CHAPTER 31 – JOANNA
WARSAW“Listen to it again.”
“See over there. Why does that boy not want to go with him?”
“I don’t know my darling.”
“But he’s hurting him!”
Joanna watched her aunt swallow. Her throat shook gently with the effort. Irena had learnt to be a woman of few emotions. She was skilled at hermetically sealing her feelings inside herself so that nobody could penetrate the firm, logical exterior. She couldn’t afford to release them, she told Joanna once in a rare burst of honesty, as the spillage could be hazardous. She’d witnessed Monika’s outpouring of grief and saw where that had led her. The last thing the family needed was another broken woman. Her only wish was that her niece wouldn’t try her quite so many times.
“It could be anyone, Joanna,” she answered casually.
“Y
