“I’ll see you home,” Thorsten said.

They hurried around the corner, then slowed their pace when they were out of sight of the church. Thorsten said: “That must have been a shock for you.”

“I thought she loved Walli!” Lili wailed. “How could she do this to him?” She began to cry.

Thorsten put his arm around her shoulders as they walked along. “When was it that Walli left?”

“Almost four years ago.”

“Have Karolin’s prospects of emigrating got any better?”

Lili shook her head. “Worse.”

“She needs someone to help her raise Alice.”

“She has me, and my family!”

“Perhaps she feels that Alice needs a father.”

“But . . . the pastor!”

“Most men wouldn’t even think about taking on an unmarried mother. Odo is different just because he is a pastor.”

At the house, Lili had to ring the doorbell because her key was in her coat. Her mother came to the door, saw her face, and said: “What on earth has happened?”

Lili and Thorsten stepped inside. Lili said: “The police raided the church, and I went to warn Karolin and found her kissing Odo!” She burst into fresh tears.

Carla closed the front door. “You mean really kissing him?”

“Yes, like mad!” said Lili.

“Come into the kitchen and have a cup of coffee, both of you.”

As soon as they had told their story, Lili’s father left, intending to do what he could to ensure that Karolin did not spend the night in jail. Carla then pointed out that Thorsten probably ought to go home in case his parents had heard of the raid and were worrying about him. Lili saw him to the door and he kissed her on the lips, briefly but delightfully, before walking away.

Then the three women were alone in the kitchen: Lili, Carla, and Grandmother Maud. Alice, now three years old, was asleep upstairs.

Carla said to Lili: “Don’t be too hard on Karolin.”

“Why not?” said Lili. “She’s betrayed Walli!”

“It’s been four years—”

“Grandmother waited four years for Grandfather Walter,” Lili said. “And she didn’t even have a baby!”

“That’s true,” said Maud. “Although I thought about Gus Dewar.”

“Woody’s father?” said Carla, surprised. “I didn’t know that.”

“Walter was tempted, too,” Maud went on, with the cheerful indiscretion characteristic of people too old to be embarrassed. “By Monika von der Helbard. But nothing happened.”

The way she made light of this annoyed Lili. “It’s easy for you, Grandmother,” she said. “Everything is so far in the past.”

Carla said: “I’m sad about this, Lili, but I don’t see how we can be angry. Walli may never come home, and Karolin may never leave East Germany. Can we really expect her to spend her life waiting for someone she may never see again?”

“I thought that was what she was going to do. I thought she was committed.” Though Lili realized she could not remember Karolin actually saying it.

“I think she’s already waited a long time.”