The Witch of Cologne

‘No, child, we’re here to take you back home to Amsterdam. But you must be a good boy and keep quiet all the while, until we are inside the coach.’

‘I have been brave. You will be proud of me. But where’s Uncle?’

‘Uncle is sleeping and we have to be very quiet so as not to wake him, mein Ayzer,’ Ruth whispers, aching with love as the warm smell of Jacob’s sleepy body encompasses her.

Detlef wraps his son in the blanket and picks him up. As he does, the leather thread around his neck breaks and Ruth’s amulet slips off unnoticed, its fall broken by the soft pallet. The boy curls up against his father’s shoulder, his hot arms winding around Detlef’s cool neck. Led by La Grande, the three make their way along the wooden landing and down the servants’ stairs to the back door.

Alphonso, stripped of his costume but still in the horsehair wig, stands waiting for them.

‘The count sleeps but the hemlock will soon wear off. You must hurry, there is a cart beyond the city gates.’

The skinny performer arches his body then executes a few sharp dance steps in the vain attempt to warm himself. The straw hat slips rakishly over his head as the empty street echoes with his tapping feet. Suddenly he stops, remembering that he is not meant to be drawing attention to himself and the ramshackle cart beside him. Those were Alphonso’s instructions: wait for them at the gates, look like a dumb farmer from south of the Rhine, be prepared to drive as far as the Dutch border and there’d be an extra twenty Reichstaler in it and a better role in the next production. Cheered by the thought of a major part, perhaps even that of a heroine, the ungainly performer—far better suited to comedy—slouches into instant anonymity.

‘Hugo!’

He swings around at the sound of his name, a pencil-thin fool spinning like a maypole in the dawn mist.

Alphonso, followed by La Grande then a woman and a man carrying a child, emerges from the shadows. ‘Anyone see you?’ the actor asks anxiously, peering down the Roman wall that leads out of the city towards the west.

‘Nothing but the owls and a few drunks who thought I was the rat catcher,’ Hugo replies, pulling idiot faces at the sleepy child who finally laughs much to the clown’s delight.

Detlef examines the simple cart, a mere frame covered by sackcloth. Stinking of pig shit, it resembles the roughest of animal transport. ‘They are to travel in this?’

Alphonso lifts the sackcloth. Inside is a comfortable pallet; blankets and a basket of fruit and cheese sit in the corner.

‘The pig shit is a decoy, to deter the curious. Trust me, you shall be in Holland by nightfall.’

‘Not I—my wife and child.’

Behind Detlef, Ruth moans involuntarily, her deepest fear realised. Horrified, she steps forward. ‘Husband, you must come with us.’

Detlef hands the sleepy child to her. ‘Take Jacob, I will join you later.’

She looks at him blankly, not fully understanding. ‘That was not the plan.’ A terrible sensation of déjà vu reverberates through her, the way Detlef is looking at her now, his eyes full of love yet determined.

‘Ruth, I have to stay. There is much I must resolve with my brother.’

‘Have you lost your reason? He took our child! Do not let him take you as well. You must leave with us now, you must.’

‘If I leave now I will be betraying everything I have fought for, I will be denying the possibility of redemption. He is my brother. I cannot leave without an explanation. It will not take a moment and it will be comfort for a lifetime. I shall be safe, my love. I will join you in less than half a day. Wait for me at the border.’

‘Detlef, no! I fear…’

‘Please.’

He searches her face for understanding. She has to allow him this, he thinks, for without forgiveness he cannot maintain his faith and that would be a living death. He is at the mercy of her decision and yet there is only one way for her to decide if their union is to survive.

The moment stretches until at last Ruth, reading all in his face, takes his hand and kisses it, then closes his fingers over the kiss.

‘We shall wait for you then, just over the border.’

Loving her more than he has ever done, he presses his lips to hers.

‘Take care of our child. I will join you within the week.’

He walks with her towards the cart.

‘May love protect you, my husband.’