Free The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones Page B

Fleischmann, that she made every effort to make this a pleasant visit for his daughter and her husband.
    “Then all went well?” Josef inquired.
    “From what I could see,” Hanna replied, “but you understand I’m just the maid. I didn’t join them at the party.”
    “Someday you will,” Josef said seriously, and she shot him a look of genuine doubt. “Oh, yes, little girl,” he replied shaking a finger at her, “someday you will have a wealthy husband, and you will entertain your own guests, you’ll be invited to grand parties. Perhaps your husband will cover you with jewels,” he added with a grin.
    Hanna liked this idea and she smiled at the thought. “Young Helene’s husband, Herr Kaufmann, is a handsome man, and the little boy is named the same as his father. They call him Little Jakob. He’s just over a year—so sweet.”
    “You like children?” Josef asked.
    “Yes, of course. I come from a big family.” Hanna thought of how resentful she’d felt over her stepmother’s demands that she watch after the younger children, but she missed Leni, and she especially missed little Peter. It had been fun having a child in the house during the Kaufmanns’ visit. Frau Fleischmann, and thus Hanna, had spent as much time with Little Jakob as Young Helene would allow. Hanna could see her mistress would have loved a child of her own.
    Everything about this visit—the potential of tension between stepmother and stepdaughter, the little boy—made Hanna think all the more about her impending return home for Christmas.
    “I’m rather nervous about going home,” she confessed to Josef. He was an attentive listener and he offered good advice when she had a problem. “I haven’t written my father,” she explained. “He sent a letter addressed to Käthe, and his biggest concern appeared to be my lack of consideration in leaving during the busiest time of the year, right before the harvest, before the cattle were brought down from the highlands. And Gerta, my stepmother—she’s a witch,” Hanna added with a shaky laugh. “So, I’m not sure how it will all go when Käthe and I return home. I’m not even sure that I should go. Sometimes I feel more at home here in Munich with the Fleischmanns. Maybe I should just stay here.”
    “What?” Josef squealed. “And celebrate the birth of Christ with your new Jewish family? No, no, no, little girl, you must go home.” Hanna knew that Josef was Jewish, too, that he didn’t celebrate Christmas, and she knew he was right—she had to go.
    “And gifts!” he said, raising his arms in the air dramatically. “You must take gifts for everyone.”
    Hanna laughed. “Do you think this will make everything fine with Father?”
    “It couldn’t make things worse,” he said with a sympathetic smile. “Take the old witch a pretty gift from the city. Show your father how well you are doing.”
    Hanna had tucked away the money she’d earned at the studio, because she didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing. Even Käthe was unaware of how Hanna passed her afternoons while Frau Fleischmann napped. She certainly had money for gifts.
    “You’ve been to the Christmas market?” Josef asked. He pulled paper from his desk, drew a map, and handed it to Hanna, then placed several marks to show her where to find the best stalls.
    The following afternoon, she took off as soon as Frau Fleischmann was asleep and, based on Josef’s instructions, as well as her nose, she easily found the market. The air was thick with the sweet perfume of pines, decorated lavishly with candles, cranberry strings, cookies, popcorn, and handmade ornaments. The scent of gingerbread mingled with the smell of the woods brought into the city to celebrate the holidays and reminded her of home. Hanna wandered through rows and rows of merchants’ booths, selecting a colorful marionette for Peter, a china doll for Dora, musical boxes for Leni, Käthe, and their stepmother. For her older brothers