The Pearl Thief

by Fiona McIntosh

  He grinned. ‘He’s coming. Er … Katerina, are you comfy that we’re taking Peter to Terry’s, where there’s another surprise waiting?’

  ‘I shall share it with both of you. It is a happy one, isn’t it?’

  ‘You could say it’s of the same magnitude as the one you’ve just landed on me … I think you’ll weep with pleasure.’

  ‘Don’t exaggerate. Come on. Let’s walk to St Helen’s Square before we freeze to these cobblestones.’

  She linked arms with Peter and Edward, unable to imagine herself any happier than she was in this moment and so wrapped in the pleasure of her release from the torment of years gone by that she only had room in her heart for optimism. She couldn’t imagine who Edward was going to introduce them to, but quietly assumed it was someone senior in the art world who was perhaps going to offer her a role that would allow her to continue to work in her specialist field in England, now that it was going to be her home.

  En route she loved Edward a little more – if that was possible – for the way he engaged Peter in conversation about his studies, about Durham University, about the contacts that he could connect Peter to … and the Beatles, of course, as he’d quickly worked out this was the fan to whom she’d referred in the taxi.

  ‘If your mother doesn’t take you to their next concert, I will,’ he promised.

  ‘Be warned, he sings and dances along … badly,’ Katerina cautioned.

  They arrived with laughter around them at the sweep of windows that was the main Terry’s Chocolates Salon and Tearooms, proclaiming it offered everything from bridal cakes and confectionery to the famed chocolates and jellies. A four-tiered wedding cake teetered in the main window.

  ‘I think we should order that,’ Edward whispered in jest.

  ‘Sssh, no one knows yet,’ she admonished him but without heat.

  Peter held the door for them to enter the steamy warmth and Katerina led them up the few stairs and into the tearooms. It was just closing in on a quarter to six but the place was full and happy voices echoed around the salon, which was a merry mix of Victorian counters and Art Deco ceilings.

  ‘It keeps evolving, obviously,’ Edward said, looking around as he made himself comfortable at a corner table, then held up a hand. ‘No more history, please, Katerina.’

  Peter laughed. ‘Oh, it’s your turn to suffer, I’m afraid.’

  This prompted a gust of laughter between the men and she loved hearing it; she wanted to pinch herself.

  The waitress who had got them seated returned. ‘Sorry about that, folks. Whew, it’s busy tonight. There must be something on at the minster. My name is Jean. Would you like to peruse the menu while you wait for your guest, sir?’

  ‘We would, thank you, Jean,’ Edward agreed. Large menus were handed around. ‘He shouldn’t be long. We arranged to meet at six … a few minutes more.’

  ‘I’ll be back shortly.’

  ‘Edward’s keeping our guest all very cloak-and-dagger,’ Katerina explained to her son. ‘It’s a surprise.’

  ‘For both of you,’ Edward added.

  Katerina got busy unpeeling her coat and gloves. She smiled as Edward continued the conversation they had been having earlier as they entered pretty St Helen’s Square and the jolly scene of Terry’s and Betty’s lit up for their patrons.

  ‘Human rights? It’s a fabulous area of the law, and the more bright young minds we can have applying themselves to this still rather cruel world we live in, the better. I know some barristers you may like to have a chat with.’

  ‘Oh, thank you, sir. That’s brilliant. I do have to make a decision about my music, of course.’

  ‘Call me Edward. I’ve asked your mother to marry me, so we’re going to be family.’

  Peter’s mouth opened and Katerina held her breath. She hadn’t intended her son find out like this or so soon. She herself was still in the rush of novelty at the idea. ‘Edward!’

  ‘What?’ He didn’t even sound defensive to her; he was a maestro of polite directness. ‘Listen, Peter. This is a night of pleasant shocks. I love your mother more than rugby. More than a Sunday afternoon stroll through Kensington Gardens. More than a … a Terry’s hot chocolate. I want to keep her safe and adored. And I want us to be a family. I know it’s something she probably wanted to ease you towards but I’m all for up-front honesty, while your mother is more a shades-of-grey kind of person. Plus … you don’t have to fret about her. I’ll keep her happy while you get busy building your career.’

  ‘Mum, I think it’s wonderful.’ The young man regarded them, his gaze moving between them with a smile that lit his eyes. ‘Congratulations to you both. I’ve never seen my mother look this carefree.’

  ‘Well, I hope she has good reason now.’

  She reached across the table to squeeze her son’s hand. ‘Family. That has a nice ring, doesn’t it?’

  ‘My Granny Biskup will have to give you the all clear, of course, Edward. She’s fearsome.’

  Katerina laughed. ‘He’s right, she is.’

  ‘Right, I’d better ask her permission then too. She lives here?’ Edward asked.

  ‘Yes. Milena lives on the edge of York. Peter used to get a weekend release from St Peter’s boarding school in York to live with her on Saturdays and Sundays. She likes the city.’

  ‘She doesn’t like that I’m in Durham and you’re in Paris, though,’ Peter admonished her.

  ‘Well, soon your mother will be living full-time in England so you can all spend more time together,’ Edward said. ‘Oh,’ he added, looking over their heads and moving his chair back to stand. ‘Our guest has arrived.’

  Katerina followed his gaze. The dark-haired stranger had his back turned as he shrugged off his coat, and then her view got blocked by moving waitresses.

  ‘I’ll just be a moment,’ Edward said and left the table.

  ‘Mum, who’s this?’ Peter asked conversationally.

  ‘Honestly, darling, I have no idea. That fellow can’t be much older than you, can he?’

  Peter shook his head and craned a look. ‘A couple of years at most, perhaps.’

  She sighed, not wishing to stare.

  Her son looked back at her. ‘He looks nervous.’

  She glanced across. ‘So does Edward. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.’

  Edward led the youngish fellow with the dark looks towards them. Their guest was in a suit and he straightened his tie in a freshly nervous gesture as they drew close.

  She watched as the man stepped out from behind Edward and what she saw in his face made her breath catch. Suddenly there was only their table, only their quartet; everything else in the busy tearoom felt as though it had gone as still as her chest, which trapped her voice. Emotion tumbled around her thoughts like rocks rolling down a hillside, gathering speed. Her vision seemed to close in until all she could see were the stranger’s eyes like the colours of the lake near the villa, and in one was the haunting mark … an oddity … a mote that marked him.

  She heard Edward’s voice as though he were speaking from the depths of that lake. It reached her nonetheless. ‘Katerina, this is Petr Kassowicz, your brother.’

  She stared at the man as though she was looking at him through a window pane in the rain because she was helplessly weeping as Edward threatened she might, while he told her that her father’s will had explained that Petr had been sent away on the Kindertransport.

  ‘I found him through the Red Cross and a wonderful woman whose keen memory recalled that a child using the name of Hersh Adler was actually Petr Kassowicz of Prague, whom Samuel Kassowicz handed over as a substitute when the Adler family panicked and would not give their son up.’

  ‘Our mother knew, apparently. It’s in the will documentation that Mr Summerbee unearthed,’ Petr said, in a voice that sounded so reminiscent of her father’s that she had to cover her mouth for the sobbing.

  She nodded, trying to get past the shock. ‘It explains so much about our household now.’


  ‘Mum, people are beginning to stare,’ her son remarked. ‘And how marvellous; looks like I’ve gained an uncle,’ he said kindly, standing to shake hands and then surprising Petr with a hug.

  ‘Let them stare,’ Katerina said, openly weeping, and reached for the brother she had mourned for too long.

  EPILOGUE

  LONDON

  Katerina Summerbee stood at the entrance to the dining room of the house at Lancaster Gate where everyone she loved had gathered. Edward had insisted on Christmas festivities, despite her Jewish ancestry, as a simple way to celebrate the end of a special year for Katerina that was free from fear and had produced Amálie, their daughter.

  ‘What do you think? It means beloved,’ she’d explained to Edward when he’d held his daughter for the first time in the hospital.

  ‘I think it’s an appropriately beautiful name for the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. Sorry, Katerina, I have to tell you, I love another girl as much as I love you.’

  Lavish decorations cut a sparkling trail of wreaths and acorns, holly, ivy, red berries and silver tinsel from the fireplace to the glinting candelabra above the polished table around which laughter erupted. She mentally hugged herself at the doorway, holding a fresh tray of poppyseed cakes she’d made with Milena Biskup, faithfully following a familiar recipe from Prague. Was this really her household? Look at them all talking over each other, breaking bread together, laughing so much!

  Her Christmas Eve guests included Daniel meeting her old friend Catherine for the second time, and they seemed to be getting on rather well, she thought. She hoped it might develop … Her son Peter had introduced them to Laura, his girlfriend, both finishing a big year at university, and Katerina liked that the woman Peter was so soft-eyed over seemed to be her own person. She was presently holding a serious conversation about American politics with Daniel. Good for her.

  Hilarity erupted as music suddenly boomed from the record player. It was the Beatles; John Lennon was suggesting a girl please, please him. And Edward was all over it, leaping around, demanding that Mrs Biskup dance with him. This had put her son into convulsions of laughter to see the woman he considered his grandmother shaking a leg in the grand dining room with his new stepfather. Meanwhile, Katerina noticed that Catherine was showing her brother how to sip an advocaat without pulling a face that it contained egg yolk.

  ‘No, don’t eat the cherry straight away, Petr. Save it for last,’ she was telling him.

  Peter stood to take the tray of small cakes. ‘Here, let me, Mum.’

  She smiled as she handed them to him. ‘If anyone wonders, I’m just going out for a cigarette.’

  He nodded. ‘You’ve got a few more days,’ he warned. ‘And then you stop. Think of Amálie.’

  ‘I promise. Can you check on her, darling? I know she’s sleeping but just while I’m outside.’

  Trailed by Pansy, her affectionate new companion, she stepped out into her garden via the back door of the parlour. She shivered, regretting not grabbing her coat, and lazily lit up, convincing herself she’d only take a couple of drags. She didn’t need the nicotine; she just wanted to savour the moment in her mind that life had changed so dramatically for her. She liked the way the moon’s glow lighted on the string of pearls around her, which that she could see reflected in the darkened window nearby. An early Christmas present from Edward.

  ‘I want you to have your own precious heirloom to enjoy and hand down to our daughter,’ he had murmured as he placed the cool orbs around her to fix the clasp. He had kissed the back of her neck. ‘There.’

  She’d raised her slender fingers to them, loving immediately how their serpentine quality laid a blushing trail over her clavicle to hang with a heavy pleasure in a double strand just above the rise of her breasts. She could only imagine the cost, for their nacre even in artificial light was dazzling. She touched them again now, knowing that apart from her simple wedding ring she would never need or want another piece of jewellery.

  She watched a robin land on a tree, admiring his proud scarlet chest for the seconds he perched … and then he was gone.

  Katerina turned at a sound behind her. It was Petr, smiling shyly and carrying a coat, which he helped her into. ‘You shouldn’t be out here. It’s freezing.’

  She linked arms with him. ‘No, I like it. Reminds me of home.’

  ‘Does it? I wish I knew it.’

  ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I want to take you. It’s time I returned. I’ve been thinking I need to go back. I marked their grave, you know.’

  ‘Back to the forest?’ She’d told him the terrible tale of his family.

  ‘Yes, especially there. We’ll have to get approval from all the right departments in the communist government but we must exhume them; lay them to rest properly. But also we should return to the villa, to the house in Prague … just to see them again. Edward has been busy looking into how we might settle them back into our joint names and I’d like you to see where you were born. It won’t be the same, of course, with the new government, but …’ She flicked away the cigarette.

  ‘I wish I’d known them.’

  ‘They’re here, Petr,’ she said, placing a hand on his chest over his heart. ‘You were the most beloved child in the family.’

  He looked down smiling. ‘I can’t imagine it.’

  ‘We all adored you. You were a bit poorly so you cried a lot but oh, when you laughed, we all laughed. You haven’t lost your dimples either; I can still glimpse the baby brother beneath this grown-up face,’ she said, giving his cheek a tug.

  He sighed. ‘You’ve met my foster parents —’

  ‘And there’s no doubt how much they love you,’ she reassured him. ‘I wish they’d come down to London tonight.’

  ‘They will. They’re coming around and no longer feel threatened. And the name change came through.’

  She frowned. ‘Are you struggling with it?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I love my real name. It fits me in a way that Hersh never did. Odd, isn’t it, that even as a youngster I didn’t feel that name belonged to me. Do you like Nissa?’

  ‘She’s adorable.’

  ‘I’m going to ask her to marry me.’

  She kissed the side of his head. ‘Nissa’s a wonderful girl with a superb family. You couldn’t do better. Let’s visit Prague and together we’ll build those lost years for you and then we will build a new life together. Now that I’ve found you, I will never let you go. We’ve got family again, Petr … we belong, not just to each other, but to all those people in there who love us and the ones not here – your parents, Nissa.’

  Edward appeared. ‘There you are, darling. Are you both all right?’

  They smiled, nodding.

  ‘There’s a phone call for you. Mrs Lawson took it so I’m not sure who it is.’

  ‘Right.’ She frowned. ‘Petr, tell Edward our plans for Prague. See you boys inside.’ She kissed Edward as she passed.

  She walked back through the parlour where Mrs Lawson had reappeared.

  ‘I thought you’d take it in the study, Mrs Summerbee.’

  ‘Do you know who it is?’

  ‘He said it’s a surprise.’

  ‘He?’ She frowned with a smile. ‘Thank you. Maybe tea and coffee soon?’

  ‘Coming up.’ Their housekeeper beamed.

  Katerina strolled to the study, intrigued. Who could be calling her? Maybe it was Mr Partridge trying to convince her to join them as a part-time staff member again at the museum. She was still considering his offer, now that she knew Amálie and Mrs Lawson were near inseparable and she could spare some hours to work again.

  She picked up the receiver. ‘Hello, this is Katerina.’

  ‘Hello, Katerina.’ The mellow tone triggered a feeling as though her insides had decided to do a collective somersault.

  ‘Otto!’

  ‘I hope you don’t mind me calling. Your husband contacted me.’ />
  She smiled, tearing up. ‘It’s so good to hear your voice. Did you receive my card … with the photo of Petr holding Amálie?’

  ‘He’s a fine young man and she’s beautiful. I’m so thrilled for you all. How’s Milena?’

  She laughed. ‘Currently dancing around the dining room with my husband and drinking advocaat.’ Katerina delighted in the sound of his gentle laughter at the other end. ‘Are you calling from Austria?’

  ‘No, our family is holidaying in Switzerland this year but I thought it was high time we kept our promise to have a reunion. I want to formalise our invitation – do come and visit us in Salzburg – and Edward has asked us to visit London in return; insists we all stay with you, although he will live to regret that with all the women I bring.’

  She laughed. ‘Promise me you will – all of you. And we will come early next year before the snow disappears.’

  ‘I promise.’

  There was a pause.

  ‘He’s finally gone, Otto. I mean, out of my mind completely. The Pearls are now on permanent display at the British Museum – a donation from the Kassowicz family to the world.’

  ‘I’m proud of you, Katerina, and there’s a little gift under the tree for you from me. I know you don’t celebrate Christmas but your husband does and he said he’d be delighted to have it wrapped up.’

  ‘Oh, you didn’t have to.’

  ‘I wanted to. Anyway, don’t let me keep you from your family and festivity. We shall see each other in the new year, for sure.’

  ‘I will hold you to that.’

  ‘Well, lots of love to you and yours,’ he said. ‘I really am so very happy for you and this lovely life ahead.’

  She didn’t want him to know she was crying to hear his tender voice. ‘Thank you,’ she managed to ease out without her voice breaking.

  ‘Bye, Katerina.’ The line went dead and she stood there for a second, gathering herself back from memories.

  She felt arms around her waist and a soft kiss at her neck. She turned in the embrace to face the man she loved now and always would.