Bruno stayed at Luise's estate for the afternoon, reminiscing with her about his time serving alongside Erich. He hid nothing. Neither did she.
They spoke of how they had each come to know him. Luise went first. They had met by pure chance at a coffee shop in Berlin. She was visiting distant family, in a hope of getting a small loan. But they had rejected her.
In a state of destitution and depression, she was about to spend her last pfennig on coffee, when Erich chose to buy it for her. And from there, they hit it off. It was a romantic story, something one might see out of a romantic comedy.
He didn't voice it aloud, but Bruno suspected that from the way she described Erich, that Luise had fallen in love with the mask that Erich wore in public to conceal the demon behind it.
