War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 167

Chapter 22

P

eter thought he’d seen a hallucination. Was the amphetamine pill messing with his head? He gritted his teeth against the pain and blinked, but she still hovered over him. Lotte. Anna’s sister.

He muttered a curse, closed his eyes and prayed all of this was but a bad dream caused by the shock and the loss of blood. But when he woke the next day she was still there, hurrying to his bed as soon as he stirred.

“You…Lo…Alexandra?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’m going to help you up. You must drink,” she said and caught him beneath his arms to help him sit.

Searing pain throbbed through his entire body the moment he moved his injured leg. He clenched his jaw and waited to speak until the ache subsided. “My name is Antek,” he said.

“Antek. You have a bad gunshot wound in your leg. The doctor said you are lucky the bullet didn’t hit the femoral artery. Here, drink.” She put a glass of water to his lips and he downed it in one gulp.

“What are you doing here? Why haven’t you been evacuated?” he whispered. He’d been sure the Wehrmacht had withdrawn all the female employees from Warsaw by now. Anna would be so worried if she knew that her sister was in the middle of this awful revolt.

“I got captured by your people,” she said.

Peter gave a guilty smile. It should be his task to protect the women in his family, not the other way round. “Sorry for that. I’ll see that you’re released and returned to Germany.”

“First you have to heal,” she said, handing him a second glass of water, and lowered her voice. “What are

you

doing here? Why aren’t you in Berlin?”

“I had to come here to fight for my country.”

“Why do men always want to fight?” Lotte asked.

“I couldn’t stay comfortably behind in Berlin while my countrymen are staging the biggest revolt since Hitler’s rise. I had to do my bit,” he said almost apologetic, hoping she would understand. Wasn’t she doing the same thing? Coming here to spy for the SOE, when she could have stayed in hiding at the convent?

“It’s not like your life in Berlin was comfortable, you risked your life every day with your

work

. Where is Anna?” Lotte murmured and helped him to lie back again.

“In Berlin. And before you ask, she didn’t like the idea of my coming here very much, but in the end, she approved.” He tried a grin, but failed miserably, because another wave of pain hit his body.

“How long have you been here?”

“End of July. The uprising was supposed to last a matter of days, not weeks. We were counting on the Red Army relieving us as soon as we had gained the first victories. But no such luck. The bastards are stalling on the other side of the Vistula River.”

“Shush,” she quieted him, seeing how the anger deteriorated his condition. “What about Ursula’s baby?”

He mustered a small smile. “It’s a girl. Evelin. I haven’t seen her yet, because your sister stayed with your Aunt Lydia. Ursula planned to return to Berlin after the summer.”

“Lydia…is everyone on the farm well?”

“They are. As is your mother and her new lodger, Sabine Mahler.” He wondered whether he should divulge Sabine’s true identity, but decided against it. “Can you give me any information about the German side?”

“We were utterly unprepared. Nobody believed such a revolt could happen,” Lotte whispered.

“We had the element of surprise on our side. What other news do you have?”

“Reinforcements have been ordered. Tanks and aircraft are coming.”

Peter shook his head, gritting his teeth at the nausea even the tiniest movement caused. “That’s old news. The tanks arrived days ago. How long have you been here?”

“Almost three weeks.”

“Alexandra, we need your help over here,” the head nurse called.

“Go. We’ll talk again soon,” Peter hissed.

He thoroughly disliked the idea that his sister-in-law was in the middle of the worst street fighting since Stalingrad. But there was nothing he could do. Fatigue returned with a vengeance and his eyelids drooped, making up for weeks lacking proper sleep.

A few days

later Marek returned to the hospital to check up on Peter.

“I’m healing well. I guess I can be back with my battalion in a couple of days,” Peter said.

Marek stared at him. “That’s for the doctor to decide, not you. Where is he anyways?”

“The poor doctor is so overworked he leaves everyone not in a life-threatening condition to the nurses.” Peter struggled to sit up. The movement still caused him dizziness. He glanced around the ward to find Lotte and introduce her to Marek, but she had disappeared from sight.

“Is the German slut still here?” Marek asked as if he’d read Peter’s thoughts.

“She’s a good person. Helping the nurses with everything.”

“The only good German is a dead German.” Marek stared down at his former friend. “You’ve been in their country far too long. It’s turned you soft.”

Peter didn’t think he was soft, but it was wiser to keep his mouth shut. He couldn’t argue with Marek’s unconditional hatred for everything German. “You know, I thought maybe we could let her go…”

“Let her go? What kind of foolish idea is that? She’s a prisoner of war! Unfortunately, Bór has decided not to kill the bastards like they do our fighters, but at the very least she deserves to rot in a dungeon for years to come.” Marek’s voice escalated with every word, attracting the bewildered glances of the other patients.

A nurse hurried over, saying, “Please keep your voice down. This is a hospital.” Marek gave a rueful nod, but defiance flickered in his eyes.

“We could turn her and gain valuable information,” Peter started another feeble attempt to convince his comrade.

“And why would she do that? She’s one of those pigs.”

“She’s been helping regardless of nationality…”

“To save her own skin.” Marek sneered. “The gunshot addled your brains.”

“My brains are fine.” Peter moved his legs over the edge of the bed, trying to stand up. He failed miserably, and Marek had to grab him beneath his arms to keep him from tumbling.

“As fine as your leg? I’ll tell Bór that you won’t return to duty for some time. And you stop talking this nonsense about setting a German pig free.”

“She’s a woman. She doesn’t belong in the middle of a battle zone.” Peter groaned as Marek settled him on the bed.

“I agree. She shouldn’t have come here in the first place. Woman or not, she stays a prisoner until this battle is over.”

Peter wished he could tell Marek the truth, but the man would have a fit if he knew that Peter had married a German woman.

“Do you still believe we can win?” Peter whispered.

Marek cast his eyes downward. “There are rumors General Berling's Polish First Army is about to relieve us.”