Read The Kingdom of Shadows for Free Online Page B

hostel director dropped her jangling key ring into the deep pocket of her dress. “The girl might have the decency to understand what her duty should be.”
     
    The senior nurse closed the door behind them. The girl, this Marte, was sitting up in bed, the infant cradled in her arms. She bent her face down low to it, as though murmuring secrets into the small pink shell of the child’s ear.
     
    “Marte –” Frau Hegemann kept her voice soft, as calming as possible. “You do remember, don’t you? That the whole purpose of our being here, the creating of the Lebensborn program . . . it’s all for a reason, the bringing into existence of healthy new life. Life of pure blood. The babies that are born here are to be considered as gifts to the race, and to the Führer . You understand that, don’t you?”
     
    The girl held the infant closer to herself. That was a bad sign – the hostel director could see that the girl was going to make this more difficult than it needed to be.
     
    “I was told,” said Marte, “that I could keep my baby. Before I came here – that’s what I was told. If that was what I wanted.”
     
    “Yes. Ordinarily, we do give the girls that option. There should be no stigma attached to an unmarried woman whose child was fathered by a hero of the Reich. The outmoded morals of the past are to be extinguished. But . . .” Frau Hegemann drew in a deep breath. “There are unusual circumstances in your case. Surely you see that.”
     
    A fierce light glinted in the girl’s eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with my baby.”
     
    “Your child’s health is not the issue.” Frau Hegemann felt her jaw tensing. The impulse to slap the silly girl, to make her see sense, was almost irresistible. “Its racial background – your racial background – that is the problem. You know you are not the pure Aryan that your forged documents made you out to be. Unfortunately for you, the genetic contamination in your blood has shown up in your child. One of life’s ironies is that degenerate breeding is so powerful; it drags the good, strong blood down to its level. And that is why it is so important for our people – the true Nordic race – to safeguard their precious inheritance from those who would defile it. From such as you.”
     
    The infant whimpered, caught in the girl’s embrace. “I’m keeping him.”
     
    “That’s not possible. You must try to understand. This is Rassenschande  – you are a racial criminal. And worse, you have engaged an officer of the SS in this crime, the mixing of bloods.” Frau Hegemann’s voice rose, her anger overwhelming her resolution to stay calm. “Do you really think you can be allowed to raise this child? That the Reich can trust one such as you? That when people see this Mischling , this little half-breed, and they ask who is its father, you won’t say your baby’s father wears the black uniform?”
     
    The girl had shrunk beneath the lash of the hostel director’s spittle-flecked shout, bowing her head and wrapping herself around the infant in her arms. The infant had started to cry. As though no one else existed in the room, the girl opened the front of her robe and put the infant to her breast.
     
    Frau Hegemann nodded to the senior nurse.
     
    “Let me take him,” the nurse said softly, reaching down. “Everything will be all right. There’s nothing you have to worry about . . .”
     
    The girl drew back, her eyes wide with fear and anger. “No –” She shook her head. “Don’t touch him.”
     
    “There, now.” The nurse had managed to get her hands around the swaddled form. “No need to make a fuss . . .”
     
    “No!” The girl jerked the infant out of the nurse’s grasp. She twisted her shoulder and upper back toward the women, her spine arched as she bent protectively over her child. “Go away! Leave us alone!”
     
    Frau Hegemann had hoped that it would be easy, that the girl would see it was her duty