War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 221

Chapter 35: Stan

H

e had adapted into his new routine as a farmer. Getting up early, working all day, sleeping plagued with nightmares at night. With Tadzio’s help, he’d cleared a small field, sowed wheat and planted potatoes. It was already late in the year to do so, but he hoped the weather would stay warm long enough to harvest in the fall.

The most urgent work done, he took on the Herculean task of removing the weeds and pronging the big field that extended behind the farmhouse all the way up to the forest. At noon, he settled in the shadow of a huge tree, fleeing from the scorching summer heat. He drank fresh water from his thermos and ate the vegetable soup Tadzio’s mother had made.

He must have dozed off for a while, because when he opened his eyes again, he saw a woman traipsing through the vegetable garden near the house. Her shoulders were hunched forward and the formerly colorful dress she wore had faded into different hues of bluish-grey.

She looked lost. Desolate. One of the displaced persons who roamed the country looking for lost family members or a place to stay. She’d leave soon enough, or Tadzio’s dog would chase her away. At second glance, her skinny frame tugged at his heartstrings.

“Dammit!” He used the tree to push himself up and walked the distance back to the house, seeing if he could help her along.

“Stan,” the woman shouted at him. “Stan! You’re here!” She rushed toward him and before he knew what was happening she fell into his arms.

“Agnieska? Is that you?”

She peeked up at him from under her heavy eyelashes and a cute blush crept across her face, as she peeled herself from his arms and smoothed down the faded dress. “I’m sorry. But…I had given up hope of finding anyone alive.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s good to see you.” He pulled her into his arms again, enjoying the way her soft body felt in his arms. Sensations he’d thought didn’t exist anymore flooded his system and pooled deep down in his groin.

“You must be hungry.” Both of them chuckled at his words.

“Your mother, God bless her, used to say that all the time.” Agnieska smiled at him, the smile converting her dusty, tired face into pure sunshine.

“I learned how to take care of myself and the farm. And food is what we all need most after six years of starving. Sit down.” He motioned for her to sit on the porch at the rickety table that he’d scrounged just a week ago. “Tadzio’s mother has made soup, I’ll heat it up for you.”

Agnieska nodded and fell into one of the two chairs. She looked exhausted. And sad. And adorable. Stan disappeared into the kitchen and heated the soup for her. Just two days prior he’d finally managed to repair the stove.

“Here you go,” he said, handing her the bowl and a slice of bread. Then he sat across the table and watched how she hungrily wolfed down her meal. She was awfully skinny, her arms frail. He told her the short version of his ordeals during the war, leaving out the part about his leg.

“Thank God, Janusz is safe. I was so worried about him,” she mumbled, chewing her bread.

After a while he asked her, “Where have you been?”

The brilliance in her eyes dimmed and she cast them downward before she said, “After the Uprising the Nazis took me to Dresden to work in one of their ammunition factories. I thought I’d never make it…the bombing…so many of my coworkers were burnt alive…”

She shuddered in the bright sunshine and Stan hurried to say, “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too difficult.”

Agnieska cast him a grateful smile, and blinked away a few tears. “I’m here now. The Russians liberated Dresden and I was lucky not to be a German woman.” Her pale face turned even paler. “I came into a displaced persons camp and then made my way back to Warsaw, where I placed missing persons reports with the Red Cross and found out that my entire family perished in the camps. Not a single person left.”

She dabbed at her eyes and Stan couldn’t help but grab her other hand and say, “I’m so sorry.”

“It is what it is.” Agnieska’s cracking voice belied her brave face. “I couldn’t find any records about Janusz. But they told me both you and Peter had been prisoners of war. So I came here in the hopes of finding someone.” She leaned back in the chair and a tiny smile appeared on her lips. “I’m so glad I found you.”

“Me, too.” Stan’s heart felt lighter than it had in years. He admired her strength in the face of impossible odds, and he loved the way she’d managed to stay positive despite all the evil she’d experienced. “You can stay here for as long as you wish.”

“I couldn’t possibly impose on you.”

“You’re not imposing,” he said, afraid she’d leave him alone again. “You hid my nephew Janusz for almost two years and saved his life. Everyone in my family is indebted to you forever.”

“He’s my nephew, too,” she reminded him and a sweet laughter fell from her lips. “But thanks for the offer. I’ll stay – but only until I have found a place for myself.”

Stan hoped she’d never find another place to stay. “Come, I’ll show you around.”

“I love what you’ve done with the place,” she said with a laugh, looking at the utter destruction.

“Really? It’s post-war fashion,” Stan chuckled, the tension of the past months slowly dissipating. “For now I’ve been sleeping in the shed but I’ll ask someone to repair the roof so you can have a proper house.”

Agnieska gave him a scrutinizing glance and asked, “Why don’t you do it yourself? I remember you and Jarek were always clambering up on the roof.”

The mention of his twin brother sent a pang of jealousy into his heart. Back then, before the war, Agnieska had had a serious crush on his brother. Not on him.

When he didn’t answer, she looked pointedly at his leg and asked, “What happened?”

He pondered lying for a moment, but then opted for the truth. “Amputated.”

“I almost didn’t notice the limp,” she said as if it were the most normal thing in the world that a man had only one leg. Maybe it was. More and more maimed soldiers came home from the battlefields and the prison camps with one or more missing limbs.

“For now you can sleep here.” He pointed at the only intact place in the house, beneath the stairs. It was just big enough to place a mattress there.

“I’ve had worse,” she said and dropped her satchel on the ground. “It’s not that I have a lot of luggage either.” Again she smiled, sending hot chills up and down his spine.

Stan looked away. “The stove is working and there’s still some canned food in the pantry beneath the kitchen. I’ve been doing my best growing vegetables and sowing crops for the coming winter, but I can do only so much.”

“Now you have me to help,” Agnieska said, her enthusiastic voice drawing him to her like a moth to the flame. He told himself it was only because two persons could achieve more than one.

“I’m still hoping Katrina and Richard will find their way home,” he said to distract himself from gazing at Agnieska’s enticing lips.

“And they will as soon as they can. Just like I did. You’ll see they are fine,” she said, putting a hand on his arm.

Agnieska rolled up her sleeves and under her capable hands, with the help of hired workers from the village, the farmhouse returned to its former beauty. Stan worked on the field with Tadzio, while she tended to the vegetable and herb garden, growing enough food for themselves and to pay for the hired work.

But Stan knew that they still needed to grow more if they wanted to eat during the winter.

Several weeks passed

and the two of them had moved upstairs, Stan into the room he’d occupied with his brothers and Agnieska into the other room that had been Katrina’s as a child. One day he found her in the kitchen, sitting on the floor with a faded photograph in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Agnieska, what’s wrong?” He took the photograph from her hands. It showed Peter and her sister Ludmila at their wedding. She must have found it somewhere amongst the rubble, because it was dusty with burned edges.

More tears streamed down, as she cleared her throat several times, trying to talk. Stan let himself slide down beside her with some difficulty and wrapped an arm around her. Much to his surprise, she leaned into his chest.

“I’m the only one who survived,” she sobbed against his chest, only to expel herself from his embrace and glare daggers at him, before she pummeled her fists into him, sobbing, “Why? Why me? Why not them?”

“Because Richard rescued you,” Stan reminded her.

“He shouldn’t have. I don’t deserve it. He should have rescued someone else, someone more important, worthier of survival. I’m just a simple housewife,” Agnieska cried.

“You’re not. You’re the strongest, most determined person I’ve ever come across. You saved Janusz. And me…”

“You?” Her eyes rounded with surprise. “You didn’t need me. You’ve been doing well on your own.”

“Maybe. But I was lonely. Depressed. You brought the sunshine back into my life,” he whispered, half-ashamed of the cheesy words. But it was the truth. Without Agnieska, he didn’t know whether he’d have wanted to toil on.

Agnieska got to her feet and then helped Stan up as well. “I’m sorry for my outburst.”

“It happens to all of us.” He remembered the day when he arrived at the farm and drank himself into unconsciousness, weeping all night. “Why don’t you rest for a few hours…”

“No, I’d rather stay busy. Keep my mind busy.”

A few days later, while eating dinner, Stan and Agnieska talked about the future.

Stan said, “We should have enough food come winter and with any luck we can hunt deer in the fall. That’ll get us some meat.”

Agnieska cast her eyes downward. Since her breakdown, there had been an awkward tension between them. “I’m not sure whether I should stay…”

“Are you planning to leave?” Stan asked, an icy hand grabbing his heart. He’d grown so used to having her around, seeing her smile, hearing her cheerful voice. He couldn’t possibly fathom a life without her.

“Would you even have me any longer? I feel like I’ve imposed for too long…” she said with a soft voice.

“It’s been nice having you here. Please stay,” Stan answered.

Agnieska gave him a curious look but said nothing else and the rest of the week she avoided his presence as best as she could. He started to believe that he’d somehow misread her signals and overstepped with his insinuation of liking her around.

A week later, she sought him out while he worked in the field. “What can I help you with?”

“Don’t you have something else you’d rather be doing than helping me outside?” Stan asked with surprise.

“No. I need to be outside for a while.”

He handed her a shovel and showed her how he to create the rows for the vegetables to grow. Agnieska watched for a minute and then mimicked his actions. “Like this?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

They worked silently side by side for a few minutes before she said, “I used to be afraid of you.”

“What?” Stan asked, and leaned on his shovel, scrutinizing her face.

“When we were younger, I was afraid of you.” Her voice was but a whisper and she didn’t dare look into his eyes.

“Why?”

“Because of your temper. Every girl in Lodz was afraid of you, except for your sister,” she glanced at him, but quickly looked away.

Stan felt a pang of guilt. He hadn’t known that Agnieska had been afraid of him. He’d been famous for his rash temper, yes, but he’d never thought a girl would shrink away from him because of it.

“Are you still afraid of me?” he asked.

A cute flush stained her cheeks pink. “Not any more.”

“Do you still have a crush on Jarek?”

The pink turned into beet-red. “Jarek is dead. That would be pointless, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. You always followed him around like a puppy.” Stan shrugged.

“That was a long time ago. We’re not adolescents any longer. I’m twenty-four now.”

“And I’m twenty-six. Did you forget we are almost the same age?” Stan asked, looking her up and down and wondering what she would do if he kissed her.

Agnieska dropped her shovel and clasped her hands together in front of her, “I haven’t forgotten anything. At first, I admit I saw Jarek whenever I looked at you, but that barely lasted a few days. You and the Jarek I knew are nothing alike. You have matured so much. You’ve grown and become a kind and generous man. Determined to eke out a better future for yourself and your family against all odds, braving the hardships. I admire your strength.”

Stan nodded and took an experimental step towards her. When she didn’t move back, he took another, until they were only a few inches apart. “You’re beautiful.”

“I am?” she asked, lifting her head and meeting his eyes for the first time since coming to join him outside.

He lifted a hand and let her hair waterfall through his fingers. It felt like strands of silk and glimmered as the sun shone down on it. “I want to kiss you.”

Agnieska widened her eyes and shyly nodded her assent. Stan cupped her jaw, letting his hand slip behind her neck. With his other hand he tipped her chin upwards and gently touched his lips to her own. She kept her hands at her sides, but despite the distance between them, Stan could feel her tremble.

He kissed her again, this time more passionately and relished with joy the moment she surrendered and leaned into his body. He wrapped her in his arms, continuing to kiss her, but he couldn’t dispel her nervousness.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked. When she shook her head, he took her hands and placed them on his shoulders. “Hold me.”

Agnieska bit her bottom lip, but ever so slowly, her hands crept over his shoulders and touched the nape of his neck. When she pushed her fingers into his hair, Stan groaned and closed his eyes to savor the sensation her hands were creating. It had been such a long time since he’d been with a woman. Between hiding from the enemy, working for the resistance, and being held a prisoner, relationships had been low on his priority list.

He’d been falling in love with her for the last few weeks, but he’d been afraid to act on his feelings for fear she would only see his dead twin instead of him. Now that he knew, he couldn’t wait to make her his.

“Won’t you regret being with a …” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word. “…a man with only one leg?”

She smiled at him. When he nodded, she reached up and clasped his face between her hands. “I’m sorry for the pain and suffering you went through, but you’re more man with only one leg than thousands of others with both legs. You’re made of the kind of material real heroes are made of.”

Stan was touched by her comments and kissed her again.

“Will you marry me, Agnieska?” he asked on an impulse, breaking their kiss.

She stared at him in surprise and then started laughing. “Right now?”

“If you wish.”

“Yes, I will. Let’s go into town and get married.” She continued to laugh. “I never expected you to propose to me. Even less after our first kiss, but I’ll take you any time of the day. I love you, Stanislaw Zdanek.”

“I love you too, future Mrs. Zdanek.”

The War Girl

series continues with Richard and Katrina, as they have to flee from the Red Army after the murder of Bartosz’s mother. They hide with friends, but as the war draws to an end and the hunting season for Germans opens, it takes only one betrayal to toss Richard – and Katrina by affiliation – into the worst of persecution.

And since I

fell in love with Stan and Agnieska so much, I wrote an entire book about them falling in love with each other. Mind you, this is a romance novel that focuses on their relationship, exploring the struggles each of them has to overcome to find together.

It’s written in alternating point of views of Stan and Agnieska. If you’re dying to know how she thinks about this grumpy, bitter, yet endearing man, then Second Chance at First Love is for you.

Buy here:

Second Chance at First Love