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what the tutors told them. But Ruth’s grandmother had died in the camps. Her grandfather, who had barely escaped Prussia with his life to join his son in England before the invasion, had spoken in great detail of starvation, of men and women and children rounded up and shipped like cattle in boxcars to workhouses and to murder factories.
    So she held on to that, to the memory of her Zayde’s toes nipped-off from frostbite, and it was easier to remember that everything Herr Professor Schroeder told them about the master race and their special place in the world was horrible lies. It helped her smile to him, and lie right back with conviction.
    Whatever Herr Professor Schroeder thought about Ruth being the ringleader, it was Adele who made sure they were up and dressed, faces and hands cold-water scrubbed and their hair combed wet and braided tightly back before sunrise. So when the crisp knock came on their door, Ruth could simply open it and step through, ready for duty.
Rebecca, the maid who had come to awaken them, was too well-disciplined to betray either surprise or satisfaction at their preparedness. It was, Ruth thought, a skill she should also cultivate.
    „Miss Krupps is expecting you,” Rebecca said. She was no older than Ruth, but a servant rather than a student—brown-haired and weak-chinned, with the watery eyes and transparent complexion of a true Englishwoman. She raised a flickering taper in a copper holder beside her face. There was no economy in using electric lights for one servant to walk up the back stairs and collect two disgraced girls from their dormitory.
    „Thank you,” Adele answered. „Are you to show us down?”
    „As you wish, Miss.”
    Single file, they descended the servant’s stair, another mark of disapproval.
    Miss Krupps was the housekeeper, and Ruth thought her as tidy and complete as a cat. She even looked rather
like a cat, green-eyed under her soft steel-gray bun, with a tendency to tuck away stray tendrils of hair as if grooming her whiskers and ears. She was soft-spoken and considerate and Ruth also thought no one with the slightest trace of common sense ever would care to see her anything but
soft-spoken and considerate. Some people wore their
authority with a booming voice and a swagger. And some wore it as if it were a veil—weightless, seemingly inconsequential, but always present.
    Miss Krupps was wearing that authority as she stood waiting, aprons in hand, until Rebecca delivered Adele and Ruth unto her. „You’ve left your pistols in your room,” she said, disapproving.
    Ruth, tying off her apron, said, „Yes, Miss Krupps. We thought they would only be in the way.”
    Miss Krupps frowned. „Tomorrow, you’ll wear them. What is your duty?”
    Ruth and Adele answered in unison, „It is our duty at
all times to be ready to defend the Homeland and the
Chancellor, Miss Krupps.”
    Sternly, the housekeeper nodded. „Today, you may take extra marksmanship practice over the lunch hour to correct the oversight.”
    Adele frowned at Ruth. Ruth, with an effort, managed not to return the grimace. Short sleep and no luncheon, then, in addition to the extra work. „Yes, Miss Krupps,” Ruth said, while Adele echoed her a half-beat behind.
    Adele added, „We’re sorry, Miss Krupps,” and somehow managed to sound as if she meant it, though Miss Krupps studied them each by turn, gaze intent under an unpersuaded brow.
    Finally, she nodded and turned away. „You won’t permit it to happen again. You’ll find scrub brushes, paring knives, and potatoes on the drain board. Please dice the potatoes for Bauernfrüstück, and let me know when they are done so I can have you start on the onions.”
    Ruth tried to keep her expression ladylike and serene, as Herr Professor preferred, but she was afraid she glowered at Miss Krupps’ back for a moment too long. Adele saw the glare; Rut knew because Adele tugged Ruth’s elbow and moved her towards the big sink full of cold