War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 308

Chapter 27: Ursula

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rsula kneaded her hands, peering out the window at the snowflakes falling on the landscape. The children loved snow, but for her it was only a nuisance – something making her shoes soggy when she had to go to the outhouse.

She turned around to see Richard feeding the tiled stove. It was a majestic piece of artwork, the patterned green tiles telling of better times. Uncle Peter came from a long line of hard-working farmers who’d acquired modest wealth over the centuries. But the war had ripped everything to shreds.

Over the past weeks the children had searched the forests on a daily basis collecting wood for the winter. Felling trees, of course, was strictly forbidden, but lugging away fallen branches usually wasn’t prosecuted. At least when a child was the perpetrator.

While the Amis maintained their cool behavior toward adult Germans, they’d considerably warmed up to the children. The younger and cuter they were, the more the Amis liked them. Many mothers in Mindelheim had taken to sending their little ones to the soldiers, begging for food.

Ursula sighed. The rations were scarce and Lydia had to surrender most of her produce to the occupiers. Although, with some ingenuity they had managed to amass a stockpile of preserves from wild berries, dried mushrooms and the odd rabbit caught by the dogs. Compared to townspeople they lived on the farm like a bee in clover.

One of the children came rushing inside, her cheeks red with the cold and excitement. “They are coming! They are coming!”

She walked to the front door, greeting her mother and Jan. Despite never seeing the young boy before, she noted that he looked so much like his father, Peter, there was no doubt who he was. The next moment, Peter pushed past her, a lifeless body thrown across his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” An icy hand closed around her heart as she recognized her sister Lotte’s fiery red hair.

“Some kind of shock triggered by a memory,” Anna hissed. “Where can I put her?”

“Upstairs in my room. The first on the left.”

Richard stepped out, rubbing his sooty hands in the white snow. “What’s happening here?”

“Bad memories,” Ursula answered, thinking they all had experienced stories that were the stuff of nightmares. It would take a long time to heal. “Let’s go inside.”

She walked into the sitting room, where unusually emotional scenes were taking place. Even her mother and Lydia were hugging each other as if there were no tomorrow.

Peter was the first one to return downstairs and his worried expression vanished the moment he saw Katrina carrying a pot of hot soup. As soon as she’d put the pot on the table, he caught her from behind, turned her around and embraced her tight.

Katrina uttered, “Ouch!” But when she recognized the man holding her, tears streamed down her face. “Piotr,” she whispered over and over again, showering kisses on his face. “Is it really you? But how? I feared you were dead!”

Ursula stood thunderstruck witnessing the peculiar spectacle. “What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” Richard said, his jaw tightening, as if he were about to jump at Peter any moment and rip him limb from limb.

Their mother came over and put a calming hand on Richard’s shoulder. “He’s Anna’s husband, Piotr, but we call him Peter.”

“So why’s he kissing my woman and not his?” Richard growled and Ursula laughed – almost. It was a bewildering scene to watch.

“Didn’t anyone write you?” Mutter said.

“Write what?” Richard and Ursula asked in unison.

“Katrina and Peter are siblings.”

Ursula staggered and clasped at Richard’s shoulder for balance. After a while a mostly recovered Lotte and Anna joined the family around the table. Everyone talked at once, reveling in the joy of seeing each other again well and alive.

There was just one piece missing for Ursula to be completely happy: Tom. Her thoughts wandered far away to an island she’d never set foot on. Would he be home with his family for Christmas? Would he miss her the same way she missed him?

She ruffled Evie’s hair. The girl had inherited her mother’s blond hair, but the sparkling green eyes of her father.

Much later, Ursula put the children to bed, crammed into one room to make space for the visitors. Anna sidled up to her, offering to help with the dishes. Ursula knew it was a pretext to get away from the family and talk alone, so she declined Katrina’s offer to help. “You stay and spend time with your brother. I’m sure you have lots of catching up to do.”

Anna took a pot of boiling water from the stove and poured it into the sink, before she added cold water from the faucet and began scrubbing the dishes. “It’s nice to be together at long last.”

“It is. We were so worried about you. The news we heard from Berlin …”

“Don’t. I don’t want to spoil our stay here by thinking about problems,” Anna said and then added, “I haven’t seen Mutter so happy in years.”

Ursula nodded and murmured, “But she was missing Father today.”

Anna apparently had only waited for this opportunity and she put a wet hand on Ursula’s shoulder. “What about you? Have you heard from Tom again?”

“No.” Ursula pressed her lips together, her eyes filling with tears. “He can’t just write me a letter and the only way he can visit me is hitching a flight with his American pilot friend.”

“I’m sure he’ll find a way to visit again.”

Ursula took a wet plate from her sister’s hand and rubbed it dry. “I asked to move to Berlin, but the Americans wouldn’t allow me.”

“What?” A plate slipped from Anna’s fingers, making a splash when it entered the dishwater.

“If I’m in Berlin, Tom and I can see each other regularly.”

“You have no idea how bad Berlin really is. That supper we had tonight? We’d spread that amount of food out to last for close to a week. We don’t have wood or coal to keep us warm, either. And ask Lotte about the kind of work she does. I have to dress the raw skin on her hands every night.”

“Talking about me?” Lotte stuck her head inside the kitchen.

“Ursula wants to move to Berlin,” Anna said.

“Why on earth would you do that? Kleindorf may be boring, but compared to Berlin it’s like paradise.” Lotte leaned against the kitchen counter, squinting at Ursula.

“The man she loves is in Berlin,” Anna said, as if Ursula weren’t even in the room.

Now Lotte turned, looking at Anna. “Who is he? And why doesn’t anyone tell me anything in this family?”

Anna laughed, but before she could say a word, Ursula blurted out, “You two are the most annoying sisters—”

“We are your only sisters,” Lotte said with a dry laugh.

“Makes you even more annoying. And thank you, I can very well speak for myself.”

“Then tell me, who’s this mystery man nobody but Anna seems to know about?”

“He’s a soldier,” Ursula said.

“Well, that is a revelation. Ninety-nine percent of eligible men are soldiers.” Lotte pursed her lips, obviously sensing her sisters hadn’t told her the complete truth.

“He’s a Tommy pilot,” Anna added, waving away Ursula’s protests. “How long do you want to keep it a secret?”

“Until the day we get married,” Ursula hissed, placing the dried bowl in her hand onto the kitchen counter with a thud.

“Married? You are certifiably insane, sister. Haven’t you heard about the anti-fraternization rules?” Lotte shook her head in utter disbelief.

“I know all about the rules, but Tom and I love each other and nobody can keep us apart, not even the stupid authorities.” Ursula growled, and right now in this instance she’d engage in a fistfight with anyone representing the authorities that hindered her from seeing Tom.

“Oh, Good Lord! Is she serious about this?” Lotte asked.

“I’m afraid so.” Anna finished washing the cutlery and cleaned the kitchen counters with the dishwater. “For the past two years she’s been pining for him like a love-sick puppy.”

“I’m not …and you’ll see… I might not even invite my unsupportive, annoying and obnoxious sisters to my wedding.” Ursula pronounced the words with so much passion, her sisters started laughing out loud.

“There’s no way I’d miss your wedding, even if I had to swim across the Channel.” Anna giggled, before she continued in a serious tone, “I can understand that you want to move to Berlin, but the city is no place for a baby like Evie.”

Ursula wasn’t about to change her mind and she searched for a way to deflect the attention from herself. “What about you, Lotte? Wouldn’t you rather concentrate on your own man?”

“I see Anna has been busy spreading the news,” Lotte said in a sad tone. “His name is Johann Hauser. He was captured near Warsaw last January and I haven’t heard anything from him since.”

“I’m sorry,” Ursula said, already regretting her snide remark. Not often had she seen such pain and sorrow on her usually upbeat sister’s face.