Read Online The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron - Free Book Online

I meant what I said this morning.”
    “I know you did.”
    “Then why won’t you look at me?”
    “Because I am afraid you did mean it and I will never see you again.” Her chin quivered. She felt it, was moved by her own unconscious reaction to saying the words aloud.
    “Adele, look at me.” He tilted her chin up until her eyes met his. “I’m leaving right after the performance tonight.” He paused, perhaps knowing that he should ease into the admission, that this was a moment they wouldn’t get back for some time to come. “I’ll be gone until this war is over. But I will come back.”
    “You’ve been called into service, then?”
    He shook his head. “You know my health makes me ineligible. That won’t change, Adele.”
    “Then why do you have to leave?”
    “Because so many young musicians were conscripted into service, they elevated a musically inclined merchant’s son to play in one of the world’s greatest orchestras. I’m told that I can play the cello for Austria. That is my purpose. It is for the Third Reich, they tell me. To show my allegiance. And all while I’m looked at as a coward.”
    “You’re not a coward. You can’t help a heart condition you’ve had since childhood.”
    He shook his head in defiance. “You don’t understand, Adele. Whether others look at me as a coward or not, I’d not have fought for Germany. No matter how much I love my country. But I have to use my life for something. I have to fight in some way. And playing on a stage in front of Hitler’s stooges isn’t the way to do it. A ticker that beats out of sync can’t prevent me from doing what I know to be right.”
    “And what is that?”
    He shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”
    She didn’t ask where he would go, or what he would be doing. He wasn’t likely to tell her no matter how many times she asked. Instead, she needed to know only when he would return.
    “But what if this war never ends?”
    “It will.”
    “How do you know? You don’t know that.”
    Did she sound like she was pleading? She didn’t care. Her words were frozen on air, the last bit of warmth leaving her body with them.
    “You must have faith,” he said, the words simply stated and giving the appearance of being deeply felt. “Have faith that God will use the evil of this war for His good. Somehow, He will.”
    “And how will I know you’re safe?” Her voice hitched onemotion that had long been bottled. She released it now, almost stuttering, “How will I know you are even alive ?”
    After the agony of the night before, of not knowing if he was alive or lying in an alley somewhere, she couldn’t relive that fear. Not again.
    “When you see me onstage”—he breathed the words and inclined his head toward the back door—“in there. That will always be our place. It’s in both of us, isn’t it? The music? This call to play . . . we will always have it together.”
    She trembled as a gust of wind wove around them with its icy dance.
    Adele Von Bron in love with a merchant’s son? Her parents had already tried to stop it, but they’d send her away immediately if they learned their little violinist was ready to give up everything for this man. They found him unsuitable, without even knowing the events of the night before. Had they known the truth, that she loved him even more for the bravery he possessed in attempting to save the Haurbechs, they’d have turned him in to the Germans right then and there.
    “What are you thinking about?” he asked.
    “Last night. And now this—an extravagant victory concert even when Vienna could fall siege to the Russians. They are building watchtowers all around the city. They are doing it for a reason, aren’t they?”
    He nodded. “The Germans are scared.”
    “We’re all scared.” She shook her head. “Our entire world is going to change.”
    He shocked her then by wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in close, closer than he’d ever dared before.
    “I