Simple Faith

by Anna Schmidt

  “Yes, please. That would be lovely.” Anja wanted a moment alone with Peter so she could tell him what Dr. Alonzo had suggested about them making the next part of their journey separately. She watched Daniel pause near a large gilded mirror in the foyer to check his clothing and hair. He wet two fingers and smoothed back the cowlick that he had inherited from his father; then he smiled up at the secretary and took hold of her hand as they climbed the stairs together. It never failed to amaze Anja how after everything her son had witnessed and heard about he still had a child’s ability to trust.

  “Is Lisbeth all right?” Peter asked when she led him back through the reception salon and on out to the gardens.

  “She is fine—exhausted but fine. But there is something …” She told him what the doctor had suggested and was surprised that he did not immediately reject the idea. Indeed, he seemed to be considering it.

  “We cannot be separated,” she said. “Lisbeth and the baby will need—”

  “Let’s give our hosts a chance to offer their ideas, Anja. After all, they have been handling situations like ours for some time now. You go get Josef while I arrange for us to meet with the vice consul, the doctor, and the ambassador if he is available.”

  The meeting took place in a small room away from the more public rooms of the embassy. The ambassador did not attend, and Anja suspected that this might be to protect him in the event that questions were raised by Franco’s government. Someone had to have noticed them arriving at the embassy, exiting the car, and going inside. Possibly the driver himself had raised an alarm. He had certainly been upset to realize how they had fooled him.

  What she knew for certain was that there were spies everywhere—even inside the British embassy. And if Schwarz was in the city, she had no doubt he would do everything possible to capture Peter—and her. She stared at the doctor. He was Spanish, but that could mean anything. Spain was a country of divided loyalties, trying to walk a tightrope between the Axis and Allied powers fighting the war.

  It was becoming harder to know who to trust, but the doctor was talking about taking Josef, Lisbeth, and their newborn to his summer house in Redondela on the coast of Spain. “My wife, Ramona, will be delighted to have an infant in the house,” he said. He turned to speak directly to Anja. “If you would agree, might I suggest that your son also travels with your friends?”

  “And me?”

  Dr. Alonzo glanced at the vice consul. “We have our reasons for suggesting that those in your party divide into smaller groups. The agent Schwarz is here in Madrid. He is making inquiries. You are in grave danger, Senora Steinberg. And as long as your son is with you—so is he.”

  Peter reached over and took hold of her hand. “We are going to get through this—all of us.” He turned his attention to Dr. Alonzo. “Okay, so Daniel and the others go to your summer house. What then?”

  “They will be safe there until Lisbeth is well enough to travel. Then we can get them to a British ship and on to England.”

  “And Anja and me?”

  The vice consul stepped forward. “We have a special friendship with the Norwegian consulate in Seville. We can smuggle the two of you onto a Norwegian merchant ship that will carry you to Gibraltar and from there on to England.”

  “Smuggle?” Anja asked.

  “We have our ways. The question before you is do you agree to let us handle the matter in our own way?”

  Josef’s head bobbed up and down immediately. Anja suspected that he would agree to any plan that would get his wife and child to safety. She looked at Peter, who at least seemed to be having some doubts. But then he nodded as well. Was he really going to place his life—all their lives—in the hands of these men they had met only hours earlier?

  She got up and headed for the door.

  “Anja?” Peter stopped her. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing …”

  Dr. Alonzo stepped forward. “I wonder, Mrs. Steinberg, if we might have a word in private.”

  The thing was—she liked this man. She had seen how kind and competent he had been while delivering Lisbeth’s baby. She had smiled at his humor designed to help Josef relax. She had been impressed with his inventiveness in handling a delivery that he could not have imagined would be part of his day. Yes, she respected this man, and that was part of the problem.

  “Please, Senora Steinberg, allow me to set your fears to rest.”

  Anja retraced her steps and sat down in one of the chairs arranged around a desk. Behind her she heard the door open and then after a moment close again. Dr. Alonzo filled a glass with water and offered it to her. When she took it, he filled another glass, sat down in the chair next to her, and stared out the window.

  “These are terrible times we are living in, senora,” he said softly.

  “Please call me Anja.”

  “There is no proof that I can offer you related to why you should trust me with your beloved son, Anja.”

  “Daniel is my life.” She tensed.

  “I imagine that he is. Your husband and daughter were murdered by the Nazis, were they not?”

  “They were.”

  “And you and your friends upstairs were prisoners in a Nazi death camp, and then you became a leader in an escape line that ran from Brussels. You have been hunted and harassed for some time now. Do you not long to be free of that?”

  He knew her story. She had to wonder how. “You are not reassuring me, Dr. Alonzo. What is your point?”

  “My point, Anja, is that perhaps it is time for you to stop running, stop living in the shadows, and instead operate from a place where your son can live in relative peace and you can continue to save lives.”

  “How?”

  He smiled and then shrugged. “That is for the authorities in England to decide, but I assure you that they will be most pleased to have you working with them.”

  “And my son?”

  “I give you my word, Anja. Daniel and your friends will arrive safely in England.” He stood up and offered her his hand. “You have to trust someone, Anja. Let us help you.”

  Her head was pounding, and she did not know what to do. “I need a moment alone,” she whispered, ignoring his outstretched hand.

  She kept her head bowed and her eyes closed until she heard the click of the door closing. Then she drew in a deep breath and centered herself as she prayed for guidance to know what she must do.

  After the meeting with the doctor and vice consul, Peter took a walk in the gardens. He needed to work through all the options for getting Anja and Daniel safely to England. As long as they were on embassy property or inside an embassy vehicle, they were safe from arrest. The plan for them to take a car to Seville and board a Norwegian merchant ship that would take them on to Gibraltar seemed the best possible solution to their situation. What concerned him was that the British authorities in Gibraltar might agree to transport him but not Anja.

  But if she went with the others to the doctor’s house, what was the point of splitting them up in the first place? The doctor and vice consul were right—she was in the greatest danger, and her very presence endangered others. He knew Anja would never agree to going with Lisbeth’s family. She would know the risks they were already under, and she would not add to them—especially not if she agreed to allow Daniel to travel with them.

  He sat on a stone bench and buried his face in his hands. There had to be another way. He loved her. She loved him. Surely God would never be so cruel as to allow them to come all this way—physically and emotionally—and then not give them the chance to fulfill the promise of that love. How many nights had he fallen asleep imagining the war over and Anja, Daniel, and him back in the States—married and living in a house of their own where …

  Married!

  If he and Anja were married, could the Brits refuse her passage? Surely not. He ran back to the embassy and up the stairs to the room where he knew that Anja was attending to Lisbeth and the baby.

  He did not knock but burst through the door as
if he were being chased by wild dogs. Lisbeth and Anja looked up at him, their eyes wide with the fear and concern that had become their natural reaction to any such sudden interruption to their day.

  “Hi,” he said, embarrassed that he had caused them alarm. “Where is Josef?”

  “He took Daniel down to the embassy library. Has something happened?” Lisbeth cradled her baby a little closer to her.

  “No, not at all. I was just … That is, Lisbeth, could you spare Anja for a few minutes? I need to ask her something.”

  He was doing this so badly, stumbling over his words and unable to meet Anja’s stare of curiosity.

  “Of course,” Lisbeth replied. “We’ll be fine, won’t we, Gabrielle?” She nuzzled the child, who raised one tiny fist and touched her mother’s cheek.

  “Pretty name,” Peter said.

  Lisbeth’s smile was radiant. “It is, isn’t it? A beautiful name for a beautiful child,” she cooed.

  “I’ll be right back,” Anja said as she leaned in and kissed Lisbeth’s temple.

  Once they were standing outside the closed bedroom door in the shadows of the upstairs hallway, Peter hesitated. This was hardly the setting for asking her to marry him. He took hold of her hand and urged her to the stairway. “Let’s go into the garden.”

  “It’s about to rain,” Anja protested. “Something has happened, Peter. I can see it in your face. Just tell me.” She sat down on the top step, and he had no doubt that she had no intention of moving until he did as she had asked.

  Below them they could hear the click of typewriter keys and the low voices of embassy employees going about the business of the day. On an ornately carved table that stood under an equally ornate mirror at the top of the stairway was an elegant crystal vase filled with fresh flowers.

  Peter broke off a single blossom of lilac.

  “Peter?”

  He walked two steps below where she sat and rested one knee on the step between them as he tucked the lilac into her hair above her ear. “I love you, Anja.”

  She started to say something, but he stopped her by pressing his forefinger to her lips.

  “Let me get this out. You said that you also love me, perhaps not as you did your husband—or even Mikel—but nevertheless …”

  Had anyone in the history of the universe ever done a worse job of asking a woman to marry him? She was practically twitching with the need to state her protest.

  “I want you to marry me, Anja—as soon as possible. Will you?”

  There, it was said. Badly, but out loud.

  Whatever she had been anxious to say apparently died on her lips. She stared at him as if she had never seen him before. Outside it began to pour, and thunder rumbled.

  To his disappointment, she shook her head and caught the lilac blossom as it landed in her lap. She pressed it to her nose, inhaling the heady perfume that he could smell as well. He knew that from this day forward the scent of lilac would always remind him of this moment—the rainy afternoon when Anja had refused to marry him.

  “Are you sure?” she whispered, the words catching in her throat even as tears glistened in her large ice-blue eyes.

  “Never more sure of anything in my life.”

  “We hardly know each other,” she pointed out, and he grinned because he saw that in the years to come she would be the practical one in their marriage.

  “What do you want to know? Ask me anything.”

  “It’s not so simple. We are from such different—”

  “Shhh. Just say that you will think about it and give me your answer before the day ends.”

  A slight frown creased her forehead. “Surely there is no rush. We have far more urgent matters to …”

  He knew that he would have to explain things to her eventually, and it was unfair not to give her the whole story. So he sat beside her on the step and told her why they needed to marry as soon as possible.

  “Oh,” she said quietly when he’d finished. “I see.” She stood up and pressed her hands together. “I will think about it, Peter. Thank you.” She started back down the hall.

  Peter stumbled up the three steps to catch her. “Wait. You are misunderstanding me.”

  She paused but did not turn around. “I understand perfectly, Peter. I said that I would think on it.” She had her hand on the doorknob to Lisbeth’s room.

  “Just remember one thing, Anja—I love you and want to marry you. Today, tomorrow, next year—whenever you say. That is completely separate from the need for us to do this before we reach Gibraltar. I am trying to protect you because I love you and want you in my life. If we are married, we have a far better chance that the Brits will take us both. If not …”

  She stood stone still, her back to him—that familiar posture as if she had steel in her thin shoulders and spine. “Let’s get one thing straight,” she said. “I loved my husband very much. He was my life, but he is gone—as is Mikel, whom I treasured as a friend. Each of these men has shaped my life in ways I would not have believed. But when this terrible war is over, I do not wish to live with ghosts. I will not allow Daniel to dwell in the past. He will remember his father, of course, but he will need your guidance and counsel as he grows to be a man.” She turned around to face him. “What you need to understand, Peter, is that what I feel for you—that love—has a life of its own, and God willing, it also has a future.”

  Peter was confused. “Are you saying you will marry me?”

  For an answer, she opened her arms to him, and when they embraced he heard her murmur, “I will marry you, Peter Trent—today, tomorrow, or a year from now.”

  They kissed, surrounded by a lilac haze as the flower she held was crushed between them.

  CHAPTER 21

  Lisbeth was sitting up in the large bed as if she’d been waiting for Anja. She squinted at her and grinned. “What’s this? You are looking different—pleased, perhaps even happy.”

  “Peter has asked me to marry him,” Anja admitted. The truth was that she was fairly bursting to tell someone—anyone. She was very glad that the first person to know was Lisbeth. “It’s not what you think,” she hastened to add. She told Lisbeth about Peter’s fear that she would not be allowed to board the British ship with him in Gibraltar if they weren’t married.

  “It is exactly what I think,” Lisbeth said as she laid the baby in the makeshift crib the embassy staff had created and sat on the side of the bed. “Get me some paper and a pen and go find Josef. We must get things in order here.”

  By nightfall Lisbeth and Josef had gotten the ambassador to agree to permit Lisbeth to contact her parents in Wisconsin. Josef and Peter helped her downstairs to the embassy offices where a staffer had managed to make the connection. Her father was the clerk of their local Friends meeting, and although the connection was not good, Lisbeth did her best by shouting to explain the situation and the urgency.

  Meanwhile Anja explained what was happening to Peter. “The usual process would be for the couple marrying to send a letter to the clerk declaring their intention to wed. The clerk would then convene a committee with the assignment of determining if the couple was ready for marriage and would also help with the arrangements for the ceremony and any social gathering to follow.”

  “We don’t need some committee telling us we’re ready,” Peter grumbled.

  “Oh Dad, that is so perfect,” Lisbeth squealed suddenly. She covered the receiver. “My father suggests that Josef and I serve as your committee.” She returned to shouting into the receiver, declaring her love for her family and promising that she and Josef and her parents’ new granddaughter would be home soon.

  As soon as the call ended, Lisbeth began handing out assignments. “Peter, you and Josef need to set up a circle of chairs in that lovely salon that overlooks the garden. Daniel, you can help. Anja, you and I need to improvise a wedding costume for you. We Quakers may be plain in our dress and traditions, but I will not permit you to be married in clothes you’ve been wearing for two days and u
sed to help deliver a baby.”

  “I may be able to offer some help with that,” the secretary who had taken Daniel to see the new arrival announced. She went to a coat closet and pulled out a navy blue crepe dress with a small lace collar. Seeing their surprised faces, she rushed to explain. “There are times when we need to work through the day but also attend some function in the evening. I keep it here for those occasions.”

  “It may be a bit large, but we can pin it to fit,” Lisbeth said.

  “It is so lovely,” Anja said. “I’ve never worn anything so lovely.”

  “Go try it on,” the secretary urged. “I’ll go see if I can find some pins.”

  “Wait. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we need to be legally wed,” Peter reminded them. “We may be asked to show some sort of a certificate.”

  “I can take care of that,” the young man who had set up the phone call said. “I mean I can make up a certificate.”

  “In our faith, Peter, it is the religious spiritual union that is more important,” Lisbeth explained.

  He was clearly not convinced. “I don’t think we can count on that working.”

  Dr. Alonzo stepped forward. “With your permission, I will have a word with the ambassador. Why don’t all of you get on with the tasks of setting up the room and dressing and let me take care of the legalities?”

  Anja knew that if anyone understood the need for everything to be in order if she was going to flee with Peter, it was the doctor. “Thank you,” she said softly, and the man actually winked at her.

  An hour later, she was dressed and standing on a small stool in Lisbeth’s bedroom. The secretary was putting the last few pins in the dress to make it fit. “It’s fine,” Anja insisted. “Please. I’m afraid the pins will ruin the fabric.” She stepped down and could hardly believe that she was the woman in the mirror. “Oh my,” she whispered.

  “Oh my indeed,” Lisbeth echoed. She picked up the baby and walked to the door. “Shall we go and get you married, Anja?”