The Butterfly and the Violin Read Online Free PDF Page A

thinks you shouldn’t play with your injuries. You risk infection or even permanent damage if the stitches come loose.”
    Vladimir’s hazel eyes almost stared through her. He looked tired. For how upbeat he was attempting to appear, she could see now that he was exhausted. And worried. Though they’d beenthrough a close call the night before, he looked like he was concerned about the cuts on her palms more than anything else.
    “I must play,” Adele admitted, forcing a smile and shrugging her shoulders a bit. “I have no choice. My father expects me—no, he demands that I play. ‘It’s for Austria!’ he says. He’d never allow me to miss a performance, especially not one as important as this.”
    “Adele, you don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation.” A lock of dark hair fell across one of his eyes as he leaned in toward her.
    She wished their world were different, wished she could brush the lock away from his face whenever she pleased. But in what world could someone of her family’s position offer their daughter’s hand to a merchant’s son, no matter how gifted he was musically? No matter how much she cared? Their relationship would have to stay secret.
    “I understand. I saw the same things you did last night. I know what is happening, Vladimir.” She choked on the emotion of the night before. “I know what the risks are.”
    “No, you don’t, Adele. You couldn’t possibly.”
    Adele was confident she wasn’t misreading the compassion in his eyes as he looked over her bandaged palms. He still thought her innocent, didn’t he? And shielded. And unaware of what occurred outside of the perfectly arranged life her parents had created for her.
    But all of that was gone now. In the blink of an eye, everything had changed.
    “I put you at risk by coming here, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to know if you were all right . . .” Vladimir’s voice trailed off, as if the truth was too difficult to admit. “The Gestapo has questioned my father. I believe we’re all being followed.”
    “No.” Adele whispered the single word, shaking her head, knowing full well what it meant. They’d landed their sights on him as a possible traitor to the Reich.
    “And the doctor? What about his family?”
    He shook his head. “They have not come to question him, thank God. They have no reason to tie him to me.” He glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “But his wife pressures him.”
    She almost couldn’t breathe. “To turn us in?”
    “She’s scared,” he answered, looking a bit scared now himself.
    “She wants us to leave, then?”
    He nodded and began gathering the things that had been set upon a nearby chair. He shoved bandage rolls in his coat pockets. “We can only stay a few moments. We have to get you home and somehow sneak you in before breakfast. If you call for the staff to bring a tray to your room, you’ll be able to hide your bandages. You couldn’t do that at a dining table.”
    “I feigned a headache as an excuse from dinner last night. I can carry that over to this morning.”
    “Good.” He lifted her coat from the back of the chair and stopped when the bloodstains were washed in the soft morning light.
    “You can’t wear this home. We’ll have to get you another.” Vladimir turned his attention to the hall before he whispered, “I wonder if his daughter has an extra one.”
    “And are you going to play tonight?”
    He turned back, giving her a forced smile. “I think playing the cello for Austria is the least of my worries right now.”
    “If you’re there, then I think I could play.” Adele held up her hands. “Despite this, I think I could do it if I knew you were across the stage from me.”
    Thoughts of the upcoming victory ball were about as far away as one could get from the bloodshed she’d witnessed. Adele had no idea how they could go back to ball gowns and flutes of bubbly champagne. The luxury of the night ahead made her feel sick