Paul glanced over at Heidi, washing mud off tiny dishes recently donated to the Ziemers by a local resident. She possessed unending patience and resourcefulness with the children. Even Willi’s canoodling failed to ruffle her.
She wandered over and propped a hip against the end of the table. “Should we organize a game?”
“Naw. They’re having enough fun as they are. No need to entertain them every moment.”
Dieter ran up to Paul with a homemade rag ball that had begun to unravel. Together they rewound the ball and Paul knotted the loose ends. After being cautioned to take it easy with the ball, the young boy gave Paul an impish grin. “I’ll be back in five minutes, Horst.”
Ruffling Dieter’s hair, Paul sent him back to play.
Easing off the table, Paul nodded toward the children. “Every time I watch these kids playing, I picture the boxes of old toys in my parents’ attic. Cars and trucks and trains. Stuffed animals. My sister’s dolls. She had a tea party set like the one you have now. Imagine how the kids would enjoy having all that bounty.”
Heidi looked at him for a long moment before nodding. “I thought that, too, when I first arrived last summer. We didn’t realize how privileged we were, did we?”
They watched as Willi took a swing at the rag ball with a stick. At the connecting whack, the ball fell apart at his feet. The boys groaned. Paul clapped his hands. “All right, enough of that. Let’s play ‘Mother, May I.’ Do any of you know that game? No? Okay, here’s how it goes.”
Grabbing the nearest boy to start off, he instructed the children. After several false starts, the game got underway and occupied them until lunch.
Konrad pulled him aside as they headed for the house. “I’ve heard from my contact.”
Paul needed to travel west to Treis-Karden where he would meet the first contact. To avoid arousing questions from the others, over supper he and Konrad discussed the route east to Sankt Goar. Only Heidi knew he wouldn’t be heading for Rhens to see a doctor before returning to the army. She saw her chance.
“I’ll go with you to Sankt Goar to look for sewing supplies.”
Both men stared at her. She thrust out her chin and stared back. “I know what I’m looking for. And I can help you make your connection to Rhens.”
Paul grinned. “I will welcome your company.”
Konrad frowned at her but refrained from comment. The children, though, had a lot to say.
“We’ll go with you, too, Horst.” Dieter’s eyes gleamed with hope.
“Why don’t you stay here?” Christobel pouted.
“I have to go. It’s time for me to return to my unit,” Paul said in a firm, gentle voice, “but Fritz can’t go with me. I’m counting on you to take good care of him.” He looked Dieter in the eye.
“We will.” Dieter nodded with his solemn oath.
“Will you come back and see us?” Gretel’s lip quivered. She’d be in tears soon.
“Wouldn’t that be great?” Paul’s voice quavered. Leaving wouldn’t be easy.
At bedtime, he spent extra time hugging the children. He cuddled Sabine on his shoulder, his eyes glistening. The words he whispered in the little girl’s ear didn’t carry to Heidi, but tears flooded her own eyes.
For the first time since they arrived, Fritz would not spend the night in the house. With his goodbyes to the children complete, Paul kept his arms filled with the puppy. Heidi followed them outside with Konrad.
Her brother wasted no time. “Heidi, where do you think you’re going?”
“I can go as far as Beltheim with Paul. I’ve done sewing for a lady there. Maybe she’ll have some more work I can pick up.” If she admitted she wanted to spend as much additional time as possible with Paul, what would Konrad say? What would Paul say?
Konrad studied her through narrowed eyes. He brushed his hand through his hair with three jerky strokes. “I guess that would be all right.” He sounded so grudging. Why should it matter? “Take along your sewing basket to look legitimate. Now if you’ll excuse us.”
He and Paul headed for the barn, Fritz still cradled in Paul’s arms.
Chapter Fourty-Nine
Bickenbach, Germany
Thursday, June, 15, 1955
They left at dawn, before the children rose. Paul refused to look back. The oasis of the Ziemers’ farm clashed totally with his preconceived image of Nazi Germany. Hopefully, the Ziemers represented the real Germany, and the rest of the country was an aberration of madness that would disappear once the Nazis were vanquished.
Sixteen days he’d spent on the farm. Nineteen days since he’d been shot down. Goodness, he couldn’t even picture England now. Instead, a kaleidoscope of images wooed him to turn around: a wiggling puppy, a tiny girl to cuddle during story time, a young boy who thought the world of him. They tempted him, but if he looked back, he’d turn into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife.
Well, okay, not salt. More likely pulverized flesh, compliments of that Gestapo goon. As for what would happen to Konrad and Heidi, that was too awful to consider.
He glanced at Heidi, cycling alongside him. “Seems like a lifetime has passed since I left England.”
“A holiday from war?” She tried to smile, but tears pooled in her eyes. “Will you be glad to get back?”
Glad to get back to a stinking, cold Quonset hut? Glad to be roused in the wee hours to endure hours flying in subzero temperatures? “Nope. This has been a holiday for me.” He pedaled in silence as he collected his thoughts. “Both crews I flew with are gone. One’s dead, the other’s either dead or captured. I’m friendly with two other navigators who should still be there, unless they’ve been shot down. And the chaplain, he’s a good friend. Otherwise it’ll be just another air base lacking any homey touches.”
“You’ll be assigned to a new crew?”
“No, actually I won’t.” He watched a hawk float on the currents overhead. Having a bird’s eye view of what was to come would erase a lot of questions. “I do know what my immediate orders will be once I return to England. I’ll go back to my base and be asked to give an escape and evasion talk. After a few days, I’ll be sent home for leave before my next assignment. I won’t fly combat again, at least not here. Evaders aren’t allowed to, in case we’d be shot down again in Germany. The Germans may make us talk, find out who aided us, and execute those people. In my case, that would be you, Heidi.”
She shivered even as her eyes brightened. “No more combat means you won’t be in danger anymore.”
He smiled. “I’ve heard evaders get to choose their next assignment. That would be good. I’ll be sure not to end up in a supply hut somewhere counting parachutes. I don’t want to go to the Pacific Theater of Operations, unless I could be in Hawaii, where my sister is. I guess my preference would be the Air Transport Command, ferrying planes, passengers, or cargo. No, I have no desire to return to combat.”
“Your sister’s in Hawaii? Evelyn, right? I have the vaguest memory of her glossy hair. Did she join the military?”
“Her husband’s a naval quartermaster there. He found a little house and sent for her. Quite the military duty, huh? I’m expecting her to come home and demonstrate a hula dance.”
The village of Beltheim appeared around a bend. Here they must say goodbye. Paul slowed down. Before either could speak, they heard the clop of a horse rapidly approaching from behind. They both turned.
“That’s Lieselotte.” Heidi braked hard and got off her bike.
This couldn’t be good. Something had to be very wrong to send Konrad’s wife racing after them. He parked his bike, and reached for the reins as Lieselotte pulled up beside them. Doll blew heavily, and he patted her nose.
“You left the farm in the nick of time,” Lieselotte gasped, as winded as the horse. “The Gestapo came. Otto and Rudy.”
“Why?” Paul handed the reins to Heidi to help Lieselotte dismount. “What did they want?”
“You.”
Heidi’s countenance mirrored his ow
n sense of shock. Lieselotte nodded. “Karla wrote to her husband that an American school friend of yours, Heidi, is staying with us until he can get out of Germany. She should have known mail to prisoners is censored.”
“How could she know who Paul is?” Heidi’s voice was a whisper.
Lieselotte took a steadying breath and released it. Looking back and forth between the two of them, she continued. “The night you arrived, Horst, or should I say Paul, she followed Gretchen upstairs to your room, Heidi. She heard Gretchen say she recognized Paul, and stayed in the hallway to listen. She didn’t know what to do but had to tell someone about your presence on the farm, so she wrote to Wolfgang.”
Heidi looked ready to faint. Paul wrapped a supportive arm around her as she asked, her voice still weak, “Were Konrad and Gretchen arrested?”
“No. Gretchen, bless her heart, immediately insisted Karla hadn’t heard the full conversation. She said she thought Horst looked just like your friend’s husband, who had the bluest eyes, and she’d never forgotten him because he was her first love. And wouldn’t it be great if it was him because then you could hear all about your friends and how they were doing. Or maybe they were long-lost relatives and Horst didn’t know he had an American cousin. To which you said not to act all dopey over Horst the way she had with Paul.” Lieselotte flicked a hand through the air. “Typical Gretchen jabbering. She demanded of Karla why she hadn’t simply asked you instead of eavesdropping through the door and getting it wrong.”
“And the Gestapo goons were satisfied?” Paul raked his fingers through his hair. “That seems too easy.”
“Oh, they had lots of questions. Where both of you were, when you’d be back. How did Konrad know you, when, and where. Konrad said you were going for a preliminary physical before proceeding back to France and they wanted to know the doctor’s name. All Konrad could say was someone in the Rhens area. They wanted to search the barn.”
“They couldn’t have stayed long for you to have time to come after us before we got to Beltheim.” Heidi sounded more normal and her pale cheeks regained some color.
“Konrad had already saddled Doll. He’d planned on riding her. While our, uh, guests were in the barn, he told me I may as well continue with my visit to friends in Beltheim.” She smiled. “I hadn’t known I had such plans. He told me you were headed here, to catch up with you, and warn you.”
She pulled a rucksack free from the pommel and thrust it in Heidi’s hands. “Here are a few changes of clothes and some money. Konrad says you should go to Hagen, and lie low for a while. You’d been planning to go, anyway.”
Lieselotte’s brows rose.
More secret plans that hadn’t been shared with the others. Ignorance could be advantageous or disastrous if they didn’t all follow the same game plan.
“The Gestapo boys will probably head to Sankt Goar and Rhens looking for you both. They’ll likely return to Bickenbach when they don’t find you. Rudy, especially, would love to interrogate you, Heidi.” Lieselotte shuddered. “He was livid to find you gone.”
Once again, the color drained from Heidi’s face.
Paul felt his pocket, where his forged documents reposed. Would they have held up to the Gestapo’s scrutiny had they caught him on the farm? At the least, they would have checked his identity with the Wehrmacht. His charade would have been uncovered. The words of Nehemiah rang in his mind. The good hand of my God was upon me. His new life verse. “Did Konrad say if I should make any changes in my plans?”
Lieselotte leveled her gaze at him. “Just get to your first contact as quickly as possible.” She turned to Heidi. “You shouldn’t backtrack to go to Sankt Goar and then north to Hagen. Do you know what route you should take?”
Wringing her hands, Heidi looked blank. “Head north until I’m beyond Rhens? I’ll need to take a train, but where should I get on?”
“She’ll head for the Mosel River with me.” Paul took charge. “From there she can get to Koblenz, which should be far enough north of Rudy’s territory, and on to Hagen. But what about you? Will it be safe for you to return now?”
Lieselotte nodded before wrapping Heidi in a hug. She turned to Paul and hugged him, too. He hadn’t been hugged by an adult since… since he’d been home for Rachel’s funeral. This wasn’t a show of affection from Konrad’s wife. This was her way of saying good luck, be careful, danger’s afoot, we may not survive to see each other again. Not a cheering thought.
“God be with you both.” She mounted Doll and headed back to Bickenbach.
Paul helped Heidi secure her rucksack on her back. “You’re in for a lot more miles than you planned on today. Ready for some serious cycling?”
The sun hung low on the western horizon by the time Heidi and Paul arrived in Treis-Karden. Paul slowed to a stop just outside of town, where they had a lovely view of the Mosel River. “I’d guess we’ve covered a minimum of thirty miles. Of course, we weren’t going in a straight line.”
Heidi’s backside felt that was too conservative a guess, but she swallowed that observation. Wading into the river right now sounded very appealing.
“Have you ever been here?” Paul looked ready to pedal another twenty miles with no problem.
“We went boating on the Mosel years ago. I don’t remember where we stopped besides Bernkastel, but this town is unlikely to have been a stop.”
Paul consulted his map. “Bernkastel is way on the other side of Cochem, which Konrad said will be my next stop.”
“Doesn’t matter. I was maybe twelve years old. Nothing I remember can help us now.”
“The best advice evaders gave us was to look like we belong here.” He filed away his map and hefted his backpack. “I hate to leave the bicycles, but if we get boat rides, we can’t take them. Let’s find a hiding place in those woods there. If something goes wrong and we miss our contact, we’ll still have wheels.”
“Do you think he’ll help me get to Koblenz?”
“Why wouldn’t he? He must have a contact in that direction, and the underground must have contingency plans in place for when things go wrong. From the map, Koblenz looks to be twenty-five miles east.”
Before covering their bicycles with branches, Paul twisted off his right handlebar grip and extracted a rolled note. He flattened it and wedged it into the seam of his trouser leg hem, which had already been slit. Heidi stared at him and he grinned. “Konrad knows a lot about hiding things.” After erasing their tracks, they headed into the town. “I’m supposed to sit in a park alongside the river and read. The contact will come and say a certain phrase, which I’ll answer. Sounds simple enough.”
So he said, but his voice held a note of uncertainty. He had good reason. A lot could go wrong. For starters, an infiltrator might meet them at the park. That was certainly possible, especially considering her cousin’s betrayal. Had Karla wanted to get them in trouble?
Setting a purposeful stride, they headed through the town for the river. Paul quickened their pace every time they passed someone.
“Pretty soon we’ll be running. Are we late?” She’d get a cramp in her side if they kept this up.
A sudden smile creased Paul’s face and he slung an arm around her shoulders. “Sorry. It is later than I hoped to arrive, but I’m thinking of other advice. We’re not supposed to make eye contact and give anyone a chance to talk to us. And we don’t want to look like sightseers. That’s hard for me. I keep glimpsing something I’d like a better look at.”
Heidi glanced around. The town likely retained the same look it had in medieval times. Many cobblestone lanes were too narrow for motorized vehicles. Most buildings stood three stories high, many half-timbered. Flower boxes held colorful blooms at the windows. High on the hills overlooking the town loomed two ancient castles, one in ruins.
Beside her, Paul was gawking. She nudged him. “What did you just say about sightseeing?”
He jerked his head toward her but immediately looked back. “See how that house tilts backward? I wonder
how often they roll out of bed during the night.”
Heidi snickered. “Think of all the cakes that spill out of their pans while baking.”
Paul tugged a paper from his backpack. “Konrad gave me some traveler’s ration coupons. Maybe we should find something to eat. I don’t know if we can expect anything from the contact.” He handed her the card. “How do you suggest we proceed? Shops appear to be closing.”
The butcher shop was dark and as they watched, a light blinked out at the bakery.
“These are in your name, so you’ll have to use them. Maybe finding an eating establishment would be best. A guesthouse, like that one. With other people around, we shouldn’t draw attention.”
Paul studied the place as they passed. Music came from inside. “Okay, we’ll try it after checking out the park. Soon it’ll be too dark to be reading, but I’d like to meet the contact today if possible.”
No one was in the park. Paul sat down and pulled out his Soldbuch while Heidi strolled the walkway along the river. She glanced at him frequently. His eyes swept their surroundings, making no pretense at reading.
Ahead of her, a young boy walked a dog. He didn’t wear a Hitler Youth uniform, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy reporting suspicious strangers. Both the boy and the dog eyed her as they approached. She took a deep breath. Paul had said not to make eye contact, but she was a German. She had the right to be here. Didn’t she?
The dog was a young German shepherd. The boy’s family could be raising dogs for the Gestapo or the military. They came abreast. The dog strained toward her, whining. At least it wasn’t growling.
Heidi stooped and held out her hand. The dog sniffed, and licked her fingers. She ruffled his ears. Now to win over the boy. She gave him a quick glance. “What’s your dog’s name?”
“Max. He’s four months old.”
Friends & Enemies (Promise for Tomorrow Book 1) Page 27