‘Well, ask away.’

‘Do you ever think of Walter Keller? I mean, do you ever miss him?’

Karl’s body stiffens.

‘No,’ he says. ‘Why on earth would I?’

‘You used to be so close. Inseparable. Surely you must—’

‘That was years ago. I was just a kid. I didn’t know anything back then. I had no idea he was a…’ His voice peters out. He twists hand over hand.

‘Jew.’ I finish his sentence for him. ‘Does it really matter so much? That he is one?’

‘You are kidding me, aren’t you?’ He gives me a hard stare. ‘What’s this all about? Why are you bringing it up now?’

He gets up and walks over to his case. Picks it up, puts it down again. He moves to the window, his back to me. ‘Have you seen him, Hetty?’

‘No!’

‘Then why are you asking these questions?’

‘I just wondered, that’s all.’ I change tack. ‘This house? Did you know… I mean, I heard a rumour, about how Vati came by it. Do you know that story?’

He turns to face me, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘What did you hear? Who have you been talking to?’

‘No one.’

‘So how did you hear a rumour then, if you’ve been talking to no one?’

‘It was just kids at school. You know, chatter.’

‘What the hell! What were they saying?’ He comes back to the bed and sits next to me.

‘Stuff about how it was a Jew who lived here. How Vati took him to court on trumped-up charges to do with the newspaper, and then he got the house from him too. Is it true, Karl?’

Karl’s face relaxes. ‘Oh, that old gossip!’ He laughs. ‘The Jew part is true, sure, and the court case. But not the trumped-up charges. That’s ridiculous. That is classic Jew-fed rumour. Look, they’ve been ousted from all their positions of power. They’re bound to be angry. They’ve had their big fat noses put out, so, what do they do? They choose a cowardly way of revenge – rumours and falsehoods. Do not believe a word of it, Little Mouse. C’mon. You’re better than that.’

It sounds so logical when Karl puts it this way. But it seems every story has two sides. Which is the right one?

‘Don’t worry that pretty little head of yours one moment longer. It really isn’t worth it. They have a nerve those kids, speaking about Vati like that. Perhaps you should remind them of their duty, next time, eh?’ Karl continues, patting my hand.

‘Yes, you’re probably right. You know, I think I will go to bed now, after all.’ I smile at him. Secrets, like a veil, float between us, translucent, but a barrier nevertheless.

‘See you in the morning, Schatz,’ he says, and I leave him to sleep one last time in his boyhood bedroom.

Back in my own room, I switch off the light and climb into bed, unease creeping like a cold draught across my skin. I pull the blankets closer around me, tucking them beneath my chin.