Page 6 of At Midnight

“Yes, you do have a lot to tell me, Raphael.” She turned back to Flicka,smiling. “I wish we had met again under calmer circumstances, but welcome to the family. I can’t wait to hear the story of how my Raphael landedFriederikevon Hannover.”

Flicka shook the woman’s hand. Her skin was cool and dry, and her handshake, firm. Flicka said, “Well, it is quite a story, Madame Mirabaud.”

“Call me Sophie.” She looked at Alina. “And this is?”

Dieter stepped up beside her.“This is Alina, your granddaughter.”

The woman’s face lit up with wonder, and she crouched, keeping her knees pressed together to bend in her skirt suit.

A Dior skirt suit, Flicka noted. This year’s style.

The woman spoke in French to Alina, who stuck her finger in her mouth and looked up at Flicka.

“I think she only speaks English and Alemannic,” Flicka told her.

Sophie Mirabaud shot a dirtylook at Dieter. “You aren’t speaking to her in French?”

“We thought we’d start with Alemannic and English,” he said, “then French.”

“No time like the present.” Sophie pointed to herself.“Grand-maman.”

Alina repeated it, looking between Sophie and Flicka for confirmation. Flicka smiled at her and nodded.

Sophie stood. “And she is how old?”

“A year and a half,” Dieter said.

“A year and ahalf,” Sophie repeated, her voice tightening.

Dieter looked over the airfield.

Sophie turned to Flicka. “A year and a half, and I haven’t met my own granddaughter. Well, she’s beautiful. She looks just like you.”

“Oh, well, about that—” Flicka considered clawing her way up the side of the airplane and clinging to the top of it to get out of this conversation.

Dieter spoke up. “Flicka isn’ther mother. Alina is from my first marriage.”

Sophie slowly turned toward him. “And there was a wedding that I wasn’t invited to, in addition to the birth of my granddaughter?”

Flicka opened her mouth and wondered whether she was inserting her foot. “But you’ll be invited to ours. And you can help me plan it.”

Yeah, she was tryingDrachenfutter, that so-useful German word meaninga gift forthe dragon,a present given to make amends for doing something particularly stupid.

Hey, it had worked for Dieter.

Sophie looked at Flicka, and then she looked back to Dieter. “You’re trading up, at any rate. I will allow myself to be bribed with this,” she said to Flicka. “I like you, dear. Have you thought about colors?”

God and all the saints in Heaven, was Flicka going to have to plan afourthwedding in less than a calendar year?

She stammered, “I was thinking a formal, understated atmosphere. Perhaps dark blue, to begin with.”

From behind Sophie, Dieter was watching Flicka, and his blond eyebrows rose a half an inch.

Sophie pressed her lips together and smiled. “We will get along very well, you and I. Come. You and Alina will ride with me to the house.”

“Raphael?” Flickaasked. His other name felt odd on her lips.

Dieter said, “No,Maman.We will stay somewhere in town. A hotel for tonight, and then we’ll find a flat.”