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When they rounded the final co the Baron’s ’estate and saw the great iron gates that ledto the castle, Abel laughed aloud in exciteht the car to a halt
’It’s all just as I reed Coe where I spent the first five years ofthere now - and then we’ll go and see my castle’
Florentyna followed her father as he marched confidently down a small track into the forest of e in a hundred years After they had walked for about twenty , and there in front of thee Abel stood and stared He had forgotten how tiny his first home was: could nine people really have lived there? The thatched roof was now in disrepair, and the building left the i uninhabited with its eroded stone and broken s The once tidy vegetable garden was indistinguishable in the e been deserted? Florentyna took her father by the arm and led him slowly to the front door Abel stood there, ently They Waited - in silence Florentyna knocked again, this ti within
’All right, all right,’ said a querulous voice in Polish, and a fewstudied by an old woman, bent and thin, dressed entirely in black Wisps of untidy snohite hair escaped frorey eyes looked vacantly at the visitors
’It’s not possible,’ said Abel softly in English
’What do you want?’ asked the old woman suspiciously She had no teeth and the line of her nose, mouth and chin formed a perfect concave are - Abel answered in Polish, ’May we come in and talk to YOU F Her eyes looked from one to the other fearfully ~Old Helena hasn’t done anything wrong,’ she said in a whine
’I know,’ said Abel gently ’I have brought good news for YOUWith some reluctance, she allowed them to enter the bare, cold room but she didn’t offer theed: two chairs, one table and the e, he hadn’t knohat a carpet was Flor - entyna shuddered
’I can’t get the fire going,’ wheezed the old wo log refused to rekindle, and she scrabbled ineffectually in her pocket ’I need paper’ She looked at Abel, showing a spark of interest for the first time ’Do you have any paper?’
Abel looked at her steadily ’Don’t you remember me?’ he said
’No, I don’t know you’
’You do, Helena My name is Wladek’
’You knew my little Wladek?’
’I am Wladek’
’Oh, no,’ she said with sad and distant finality ’He was too good for me, the el, yes, he took away Matka’s littlest one’