The Star and the Shamrock

by Jean Grainger

  Liesl fixed the veil on Elizabeth’s head as Elizabeth got out of the car at the farm and smoothed her long-sleeved, fitted dress of ivory lace and silk. It wasn’t her style really – she would have chosen something much plainer – but she knew it was what her mother wore when she married her father back in 1900. She had seen it in the photograph on the mantelpiece.

  In the weeks during her convalescence, she read and reread the cards her mother had written, many of them mentioning her late husband in tones of affection. Elizabeth knew she would never understand her mother, but there was more to the woman than she first thought. She would have loved just five minutes more with her – she had so many questions, so much to say. She was happy to wear her mother’s wedding dress; it made her parents feel a bit closer.

  The courtyard had been swept and the ramshackle collection of outbuildings was transformed. Everything had been painted white, and the lawns around the main buildings were lushly green, the sky was blue but there was a biting cold breeze. Levi actually had a smile on his face for once as he helped her out of the car.

  Elizabeth turned to her young bridesmaid. ‘Well? Shall we do this?’

  Liesl looked beautiful in a dark-green satin dress Elizabeth had made for her out of an old one of Margaret’s they’d found upstairs. She was blossoming into a young woman now, and for the millionth time, Elizabeth wished her mother and father could see what a wonderful girl she had become.

  Liesl had even helped Daniel stage his proposal. The day Elizabeth came home from the hospital, using a cane as her ankle and knee were still weak, he collected her. She felt Dr Emerson was keeping her longer than was necessary, so proud was he of what he’d managed to do, and she finally had to demand to be released. He looked quite crestfallen as she departed.

  Erich and Liesl were at home, and Liesl remembered how her mother would make lebkuchen, traditional German frosted gingerbread, for special occasions. Daniel managed to source the ingredients, or close variations anyway, and they’d made a batch of cookies together. He’d even found a bottle of wine. They’d also made a chicken casserole, and it all smelled marvellous.

  She was delighted to be home. The children led her to the sofa, took her coat and gave her a glass of wine and a cookie. Erich put a footstool under her feet and a cushion behind her back. Miraculously, the glass had even been fixed in her windows.

  ‘The whole house looks and smells amazing. Oh, I’ve missed you so much.’

  Daniel had disappeared, and the children chatted happily with her as she sipped her wine and ate her cookie. Though Daniel had brought them to visit her every second day, it wasn’t the same as being home with them.

  She was laughing at some story Erich had about Mr Morris trying to get his budgie, Firebolt, to sing, but stopped in her tracks as Daniel came into the room. His bulk filled the doorway, and he had changed his clothes.

  He took her breath away. In a pale-blue shirt and dark trousers, his hair brushed back off his face, he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

  Before she could say anything, Daniel crossed the room, got down on one knee and produced a small box.

  He opened it, and there on the black velvet was the most exquisite ring. Not a traditional diamond, but lots of different coloured metals wound around each other, and in the centre was a piece of black marble, polished till it shone. It was the most incredible thing she’d ever seen.

  ‘My beautiful Elizabeth, and Liesl and Erich – I want to ask all of you, since you are already a family – will you marry me?’

  She looked first to Liesl, whose eyes were bright with tears. The girl gave a small nod. And then to Erich, who pleaded, ‘Please say yes, Elizabeth! Then we’ll be like a proper family.’

  She turned back to Daniel. ‘I would love to marry you, Daniel.’

  ‘You will?’ he asked, almost afraid to believe it. ‘I don’t have anything, as you know, and I’ll buy you a proper ring after the war. But I had to make you this one for now… I hope it’s enough…’

  She slipped the incredible piece of jewellery on her ring finger. ‘I will never want another ring to the day I die. It is beautiful, thank you.’

  Gently, so as not to hurt her healing leg, he helped her stand. He drew Liesl and Erich into the embrace as well, and then, to Erich’s loud disgust, he kissed Elizabeth deeply.

  They decided to ask Rabbi Frank to marry them. She wasn’t a practising Catholic, and the Jewish faith meant a lot to Daniel and the children.

  The whole village and everyone at the farm had been invited to the wedding, and as she straightened her dress, she could see that the new building, which served as a meeting house and a synagogue, where everyone had worked tirelessly for weeks to have it ready for the wedding, was full to capacity.

  The Jewish women on the farm explained what she would do. Her marriage to Rudi all those years ago had been in the registry office, so this was her first Jewish wedding.

  Daniel would stand beneath the chuppah, or canopy, and she was to circle him three times. According to tradition, this symbolised the three virtues of marriage, but Ruth joked it was to make sure you knew what you were getting.

  She had found her mother’s wedding band and had it sized up for Daniel, though men wearing wedding rings wasn’t exactly traditional, he said he would like one. They would then exchange their rings with the vow, ‘I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.’

  Then, to legalise the wedding Daniel would say, in Hebrew, ‘Behold you are sanctified to me with this ring, according to the law of Moses and Israel.’

  Finally, once the rabbi blessed the marriage, Daniel would smash a glass with his right foot to shouts of mazel tov, and then they were married. She couldn’t wait.

  To see the entire population of Ballycreggan gathered to wish them well delighted her. These people opened their hearts and their homes, and in return, they were offered friendship and support by the refugees.

  The community on the farm worked day and night to rebuild the village after the raid. In this world of chaos and hatred and violence, it felt like a little oasis of peace and love.

  The ceremony went by in a blink, and soon they were pronounced man and wife.

  ‘And now it is time for yichud,’ the rabbi announced, and Elizabeth saw some of the younger adults in the Jewish community give a smirk. Ruth had warned her that this was also part of the marriage ceremony, but she thought the other woman was only joking. Apparently, it was the done thing for the couple to be left alone for a little while, before the feasting and celebrating began, to consummate their marriage. Elizabeth was mortified, but Daniel just chuckled.

  The rabbi led them away to a room off the main room, which had been decorated with drapes of different colours and a chaise longue she recognised as having once inhabited the waiting room of Dr Parsons.

  The rabbi withdrew, and Elizabeth wanted the ground to open and swallow her. She said as much to her new husband.

  ‘Don’t worry – it is just part of the ceremony. We don’t need to do anything.’ He put his arms around her. ‘I have arranged for Liesl and Erich to stay here tonight. They are excited to stay with their friends, and you and I are going to go back to your house –’

  ‘Our house,’ she corrected him.

  ‘All right.’ He smiled. ‘Our house, and we will make love all night with nobody watching or listening. How does that sound?’ He nuzzled her neck, and she felt her body instantly respond to him.

  ‘We could do that,’ she whispered in his ear, ‘and we should, but now that we’re here and the door is locked…’

  He chuckled again, that gorgeous deep-throated sound that came from low in his chest. ‘Mrs Lieber, are you suggesting that we do what is expected of yichud, with everyone waiting outside?’

  ‘I think I am.’ And she met his eager lips with hers.

  Epilogue

  The woman waited until she was sure the entire household was asleep. She had promised Frau Braun that she would not stir during the day, not
even a muscle, in case she was heard. The frau’s son was home from the front on leave and two lodgers were constantly coming and going. She lay on the sacking and recited poems, alternating languages in her head. Sometimes, she thought she was going mad, but then she would focus on two little faces, a boy and a girl, and she knew that no matter what it took, she would do it to see them again.

  She didn’t even dare open the precious bundle of letters and cards she kept under the cushion she used as a pillow. She had to wait until night-time to open them, and by then it was hard to see, but she didn’t care. They were torn on the creases, so often had she read them. Every two weeks, she got a new one.

  She and Frau Braun had a code. She could see the light going off on the landing through the crack in the attic floor. That meant it was safe. Everyone was sleeping. If Herr Braun knew she was up there, he would turn her in for sure, but so far, so good. She had no idea how long it had been now – years definitely, but how many she didn’t know as she’d lost count. She never moved all day, not even to go to the toilet, and at night she crept to where Frau Braun left her a little bread, sometimes a bit of vegetable soup and some water. And every two weeks, a letter. When she’d eaten and gone to the toilet in the bucket, she would sit under the tiny window with her letters and look up at the moon and the stars, knowing her children were safe, loved and happy.

  The End.

  Afterword

  I sincerely hope you enjoyed this book. I certainly loved writing it, though the research was harrowing. It gave me a new appreciation for the bravery and sacrifice of those parents who handed their children to strangers in the desperate hope of them being safe.

  I was inspired to write it one day as I waited for a friend in Liverpool Street Station in London beside the commemorative statue of the Kindertransport. As a parent I cannot imagine the wrench of handing your little ones over, and it is a testament to the all-powerful love a parent has for their child as well as the goodness of ordinary people in extraordinary times, that so many lives were saved.

  If you would like to know more about my books, hear about special offers or to download a free full-length novel, pop along to my website www.jeangrainger.com where you can join my readers club. It is free and always will be, and you can unsubscribe any time.

  If you did enjoy this book I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads or Bookbub. I read every single one.

  Le grá,

  Jean Grainger

  Cork 2019

  About the Author

  Jean Grainger is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and historical Irish fiction. She lives in County Cork with her husband, the youngest two of her four children, and two micro-dogs called Scrappy and Scoobie. Her older two children come home with laundry and to raid the fridge.

  The Star and the Shamrock is her fourteenth novel.

  Also by Jean Grainger

  The Tour

  Safe at the Edge of the World

  The Story of Grenville King

  The Homecoming of Bubbles O’Leary

  What Once Was True

  Return to Robinswood

  So Much Owed

  Shadow of a Century

  Under Heaven’s Shining Stars

  Letters of Freedom

  The Future’s Not Ours To See

  What Will Be

  Catriona’s War