"I'll heat some water," she said.
"And make a brine."
"And pickle my feet," Fulmar said dryly.
"Thank you, Cousin, ever so much."
"Why do you call her 'cousin'?" Professor Dyer asked.
"We are, by marriage," the Countess said.
"My late husband and Eric are, or were, cousins."
"Your late husband?" the professor asked.
"The professor tends to ask a lot of questions," Fulmar said mockingly.
"My husband, the late Oberstleutnant [Lieutenant Colonel] Baron Manfried von Steighofen, fell for his fatherland on the eastern front," the Countess said dryly.
"And you're doing this?" the professor asked.
"It's one of the reasons I'm doing 'this," my dear Herr Professor," the Countess said.
"And the other?" Fulmar asked.
"Is it important?"
"I'm curious," Fulmar said.
"If I were in your shoes, I would be rooting for the Germans."
"If I thought they had a chance to win, I probably would be," she said matter-of-factly.
"But they won't win. Which means that the Communists will come to Budapest. If they don't shoot me, I'll find myself walking the square outside asking strangers if they're looking for a good time."
"Beatrice! "von Heurten-Mitnitz exclaimed.
"Face facts, my dear Helmut," the Countess said.
"The flaw in your logic," Fulmar said, "is that you are helping the Russians to come here."
"In which case, I can only hope that you and Helmut will still be alive and in a position to tell the Commissar what a fearless anti-fascist I was," she said.
"There's a small chance that would keep them from shooting me out of hand."
There was a moment's silence, and then she went on.
"What I'm really hoping for is that there will be a coup d'etat by people like Helmut against the Bavarian corporal, and in time for whoever takes over to sue for an armistice. If there's an armistice, perhaps I won't lose everything."
"Huh," Fulmar grunted.
"And what has motivated you, my dear Eric,"the Countess said, "to do what you're doing?"
It was a moment before he replied.
"Sometimes I really wonder," he said.
The Countess nodded, then turned to Gisella Dyer.