Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray(32)

“I suppose it could be nice,” Sophie admitted.

“You see?” Hanna beamed.



* * *



Before bed, Sophie read her book of fairy tales. They were comforting and she had need of comfort just now. Her father passed by and saw the lamp burning. “You should be asleep, Liebchen.”

“Papa? What if the Gestapo come for you?”

Her father sat at the foot of the bed. “It’s not me you have to worry about. It’s others.”

“But what if?”

“Sometimes, Liebchen, you must take a stand even if it makes you an outcast. What the Nazis are doing is wrong. They are not planting a future, they are only planting hate. And if we know that something is wrong and say nothing, do nothing? Then we are also sinning.”

“But as Christians, don’t we have to forgive them?”

Her father bowed his head as he did when he was thinking deeply about something. “Grace is the provenance of God. Forgiveness is human. But for there to be forgiveness, there must first be atonement.”

“Hanna wants me to go to the rally.”

“I see. What do you want to do?”

Sophie didn’t want to disappoint Hanna, but she didn’t want to disappoint her parents, either. “I don’t know.”

Sophie’s papa sat for a moment longer. He kissed her forehead. “Well, Priestess of the Norn, sleep on it, hmmm?”



* * *



For several days, it rained heavily, putting a stop to any adventures in the forest. Sophie fretted that the letters from the von der Trottels would go unanswered and that the brothers would think them fickle, or worse, that someone else could intercept their letters and write back, and Hanna and Sophie would lose their chance at true love. As soon as the sun showed again, Sophie shouted to Hanna through her open window. Hanna appeared, her uniform clean and pressed and her hair tightly braided.

“When can you get away to the forest?” Sophie asked.

“I can’t. I’m leaving for the rally,” Hanna said a bit coolly.

Sophie had told Hanna that she hadn’t been able to get her parents’ permission to attend, but it was a lie and she feared that Hanna could smell the falsehood on her.

“I could check for us—if you like?” Sophie said. The girls never went to the forest without each other. It was an unspoken rule. But Hanna would be gone for a week and Sophie couldn’t wait that long.

“Do what you like,” Hanna said, and left Sophie at the window without so much as a goodbye.

That afternoon, Sophie rode out to the forest. She inched slowly up the rickety ladder, her limbs shaking with nerves. Inside the knothole were quite a few letters from other lonely hearts, and Sophie’s worst fears fluttered up. What if someone else had already claimed the brothers? She fished out one more letter and there it was! It was from Tomas and it was addressed only to Sophie, not Hanna.

My Darling Sophie,

I write to you alone as Hans must see to the milking of the cows. I sense a deep bond between the two of us, one forged by an ancient magic. My days are consumed with my yearning to be with you. I know deep within my soul that your beauty is as a diamond, perhaps not yet seen by others, but only awaiting the sun to fully shine. Please write to me and send me some trinket as a fond remembrance of you.

Yours, Tomas von der Trottel

Sophie read the letter over several times. No one had ever seen her this way before. No one had ever called her beautiful. It was like eating something sweet and warm on a gray winter’s day, and she only wanted more. But what to do about Hanna? Would she be very upset that Tomas had written only to Sophie? Worst of all was how pleased Sophie felt to be the chosen one for once. Perhaps Hanna didn’t have to know. Sophie could simply say there had been no letter. But that was lying and lying was a sin, she knew. Lying to your best friend was surely the worst of all sins. Not to write back to Tomas was rude, though, wasn’t it? “Tell me what to do,” Sophie said to the forest, and leaned against the oak. And then she knew. She grabbed her pencil and stationery.

Dear Tomas,

I also write to you alone as my dear friend Hanna has been called away on urgent business. But I do hope that Hans will write to her soon. She is a very worthy person and he would be foolish not to pursue her love.

There. That was making things clear. Her guilt appeased, she continued:

I am sorry that I am not more eloquent…, she wrote, using a word she’d read in a novel. She hoped it made her sound smart. Though I do read quite a lot. Do you read? I do not wish to imagine a world without books! As a token of my faith, I am enclosing my barrette. May you keep it with you and think of me often.

Now she was at a loss. Hanna was much more knowledgeable about boys and their desires and how to appeal to them. As herself, Sophie felt woefully out of step. What could she say that would make her seem worldly and sophisticated and not on the cusp of fifteen? She’d overheard some women gossiping once. One of the women had said to her friends, “If you want to make a man happy, say hello to his mouth, hello to his neck, then say hello to his Schwanz.” The other women had cackled uproariously and agreed. Sophie didn’t know what that meant but it must be good if it made men happy. So she wrote, I will say hello to your mouth, then to your neck, then to your Schwanz. Sincerely, Sophie Muller.

There. Hanna couldn’t accuse her of being babyish now. She tucked her letter into the tree’s hollowed heart, blessed it with the seidr wand, and waited.