War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 252

Chapter 30

A week later

K

atrina stepped from the train that had taken them as far as Mindelheim, about six miles from the village Kleindorf.

“What’s your aunt’s last name?” Katrina asked, wringing her hands. The nearer they got to their destination the more nervous she became.

“Why?” He glanced at her, picking up the small case with their possessions – all of them acquired during their time working for the Americans.

“To address her, of course.” A sliver of irritation snaked up her spine at Richard’s nonchalant attitude. Why didn’t he even consider that a stranger showing up on his aunt’s doorstep might cause a problem? “I can’t well greet her with ‘Aunt Lydia’.”

He stopped and gave her a bewildered look. “I never really thought about that.”

“Of course not, you simply assume everyone will welcome me with open arms.”

“They will. Don’t you worry so much.” He pressed a kiss on her nose. “Lydia’s last name is Meier. You’ll see; she can’t do anything but love you.”

Katrina considered his words with another jolt of trepidation. The German people had been indoctrinated to hate the Slavs for more than fifteen years. Would his aunt really accept a Polish woman into her family?

“Shouldn’t we at least find a pay phone and give her a warning that we are coming?”

Richard laughed out loud and pointed at the railway building lying in rubble. “Suit yourself. The chances of finding a working pay phone are less than slim.”

Letting her eyes travel across the devastation she admitted the truth in his words.

“Come on, sweetheart. It’ll all be fine. You’ll see.” He took her hand into his and gently pulled her forward, down the road leading away from the small town of Mindelheim.

Already deep into summer, the sun burned down on them. She stopped and wiped sweat from her forehead, glad for the headscarf she wore to protect her skull from the sun. Her hair had grown back nicely, but it wasn’t much longer than Richard’s and she hated the way it made her look like a boy.

Something looked odd in the rural landscape, but she couldn’t quite point her finger at it. Cocking her head, she gazed at the ripe ears of wheat until it dawned on her. “The harvest hasn’t been brought in.”

“What do you mean? It’s not yet time.” Richard frowned.

She laughed at him, because clearly one year living with her hadn’t made a farmer out of him. “In Poland we’d begin harvesting right now, but here we’re hundreds of miles further south and these crops look overly ripe.” She closed her hand around one of the ears and pulled, the grains staying in her hand. “See?”

Richard reached for some and shoved them into his mouth. “They’re still good.”

“But only until it rains the next time. If they aren’t harvested by then, all the produce will rot in the fields. What a shame.” With millions of people suffering from hunger it was akin to a crime not to harvest the fields.

“Not enough hands I guess,” Richard said and picked up the journey down the road. They walked in silence for a time until he pulled on her hand, hopping up and down like a small boy with a look of pure joy on his face.

“There is the farm. We have arrived!” He started forward, but she pulled him back.

“What if your aunt doesn’t like me? What if she doesn’t want me on the farm?” Her voice came across as a feeble whisper.

Richard hugged her close for a moment. “Stop worrying, sweetheart. Aunt Lydia is going to adore you. I promise.” He released her, took her hand and continued walking towards the main house. “Let’s see if anyone remains home.”

Sensing the tension in his voice, Katrina felt ashamed for her own stupid worries and squeezed his hand. “No other way to find out than go and knock on the door.”

She held her breath as he knocked on the door, but no one came to greet them. Her heart crumbled as she looked into his defeated face and she scrambled to find words of consolation.

“They… they’ll probably be working in the fields. You know, a farmer is never sitting idly at home.”

He cast her a gaze full of doubt, but walked around the house into the vegetable garden. Katrina saw the young woman hanging laundry up on the clothesline at the same time as Richard froze and she bumped into him.

“Ursula?” He quietly said her name.

The woman called Ursula looked up. She had the same blonde hair and bright blue eyes as Richard, and must be his oldest sister. Although, Katrina thought, she lived in Berlin with the rest of his family.

After several moments of incredulous amazement Ursula’s face lit up with recognition and she dropped the white shirt to the ground. Richard held out his arms and she flew into them.

“Richard! Oh, God. Richard! You’re alive!” Tears streamed down Ursula’s face as she hugged her brother again and again. “We thought we’d never see you again.”

“You look good,” he finally said, holding her at arm’s length.

Katrina thought that was a lie. The young woman had deep wrinkles etched into her face, evidence of the hardships of war she – like everyone else – had endured. Ursula was so overwhelmed with joy to see her only brother that she still hadn’t noticed Katrina.

Katrina felt slightly embarrassed to be privy to such an intimate moment between the siblings that she stepped back and glanced out at the fields, where she could make out several people at work.

“Where’s Aunt Lydia?” he asked.

“She’s out in the fields with the older children. Oh, I have to go get her…”

“Wait. I want you to meet my fiancée, Katrina Zdanek.”

Richard reached for her hand and pulled her forward. “Ursula, this is Katrina. Katrina, my sister, Ursula.”

Before Katrina could extend her hand, the cry of a child echoed from the house and Ursula hurried inside.

“Your sister hates me,” Katrina whispered to Richard, wishing she could simply run away, but where would she go?

“No, she’s just overwhelmed.”

Ursula returned a few minutes later with a teary-eyed infant in her arms. “This is my daughter, Eveline.”

“Your daughter? How old is she?” Richard bent down to look at the infant.

“Evie is just over a year old.” Meanwhile two dirty-faced girls about two and three years old came around the corner of the house and, upon seeing the two strangers, clung to Ursula’s skirts.

“Are they yours too?” Richard said with amazement in his voice.

“No,” Ursula laughed. “They are Lydia’s youngest. Maria and Rosa.” Then she said to the older one of the two girls, “Maria, quick go and get your mother and the others. Tell them Richard is here.”

The little girl took off for the fields with feet flying.

Ursula gazed at Katrina again with an expression that was difficult to interpret, but she didn’t ask the questions that Katrina knew must be burning on her tongue.

“Come inside.

Where have you been? How did you get here? You must be hungry. Have you heard from Mutter?” Ursula interlaced her arm with Richard’s, leaving Katrina feeling like the proverbial fifth wheel, and showered him with questions, not giving him the time to answer even one of them. “I can’t believe you’re back,” she uttered time and again.

They’d barely settled around the huge kitchen table when a voice cried from the back door of the house. “Richard! Good gracious!“

“Aunt Lydia. It’s been such a long time. You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you.” Richard hugged the older woman, almost chocking on his emotions. She wasn’t his mother but seeing her and Ursula filled him with joy. Then he shook hands with each of the six children lined up behind her.

“You have grown a lot, Jörg,” he said, barely recognizing his oldest cousin.

“He’s thirteen and has done most of the work running the farm,” Lydia explained, before her glance fell upon Katrina. “And who’s this young lady?”

Richard could feel Katrina tense up and hurried to say, “She’s my fiancé, Katrina Zdanek.”

Lydia clasped Katrina’s hand and then smiled warmly at her. “You must be hungry. Ursula, help me get them some food.”

Once everyone was seated with a bowl of steaming soup in front of them, they caught up on each other’s struggles during the war. Richard glanced over at Katrina, noting that the hot soup and the chitchat were easing her tension, and she seemed content to listen to the conversation although she never said a word.

“Why aren’t the people working in the fields?” Richard asked.

Lydia’s face turned into a grimace. “No workers. All the men are dead, away or imprisoned… and since the war is over, we don’t even have the foreign workers to help.”

“We do what we can, but without diesel oil for the tractor and only the children and some women from town to help, a day’s work isn’t nearly sufficient.” Jörg nodded at his smaller siblings, obviously counting himself as the only adult man on the farm.

“We’ll help,” Katrina offered, speaking up for the first time.

Lydia shook her head. “No, you just arrived here and must be exhausted from your journey.”

“Katrina is right. Her family owns a farm near Lodz and she’s well-versed in the ins and outs of farm work. She even taught me,” Richard said.

“You?” Aunt Lydia laughed. “The boy who wasn’t anywhere to be found whenever there was work to do?”

Richard felt his ears heating with embarrassment. It was true, when his family had spent summer vacation with Aunt Lydia, he’d preferred to hide with a book in his hands in the barn while everyone else helped with the harvest.

To deflect attention from the misdeeds of his youth he said, “Katrina does not only know about farm work, but she works miracles with her knowledge of medicinal herbs as well.”

“You do?” Ursula asked, visibly delighted. “There’s no medicine to be found even on the black market and the old doctor died last year.”

“My parents were healers and they taught me everything they knew about using plants and herbs to treat many ailments. With the proper equipment I can make ointments, dressings and syrups. Ask Richard,” she said with a nervous little laugh. “I fed him with wild plants, berries and mushrooms for most of our escape through Poland and Czechoslovakia.”

A pensive expression came over Ursula’s face and then she asked, “Why did you even come here, if your family owns a farm in Poland? You’re obviously a Pole.”

Richard’s heart stopped beating for a moment, but the building tension quickly dissolved when Aunt Lydia took the lead.

“Isn’t it obvious, Ursula? Richard and Katrina are clearly in love.”

Later that night

Katrina sat on the bed in the tiny room in the attic Aunt Lydia had assigned them. Richard came to her and slowly started unbuttoning her blouse.

“We made it. Against all odds, we have arrived,” he said, taking off her blouse. His lips moved across her bare shoulders, leaving a tingling feeling.

She watched him take off his own shirt and admired his naked chest, although she had to suppress a cringe at the sight of the ugly red scar on his ribs. The scars would forever remain as a reminder of the ordeals they had survived – together.

“Thank you for saving my life,” she said, pressing kisses on his torso.

“I should say the same.” He grinned at her, stepping out of his trousers and joining her on the bed.

Katrina leaned against him, feeling the warmth of his body and the love he felt for her. A movement in her belly startled her and she kept still until she felt it again. “The baby moved.”

“I love both of you so much.” Richard’s face broke into a bright smile, even as he laid his hand on her stomach.

“Should we have told your family about the baby?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. Let’s keep that surprise for another day. Right now, I want to make love to you and then fall asleep with you in my arms.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” she giggled like an adolescent girl, nervous as if it were her first time. In a way it was. The first time without either one of them having to hide their true identities and looking over their shoulders, scared someone wanted to kill them.

Richard bent his head to trace his lips over her collarbone and below. When she arched against him, he chuckled and moved his lips back up to claim hers. They made love to one another, celebrating being alive, surviving the worst the fighting armies had been able to throw at them, and rejoicing in this new chapter of their lives.

Thank

you for taking the time to read BITTER TEARS. If you enjoyed this book and are feeling generous, please leave me a review.

Richard and Katrina have finally reached safety at Aunt Lydia’s farm, but not all of the family members have returned yet.

The next book in the series is about Richard’s sister Lotte. She’s working as a Wehrmachtshelferin under the fake identity of Alexandra Wagner. In SECRETS REVEALED she suffers a shock when her contact person in the Norwegian resistance is captured and interrogated. Will the end of the war save Lotte’s life before the Gestapo finds her out and what happens once she’s evacuated back to Germany with all other female Wehrmacht employees?

Read Secrets Revealed Now

If you haven’t read

the story where Richard and Katrina fall in love, you can do so here:

Trouble Brewing