War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 128

Chapter 12

T

he next day Katrina brought him trousers and a shirt. “They belonged to my brother Piotr. I didn’t have the heart to give the clothes away, hoping he would one day come back to wear them.” She left him to put them on and then laughed when he entered the kitchen.

“Your brother must be a big and muscular man,” he said, pointing at the oversized trousers that hung from his hips.

“He is.” She giggled and rushed away to come back with suspenders. “Here. Use these.” She helped him fasten them on the trousers and he leaned – just a bit – into her touch. With every passing minute he grew fonder of this wonderful woman, and he sought out every opportunity to be near her, to touch her. Nothing inappropriate, of course. She wasn’t that type of girl and he was sure she’d slap him in the face if he became impertinent.

“How do I look?” He grinned after giving a turn like a silly adolescent girl. Feeling carefree and silly for a change, he allowed himself to forget about his troubles for just a moment.

“Like a Polish peasant.”

“Wait.” He looked deep into her caring eyes. “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You’ve risked your life to save mine.”

“It was nothing,” she said, a charming blush coloring her cheeks a rosy hue.

“Yes, it was. And I want to give back at least something.” He grasped her hand between his. “If you agree, I want to stay and help you with the farm, and with whatever else you’re doing.”

Katrina bit her upper lip, an internal war apparent in her expression. “You’ll have to learn Polish to blend in.”

“Actually, I happen to be quite proficient in your language,” he said with pride.

“Let’s hear.”

He muttered a few sentences until her giggles drowned his voice.

“The words might be correct, but your accent gives you away. You’d better stay mute around people.”

Richard shrugged. He’d do anything just to stay with her. For a magical moment, neither one of them moved, hesitant to destroy the strong connection holding them captive. Richard moved first, reaching out to wrap his arms around her. For a long minute they stood intertwined, content to be in each other’s company, two souls bonded together against the rest of the world. When she raised her head to look at him, the ground moved beneath his feet and with trembling knees he pressed a kiss to her soft lips.

He’d had no idea. A single kiss and the world stopped spinning.

Richard started

out helping in the house for an hour or two, but as the days passed he regained his strength and took on the heavy work in the fields. Fortunately the farm lay far enough away that visitors rarely came by, except for the young boy called Tadzio.

A city boy all his life, Richard’s only experiences with farming had been the short visits with his aunt Lydia. But Katrina proved a patient teacher and he soon got the hang of it. He soaked up her knowledge the same way he’d soaked up words and wisdom from the books in his boyhood. Always trying to keep up with her, he proved she could count on him, making her forget that he was the enemy.

Katrina and Richard were busy sowing, planting, weeding, and caring for the hens and rabbits. Life as a farmer was hard work, but Richard didn’t mind. It was a nice change to create instead of destroy. And he enjoyed the spring that warmed the days as plants sprouted, bringing color and a sense of life to the devastated country.

He considered burning his uniform, but then decided to keep it, just in case. With the uniform safely hidden away, his frantic mind settled, blocking out the horrors of war. Looking at Katrina as she prepared a salad from leaves, stalks, and buds they had collected earlier, he forgot about everything else.

“Hmm, that smells delicious, what is it?”

“Wild garlic, but we won’t fill our bellies with green leaves alone. Come, I’ll show you the best place to catch crayfish around here.” She grabbed a fish trap and put on her boots.

Hand in hand they walked the few hundred yards to the forest and then followed a small winding path for about an hour, before Richard heard the gurgle of running water. Stepping onto a clearing, he saw the clear creek cutting through lush grass and a tiny cascade disgorging water into a pond the size of a lorry.

“Take off your shoes,” she said, unlacing her boots, shaking them off, and pulling off her socks. They walked with bare feet into the chilly pond and, under Katrina’s vigilant eye, he learned how to set the crayfish trap. “We’ll wait an hour or so and see what we’ve got.” Katrina returned to the clearing and flopped backwards into the grass, exposing her face to the warm rays of sunshine while wiggling her toes. “Don’t you just love how spring seems to bring back life to the earth?”

“I do. This happens every year when Persephone returns to live with her mother on earth,” he said, following suit. Katrina put her head on his shoulder and he twisted a strand of her brown hair around his finger.

“Another Greek myth?”

“Yes. Want me to tell you?” In the long days of his recovery they’d sat for many hours in her kitchen and he’d started telling her about all the books he’d read in his childhood.

She snuggled closer to his side, warming his body from the inside, the same way the sunshine did from the outside.

“Demeter was the goddess of earth, agriculture, and fertility. One day, Hades, the god of the underworld, fell in love with her daughter Persephone and abducted her into the underworld. Demeter became so sad that nothing grew on earth anymore. Plants, animals, and ultimately humans withered away, deprived of the fertility Demeter had so generously showered our planet with. Ultimately, Zeus intervened to save the world and forced Hades to return Persephone to her mother. But since Persephone had already eaten in the underworld, she was bound there. In the end they agreed on a compromise: Persephone would live with her mother on earth half of the year, and the other half with her husband Hades in the underworld. Since then, nature goes into recess as Demeter mourns for her daughter to return in six months.”

“That’s a nice legend,” Katrina said, turning around to look into his eyes. Richard couldn’t resist, but had to pull her onto him and kiss her soft lips. Blood rushed to his groin as he felt her light weight on his body, and his hands roamed up and down her back.

Much later they returned to the trap and found it teeming with crayfish and the odd fish. Katrina used pliers to throw the big ones with a loud thud into her bucket and returned the small crayfish into the pond.

After everything he’d been through, he almost couldn’t believe it possible.

Life was good.