“What should I expect tonight?” I asked Jürgen, as he drove us to the party in his new Daimler 15. I pressed my hands over my stomach, trying to quell the nervous butterflies. Jürgen’s entire life had changed with that new job—he now worked from sunup to sunset, six or even seven days a week, out at Kummersdorf, a forty-minute drive from Berlin. But while I’d been a firsthand witness to the changes in wider Berlin society, I felt so removed from Jürgen’s work life.

“The staff are all scientists—just ask them about their work and you can let your mind wander while they ramble on. You’re good at that after all of these years with me.”

“Very funny.” I swallowed a lump in my throat and prompted hesitantly, “And Otto and Helene?”

“I’ve never met Helene. Otto takes some getting used to.”

“In what way?”

“He reminds me of your brother, actually.” Jürgen paused, then clarified, “Which one is the pastor? Is it Alwin?”

“Alwin married that peasant girl,” I corrected him. I didn’t blame him for confusing my brothers—they all looked similar, and he’d only met them three times: at our wedding, and then at each of my parents’ funerals. “Edwald is the pastor. So Otto is very religious?”

“He’s a zealot, but not for the Christian faith,” Jürgen said heavily. “He’s a Party man—very much all about his ideology. It’s hard, Sofie—I won’t lie to you. You’ll hear things you don’t like. But for God’s sake, don’t argue with him—it would do me no favors at Kummersdorf, and from time to time I get the impression he only tolerates me because he needs me.”

“I hoped that the program was so focused on the rockets, you weren’t dealing with any of that.”

Jürgen parked the car, then turned the ignition off. He sat for a moment, pondering this. Then he turned toward me.

“My work—my team’s work—is about the rockets, that’s true. But there’s no escaping ‘that,’ not even at Kummersdorf. I bite my tongue every day. Every hour, on the worst days.”

“You never talk about that side of it.”

“Of course I don’t,” he said. “I’m your husband. It’s my job to shelter you, not burden you.”

“But…I want to support you. To help.”

His expression softened, and Jürgen reached for my hand.

“My love,” he said quietly. “As you’ll see tonight, there’s really not anything you can do to help with this. We just have to keep our heads down and not draw attention to ourselves.”