I opened my mouth but caught myself. A hint of a smile pulled at her lips. Was she laughing at me? Would she still be laughing when she realized that I had taken something from her suitcase?
“I want to see the stitches. Take off your shirt,” she said.
Inappropriate jokes ran through my mind. But she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on the Polish girl and the fold between her brow deepened.
“Will she make it?” I said, unbuttoning my shirt. I wished I hadn’t asked. I couldn’t afford to care about the girl. She was just another tragedy of war.
The nurse turned to me. “Since her survival depends on you, let’s see how you’re doing.” She carefully peeled back my bandage. “Hmm, not as bad as I expected.”
“I can’t take care of her. I’m already behind schedule.”
She knelt in front of me. I could barely hear her. “The Russians have this region surrounded,” she said. “There are only two escape routes, through the port at Gotenhafen or the port at Pillau. We’re all headed the same way. It will be safer if we travel together.”
Her cold fingers whispered across my chest as she buttoned my shirt.
She had no idea. It wasn’t “safer” for anyone to be with me.
joana
“He’s cute,” said Eva, stretching her mammoth feet by the fire.
“He’s young.”
“Too young for me, yes, but not too young for you. What is he, nineteen, maybe twenty? Look, he’s staring at you.”
I glanced over at him. He looked away. Eva’s estimation of his age seemed correct. And Ingrid had been right. His eyes were gray. My record with boys was not exactly successful. I seemed to have a talent for picking the wrong ones.
“But something’s not right with him,” said Eva. “Maybe he’s a spy.”
Ingrid’s words echoed back to me. He’s a thief.
Eva leaned back in a broken chair. “But even a spy can keep a girl warm, you know.” She surveyed the room. “The Nazis destroyed this place. It must have been beautiful.”
I nodded.
She let out a laugh. “They certainly don’t trust the old Prussian nobles now, do they?”
Eva was right. Prussian Junkers didn’t quite blend with other Germans. “Junker” meant “young gentleman.” The Prussian aristocracy was serving in the German army, fighting for their land and titles. But some of their ideologies didn’t align with Hitler’s. Back in July, Prussians were involved in an assassination attempt on Hitler. The plot failed and the Junkers were executed.
“So what’s wrong with the girl?” asked Eva. “Exhaustion? Or has she realized that her father won’t be doing any more math? Sorry.”
I shook my head. “I want you to speak to her privately. I need details to try to help her. Can you do that, Eva?”
“Why me?”
“Because you understand more Polish than the rest of us.”
“She seems terrified,” said Eva.
“She probably is,” I told her. “She’s eight months pregnant.”
emilia
I liked the Lithuanian girl, but the towering woman called Eva spoke bad Polish and always seemed impatient. I had never seen such a tall lady.
“That.” Eva pointed to my belly. “From Nemmersdorf?”
“No. From the farm last spring,” I told her.
“The farm?”
I nodded. Should I tell her? Should I explain that my father had sent me from Poland to work on a farm in East Prussia? Should I mention that the farm was owned by Father’s friends, the Kleists? Father had said it would be safer for me there. The Kleists had a son named August. Heat brushed my cheeks as I thought of him.
“Emilia,” Mr. Kleist had said, pointing to a tanned boy dragging a sledge of wood. “That is our oldest, August.”
I smiled, remembering his gorgeous face. I put my hands on my belly. “I am on my way to meet August,” I told her. “It is the plan.” Eva nodded and walked away.
I lay back and thought of August, our wedding, and how we’d make a big nest for the storks above our cottage, just like the nest I had seen on top of the barn. The images were so peaceful, so perfect, that I soon fell asleep.
alfred
Greetings, sweet Hannelore!