War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 259

Chapter 6

O

ver the next days, Lotte did her best to forget about Lina’s arrest, but the debilitating fear accompanied her every waking moment.

On Sunday, Gerlinde convinced her to participate in a trip to the famous rock called Preikestolen overlooking the Lysefjord. Together with a group of male soldiers who organized transport they embarked on the journey to one of the most breathtakingly beautiful spots in all of Norway.

Even Lotte couldn’t help but forget about her problems and revel in the serenity of nature as they left the vehicle down on the road and started the two-hour climb up the back side of the rock.

“Isn’t this beautiful?” Gerlinde exclaimed, as they walked past lush green meadows, patches with thin forest and deep blue lakes that invited a swim.

Lotte approached the bank and carefully dipped a hand into the water to test the temperature. “Ieeek,” she shrieked into the bellowing laughter of her comrades.

Helmut, the soldier who’d organized and driven the vehicle, chuckled, “What did you think? The snowmelt hasn’t happened that long ago.”

Lotte joined the laughter, deciding that nothing would cloud this wonderful day. Not the war, not her fear, and certainly not the ice-cold water. They chatted wild nonsense while climbing up the moderately steep hill until they finally reached the ledge.

All chatter was silenced in a moment and everyone in their group stood with their jaws hanging agape. It was a sight of supernatural beauty that filled Lotte with awe. Suddenly she, and all humans combined, seemed so small and insignificant against the immense force of nature.

They stood on a rock plateau, around two hundred fifty square feet large, with a vertical drop more than four hundred fifty yards into the blue fjord beneath. On the other side of the fjord she saw the smaller gray rocks topped with green grass and bushes.

But up here, it felt like being suspended in the sky. A soft breeze came in from the sea and the sun shone down on them, warming the stone. Lotte walked as near to the edge as she dared and peeked down, vertigo overtaking her. She swayed slightly and felt a strong hand on her shoulder.

“Careful,” Helmut said. “If you want to look down, it’s better to lie flat on the stone and crawl up to the ledge.

For a moment she thought he was pulling her leg, but his serious expression changed her mind.

“I’ll go with you,” he said.

“Alright.” Lotte lay on her stomach, the wind rustling the hem of her skirt, and once more she wished women were allowed to wear the much more practical trousers. As soon as her body touched the warm rock, she felt secure. Grounded.

“Better?” Helmut asked her, his face beaming with excitement.

“A lot. Let’s go.” Together they crawled to the very edge and beyond, until her shoulders were pressed to the ground, but her head hung in the air.

Despite the knowledge that she was safe, couldn’t fall, an exhilarating sense of danger, of vertigo rippled through her body, heightening her senses. She’d never before experienced such a feeling of complete weightlessness. She guffawed, and the echo reverberated from the opposite walls of the Lysefjord.

“Watch this,” Helmut said and produced a stone the size of his fist from his pocket. He struck out and threw the stone out into the air. Then he counted. “One…two…three...”

“Eleven.” The stone dove into the water, leaving a barely visible ring of white ripples, and moments later a soft splashing sound reached their ears.

Lotte was awestruck by the long journey the stone had just completed.

“Eleven seconds,” Helmut said, furrowing his forehead in intense thought. “Close to six hundred meters.”

Lotte stared at him, not fully following his train of thought. “What did you just do?”

He showed a happy, proud smile and explained, “Just calculating the height. It’s really easy. You simply need to divide the gravity acceleration by two and multiply this with the square of eleven seconds’ time and you’ll get the distance in meters.”

“Oh, wow.” It didn’t seem easy to her to do this kind of challenging calculation, especially not without pen and paper. “How do you know that?”

“Physics first semester. I studied architecture and physics was one of my favorite subjects.” His blue-gray eyes darkened with so much nostalgia as he answered, it hit her square in the stomach.

She put her hand on his. “I’m sure you can continue your studies after the war.”

“Don’t we all wish for that?”

She nodded, his sadness thickening the air to unbearable proportions.

Lotte tried a small smile and thankfully the moment of misery passed and he grinned at her, “At least there’ll be lots of work for me as an architect. What gets demolished, must be rebuilt.”

They backed away from the edge and looked around to search for the others, who were sitting in the middle of the plateau, admiring the scenery and unpacking the sandwiches they’d brought along.

“What do you want to do after the war?” Helmut asked her as they settled next to the others, opening their own backpacks.

“Me?” She scratched her nose. She’d never given it much thought. “Honestly. I don’t know. I never even finished school. It didn’t reopen after the summer vacation, because all the boys had been drafted and the girls whisked away for

Reichsarbeitsdienst.”

Lotte herself hadn’t had to join the compulsory labor service, because she lived on her aunt’s farm and all farmhands were exempt. In fact, Aunt Lydia had always requested additional help and she’d regularly received both

Arbeitsmaiden

from the labor bureau and prisoners of war.

When they returned to the garrison in the late afternoon, Lotte felt more relaxed and refreshed than she’d had in months.

“Helferin Wagner, Hauptmann Kochel is expecting you in his office,” the sentry greeted her on return.

The fright returned in one swift punch to her stomach, leaving her with wobbly knees. What could the garrison leader possibly want from her? On a Sunday afternoon? There was only one possibility…

Lotte straightened her spine and cast the sentry a small smile. “Thank you. I will quickly change into my uniform and— “

“No, the boss said to send you his way immediately when you showed up.”

Another, harder, punch to her stomach. It was a bad sign, if the overly correct Hauptmann Kochel didn’t bother with formalities. Suddenly the warm April sun had vanished from her world, leaving her in a bleak and cold cave.

“Th…ank you,” she managed to press out between gritted teeth to keep them from chattering. She hurried to the office building and took one deep, but not really calming, breath before she knocked on her superior’s door.

“

Herein

,” a deep voice said and she entered the office, where the large man sat behind his wooden desk. As was the custom in every official room, a portrait of Hitler hung behind the desk, flanked by two huge Swastika flags. The portrait glared at her with menace, as if the person depicted were alive and the Führer knew that she’d defied him. Instinctively, she cast her eyes to the ground and shuffled forward.

“Shut the door, please,” Hauptmann Kochel said in a clipped tone that conveyed his discomfort at what was to come.

Lotte obeyed his order, prepared for military police to jump out of the corners of the room to arrest her and hand her over to the fearsome Gestapo. Another punch to her stomach that barely allowed her to keep upright.

Out of her mind with anguish, she gratefully collapsed into the chair he indicated. She wanted to bolt. She’d prefer to be shot during escape than be interrogated by the Gestapo thugs and lose her pride along with her life. Nobody could withstand their torture methods, and she racked her brain about whom she would betray when her time came. Lina – a lost cause. Harald? Surely. The bartender? Thankfully she didn’t even know his name.

To harness her discordant thoughts, Lotte concentrated on the various emblems on the Hauptmann’s uniform. He worked at the harbor of Stavanger but belonged to the army, not the marines. The shoulder straps showed two golden stars.

“Helferin Wagner,” he started, steepling his hands meticulously atop the desk. He avoided her eyes and cleared his throat before he continued, “I’m afraid I have bad news for you.”

Was that how traitors were informed about their impending arrest? She silently screamed in protest and couldn’t keep her hands from flying to her face as if to shield her mind from hearing his devastating words.

“Now, now. Compose yourself, Helferin Wagner,” he said. “We all have to make sacrifices in this war, and I’m the one who has to bring you the sad news that your fiancé, Leutnant Johann Hauser, was taken prisoner by the Soviets near Warsaw.”

Despite fear over Johann’s situation, she still felt shudders of relief coursing through her body. Her own arrest would have to wait for another day.

“Thank you,” she said, even as the news settled into her brain. Her beloved Johann was a captive now. A Russian prisoner of war. That in itself was bad, very bad. Rumors had been running wild and the soldiers had even given a name to the terror a capture by the Ivan evoked:

Russenschreck

. A word whispered with the utmost awe. But at least he wasn’t fighting anymore. Out of the line of fire, his chances at survival had grown multifold. Surely they had.

“Is there anything else you might know? His whereabouts? Is he … wounded?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, but that is all,” Hauptmann Kochel replied with an indulgent glimpse at her. “He will remain strong, as will all the other brave Germans who are fighting for our Fatherland. You may leave.”

“Thank you, sir.” Lotte walked toward the door on unsteady feet. Her hand on the doorknob, she gripped the ice-cold metal in her hand like a lifeline when Kochel said, “Ah, one moment, Helferin Wagner, there’s another matter...”

This is it. I’m done for.

The terror returned to her bones faster than a Stuka bomber swooped from the sky. She turned to look at her superior. “Yes?”

“The Norwegian girl who worked in the kitchen... Lina, I believe was her name.” The words slowly slipped from his mouth and he must have observed the color leaving her face.

“Are you alright, Fräulein?” he asked. “You look very pale.”

“My fiancé.” She put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry, sir. I can’t bear to think of him suffering.”

“Please don’t assume he is suffering. I say the chap is damn lucky. As a prisoner he will be out of the rain and hail of bullets. We must have faith and hope for the best,” he said gruffly. “Now about this kitchen aide. You know her, don’t you?”

“Everyone knows her. She’s been serving in the mess since I arrived here,” Lotte said vaguely.

“She’s been arrested.”

“Arrested? Why?” Lotte feigned ignorance.

“You did not know about her arrest?”

“No, sir. I… I wondered why she hadn’t been at the canteen this past week, but it never occurred to me… she was merely a local kitchen aide. Not someone I would socialize with.”

“So, you weren’t friendly with her?” he said, a sharp attentiveness in his eyes.

“No.”

“And yet you asked for her at the mess the other day.” He raised his eyebrow quizzically. “What was all that about?”

“That? I…” She desperately thought for a viable reason. “…I believe I asked about her whereabouts because it seemed strange to me she wouldn’t be on duty that day.” A glimpse into his eyes showed her that he wasn’t convinced. “Alright, I’ll admit it. I had a sore throat and wanted to ask her to make me some hot soup to take back to my quarters.”

His lips pursed with disapproval. “Why her and not some other kitchen personnel?”

“I’m so sorry.” Lotte pressed out some tears for effect. “I know this is forbidden and… I really don’t want to get her into trouble for it… but last December when I was down with a bad cold, she brought hot soup to my quarters. Please, don’t punish her for her kind heart.”

Hauptmann Kochel’s face relaxed somewhat. “Rules are there for a reason. Even if you don’t understand why it’s forbidden to take food from the canteen to your quarters, but…” He gave her a scrutinizing stare that caused a slice of fear to stab her in the chest. “But bringing you soup is the least of Lina’s problems. She will be punished for a much more severe crime.”

Lotte’s mouth hung agape. “A crime? Oh God, did she murder someone?”

He reared back, his chair creaking underneath his weight. “What makes you think so? Does she look to you like someone who could commit such a heinous crime?”

“Oh no… I… I don’t know… because you said a severe crime,” Lotte stuttered. She was getting caught in her own cobweb of lies and pretenses.

“This ungrateful woman worked for the Norwegian resistance.” Kochel slammed his fist onto the desk with such force that Lotte jumped.