her parents left.” She smiled as if anticipating Edward’s question. “My son and I communicate via our own language—gestures and hand motions we’ve developed over the years since he lost his ability to speak.”
“It’s Isa who’s in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
Edward hesitated, sending a quick glance Henri’s way and receiving a nod, encouraging him to go on. It was even difficult to trust here, of all places. He told the woman the extent of it as briefly as he could.
She looked at her son and patted one of his big hands. “I know what you want me to do, Son. Go and get them.”
Henri went to the dresser, opening the top drawer and pulling out a small pouch. He handed it to his mother.
“These have been my son’s for many years, Edward,” she said. “For as long as it’s been since last I heard his voice. I’ve kept them for safety. Oh, I pull them out from time to time just to see the sparkle, but I can do without that.” She finished with a frail laugh.
She emptied the contents onto the dark table, and before him were at least a dozen diamonds, all of various sizes. Yet the smallest was larger than any of those Isa had brought. “Where did he get them?”
“Our Congo, of course. Brussels is not the center of gems for nothing.” She laughed again, as if the diamonds couldn’t be looked at without such mirth. Then her blue gaze rose to Edward’s. “Visit me when you have time someday, and I will tell you how Henri came to own this fortune—from the former owner of Isa’s house.”
“I saw the diamond-cutting equipment before we moved the press to the secret room,” Edward said.
“For cutting diamonds pilfered and smuggled.” She cast a gaze her son’s way. “Yes, my son was involved for a time. But when he met our Savior, he mended his ways.”
Then those eyes clouded as if the memories couldn’t be had without pain. “He tried to quit honorably, even taking possession of these diamonds to barter his freedom. He nearly lost his life instead, but all they succeeded in taking was his tongue. He was left to die, but it wasn’t Henri who faced his final judgment that night. It was the man who owned that home and every illegal diamond. God took him peacefully in his sleep, of a heart attack. Those left behind never came looking for the diamonds Henri took because they’d all taken shares of their own.”
She sighed. “Who can tell how God works? If only we’d known that man would die so soon, my son would have been free and his tongue not lost. Except,” she added, placing a delicate hand over Edward’s, “he wouldn’t now possess these diamonds, would he? For you to use.”
“I don’t—I don’t know what to say, how to thank you.”
Before the words were out, Henri pushed the entire pile Edward’s way. He wanted to protest, to remind them there would be others in need too. But he couldn’t. Isa’s life was at stake, and Henri must know as well as Edward that it would take all the bribe money they had to find a way out of Belgium with her life intact.
Edward put the diamonds back into the pouch. “This will save Isa and my mother, too. There is enough here to set up a clear pathway out of Belgium. Will you come along?”
Neither even looked at the other before they both shook their heads.
“The Germans may start looking for you, Henri. Anyone associated with Isa’s house must be known to them.”
“My son will not leave Belgium,” his mother said, slowly rising to her feet. “Not while he might help others still here.”
Edward needn’t ask details, having once known the same reason to stay. Before now.
“Use this treasure to free your family,” she said. “And my son will do everything he can to help you all leave Belgium safely.”
34
Allow me to count the German virtues:
Injustice
Tyranny
Dishonor
. . . to name but a few, and let us not forget their eagerness for cruelty, behind which they hide their greatest weaknesses.
La Libre Belgique
* * *
Straw covered the cement floor but did little to keep down the stench. Isa looked at Genny. Her face, like Isa’s, was bruised and swollen. Isa gently touched her own jaw; it was afire.
“How long have you been printing? How many times have you written illegal articles? How did you receive the rest of your copy, and from whom? To whom did you