Eva Ibbotson - Madensky Square

‘Well, she’ll just grow up with the others, surely, in the best possible home. Your husband doesn’t have to trouble with her if he doesn’t want to. She’ll have enough love from you and the girls.’

Frau Schumacher shook her head and lay back on the pillow. ‘It’s not my fault,’ she murmured. ‘The doctor explained that. It’s not my fault and it’s not his; it’s just a thing that happens, but Albert’ll never see that.’ And she began to sob again.

I went over to the bassinet and pulled aside the curtains. The baby lay deep in sleep. She had a beautifully shaped head, a warm peach-coloured skin, a retroussé nose.

Then she turned her head a little and I saw that one cheek was entirely covered by a livid crimson birthmark.

I let the curtain fall and returned to the bed.

‘Your husband doesn’t know?’

She shook her head. ‘He just marched out of the house as soon as he heard it was a girl. I wouldn’t let the doctor tell him — I wanted to do it myself. But now I can’t… ’ She began to cry again. ‘It’s awful how much I love this child already and I cannot bear it if he… if…’

‘You must tell him as soon as he comes in.’

‘Frau Susanna.’ She raised herself up on the pillow. ‘Would you tell him? That’s why I asked you to come. He admires you so much. “If Frau Susanna wasn’t a virtuous woman you’d have to look to your laurels,” he keeps on saying. It’s that first moment when he turns away from her or rages and says God is punishing him. I didn’t mind with the others, but I cannot bear it for this child.’

Do you know where he is?’

‘No I don’t, not for certain. He was at the Central about seven because someone saw him, but he may have moved on.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll find him, and I’ll tell him. Just rest now; just sleep.’

Herr Schumacher was not in the Central. He had been there and the proprietor remembered him well, and the party of sympathizers with which he’d been surrounded.

‘Seven daughters, poor gentleman,’ he said — and recoiled from my basilisk glare.

He was not in the Blue Boar either, but in the Regina the trail grew warm again. An inebriated gentleman, supported by two friends, had lurched past half an hour earlier, asking the passers-by what he had done to deserve his fate.

‘He went on about goldfish, too. Someone had killed his goldfish,’ said the landlord. ‘He went off towards the Graben. You could try the Three Hussars.’

And in that ancient hostelry full of antlers and oak panelling I found him. He was sitting between his faithful henchmen, the bank manager and the dentist, the centre of a veritable Pieta. Herr Schumacher’s moustaches were limp with grief, glasses and a half empty bottle of wine littered the table. The dentist’s heavy hand lay on the stricken father’s arm; the bank manager’s pince-nez glittered as he shook a commiserating head.

‘Good evening.’

‘Frau… Susanna!’ Herr Schumacher recognized me, tried to rise.

‘Herr Schumacher, I have just come from your house.’

‘Eh… what?’ Tipsily he pulled out a chair which I ignored. ‘Is there anything wrong? My wife’s all right?’

‘Physically she’s all right. Emotionally she’s not. She is very much upset.’

‘Well, yes; anyone would be. I’m very much upset… my friends are too.’ He waved his arm at his companions, knocking over a glass. ‘I’ll have to take in my brother’s boy from Graz now. It’s a disaster; its —’

I now lost my temper.

‘Herr Schumacher, you make me ashamed to be a human being. Your daughter has a large birthmark on her right cheek. It is a serious and permanent blemish with which she will have to live. Your wife is exhausted and wretched — and you sit here like a sot; drooling with self-pity and drinking with your so-called friends.’

‘What…? What did you say?’ He sat down heavily. ‘A birthmark? A big one, you say.’

‘Yes.’

The dentist had now grasped the nature of the calamity. ‘Hey, that’s terrible, Schumacher. Terrible! Not just a girl but disfigured!’

‘Dreadful, quite dreadful,’ murmured the bank manager. ‘You’ll have her on your hands all your life.’

Herr Schumacher shook his head, trying to surface from his drunkenness. ‘You say she’s healthy?’ he demanded. ‘The baby?’

‘Yes, she’s perfectly healthy. In fact she’s a very sweet baby otherwise. She has the most distinguished eyebrows.’

‘Still, if she’s got a strawberry mark no one’ll look at her. Or rather everyone’ll look at her!’ The dentist, still bent on consolation, tried to put an arm round Herr Schumacher’s shoulders.

The arm was removed. Herr Schumacher rose and managed to stay upright. ‘Idiot!’ he spat at the dentist. ‘Half-wit!’ He opened his mouth very wide and jabbed a finger at one of his back molars. ‘Do you see that tooth? You filled it a month ago and since then I’ve had nothing but trouble! Every time I drink something hot it’s like a dagger!’

‘Come, come Schumacher,’ said the bank manager. ‘He was only trying to —’

Herr Schumacher swung round to confront his comforter.

‘And you shut up too or I’ll knock you down. I’m surprised you’ve got the nerve to look me in the face! Two per cent on a simple loan with collaterals! Two per cent!’

He threw some money down on the table, staggered to the coat rack, jammed his hat on his head.

I had kept the cab waiting. The night air revived Herr Schumacher, but only partially, as he alternated between threats to knock down the bank manager and the dentist, and inquiries about his daughter’s health.

I had intended to leave him by the front door but Lisl looked at me so beseechingly that I accompanied him upstairs.

‘Where is she?’ demanded the new father, blundering into the bedroom.

‘There, Albert.’

Herr Schumacher strode over to the cot.

‘Lift her out!’ he bade me — and I took the swaddled bundle and carried it over to the light.

‘Give her to me!’ he commanded.

Frau Schumacher and I exchanged glances. He was still not entirely steady on his feet. I motioned him to a chair, laid the baby across his lap, and stood by in case of accidents.

Herr Schumacher stared intently at his daughter’s face. I had placed her deliberately full in the light and the livid mark showed up very clearly.

Then he began to talk to her: ‘Well, well, my pretty, that’s nothing to worry about! No, no, that’s nothing to bother you and me. You just wait till you’re riding with your father in a great carriage through the Prater.’ He bent down, laid one finger on the blemished cheek and began to make the foolish, clucking noises that drooling women make to little children. ‘We’ll have such times together, you’ll see! We’ll take a sailboat down the river and I’ll show you how to catch fish. And on Sundays we’ll go out to tea at Demels — just the two of us!’

And while he inexpertly joggled and tickled his youngest daughter, the blessed baby just lay there without a murmur, accepting it all — and presently Herr Schumacher informed us that she had little fingernails, his mother’s nose — and eyebrows.

Frau Sultzer’s court case is coming up next week. The university is suing her for trespass and damage to property — and indeed the rats she has released all over the building look damaged. Those that have been seen, appearing from time to time in the Academic Board Room or the cloakrooms, have that wet look which is never a good sign in rodents, and their pink eyes are glazed and dull.

Unfortunately, her notoriety has gone to Frau Sultzer’s head. Notices saying Silence! Frau Sultzer is reading Schopenhauer have been replaced by notices saying Silence! Frau Sultzer is preparing her defence. Actually, the person who is preparing her defence is poor Rudi, along with the lawyer he has called in and to whom he is paying a lot of money, but the Group is very much excited by the whole business and the lady who accompanied Laura on the back of the tandem on the historic ride to the University is much grieved that she is not appearing in court also.