The Star of Kazan

Hermann sighed. ‘No, Mother. I want to paint pictures. I want to go to Paris and study to be a great painter. Karl-Gottlieb is going to live there. You remember KarlGottlieb? He wrote and told me what kind of tooth mugs I had to bring to St Xavier’s. He was the only one who tried to help me.’ Hermann faltered, then went on in a low voice. ‘When I first came the other boys pushed me on to the ledge outside the dormitory window and shut me out. It was very narrow and very high up – three floors. You had to stand there all night and not make a sound. It was a test . . . an initiation. But after a few hours I got giddy and I was sure I was going to fall . . . and I called out and shouted, and a teacher came and let me in again. After that none of the boys would speak to me. Except for KarlGottlieb. Then he ran away. Even though his father’s a field marshal and very high up. When he’d gone they used to hang me from the hooks on the cloakroom wall and pretend to charge me with their bayonets.’ Hermann’s voice shook.

Edeltraut tried to take this in. She had thought of anything except that her son would turn out to be a coward. ‘You’re being quite ridiculous, Hermann. No von Tannenberg has ever been a painter.’

‘Then I will be the first. Karl-Gottlieb has a sister who has a studio in Paris – she’s very modern – and she would help us. We think we could find some more people to join us and then we could become a famous group of artists.’

‘Hermann, you’re mad. There have always been von Tannenbergs at Spittal. Always.’

‘Yes, I know. But if you sold Spittal there would be enough money to pay for our painting lessons, and you could come and have a flat near us. We’d let you attend our exhibitions and everything.’

Edletraut tried to gather herself together. ‘My poor boy, you have lost your reason. There have been von Tannenbergs at Spittal since—’

Hermann put a hand on her arm. ‘I know, Mother,’ he said patiently, and she saw that a little colour had returned to his face. ‘I know there have always been von Tannenbergs at Spittal. But that doesn’t mean that there have to go on being von Tannenbergs at Spittal. You must see that. Karl-Gottlieb says there have been von Tannenbergs at Spittal for long enough, and I entirely agree with him.’

Three weeks later, Annika came downstairs to find a letter from Gudrun, who wanted Annika to send her some more kerchiefs like the one she’d give her at Felsenheim and a snood for her hair.

There has been a terrible row here, she wrote. Hermann came home – he’s been expelled and he’s going to Paris and Aunt Edeltraut is going with him. She tried to make my father come too, but he said there was nothing to shoot in Paris except people so he’s staying with us. Mama won’t speak to Aunt Edeltraut ever again, she says, because of trying to take away her husband and also because she thought you really were her niece and she had got fond of you, though I can’t see how Aunt Edeltraut could have known that they gave her the wrong birth certificate.

Spittal has been sold to a man who makes saucepans. He made Aunt Edeltraut sell him the family crest too, the one about ‘Stand Aside, Ye Vermin Who Oppose Us’, because there are people who pretend to make better saucepans than him and they are vermin, he said.

He’s very rich and has a son who is a bit older than me. Of course I couldn’t ever marry anybody who is lowly born – at least I don’t think I could – but he is very handsome. I suppose you couldn’t send me a lace collar like the one you had on your brown velvet dress as well? We don’t seem to have any money for clothes again, but Papa says we won’t have to dig a bear pit, at least not yet.

With best wishes,

Gudrun.

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