War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 130

Chapter 14

T

he next day after darkness had settled over the Polish flatlands, Richard heard scratching sounds from the kitchen. Alarmed, he grabbed the bat by his bedside and snuck downstairs. But before he reached the ground floor, strong arms grabbed him and one big hand was pushed over his mouth.

Richard kicked at his attacker, but stopped at the distinctive click of a safety being released on an MP40, the standard German infantry weapon. While he racked his brain over whether he should identify himself as a German or not, someone flashed a lantern into his face. In the short moment the light swept across the room before blinding him, he caught a glimpse on the clothing of the submachine gun holder. Definitely not Wehrmacht. So the weapon was booty.

“What’s going on down there? Richard?” Katrina’s voice sent a hot wave of relief through Richard’s veins, followed by icy chills of fear. Moments later Katrina came down with a lantern and Richard got a good view at the man holding him at gunpoint. A filthy man with broad shoulders, dark hair, and a full beard covering his face. The rifle definitely was German, but the shabby clothing was Polish – Home Army.

“Katrina? Are you alright?” one of the men asked.

“Stan! Jarek! I was so worried about you.” She dashed down the stairs. “Put away your gun, Richard’s a friend.”

Reluctantly the man lowered his gun and enfolded his sister into a bear hug, but the other man still held Richard’s arm behind his back and covered his mouth. Only when Katrina turned and gave the man in Richard’s back a lethal stare did he release his grip.

“

Dziękuję

,” Richard thanked, rubbing his hurting shoulder.

“Have you lost your mind, sister? Who’s that bastard with the German name and accent?”

“Come into the kitchen, you must be hungry,” Katrina said and led the way to the range, where the embers still glowed.

Jarek, or Stan, shoved Richard into the kitchen, never once letting him forget about the submachine gun ready to point at him. Katrina warmed a hearty soup with a few potatoes they’d found earlier when spading the field. She added generous pieces of a wild rabbit trapped a few days ago. The smell of food seemed to mollify her brothers enough to sit down at the table, hanging their guns on the backs of their chairs.

Richard thought it best to disappear, but when he slid out of the kitchen, one of the brothers called him back. “German bastard. You stay here where I can see your hands.”

“Stop calling him names. He’s a good man,” Katrina intervened, serving big bowls of steaming soup to her brothers.

“He’s a Fritz.”

“So why’s he here?” the other one, with a long and ugly scar across his cheek, asked.

“He’s here because he needed a place to stay and I needed help with the farm, Jarek.”

So this is Jarek

. Apart from the scar, the two men looked identical.

Stan shoved his half-empty bowl away and growled, “You could have told us, if you needed help.”

“Told you? I haven’t seen you in weeks. For all I know, you could have been dead by now.” She stared at her brother. “You do your job and let me do mine.”

Jarek seemed less hot-tempered‚ than his twin and spooned his soup in silence, before he leaned back and held out his bowl to Katrina. “That’s fantastic, sister, can I have more?”

She smiled at the compliment and refilled his bowl. “You want some, too, Stan?”

Stan gave a growl and a nod, and then dug into his food like it was his first hot meal in days. Once he finished eating, he stared with blatant animosity at Richard. “The Fritz has to leave.”

“No,” Katrina said, putting her fists on her hips.

“Are you bats, Katrina?” Stan all but shouted at her with a crimson red face. “He’s a bloody German. He will not spend another minute in this house. In fact he should not spend another minute on this earth.” Stan’s hand shot back to grab his MP40.

“Put down your gun at once or shoot me first!” Katrina shielded Richard with her body. “Please stop being so driven by hate, and hear what I have to say.”

“We could listen first and shoot him later,” Jarek said with a chuckle.

Richard hated the way they talked as if he weren’t in the same room with them. He felt sorry for Katrina, who had to endure the harsh judgment of her brothers, and he feared for his life. From what Richard had seen so far, Stan’s temper had a short fuse and he knew how to handle his submachine gun. At this distance, the weapon would turn him into a shredded mess.

“Richard’s a good man. He saved me from being raped and possibly murdered by his fellows back in Baluty.”

“And you paid the debt by giving him exclusive rights to your body?” The veins on Stan’s neck pulsated with rage. “Shame on you for consorting with the enemy. You both deserve to be shot for the disgrace you have brought on our family!”

Richard couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. “I did not sleep with your sister. And I would never force myself upon a woman. Ever.”

“How…how could you think so little of me?” Tears of fury rolled down her cheeks and she showered her brothers with a salvo of rapid-fire Polish words Richard didn’t understand. They argued back and forth, too fast for him to understand most of it, but in the end, her brothers reluctantly agreed that Richard could stay in the farmhouse – for now.

“How long will you stay?” Katrina finally asked them.

“I’m afraid we have to leave before dawn. It’s too dangerous to be seen around here. Your Fritz’s compatriots have put a bounty on our heads.”

Katrina embraced each one of them for a long minute, before she climbed upstairs to prepare the third bedroom for them to sleep in. As soon as she slipped out of sight, Stan closed the distance to Richard and said, “Listen carefully, Fritz. If you so much as touch my sister, I will take great pleasure in chopping off your hands and then make you die a slow and painful death. Understood?”

“Fully.” Richard believed every single word Stan said and decided it wasn’t a good time to confess that Katrina and he had kissed already.