War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 311

Chapter 30: Ursula

W

ork on the farm didn’t cease just because of the holidays and twice a day Ursula drudged through the knee-deep snow to the barn to milk the cows. The borrowed wellington boots reached way above her knees, but with that much snow falling every day, they were a blessing.

She finished milking the cows and feeding them for the night and took a moment to take in the soft rolling hills covered in snow. It looked so pristine and peaceful, it was hard to believe that this time last year a war had been raging over much of the land.

Suddenly she heard someone walking down the road. The trampled snow muffled the sounds, and at first she thought it might be a wild animal. But then she saw the silhouette of a human being walking toward the farmhouse. She straightened her back, unsure what to do. It was already dark outside, although the moonlight reflecting on the snow gave the landscape a mysterious glow.

They weren’t expecting visitors. None of the neighbors were crazy enough to leave their warm and cozy house this late in the afternoon and venture into the icy cold. Except in an emergency, of course. But this person didn’t exhibit any sense of urgency.

He couldn’t be an American, either, because they never walked. They always arrived in a crowd, heard from far away in their noisy jeeps. This person might be a refugee on their way home, seeking shelter for the night.

They didn’t have any spare space with her family visiting and the Hansen family in the attached servant’s house. But if the stranger asked for hospitality, she couldn’t well send him on into the cold night.

A more frightening thought occurred to her. What if he was here to steal a cow? The stranger might harm her if she stood in his way. Still pondering whether to hide in the barn, run to the house and alarm the others, or simply wait, she noticed the stranger had a brisk and confident stride. He definitely knew where he was going.

Moments later, she heard him say, “Is that you, Ursula?”

“Tom!” She put down the milk can and rushed toward him. He dropped his duffel in the snow and she jumped into his outstretched arms. “You’re here! You should have warned me…” She stopped, laughing at her own silliness. The telephone on the farm still didn’t work and sending a letter to her would have been dangerous.

“Believe me, I wanted to.” He showered her face with kisses and murmured against her skin, “I missed you so much. Every single day.”

“Come to the house. It’s cold out here,” she said and picked up the milk can.

He took it from her hand. “Let me carry this.”

His nearness gave her the strength she knew she’d need when facing her mother in a few moments. Mutter would not be pleased, that much was certain. “Did you fly in with your American friend again?”

“No, he’s on leave back home. I asked for a few days of holidays in the Alps and flew into Aigen airfield.”

“Aigen? Where’s that even?” She scrunched her nose.

“In the middle of nowhere.” He chuckled. “About eighty miles southeast of Salzburg.”

Ursula nodded. She’d never been to Salzburg, but knew it was a town on the border between Germany and Austria and had a direct train line to Munich. “I’m glad you’re here.” They reached the back door and she paused, looking into his bright green eyes. “But… my entire family is visiting and my mother… she…”

Tom took her hand and gazed deep into her eyes. “She won’t be pleased, right?”

“I’m afraid not.” Ursula felt a twinge of guilt.

She was about to open the door, when he said, “Wait. I can’t stay for the night. I already arranged for a room in the inn in Mindelheim.”

Sadness engulfed her heart. Hiding her love for Tom became harder by the day and she hated the secrecy. It made her feel dirty. Uncertain.

Unwanted.

They stepped into the kitchen where Anna was peeling potatoes for supper. Without looking up she said, “What took you so long, Ursula? I’m waiting for the milk.”

“It was my fault,” Tom said.

Anna’s hand slipped and she cut her finger. “Ouch!” She sucked the blood from the finger and looked up at them. “How did you even manage to come here in this terrific snow?”

“I have my ways. Are you hurt?”

Anna took her finger from her mouth and looked at it. “Just a tiny cut. Nothing to worry about. But you sure gave me a surprise.”

“What…?” The door opened and Peter came inside, alerted by Anna’s scream. “You? How did you get here?”

“Why does everyone ask the same question?” Tom shook hands with Peter. “Good to see you again.”

“Will you stay for supper?” Anna asked.

Of course

, Ursula wanted to say, but then she remembered that her mother still didn’t know. “I have to tell Mutter.”

“I don’t envy you that confession,” Anna said and nodded at Peter. “Could you help me with this?”

“Cowardly traitor,” Ursula hissed at her sister.

“No, my girl, this is your battle, not mine. You go and tell our mother. Call me when the air’s clear, or when a nurse is needed.”

Tom looked somewhat confused. His German was very good, but a long way from perfect. “Is someone hurt?”

“No,” Ursula assured him. “My obnoxious sister is just trying to be funny. Let’s get it over with.” She took his hand and pulled him after her into the sitting room, her heart hammering in her throat.

“Mutter, this is—”

Her mother looked up from mending children’s clothes and her eyes widened in shock. “What’s the foreigner doing here?”

Ursula sighed. “This is Tom Westlake, a British pilot.”

“I can see that he’s an enemy soldier.” Mother pursed her lips into a thin line. “My question was what is he doing here?”

“The war is over. He’s not the enemy,” Ursula said, squeezing Tom’s hand for support.

“That doesn’t mean we like

them

.” Mutter’s voice held the strict tone that could freeze the blood of her children in an instant. Even Aunt Lydia shivered and got up saying, “I’ll look after the children.” Then she fled the room that had become oppressively small.

“I love him,” Ursula said, stubbornly pushing out her lower lip.

Her mother paled, but before she could utter a word, Tom said, “Frau Klausen, please forgive me for not properly announcing my visit. But your daughter is right, we’ve been in love since we first met years ago.”

“Good Lord!” Mutter grabbed for the flask of smelling salts she always carried in the pocked of her apron. “You’ve been hiding this from me all this time.”

“I’m sorry, but I had to.” Ursula knew it wasn’t Tom’s fault, but right now she resented him for having to keep their love hidden like it was something immoral.

Revelation hit her mother’s eyes and she sunk back into the oversized armchair and muttered, “By the Blessed Virgin Mary, don’t tell me he is…”

“Yes, he is Evie’s father, but you can’t tell anyone.”

Mutter shook her head, glancing at the smelling salts in her hands. “I need something stronger than this.” She got up and walked to the door.

“Mutter, please…”

“Not now.”

“I’m sorry. That didn’t work out very well,” Tom said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Maybe I’d better leave.”

“Don’t. She’ll come around. And you haven’t seen Evie yet.”

Together they climbed the stairs to the room where the children were playing with their Christmas gifts. Evie had received a hand-me-down doll from one of her older cousins and came running. “Mommy, doll!”

“Do you remember Tom?” Ursula asked her as she picked her up.

Evie nodded and squealed with delight, raising her arms as she requested to be handed over to him.

“Supper is ready,” Anna called from downstairs and a stampede of hungry children rushed to the bathroom to wash their hands and then settle around the big kitchen table.

“Will you eat with us? Please?” Ursula begged him and Tom nodded. “I brought food, too, and a Christmas gift for you. It’s in my duffel bag.”

“You’re gift enough.” She snuggled up against him with a contented smile. “But all the same I’ll unpack your present after supper.”

Mother did her best to tolerate Tom and hide her hostile glimpses in his direction, but Ursula wasn’t fooled. His presence was a thorn in her mother’s side. Much later, when the adults sat chatting in the sitting room, Mutter demonstratively looked at the wooden grandfather clock standing against the wall and said, “Herr Westlake should leave. It’s getting late.”

Tom got up. “I really should get going, since it’s a long way to Mindelheim. Thank you for your hospitality.”

“I’ll walk you to the main road,” Ursula said and followed him into the kitchen where his overcoat and boots were drying near the stove. She hadn’t even slipped on the oversized wellington boots when Richard entered the kitchen and said, “Mutter has tasked me with accompanying you to make sure Tom and you won’t be tempted to do something improper.”

“For God’s sake, she can’t be serious.”

“She is very serious about her unmarried daughter not spending time alone with an equally unmarried foreign soldier.” Richard smirked, clearly delighting in Ursula’s discomfort.

“You are… insufferable.” She punched her brother’s shoulder. “So you’re our chaperone or what?”

“Looks like it.” He grinned and traced his tongue across his teeth, saying, “Although I

might

have something to check up on in the shed by the barn.”

Ursula felt her cheeks burning at the memory of what had happened in the barn during Tom’s last visit.

“There’s a price to it, of course,” Richard added.

“A price?” She glared at him. “What do you want?”

“I want to trade rooms with you.”

“No way,” she said. The attic room was tiny and one had to climb up a wooden ladder to reach it. Tom held the door open for her and she slipped through, taking his hand. The simple touch sent electric shocks through her body and made her want more of him.

“It’s getting difficult for Katrina, climbing up, and once the baby is born, the room will be too small for the three of us.” Richard looked at her with pleading eyes.

She bit back a laugh. After what her sister-in-law had done for her, how could she say no? “It’s a deal. But I’m doing it for Katrina, not for you.”

“Thanks, Ursula.” As they reached the barn, Richard said, “Ten minutes,” and vanished into the tool shed.

Tom didn’t lose time and pulled Ursula into the barn, kicking the door closed with his foot. Then he wrapped her up in his arms and showered her face with kisses. Despite the cold air, she felt like burning up from the inside. She pressed herself against him, reveling in the passion burning through her body.

They were a mass of entangled limbs when a knock sounded on the door and Richard’s voice called, “We need to go.”

“Coming.” Ursula let go of Tom, smoothed down her dress and closed the buttons on her overcoat.

Tom took her face into his hands and said, “I love you. And we have four days to see each other.”

“I love you, too.”

She looked at him as he walked down the main road and soon disappeared behind a curve.

“We should return to the house or Mutter will question my integrity and accompany you herself the next time,” Richard said and laid an arm around her shoulder. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

“With all my heart.” Ursula sighed. “Believe me, I wished a million times I had fallen for someone else. It was so hard not to know anything. Although now it’s even harder to know he’s in Germany but I still can’t see him.”

“You two will find a way, I’m sure.”

“Thanks for being on my side.”

“Always. You’re my sister.”

They reached the house and entered through the kitchen door, Mutter already waiting for them with a disapproving stare. “What took you so long?”

“I had to search for this from the tool shed on the way back.” Richard held up a pair of pliers and Ursula felt a surge of love for her brother. He really was the best brother she could wish for and she didn’t mind at all trading rooms with him. She’d have done it anyway if he’d simply asked her, but she decided to keep quiet about that. Even the best brother in the world didn’t have to know everything.

Ursula spent as much time as possible with Tom during the next four blissful days. When the time for his departure neared, she finally breached the topic that had been weighing heavily on her soul.

“I wish to move to Berlin,” she said quietly.

“No, Ursula. That’s a bad idea. Berlin is a horrible place for you and Evie.”

“But I want to be closer to you. We could see each other regularly. You could see Evie.” Ursula fought back the tears forming in her eyes.

He clasped her hands between his and locked eyes with her. “But I would worry about you all the time. At least here, I know you’re safe and have enough to eat.”

“I hate being so far away from you. I can’t stand not knowing when I’ll see you again. But… the Americans don’t want to give me a permit to move to Berlin.”

“And with reason. It’s not like the city is able to take in any more people.”

“Can’t you help me to get a permit?” She gave him a pleading look.

“Me? How?”

“There must be a way. It’s always the matter of knowing the right people and I’m sure if you talk to the Americans, they’ll allow me to move.”

Tom shook his head.

“Please. Will you at least try? Don’t you want to see me more frequently?”

“Of course I want to see you.” He sighed and she sensed she was getting to him.

“Imagine how it would be if we could see each other every week?” She rubbed her body against his, nibbling on his earlobe. He trembled. “We could make love as often as we wanted to,” she hissed against his ear, intensifying her nibbling.

“Stop.” He pushed her away with a grin. “I know what you’re doing. And while I still think Berlin is not a good place for you to be, I also know you’ll move heaven and earth to get what you want.”

“So you’ll help me?” She smiled.

“I’m sorry, but there really isn’t anything I can do.” He kissed her. “I promise I will return soon, my love.”