Aiding the Enemy (War Girls) (10 page)

“You didn’t have to be anything. You could have gone home at the beginning of the war. Others did, but you chose to stay. You chose to take on work most would have run from. Why?”

* * *

How could Rose explain to him that it was her nature to want to help? She could have chosen no other course of action, no other outcomes, than those she’d undertaken.

“How could I possibly leave my student nurses to fend for themselves?” she countered. “You didn’t come to work at our hospital until two months into the war, after our founder had been killed. They weren’t ready to deal with wartime casualties, suspicious military officers or a chronic lack of supplies. They’d have broken and run. I stayed because my nurses and the wounded needed me. I stayed because that’s what a teacher does.”

“Duty didn’t compel you?”

“Of course it did, but what duty means to one person is completely different for another.”

“It’s not a simple thing, is it?”

“No. Neither is why you chose to save me. I’m sure duty had a great deal to do with it, along with friendship and the fact that you’re a good man with a healthy conscience.”

“You make me sound like a paragon.”

“You’re the finest man I know.”

He snorted. “An easy position to win these days.”

“I disagree. It would have been easy for you to follow your orders and go back to work after I had been arrested, but you didn’t.”

“Any man who could allow the murder of an innocent when he had an opportunity to prevent it is no man at all.”

Gratitude formed a lump in her throat and she had to work to swallow it down. “It’s going to get dark soon. We have no food or water. What should we do?”

“Let’s find another farm. Once it’s dark, we can drink from their well without anyone the wiser. If they’ve got a barn or shed, we might be able to sneak inside to sleep for a few hours.”

They walked for another hour or two, keeping the fence in sight and watching out for other people and soldiers. It took a while before they found a farm in a good location, with enough buildings that they could slip into one unnoticed.

The farm they chose had a house, barn and several sheds of varying sizes. The well was located close to the barn and watering troughs for a few aging cows and a couple of sheep. This place hadn’t fared as well as the one they’d stopped at earlier.

They entered the barn through a narrow back door. Rose went up to the hayloft while Herman snuck out to get some water. A few minutes later he joined her with a beaten and weathered metal cup filled with water.

“Drink it all,” he ordered. “I’ve already had my fill.”

She downed the whole thing.

“Do you want more?”

“No, not now. Perhaps later.” She shifted some of the hay around until she’d made a nest on the far side of the pile, away from the ladder leading up to the space—and hopefully anyone who might come up to this level. “Now that we’re not moving, I can’t seem to keep my eyes open.”

“Then don’t. Sleep.”

She nodded, curled up on the hay and closed her eyes.

Herman crawled in and spooned behind her, then pulled some hay over both of them.

Sleep rushed towards her faster than a train and she fell headlong into it.

* * *

The sound of scuffing wood woke her suddenly. Something nudged her foot. Pushed at it again a little harder this time. Herman’s warmth was gone. A voice whispered a name. Hers.

Rose sat up, brushing away the straw from her face, her heart beating like a hummingbird’s wings in flight. A man crouched near her feet. His German officer’s uniform bore evidence of his rank, but it was his face she stared at. A scar traced its way across his cheek. His was the sort of face one never forgot.

“Captain Lawrence, how—” she began to say, but he interrupted her.

“This is not where I would have expected to find you, Rose Culver.” His tight mouth relaxed into a smile.

“Nor I you, Captain. What are you doing here?”

“You’re a wanted woman. The Germans have circulated an arrest warrant for you. There is even a reward for information leading to your capture. You were reported at a farm not far from here.”

“Damn.” Herman had been right. “How did you find me so quickly?”

“The farmer here is part of the underground. He saw a woman and a man hiding in the trees and sent a message via carrier pigeon asking if we were expecting anyone on the Netherlands side. I had just gotten anther message about you and figured it was too much of a coincidence. Who is travelling with you?”

“My husband. He was with me when I went to sleep, but I don’t know where he is now.”

Lawrence stared at her, unmoving. “Husband?”

“Yes.”

A skeptical brow went up. “Interesting. Who is he?”

She closed her eyes and prayed the captain would listen to everything she said. “His name is Dr. Herman Geoff. I worked with him at the hospital in Brussels for over a year. When I was arrested he managed to get me out and hid me in his home. Then we married, obtained false papers and headed towards Germany thinking no one would look for us there, but we were found out. We jumped off the train just north of Liege and walked across country hoping we could find a place to cross the border.”

Lawrence’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as she spoke. “A German military surgeon broke you out of prison, hid you, married you and is trying to help you escape the country?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t believe her. She could see doubt in his rigid face and narrowed eyes. His words confirmed it. “I’m sorry, Rose, but it’s more likely he’s using you to infiltrate the Belgian underground network.”

“He took exceptional risks to help me.”

Lawrence shook his head, sighed and repeated, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t know him like I do, Lawrence.”

“Where is he now?”

She looked around, but the empty shadows didn’t change. “I told you, I don’t know.”

“Chances are he’s gone to alert his German friends of the situation. Have you told him how to get across the border?”

“Yes, in a general way, but my directions were hindered by the fact that I didn’t know where we were.”

“Damn. We haven’t much time.”

“But...” Herman had looked at her with genuine affection. With desire. He’d held her so close. No man could act... She swallowed a mouthful of bitter regret. Had she been taken advantage of? Had he fooled her?

Chapter Ten

“We must go,” Lawrence said, watching her face. “Even if he is innocent, we can’t stay here to wait for him. The Germans have regular patrols in this area.”

Rose nodded, a jerky up-and-down motion that threatened to upset her equilibrium. She grabbed her things with hands that shook.

Lawrence descended the ladder first and waited for her to come down. He handed her a bag. “Please put this on. Be quick.”

He slipped out the door, leaving her standing there with confusion running loose in her head and a frown on her face. She opened the sack and pulled out a uniform, a German uniform. Certainly nothing a woman would normally wear, but she supposed it was a necessary fiction in case they were stopped by a patrol.

She removed her dress and shift, then scrambled into the trousers, shirt and jacket. She piled her hair on top of her head and mashed the helmet down on top of it.

Waiting outside was another man she knew. “John Bennet?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted. “At your service.”

“Quickly, this way.” Lawrence started south at a fast march. Rose hurried to follow him, Bennet close behind.

“But my husband. Can we leave a message with the farmer?”

“No, he’s too important a contact to risk.”

“Husband?” Bennet asked.

“Dr. Herman Geoff,” Lawrence told his compatriot. “I think he helped Rose escape deliberately. He’s too well connected with the German military command. There’s no way his help was legitimate.”

“But—” she began.

Bennet interrupted. “Is this the same doctor who helped you discredit the German officer who hurt my Maria?”

“Yes. I’ve worked with him for over a year.”

“He didn’t have to help her, Lawrence.”

“Please,” the captain said in a firmer tone. “We must keep quiet.”

Rose shut her mouth, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Herman. Her hands trembled and though she tried to calm herself, soon her whole body was shaking, her breathing erratic. Thoughts of him ran rampant though her head. His passionate kisses, his hurt anger when she’d tried to run and his fierce protection of her in all circumstances.

They arrived at the border quickly. More quickly than she’d wanted. They’d only been walking for about an hour.

Herman. She’d left him behind. Shock had made it possible for her to walk away from that farm without him, but the shock was wearing off.

She knew him. Working through hundreds of surgeries with the man, spending endless hours treating patients together had made them close. Closer than Captain Lawrence could understand. Herman was a man of principle and conviction. An honourable man who had always made the right choices even when an easier path presented itself.

He would
never
betray her. And she loved him.

The realization stunned her.

Barbed wire divided the darkness some distance ahead. She could also make out trees and buildings in the distance. On both sides of the fence were neat rows of vegetable plants. This was the place.

She stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?” Bennet asked.

“I can’t leave without Herman.”

“We can’t stop,” Lawrence said quietly, but with no give to his voice. “It’s not safe. The Germans patrol this area. We only have a few minutes to cross.”

“I will not leave without my husband.”

The two men exchanged glances.

“We can’t let you—”

“
Let?
” She gave Lawrence her most stern stare. “I’m not in the military, and neither of you has the authority to tell me what to do.”

“We came here to help you at great risk, to save you from being
murdered
. Now is not the time to balk at our instructions.”

“I will
not
leave without my husband. I
love
him.”

A torch flared to life behind them along with shouts in German.

“Run,” Lawrence ordered.

But it was too late.

“Halt!” Three men with rifles surrounded them. Lawrence and Bennet put their hands up.

“Who are you?” the officer in charge asked. When no one answered, he walked around them. His gaze rested on her, moved on, then came back and stayed on her. “A woman. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Do not speak to her,” a low, angry voice said. Herman’s voice.

A knife at the German officer’s neck glinted in the moonlight. The officer dropped his weapon and slowly put his hands in the air. Herman shouted at his men, “Put down your weapons and lie down on the ground.”

They didn’t move.

“Do it or he dies.” He turned so they could see the knife in his hand, resting against the officer’s neck.

Slowly, they put their rifles on the ground.

Lawrence and Bennet picked them up and pointed them at the Germans.

“Herman?” she asked, her voice wavering.

“Marriage is certainly more complicated than I expected,” he said, as if holding a knife to someone’s neck were an everyday occurrence. “I thought the firing squad was the worst thing that could happen.”

“Herman, I—”

“When really the worst thing is watching two men drag your wife out of a barn, not knowing what they did to her inside.”

“They didn’t hurt me—”

“They dressed you up as a man, darling. The sight of you in that uniform has done untold damage to my vision.”

Lawrence smothered a laugh.

Rose ignored him and spoke to the only man whose opinion she cared about. “You saw us leave?”

“Yes. It was a miracle I managed to keep up, but thankfully these three followed after you as well.” Herman directed a sharp glance at Lawrence and Bennett. “Gentlemen, can we take care of these fellows and be on our way?”

Lawrence stared hard at Herman for a moment, cocked his head, then turned to Rose and winked. “There’s more to him than I thought.”

Astonished, her mouth fell open. She wanted to rail at both of them, but with three German prisoners lying on the ground, it really wasn’t the time. “Men.”

They marched the Germans away from the farm towards a stand of trees not far from the fence. They tied up, gagged and blindfolded the three soldiers and left them in a ditch.

Back at the fence, a man waited on the other side. In complete silence, he extended a long wooden ladder over the fence so Rose, Herman and the Brits could climb up. He placed another ladder against the fence on his side, allowing them to climb up and over the humming wire

As soon as they were on the ground Lawrence whispered, “Come on.” He started out at a brisk walk, but after a few minutes broke into a loping run.

Rose was exhausted by the time Lawrence let them slow to a walk.

“Where are we going?”

“We have a vehicle not too far away. As soon as we get there, we’ll take these uniforms off.” He grinned. “Wouldn’t want to be mistaken for Germans.”

Herman coughed.

“German
soldiers
,” Lawrence amended, his lips twitching.

“Aren’t you a soldier?” Bennet asked.

“My uniform carries the rank of captain, but
I
am a doctor.” Herman glanced at the two British men. “Will I be allowed to practice?”

“As a physician?” Lawrence asked.

Herman nodded.

“In England? No. You’d be arrested.”

“But—” Rose began.

Lawrence cut her off. “In the Netherlands, a neutral country?” He smiled a conspirator’s smile. “Who are we to stop you?”

“Oh,” Rose said softly. “Herman, we could help at Maria’s aid station near the border. She sees so many wounded civilians there.”

“Hundreds,” Bennet supplied.

“That could work,” Lawrence said. He stared hard at Herman. “If you’re willing to abide by a few rules to ensure the safety of everyone involved. We have women at the aid station. And whatever else we sometimes do, we mostly see to the care and comfort of common people of many nationalities fleeing the war.”

“As long as you don’t require me to violate my Hippocratic oath—” Herman took Rose’s hand, “—we would be happy to assist.”

The outline of a vehicle came into view in the distance.

“It might not be quite that simple,” Lawrence said as he started the engine of the battered truck. “But in times of war one must often work with the situation at hand.” He turned a sunny smile on Rose and Herman. “We’ll figure it out.”

For long minutes she clutched Herman’s hand in hers, grateful to have him with her safe and sound.

“So,” he said after a while. “You love me.”

The giddy bubbles dancing in her stomach went flat. “You heard that?”

“Very clearly.”

Oh dear.
“It doesn’t change anything.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Why should it?”

“Because you keep running away from me, that’s why.”

“I can’t, in all fairness, hold you to marriage vows you made during a time of duress.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Enough. I don’t want to hear another word about duress, a divorce or any damn thing like it. I didn’t marry you to save your life.”

“You said you did.”

He grinned, flashing his teeth. “I married you for one reason and one reason only.”

“What reason?”

“I love you.”

She retreated, her chin coming down. “You do
not
.”

“I do so.”

“Since when?”

“Since the day I met you. You are the most compassionate person I have ever met, with an internal fortitude that astounds me. You show most of the world a stiff, polite façade, but I’ve seen the real you, Rose. I’ve seen you lie and stand in my way so a man called ‘Hunger’ could run. That’s how I know you’re the woman for me.”

She could hardly believe it, but his face told her he was deadly serious. “You really love me?”

“Ye—”

She kissed him. Hard. She was never,
ever
letting him go.

“Who is Hunger?” Lawrence asked.

Rose pulled back—after a few moments—to answer. “Hunger was a British soldier Herman caught me hiding in the hospital’s vegetable shed. The good doctor was drunk.”

“I wasn’t
that
drunk, dear. I didn’t get that drunk for a few more hours.”

“You mean, you were pretending to be drunk so that soldier could get away and I wouldn’t suspect you did it deliberately?”

“Yes, and for not the first time either.”

“You big...fraud.”

“Husband, dear. The correct word is
husband.
”

Free, completely free of fear for the first time in forever, she laughed and kissed her husband.

Seven months later
...

“There are a couple of men coming down the road,” Rose announced, shading her eyes and squinting. “At least one of them is wounded.”

“I’ll meet them,” Lawrence said. “Your husband is asking for you.”

Bracing her sore back with one hand, she walked to the back room of the barn they’d converted into a treatment room and opened the door. “Herman?”

“Rose, can you hand me a pair of splints?” He was holding the broken arm of a young boy who’d showed up at the aid station early that morning.

“Of course.” She walked slowly to the stack of bandages and splints piled on a bench. She chose two and brought them over.

Her husband took one and held it next to the boy’s broken limb. “Perfect. Thank you, my dear.”

The burn of a muscle cramp caught fire in the center of her back and worked its way outward. She blew steady breaths through the pain.

“Rose?”

“I’m fine. Just a few complaints from my back.” She smiled at his furrowed brow. “If I were taller, I wouldn’t be carrying this baby all out front.”

“You are perfect just as you are.”

“Ha.”

“Sit down while I finish taking care of this young man.”

“I’m fine.”

“You work too hard,” Herman said as he wrapped a bandage around the splints and arm. “I don’t want you to go into labor early.”

“There is so much work to be done.”

“I know, darling, but you have to remember you’re pregnant and take precau—”

They were interrupted by a yell from Lawrence. “Doctor? Rose? Could one of you come out here?”

“I’m coming,” she called back. She waddled out of their treatment room and outside.

Lawrence was grinning. That itself wasn’t unusual—he was a man who smiled often. It was the sheer brilliance of the smile that surprised Rose.

“Wha—” she began.

Lawrence stepped aside to let her see the two men who’d been coming towards the station.

“Jesper? Rodney?”

The answering smile on the older man’s face was all the confirmation she needed. “Herman, as soon as you’re finished,” she yelled over her shoulder, “come out here!”

“I’m done, I’m done. Who’s here that requires my—” He stopped in the doorway, his jaw sagging. “Good God.” Then he strode forward to hug Jesper and his brother. “How did you get here? Why did you come?” He looked from one man to the other. “How did you get across the border?”

“We walked,” Jesper said, his voice rough. “It took us a long time. Master Rodney is still quite weak and I’m not strong enough to be of much assistance.”

Rose put her hand on Rodney’s forehead. “A slight fever.” She felt his shoulder and arm. He’d lost muscle mass. “He hasn’t been eating enough.”

“No. I’m sorry,” Rodney said, the ghost of a smile drifting across his face. “Things have not been well since you left.”

“What do you mean? Were you punished because we escaped?” Herman asked.

“No. Not at first.” A tear slid down Jesper’s cheek. “Your uncle was killed in action about two months ago. It wasn’t long after that we were put out of the house in Brussels. Nan went home to her family. Rodney and I decided to try to follow you. Johann told us what you’d planned to do, the route you’d likely take to the Netherlands. It took us nearly three weeks to get to the border.”

“There’s nothing left to go home to, is there?” Herman said, his voice quiet.

Rose took his hand and rested it on her belly. “Home is here, my love.”

“Yes.” Love shone brightly in his eyes as his hand cradled her belly. “Yes. We carry it with us, and now that our family is complete again, we can create a new home here.”

* * * * *