. “Not at first. She’d been a close friend of Mama’s and had known Greta since my sister was born. She was as upset as Papa at first. Then, when we didn’t hear from Greta, she began to worry, insisted Papa try to find her. The more she tried to reason with him, the more intractable he became. Finally she said she didn’t see how he could endure not knowing what had happened to his only daughter, if she was safe, or had a place to live, or if she was happy. Papa said Greta would come home if she was in trouble or need; he didn’t see what a woman who’d never had a child of her own could possibly know about what a wayward girl needed. That did it, ruptured what had been blooming between them. They’re both sorry, and they really care about each other, but neither one is going to admit to being wrong. Now, they’re both hurting over losing Greta when they could be a comfort for each other if they’d just take a step back. By the time I came home, they were civil but barely speaking.”

  “That’s terrible.” Diana watched Papa Behr talking to the little girl under the ancient tree. His affection for her was almost a visible aura surrounding them. “Did he and Greta manage to mend their rift? Before she…”

  Adler braced both hands on the frame of the window. “I wish they had. It would have made a lot of difference in the way the situation played out. I heard from her, a letter now and then, but she never let on how desperate her situation was. She sent her notes to the bank, afraid to send them to the house, I suppose, because Papa would just send them back unopened. Later on, when I learned the boy was as unreliable as Papa feared, I tried to get her to come home. He may have been trying to care for her and the baby, but the boy wasn’t well, couldn’t do
much. Mustard gas is horrible stuff. Sometimes it kills its victims on the spot, but often it kills them gradually, a little at a time, slow torture, until every breath is agony. Greta’s soldier boy, that foolish, romantic youngster, got the worst of it. Elizabeth was the only good thing that came out of Greta’s headlong dash out of this house. That young fellow didn’t live two years after they eloped. She was too proud, or too hurt, to ask to come home, but I think by that time, Papa would have welcomed her with open arms if she’d given the least hint of wanting to come. She worked in a shop, then in a mill, and finally in a hotel, cleaning rooms. Once in a while she’d send a word or two to me asking for a few dollars, never saying there was no food or she wasn’t well, but I guessed she wouldn’t ask if the need wasn’t dire. I always sent her money. I’d tell her to come home; I was certain Papa was desperate for word of her even if he didn’t admit it. She said if I told him anything, where she was or how she was living, she’d never write again. I believed her, so I kept silent. Then, while I was in Fort Worth and Papa was keeping things going at the bank, her last letter came. Papa opened it, of course. She didn’t even have the strength to write it herself. She shared a room with another woman who worked at the hotel. That was who actually wrote. The letter said Greta was terribly ill; she’d had pneumonia. They’d not had the doctor until the situation was grim, probably beyond help. She was asking if I would come and take care of her little girl. Papa opened the letter, and for the first time, I think, he realized how precarious Greta’s situation was. He reached me at my hotel. He was in pain, Diana; it was the first time since Mama died that he actually sounded shaken, and I took the next train. I’d hoped, with care, Greta might have a chance, but it was too late. I stayed with her, and I kept telling her I’d take care of Elizabeth. The child had all Greta’s grace and charm, but she’d not had anything in the way of mothering. Greta worked as much as she could to keep the necessities in the house. The woman who shared their room had no patience for children and couldn’t wait for me to take charge. Fortunately, Elizabeth has a knack for adapting to whatever situation she finds herself in. And as for Papa, I know he’s carrying a load of remorse, but he feels he’s got a second chance with Elizabeth. I hope he and Lotte Hepple can somehow bridge the chasm they’ve dug for themselves. If they’d just admit they need each other, and that they both said words in the heat of the moment they never meant to say, I think they might find a way back together.”

  Pained by the pride and misunderstandings that had separated two people who seemed to care for each other, Diana also hoped it would happen. “I’ll be happy to make more opportunities for them to see each other. If your papa is seeing me home, he’ll just naturally run into my landlady.”

  “Ah, I have a fellow conspirator.” Adler held out his hand. “Partner, we just might undermine their defenses.” He glanced toward the window where Elizabeth was chasing after a squirrel. “My niece might get the grandmother she needs.”

  “Frau Hepple said something to me, worrying how two men can manage to raise a little girl by themselves. I didn’t realize she was grieving over your sister, but she was certainly concerned about Elizabeth. Maybe that will give her an urge to take the first step.”

  “I don’t know, Diana. We’re dealing with two hardheaded individuals who think it would break a tongue to say ‘I’m sorry,’ so progress may be nil.” He watched the man and the child in the yard for a moment. “Unless there’s a subtle way to remind them that they lost Greta because of general obstinacy all around. If they keep on the way they are, they’ll wind up losing each other, too.”

  Chapter 14

  Diana saw little chance to help Adler bring the older couple together for several days. Either Fred or Otto faithfully turned up to walk with her to the bank every morning. She didn’t know what reason Adler had given them for the necessity, but neither seemed to mind. In the course of their walk, she learned about Fred’s young lady, heard praise of her pretty ways and her sound ideas about making a home, until she was quite sure no mortal woman could possess all the virtues he claimed for his Freya. Otto, older and less talkative, played chess and reviewed, both in his mind and in his words, every move of the game he was playing by mail with a man in St. Louis as he walked with her on his mornings. Since Diana had no knowledge of the game, it was a fairly one-sided conversation. Elizabeth caught a summer cold and kept Papa Behr at home, leaving the escort duties to Adler, but Diana had no objection to having the man she found increasingly endearing walk her home. At the end of a week, however, Elizabeth was declared well enough to go out, and Diana found herself driven home in Papa’s elegant new car, Elizabeth chattering happily from the jump seat behind her and the elder Behr casting indulgent looks at the little magpie.

  “Miss Diana, I’m going to be five a week from Saturday, and I’m going to have a big party, with a cake, and Papa’s going to put tables out in front of the house, and Unkler’s going to have a pony cart for us to ride in, and everybody’s going to bring me lots of pretty things.” She stopped for a breath. “And you’re going to come too, aren’t you?”

  “I’ll be delighted to come, Elizabeth. Are you really going to be five? That’s very grown up. You’ll be going to school in just a little while.”

  The flaxen braids flew. “Not for another whole year, Unkler says. Not till I’m six.” She flashed a smile full of mischief. “But he’s going to teach me to read; then I can skip first grade, if I work really, really hard.”

  Diana wondered if the man had any idea what he was getting into, but she kept the thought to herself. “What do you want for your birthday?”

  “A pink cake. And lots of hair ribbons, a different color for every dress.”

  “You’ll look very nice with them in your pretty braids.”

  “And a doll. A doll I can take to bed and sing to.”

  “You have a lot of plans for your party. It sounds like fun.”

  The subject of the party continued to dominate the conversation until the blue car pulled up to Frau Hepple’s house.

  “Can you come in for a minute, Papa? You and Elizabeth. I have something I’d like to give her.”

  Papa Behr started to shake his head, but Elizabeth, captivated by the suggestion of a gift, chimed in with such a heartfelt “please, Papa” that he couldn’t resist.

  “For a minute, then,” he said in surrender.

  He opened the car doors and helped Elizabeth, with her short legs, get out, then followed Diana and the skipping child up Frau Hepple’s well-scrubbed steps. As Diana had hoped, her landlady was home, standing just inside the doorway, putting fresh flowers on the entryway table. She held out her arms to the child dancing into the foyer.

  “Ach, so like little Greta! She used to come into my house just the same way, like a little sunbeam.” She added, her tone a shade cooler, “Erlich, it is good to see you here as well.”

  Diana turned toward the stairs. “I need to run up to my room for a second. I’ll be right back.”

  Frau Hepple, bending down to touch Elizabeth’s shining hair, nodded. “When you come down, we’ll be on the back porch where it’s cooler.” She looked up at Erlich Behr. “You’d like a mug of something cool, I think? And Elizabeth would like to see Katje?”

  As she started up the stairs, Diana was gratified to see all three moving toward the back door, the adults a bit stiff and awkward, but the child walking between them chattered as if she’d been coming to the house all her life.

  When she came down, with a box of hair ribbons she no longer wore since she’d bobbed her long tresses, she heard quiet voices from the porch that brought a smile to her. Though Frau Hepple and Erlich Behr were speaking in German and she couldn’t understand the words, she didn’t think the voices sounded unfriendly.

  ****

  Two days later, when Adler appeared in the doorway of the meeting room just after her two “trainees” had finished their session with the typewriters, Diana was a bit surprised. He didn’t usually come back to th
e bank after he left for lunch. For a moment she wondered if a stranger, someone looking for her, someone with a menacing purpose had come to town. She shivered at the idea.

  “Are you free for a while?” he asked, and came to the table where she was looking over the typing exercises of the afternoon.

  “I am, actually.” Adler displayed no sign of anxiety, so she relaxed. “Fred and Otto are both doing well. I was going to read over some of my notes for Dr. El and give them the room so they could have more practice time undisturbed. What can I do for you?”

  He smiled, that sudden, endearing smile that removed the last hint of stern remoteness from his expression. “I suppose you’ve been invited to the birthday party?”

  “I have, and I told Elizabeth I would be there.”

  “Then you know she has her heart set on a doll. It has to be a special doll, I think, but I don’t know anything about buying one. Greta was much younger than I was; I didn’t pay any attention to hers. When my sister decided she was too grown up for toys, she gave her dolls to one of our cousins. I can’t even hand down to Elizabeth any that her mother had. Would you go shopping with me? I need a woman’s opinion.”

  He could have asked Frau Hepple. She’d know better than I do what that little girl would like. “I’ll go, and I’m glad to help, but Pam and I didn’t play with dolls very much. I had a rag doll that Mother made for me. Pam would have been out climbing trees or listening at keyholes to the adults’ conversation.”

  “Still, you’ve been a little girl, which is more practical experience than I have.”

  “That’s true, and I’d enjoy getting out for a while. We can go now, if you like.”

  Main Street afternoon traffic had slowed to a leisurely pace, and long shadows stretched across the brick pavement. A small breeze ruffled the edges of the striped awnings shading the walkway. Diana and Adler didn’t hurry with their errand.