Women Of Courage: Daisies Are Forever Part 17

"Even if I wasn't, you wouldn't have any choice but to trust me, would you?"

"You are a nurse, then."

"I never said that."

"Should I be worried?"

"Since I don't have to remove your appendix, probably not." One corner of her mouth hooked upward. A bit of the pain subsided.

Audra came to his side. "Can I help? Growing up, I had to care for many injured animals on the farm. And my little brothers and sisters."

"A bullet grazed his hand."

Audra set her pack on the ground and rummaged through it. She pulled out her white nightgown and ripped a length of it. Then she wound it around Mitch's hand. "When we get to the train, I'll get my needle and thread. It's going to need st.i.tches."

He backed away from her. "Nein. No st.i.tches. Bandages are good enough."

Kurt tried to stare at Josep without being obvious. When the tiefflieger had swooped down, he had shouted. But his words didn't sound German. Kurt didn't understand them.

He now felt certain that Josep hid a secret. He was no SS officer. A thousand scenarios streamed through his mind. Was he a spy? And Gisela his partner? But spies wouldn't be on a train in the middle of Poland. There was no military information to be gleaned here.

Perhaps he truly was Gisela's husband. She had married this foreigner and brought him to Germany. But then he would be-should be-off fighting. In this case, he would be a coward.

Kurt narrowed his eyes and studied Josep. His dark hair and just-as-dark eyes told the tale. Kurt was positive Josep was no Aryan. There was a chance he had been a prisoner of war. Now escaped. On the run from his captors.

As they made their way to the train, Audra sidled up to him, Bettina and Katya trudging ahead of them. "What are you thinking about so hard?"

Kurt nodded in the imposter's direction. "Him. Something isn't right. I am convinced he is not German."

"Why would you say that?"

"Did you hear him shouting before? That was not German shooting from his mouth."

Audra shook her head, her blond hair falling in waves from under her gray scarf. "I didn't pay much attention. But you are sure he is foreign?"

"I would bet my vater's house on it."

She giggled. The sound produced a warm, comforting feeling in him. It just wasn't the aria that Gisela's laugh was.

She stopped mid-chuckle. "You don't think he is Russian, do you?"

"Nein."

They tramped through the snow for a while. Clouds scuttled across the sky and hid the moon for a moment.

Kurt tugged on her arm and halted. "Like I said, you need to talk to him. Imagine how famous you would be if you broke up a spy ring. Marlene Dietrich would have nothing on you."

Gisela and Audra sat together on the worn red-velvet train seats. The carriage stunk of unwashed bodies. Gisela wanted to hold her nose and gag, even though the wind howled through the broken windows and chased away the worst of the odors.

The old sisters occupied the seat in front of them. Renate sat on Audra's lap, clapping her hands and chattering away about the monkey in her book at home. Annelies snuggled against Gisela and dozed.

The men had gone out a while before to try to glean information about the engine. She wished they would return. Soon.

Audra bit her lip, then crossed and uncrossed her legs. "Josep didn't speak in German when the plane came. What language was that?"

Gisela shifted, Annelies's bony backside digging into her thighs. Had he slipped and spoken English? "You're mistaken. Perhaps you didn't understand the dialect since he is from the west."

"Really? Where?"

Once again, that speaking before thinking problem flared up. "Oh, um, Mannheim." She would have to tell Mitch as soon as possible about his hometown, to keep their stories matching.

"Why aren't you headed there?"

"We are. First we must stop in Berlin and get my mutti. With all the bombing going on there, I'm worried about her. My vater is off fighting with the Volkssturm."

"Is Josep your husband?"

Audra asked too many questions. "Ja, of course. Why would you ask such a thing?" How many other people suspected the truth about Mitch? They would have to be more careful.

Renate patted Audra on the cheek. "Listen, Tante, listen."

"I am listening, little one. Tell me another story." Audra shifted her attention to the child and Gisela breathed a sigh of relief.

She stared out of the window, no dirty pane blocking her view of the groups gathered outside of the carriage. Those still too afraid of another attack to come in from the cold. At last Gisela must have dozed, because the shouts from outside startled her.

"The engine is here. Send word to the farm."

Sure enough, the engineer blew a brief toot-toot from his horn and cheers erupted from the crowd. People scampered about, collecting items and family members. A mad dash ensued. Gisela was glad they had returned to the train when they did.

The engine from Danzig had been pushing them. This locomotive came from Stettin and would pull them the rest of the way there. All that remained to be done was to unhook the damaged cars and couple the engine.

Women shoved their way inside, b.u.mping against Gisela and Audra as they worked their way down the aisle. The few empty seats filled in short order, as did every available s.p.a.ce in the carriage.

Audra stiffened. "I have to get out of here."

Gisela gripped her wrist. "You need to stay. If you leave, you will never escape the Russians."

The color fled her face like the German troops ahead of the Red Army.

"This is the way to go."

"The only way?"

Gisela couldn't let her get off. It would be like that American saying-throwing her to the wolves. "The only way."

"I can't. Breathing is hard. I need to go."

"Tante Audra, you must be brave. That is what Mutti and Tante Gisela tell me."

Audra kissed Annelies's cheek. "You are right. These are times when we all must be brave."

"And pray that G.o.d will take care of us too."

"Ja, that too."

Gisela worried at Audra's continued pale countenance and uneven breathing. "How are you doing?"

"I'm trying not to think about it."

"Annelies gave you good advice."

Audra nodded.

A woman with several young, coughing children stopped beside them, unable to go any farther. Lines of weariness emanated from her soft blue eyes. Gisela climbed over Audra and motioned for the woman to take the seat. "You need it more than I do."

"Danke, danke. Come, children. We can sit this time."

Audra, too, rose and they cleared the seats. Gisela would miss the luxury of the bench for the remainder of the trip. She hoisted Annelies and positioned her so she sat on the top of the back of the seat. Audra did the same with Renate on the seat in front of them.

Where could the men be? She hoped Mitch wouldn't have to hang on to the outside of the train this time.

Bettina turned and kneeled on her seat, much the way a child would, and flashed a gap-toothed grin. "Dearies, this is such an adventure. What a wonderful trip we will have to the seaside. I hope you brought your parasols so you don't get freckles."

Annelies pointed to her own face. "I have freckles."

"Then see, you should have stayed out of the sun."

"But I don't have a parasol."

"Then your mutti should get you one. I am sure there is a shop in the village that sells them. You tell her, you hear?"

Annelies scrunched her eyebrows, her words hesitant. "I will."

Though there were fewer pa.s.sengers now on the train, there were also fewer cars. Nothing like being stuffed into a train carriage like meat into a sausage casing.

Two wounded German soldiers squeezed their way in and stood beside the women.

With a sudden lurch and a hoot of the whistle, the locomotive crawled forward, halting at first, then gaining momentum.

Where had the men gone?

Lord, let there be s.p.a.ce for Mitch. Let him be inside with us.

They hadn't gone more than a few kilometers before her legs grew tired. The sick children cried and coughed and sneezed. Audra swayed on her feet, and not in time with the train's motion. She clutched the back of the bench, her knuckles white.

Gisela's stomach grumbled in protest of the lack of food. Wriggling her sack from her back, she produced a little bread. She broke off a chunk and handed it to Audra. "Here, you look like you could use this."

Audra gave a weak smile and shook her head. "I am not hungry. You should eat."

Gisela offered the bread to Bettina. "G.o.d bless you, dearie. I must not have packed a sandwich for us." Katya, too, took the chunk Gisela offered to her. She broke pieces from the loaf for both of the girls and for herself.

She didn't want to let the other members of their party know, but her food supplies had dwindled. The trip had taken longer than they had antic.i.p.ated. She did have some cigarettes still sewn into the hem of her dress. If they could make it to Berlin, at home with Mutti, they would have plenty of rations.

After their exhausting ordeal, many of the car's pa.s.sengers slept, even those who stood. The soldier beside Gisela, a scar running the length of his face, shifted his weight and maneuvered closer to her. They stood shoulder to shoulder. He had said nothing for the short time they had been underway.

She couldn't move far because she held Annelies, but she pressed closer against the seat. He rubbed his thigh against hers.

Her knees shook. What was he doing? She clutched her charge closer to her chest and pulled her coat tight.

He pressed his body to hers. Her hunk of bread sat hard in her stomach. The cold metal band around the back of the seat dug into her midsection.

His hand came around her.

SEVENTEEN.

In the stillness of the night, the train's wheels clacked along the track. The soldier's hand moved below Gisela's waist. She stiffened, then a tremor pa.s.sed through her.

Thwack. Without a thought, she smacked the soldier in the cheek, hard. He winced.

"Dearie, what did you do that for?"

Stunned, Gisela stared at Bettina. "He was trying to a.s.sault me." She grew warm.

Beside her, Audra stiffened.

The soldier now grasped her arm, twisting it.

She turned and spit on the man. Words eeked out between her clenched teeth. "You vile, filthy pig. Can't you keep your hands to yourself? Nein, you are not a man. You are a beast, no better than those Soviet soldiers."

Audra touched Gisela's arm. She shook it off. "I will not calm down. We are putting our lives at risk to flee from men like you. And we have to endure this now? Don't ever touch me or another woman again."

Katya patted Gisela's hand. "There, there, dearie, it can't be as bad as that. This man fought for our country."

"What is going on here?"

Kurt. Gisela's muscles released some of the tension they held.

The crowd fell back as much as possible in the cramped conditions.

"I said, what is going on here?"

The soldier beside her moved away. "Nothing. This woman thinks I did something wrong. But in this crowd, who can move? How does she know it was me who touched her?"