War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 176

Chapter 31

P

eter paced the room, a deep frown on his face.

“You sure you didn’t catch anything on that frequency?” he asked the radio operator Lis, a beautiful woman in her thirties with raven hair, for the umpteenth time.

“I’m perfectly sure,” she said, giving him a saccharine smile that could as well mean she wanted to strangle him. “And if you’d stop pacing, please, I could concentrate on deciphering the Morse code.”

“Sorry,” he said and left the room.

Several days had passed with no news from Lotte. Nothing. No transmissions. No notice. The worry about her clouded his mind. If anything happened to her, Anna would never forgive him.

Anna

. He smiled at the memory of her delicate skin, her sharp mind and her unwavering determination. Anna and her older sister Ursula might look alike, but it was fledgling Lotte who shared many of Anna’s character traits. Determination. Fighting spirit. And a kind heart.

He missed Anna. A lot. And with every passing day the worry plaguing him that he’d never see her again etched itself deeper into his soul. The least he could do was to see her sister safe. If needed, he’d shackle Lotte to a seat on a Berlin-bound train and get her out of the hellhole his beloved Warsaw had become.

Ewa. Hadn’t Ewa mentioned a German girl coming to take piano lessons? What if the German girl was Lotte and Ewa her contact person? His breath caught in his lungs.

It’s worth a shot. No, it’s too dangerous. You might compromise Ewa. But I need to know what happened to Lotte

.

Against his better judgment he put on his smock and walked to Ewa’s house. The building lay in one of the most embattled areas of town and more than once he had to dive for cover as mortar fire rained down on him.

“Hey, where are you going?” an insurgent called out to him.

“Visiting a friend,” Peter answered, not willing to give away more information than needed.

“There are no friends over there anymore. The Germans regained this street weeks ago. We’re holding as best as we can to give people from the City Center a chance to escape.”

Peter looked through a peephole in the barricade onto the building where Ewa had lived. It was a ruin, burnt to the ground, its blackened remains reaching up into the sky like a hand begging for help. Nobody lived in that building anymore.

“Do you know what happened to the residents?” he asked his new friend.

“Not much. Most fled the city during the two-hour cease-fire negotiated by the Red Cross. But rumors have it that one woman was an informer for the British. The Gestapo got her. Bastards.” The soldier cursed and ducked as bullets flew over their heads.

“Thanks, lad.” Peter crawled backwards until he’d reached safe cover behind a building.

So much for finding Ewa

. Worse, if she’d been captured, and talked under torture, Lotte was in serious trouble by now. He decided to return to Agnieska’s place. The two of them had some talking to do.

Jan jumped at him, giving him a bear hug, as soon as he opened the door of the apartment. Peter smelled freshly baked bread and his stomach growled in response. Food was getting scarce in the city.

“Hello, big one.” He greeted his son and set him down, before taking off his smock. “Where’s your aunt?”

“Making dinner. Can you tell her not to make barley again?” Jan made his request with a grimace. Since the resistance had captured a brewery, malted barley was the only thing that could be obtained in decent quantities.

“I’m sorry, but Agnieska has to make do with whatever rations she can get.”

Peter stepped into the kitchen, where his sister-in-law was putting some nondescript weeds into a pot with boiling water. He shuddered and chose not to inquire what she was cooking.

After dinner, he tucked Jan into bed with a kiss on his forehead and returned to the living room to find Agnieska waiting for him in one of the armchairs, two mugs of steaming tea on the small table.

“You look like you need to talk,” she said quietly.

Peter nodded and sat in the other chair. “I went to see my contact, but the area is now under German control and it seems she was arrested by the Gestapo.”

“They’ll be looking for anyone who had contact with her,” Agnieska warned him.

“I know that.”

And it worries me, but not so much for myself

. He paused, taking a sip of his tea. How could he best broach the delicate topic? Head-on, he decided. “Who will take care of Jan if something happens to either one or both of us?”

Agnieska nodded, her brow furrowed. “I’ve thought about that countless times. The elderly lady next door will take him in for a few days, but then…I haven’t been able to contact Katrina or Stan since they had to flee the farm.”

“Isn’t there anyone else? From your side of the family?” Peter asked.

“My side?” She scoffed at him, endless melancholy entering her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Peter apologized for his carelessness. Agnieska’s entire family had been deported to various ghettos and camps long ago for being Jewish.

“We don’t have many friends left in Warsaw. Most are either dead or escaped,” Agnieska said. “What about your new wife?”

Peter shook his head. While he was sure Anna would welcome his son with open arms, it wasn’t a viable option. An orphaned Polish boy would be shot before he ever set foot into Germany.

“Then we just have to stay alive,” Agnieska said.