War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 106

Chapter 18

M

ay arrived with sunshine and blossoming trees. Even in a devastated Berlin, people gathered hope again. Nothing looked as bleak as it had during the cold and dark winter.

Sabine dreaded her next meeting with Lily, since she had nothing to tell her. She battled with herself whether it would be good or bad to tell Lily about Peter Wolf and his threats. It might appease the Gestapo when she gave them something, or it might infuriate them because they thought she’d been found out and wouldn’t be useful to them anymore.

But she needed to give them something, since they wouldn’t wait patiently for much longer. During the last two meetings, Lily had dropped remarks about Sabine’s sub-par performance and that she needed to come up with something substantial soon. Real soon.

But how?

The tension inside the Klausen household had never lessened since that fateful night when Peter and Anna had visited. Frau Klausen refused to even meet Sabine’s eyes, and not even Ursula spoke to her anymore. No doubt, Peter had told them about their little encounter.

Sabine had been hoping to find a chance to speak with Ursula alone, to try to explain herself, but Ursula was never alone. It appeared as if the others were afraid of leaving her alone with Sabine.

Life in the apartment had become very depressing and uncomfortable. Sabine did her best to cope. She went to work, came home, went to bed, and then got up the next day and did it all over again.

In the darkness of the night, she cried herself to sleep, longing for her husband and silently cursing Lily for ever talking to her – cursing Kriminalkommissar Becker for his outrageous blackmail. Soon, she found herself looking constantly over her shoulder, sure some Gestapo lowlife would show up and abduct her as well.

Defying Lily’s pressure to mingle with the Klausens, she usually kept to herself, leaving her bedroom door slightly ajar, so she could hear most of what they said. Not that they ever incriminated themselves.

In fact, their conversations had been so mundane, Sabine started to wonder whether the Gestapo was barking up the wrong tree and the Klausens were actually innocent. Still, she listened in on them every chance she got. However lately all the conversations revolved around Anna’s and Peter’s impending wedding, making Sabine even more depressed about her missing husband.

She wondered how fast they’d arranged for the necessary papers, remembering the huge amount of red tape she and Werner had had to work through to receive a marriage license. But that was none of her business. Nothing in this household was, and she cursed once again the fate that had catapulted her into the middle of this intrigue.

“So, will Lotte be able to make it?” Ursula asked her mother.

Lotte? Isn’t that the youngest sister, the dead one?

Sabine held her breath, hoping nobody would notice that she stood in the hallway readying herself to go outside and run some errands.

“Your sister is

dead

,” Frau Klausen said, and then lowered her voice so Sabine couldn’t understand her next words.

Probably an overload of emotion in a heavily pregnant woman. Since there was no answer, Sabine put on her hat, carefully draping it on her hair, and glanced at the image in the mirror. She took solace in the immaculate elegance of her appearance, even though she knew it was a silly thing to do. But what else did she have left as a remainder of normalcy and better times?

Shortly after Peter

and Anna’s wedding, Frau Klausen called Sabine into the kitchen. “Frau Mahler, I know we haven’t been on the best terms lately, and I’m sorry for that.” By the way the older woman pursed her lips, Sabine clearly noticed that she still mistrusted her. “My daughter and I are going to travel to Upper Bavaria for a few days and I want to entrust you with our apartment.”

Relief rushed through Sabine. With the family gone, she wouldn’t have to spy on them anymore. But the next moment, cold waves of shock hit her. With the family gone, the Gestapo might not need her services anymore, either.

“Upper Bavaria?” Sabine said, looking at Ursula and her belly in advanced pregnancy. “Such a long trip?”

“My sister is going to receive the Mother’s Cross in Silver, and what better occasion to visit her than to celebrate this momentous occasion?” Frau Klausen said.

“That’s indeed a prestigious award. Congratulations to your sister,” Sabine said with a smile she hoped might be returned. It wasn’t, but at least Frau Klausen was speaking to her again.

“Thank you. It has been quite some time since any of us have vacationed together in the country. I’m not looking forward to the train ride, but it will be nice to see my sister once again,” Frau Klausen answered.

“I hope you all have a lovely time. When exactly are you leaving?”

“In two days,” Peter answered her question as he walked into the kitchen, the suspicion barely concealed in his glacial blue eyes as he stared at her.

The day before the scheduled travel day, Sabine returned home from the munitions factory and noticed the tension thick in the air. Judging by the agitated voices, Ursula and her mother were having a fit over something.

“I’m staying,” Ursula said in the same moment Sabine walked into the kitchen. When the two women saw her, they stopped talking. Burning with curiosity to find out what they were fighting over, Sabine excused herself to the bedroom, leaving the door slightly ajar. By now she knew they wouldn’t speak another word with Sabine in earshot.

She inched closer to the door, holding her breath as she pressed her ear against the clearance between leaf and frame. The whispering between the two women became louder. Harsher. And after a few more heated exchanges, they’d dropped their caution altogether and Sabine could understand their words.

“You can’t stay here. Not by yourself,” Frau Klausen said.

“There is no one else to do it. I must stay.”

“It’s too risky. Why on earth can’t you think of yourself and the baby first, just this once?” Frau Klausen’s voice trembled with barely concealed sorrow.

“Because those people need me, Mutter.” Ursula tried to calm her mother.

Those people? The ones in hiding?

Sabine almost laughed out loud at the serendipity. Would the Klausens finally talk about the family secret?

“We need you, too…remember what happened to your sister Lotte.” With those words Frau Klausen walked away and minutes later Sabine heard the front door snap close.

What happened to Lotte? I thought she died of typhus?

The whole dead sister story stank. For days everyone had been talking about her as if she were still alive and now this warning? Sabine shrugged. She had more serious issues to worry about. Providing the Gestapo with the required information, for example.

Sabine squared her shoulders, a plan forming in her mind. She hated playing with the needs and worries of a pregnant woman, but Werner’s life was at stake here. “God forgive me!” she whispered and stepped out of her room.