War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 312

Chapter 31: Lotte

January 1946

“P

ull me next, Lotte,” little Maria begged.

Lotte smiled, nodding at her cousin. She’d been outside in the snow playing with the children for most of the afternoon.

“Someone’s coming. Do you think it’s Aunt Ursula’s secret lover again?” Jörg tugged on her coat sleeve.

“Tom’s not her secret lover,” Lotte chided him.

“What is he then? And why do they always disappear and kiss when they feel unobserved?”

Lotte tried to put on a stern face. “You shouldn’t spy on people. It’s not nice. And you can’t tell anyone, because the Allies don’t like us mingling with their men.” Her sister really had to do a lot better if she wanted to keep her relationship with Tom hidden from prying eyes.

“I’d never tell,” Jörg pushed out his chest. “This is my family and I will protect it.”

Lotte hid a laugh and raised her gloved hand to shield her eyes, looking up the road. “Seems to be a woman with a child. What could they want?”

“Let’s find out,” Jörg said and dashed off.

With a sigh, Lotte told the other children to go inside and get ready for lunch, before she followed him. It would have been wiser to wait, but she couldn’t leave her cousin on his own.

“Lotte! Come!” Jörg’s high-pitched voice screamed and she darted off, ready to tackle whatever dire straits he’d found himself in. Just when she’d rounded the corner leading to the main road, she stopped dead in her tracks, certain she’d seen a ghost.

Pangs of guilt hammered against her ribs in the same rhythm as her heart did and she blinked several times. This couldn’t be true. No way this was happening.

“Lotte,” the other woman said with a soft voice, leaving no doubt about her identity. She might be emaciated, her brown hair hanging in straw-like strands from her head, the face disfigured by a long and ugly scar, but her voice was unmistakable.

“Rachel!” Lotte’s knees suddenly turned into jelly and she sank against the other woman, tears in her eyes.

“Is it really you, Lotte?” Rachel asked. “The Red Cross told me you’d died in Ravensbrück.”

“That’s a long story for another time,” Lotte said, with a side-glimpse at her cousin Jörg, who still didn’t know about her adventures during the past two years. “I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Rachel said softly. “You did everything you could to hide us.”

“But I failed…” Lotte began sobbing. “I never forgave myself… I thought you were dead for sure… how?” She wanted to raise her hand to touch Rachel’s scar, but resisted the urge when she noticed the immeasurable pain in her friend’s eyes.

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“That I can understand,” Lotte said, gathering her composure. “And this is… your sister?”

“Yes, Mindel.”

Jörg cleared his throat. “Where are you going?”

“We… don’t know.” Rachel whispered. “We passed by our farm and Herr Keller is still there as if he owns it.”

Because he does

, Lotte thought, her heart filled with hate for the despicable man who’d evaded justice even after the war. “You come with us,” she said, with a feeling of déjà vu.

“Are you sure your aunt won’t mind?”

“She won’t mind,” Lotte said, although she wasn’t at all sure about that.

The four of them walked back to the house when Rachel said, “Do you know about my brothers?”

Lotte smiled. “They made it to the convent and they’re still there. My sister Ursula visited them a few months back.”

Rachel halted mid-stride, tears sliding down her cheeks at the same time as her eyes lit up with joy, relief, gratefulness and love. “You truly are our guardian angel.”

“I’m no such thing.” Lotte writhed with embarrassment. Nobody had ever called her an angel. Usually they used the words troublemaker, nuisance, and rebel when referring to her.

“Why didn’t you return earlier? The camps were liberated half a year ago already,” Jörg asked.

Lotte glared at him, but Rachel said, “That’s true. But so many of us were too weak and ill to leave. Mindel and I had to stay in the hospital for months, before we were considered fit to be released.”

“Aunt Lydia, look who has returned!” Lotte stormed into the kitchen where her aunt was cooking soup for lunch.

“Good lord!” Lydia dropped the wooden spoon into the huge pot, thick yellowish drops of soup splattering the kitchen. “Are you the Epstein girls?”

“Yes, Frau Meier,” Rachel responded.

“You must be hungry, so please stay for lunch,” Lydia said.

“Actually, Aunt Lydia, Rachel and her sister don’t have a place to stay so I told her she could stay with us…”

“Here? How do you think…” The house was crammed with people and there simply wasn’t enough space to host another two displaced persons. But Aunt Lydia clearly felt guilty about what had happened. She’d had to make a difficult choice back then, one that Lotte’s younger self hadn’t understood. “…I guess we can have you sleep in the living room until the guests from Berlin have left.”

Lotte gave her aunt a grateful smile. As she observed the relief spreading across Rachel’s face, something astonishing happened: the load of self-imposed guilt she’d been carrying for so long eased off her shoulders.

It would never completely vanish, but the fact that Rachel was alive absolved her from any complicity in Rachel’s ordeals. The blessed relief was like a refreshing and cleansing bath in the lake. The mud, grime and horror of the past years started to dissolve, leaving Lotte’s heart lighter and happier.