by Kris Tualla
“I love it!”
Plates of food were set in front of everyone in the group, halting conversation for the moment. But as soon as the waiter moved away, Teigen asked about the money owed to himself and Selby.
“Yes, of course. Gunter should be here by noon. He can pay you both then.” Dahl gave Teigen a sly look. “That’s a lot of money. Don’t spend it all in one place.”
Teigen turned to look at his wife. The time had come.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to—or at least a good chunk of it.”
“Don’t go overboard Teigen,” Selby cautioned him sternly. “I told you simple, and I mean it.”
Bennett frowned. “What’s going on?”
Ben, however, began to laugh.
Karolina looked at Dahl, clearly confused.
Dahl paled. “What’s—what is going on?”
Teigen intertwined his fingers with Selby’s and their joined hands rested on the white tablecloth. He couldn’t hold back his joy and he grinned at the group.
“Selby and I were married in Lerwick. I need to buy rings.”
*****
“That’s why you slept in her room last night!” Ben clapped his hands while Selby wanted to slide under the table.
“You did?” Dahl looked like his dog just died.
Teigen spoke to Ben. “I told you everything was fine.”
Karolina squealed and Bennett shook Teigen’s hand across Ben’s chest.
Selby sat silently.
They think we had sex.
She managed a look at Dahl. Her counterpart was also silent. Stunned by the news. Why wouldn’t he be?
The very last time they were together, the night before the explosion in Trondheim and her beating, she told him I’m damaged. I don’t think I’ll be good for anyone.
And now, just over two months later, she was married to another man. He’d asked her does Hansen know. Dahl knew her heart better than she did.
“Yes,” she blurted as if Dahl had asked the question just a moment ago. “And we’re working on it.”
Conversation around the table died.
Selby ignored everyone except Dahl while her face burst into painful flames. “Do you understand?”
Dahl shook his head slowly. “I understand your words, Sel. But I don’t understand you.”
Selby turned to Teigen. “I’m not hungry.”
He looked down at her, his face a mask of confusion. “What do you want to do?”
“Buy our rings.” She stood and dropped her napkin over her untouched breakfast. “Let’s go.”
*****
After her outburst at breakfast, Teigen took Selby to two jewelry stores and convinced her to accept a pair of rings, one with a small diamond flanked by two emeralds.
“I want to give this to you,” he insisted. “Please let me.”
Though her acceptance seemed reluctant, Teigen noticed during their lunch that she played with her empty finger. After they met with Gunter and collected their back pay, he and Selby returned to the store where the rings were on hold and he paid for them.
He slid the plain gold band onto her finger first, and the little diamond and emerald one next.
“With these rings, I thee wed,” he said before kissing her right there in the shop.
Selby then slid the thicker plain gold band onto his finger.
“I didn’t even have a prop when we spoke our vows,” she said before she looked up into his eyes. “But with this ring, I wed you right back.”
By suppertime everyone in the troupe knew that Teigen and Selby had married while in the Shetland Islands. When they walked into the hotel dining room for supper they were greeted with a standing ovation. There was even a bottle of champagne chilling on the table set for twelve.
“Where did this come from?” Teigen asked, lifting the dripping bottle.
“From me!” Falko Jensen pounded him on the back. “You sly dog!”
Teigen realized that some sort of explanation was in order. He encouraged everyone to sit while the waiter doled out a dozen tiny servings of the scarce wine. He took his place next to his wife, who kept surreptitiously staring at her hand and smiling.
“A toast,” he said finally, lifting his glass. “I know that my marriage to Selby seems sudden. The truth is I’ve loved her for months.”
Several of his troupe mates looked surprised, but a few smiled smugly. He guessed some wagers would be paid off later.
“I was willing to wait for her to realize that she loved me in return—which of course she did.” He smiled as chuckles rose around the table. “But because we’re at war, hurrying to settle down and start a family wasn’t the best idea.”
Heads wagged as the actors and actresses glanced sadly at each other.
“However…” Teigen paused to gather his composure. “On October twenty-seventh my opinion was changed in an instant.”
Every face at the table sobered, and every pair of eyes shifted to Selby. Her cheeks reddened but her gaze remained fixed on his.
“I realized at that moment that I couldn’t wait to make Selby my wife. Our future wasn’t a guarantee.”
Teigen looked directly at Dahl now. “Whatever obstacles were keeping us apart, are obstacles that we’ll now face together.”
Then he moved his gaze around the table so as not to obviously target Dahl with his words. “Whatever future we are blessed to have, starts now.”
He grinned at Selby then and lifted her to her feet. Her smiling eyes glittered up at him with happy tears.
“Skål!” He clinked his champagne glass against hers.
“Skål!” she replied.
He emptied his glass in one gulp.
*****
“I need to talk to Falko,” Teigen said to Selby after their celebratory dinner was finally finished. “Do you mind?”
She shook her head. “I’ll shower and get ready for bed before you come up.”
Teigen gave her a tender but brief kiss on the lips. “I won’t be too long.”
He watched her leave and then turned his attention to his friend. “Thanks for the champagne.”
“It’s the least I could do.” Falko walked away from the big table where their waiter and a busboy were cleaning up the dishes.
“Will this do?” he asked pointing to a table for two in the corner.
“Sure.” Teigen sat with his back to the room knowing that Falko preferred to keep an eye on who came and left. “Can I buy you a drink?”
“I won’t say no.”
Teigen caught the waiter’s attention. “Two aquavits when you’re finished, please.”
The waiter nodded.
“So,” Teigen turned back to his friend. “Tell me about the desks.”
“Six explosions, five targets dead.”
“Walder was the one that escaped?”
Falko sighed. “Yeah. Some dumb private opened the drawer apparently.”
Too bad. “Are more desks coming?”
“No. Colonel Berntsen in Oslo put a halt to it. He said the Nazis were retaliating too strongly.” Falko shrugged. “I can’t argue with him on that.”
The two shots of aquavit arrived. Teigen paid the waiter. Then he lifted his glass. “It was good while it lasted.”
Falko touched Teigen’s glass with his. “Yes it was.”
The men downed the drinks.
“Anything else we can work on?” Teigen asked.
“I’ll let you know—after I tell Dahl, of course.” Right. Chain of command. “So is there a secret story about Selby?”
Teigen stared at his empty glass while he decided what to say. Falko, after all, was his best friend. The only one who understood Kirkenes.
“She had it rough at home. Stepfather who wasn’t nice. She hasn’t trusted men since.” Teigen lifted one shoulder in an off-handed shrug. “Until she met me, of course.”
“That’s right. You two had that mystical connection on the pier.” Falko chuckled and signaled for another drink. “T
his one’s on me.”
Teigen went upstairs after the second drink. He took off his shoes and socks then padded barefoot into the bathroom to wash and undress. He switched off the light, paused a moment to let his eyes adjust, then made his way to the bed.
Once under the covers, he curled around Selby who was lying on her side facing away from him. He looped his arm over her and cupped the breast closest to the mattress.
“Good night,” she whispered sleepily.
She didn’t remove his hand.
Chapter
Thirty Eight
March 12, 1944
Oslo, Norway
“This is going to be disastrous.” Dahl handed Teigen the newspaper at breakfast. “Quisling has come up with the brilliant idea to draft Norwegian men into the German army.”
“What? When?” Teigen scanned the article. “It says the draft notices will go out starting next week.”
“We need to have a troupe meeting as soon as we all get to the theater.” Dahl gave Selby a tight-lipped smile as she slid into her chair. “I’ll let everyone know.”
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “What did I miss?”
Teigen handed Selby the newspaper as Dahl walked away.
Her eyes followed the actor from the dining room. “I’m not sure he knows how to talk to me anymore.”
“He has a lot on his mind.” Teigen pointed at the article. “This is the latest.”
Selby read, brow lowering and eyes widening. Teigen watched his wife. Though their marriage wasn’t consummated yet, she was making consistent progress in her comfortable level of intimacy.
After they were in bed at night and the light was off, she let him touch her body over her nightgown—her entire body. What was even more encouraging, she was now touching his.
After a couple weeks of marriage Teigen began changing clothes in front of Selby and walking out of the bathroom naked after his shower. She stopped blushing after a week or so.
Selby hadn’t been naked in front of him yet, but last night she stripped to her bra and panties before disappearing behind the bathroom door to put her nightgown on.
Teigen smiled. Progress was progress.
Selby lifted her eyes from the paper. “Teigen, this is really frightening. What are we going to do?”
Teigen reached for her hand. The sight of her wedding rings always lifted his mood. “We’ll figure that out today. But no matter what, I’m not leaving you behind.”
*****
I’m not leaving you behind.
Selby loved her husband so much more than she imagined was possible. She just wished she wasn’t still afraid to love her husband.
Give it time, she chided herself. It will come.
It has to.
Dahl stood in front of the other nine members of the acting troupe plus Ben. He read the Oslo newspaper article aloud so that everyone had the same information before they started making a plan.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Gunter started the conversation. “That all seven of the men here are drafted and the troupe is finished.”
“That’s a very real possibility,” Bennett said. “We’re all the right age—not too old, and not boys.”
“Ben’s a boy,” Jonas stated.
“My papers say I’m almost eighteen,” Ben countered. “And even though I’m still sixteen, that’s old enough to be drafted.”
“Do you think that because we officially exist to entertain the Germans that we might be exempt?” Selby asked hopefully.
Dahl’s mouth twisted in disgust. “The thing is, Quisling is the one who decided to force his countrymen to join the Germans. Terboven’s not making the call, Quisling is.”
“Maybe we appeal to Terboven anyway,” Gunter suggested. “I don’t see a way that could make things any worse.”
Teigen grunted. “Trust me. Quisling always finds a way to make everything worse. I know that from experience.”
“Retaliation for going over his head.” Bennett looked at the others. “That could get ugly.”
Selby felt panic tighten her chest. “So what are our options?”
Dahl held up one hand and grabbed his index finger. “We men get drafted and the troupe shuts down.”
“None of us will join the Germans, so I guess we’ll go into hiding, then. Resist from the woods.” Gunter looked at Teigen. “Right?”
Teigen shrugged. “Or leave the country.”
Selby shot him a disapproving look.
He gave his head a tiny shake and mouthed, we’ll stay.
“Moving on.” Dahl grabbed the next finger. “We go to Terboven and ask for special dispensation, and he agrees.”
“Then we continue as we have been, knowing Quisling has a target on our backs?” Jonas looked uncertain. “How long will we last?”
“There’s no way to know,” Dahl admitted. “But it would buy us time to make other arrangements.”
Bennett nodded his agreement. “That’s not a bad thing.”
Dahl’s hand moved to the third finger. “Or, we go to Terboven and he disagrees. Assuming we’re drafted, that puts us back at number one.”
“We’ll be drafted, there’s no doubt. I mean, look around this room.” Gunter’s arm moved in a sweeping semi-circle. “The Royal Shakespearean Acting Troupe has a certain amount of fame. If its members joined the German army, Quisling would have his very own role models of Norwegian support.”
“Except we won’t,” Bennett growled.
Gunter leaned toward his troupe mate. “Quisling’s too stupid to know that. He’ll try it.”
“It seems like approaching Terboven is our best next move, then,” Selby ventured. “And if he agrees, then we have time to discuss what’s next.”
“And if he says no…” Dahl sighed and rested his hands on his hips. “Then I think we need to leave Oslo immediately. Get out of Quisling’s reach before he can draft us”
Everyone in the room was silent.
Selby reached for her husband’s hand. It was big and strong and warm and it pulled her back from the panic that threatened to drown her. Teigen closed his fingers around hers.
“Where would we go?” Ben asked when no one else did.
“Not to Kristiansand.” Teigen looked to Dahl for confirmation. “Because that’s our next stop. It’s where they’d expect us to go.”
Gunter cleared his throat loudly, drawing all eyes to him. “If Terboven says no, then the troupe is finished.”
Dahl nodded, his expression grim. “Yep. And even if he says yes, our time is limited.”
Selby looked around at the men and women with whom she’d spent the last three years of her life. She was going to miss them. Even the frivolous Karolina.
“We’ll still be members of Milorg and active resistance,” she reminded them. “Even if we aren’t working together we’ll still be fighting the same war.”
“And we might be working together, at least for a while.” Bennett looked optimistic. “We won’t know until we ask.”
Dahl looked directly at Selby then. “Are you ready for your most important role?”
She nodded and squeezed her husband’s hand. “I’ll go dress the part. Selby Sunde will be stunning.”
*****
Selby and Dahl waited in the room outside Reichskommissar Josef Terboven’s office. As the two lead actors in the troupe, it made sense for them to be the ones to lay the request at Terboven’s feet.
Selby counted to one hundred in her head over and over to keep her thoughts from running amok. Her emerald green dress, blonde wig, shiny black spike-heeled pumps, and red lipstick were all designed to attract a man’s attention and hold it.
She already knew her smile looked sincere. Men fell for it every time.
The intercom on the SS-uniformed secretary’s desk buzzed. He picked up the receiver and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
He set the handset in its cradle before looking at Selby and Dahl. “You may go in.”
Terboven’s private
office was a huge wood-paneled affair whose purpose was clearly to intimidate. Maps, flags, and an enormous desk with an equally enormous leather chair faced the door. Gleaming silver tea, coffee, and liquor services graced the sideboard to Selby’s right, opposite a bank of paned-glass windows that she estimated must stretch eight feet above the pierced-metal enclosed registers.
The man himself was unremarkable. Still handsome in his mid-forties, he was tall and slim—though not as tall as her husband. His hair was short, parted on one side, and he wore glasses with round metal frames. The blue eyes they framed showed no emotion.
“Good afternoon,” he said in Norse. “What can I do for you?”
Dahl and Selby stood in front of the desk—they had not been asked to sit. “My name is Dahl Holter and this lovely woman is Selby Sunde.”
Selby gave Terboven her shy smile. He didn’t return it.
“We are lead actor and actress in the Royal Shakespearean Acting Troupe and we are currently performing in Oslo.”
The Nazi’s gaze flicked from Dahl to Selby and back. “Currently?”
“We’re a traveling troupe, Reichskommissar,” Selby said. “We travel from Oslo to Trondheim and back, twice a year, entertaining German officers.”
“Hm.” He seemed unimpressed.
“What we’ve brought you today are tickets for tonight’s performance.” Dahl reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope which he set on Terboven’s desk. “Twenty-four to be exact.”
Selby’s smile brightened. “We thought that you and your officers, along with wives or lady friends, would enjoy our production of A Comedy of Errors.”
Terboven picked up the envelope and looked inside. “This is very generous of you.” He dropped the envelope back on the polished desktop. “Why today? Why not the times you have performed in Oslo before?”
Selby spoke before Dahl could, intending to send him a message. “May we be honest?”
Terboven’s regard was intense. “I expect nothing but honesty, Miss Sunde.”
Dahl shifted his stance and gave the Reichskommissar his best casual look.