Thank you so much to everyone who's followed/favourited this story and left a review! It's so encouraging. I'm really enjoying writing this story and I'm so glad you enjoy reading it.

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'Well ain't you just a picture!' Frau Grimes exclaimed over Beth's attire as soon as Beth arrived at her desk. Frau Grimes was a size or two larger than Beth but with Maggie's help Beth had taken in a navy blue wool pencil skirt and added darts to a white silk blouse so that it was smaller in the waist. She wore them with her nylons, best brown shoes, which were really nothing special, and the brown leather handbag. This morning Maggie had brushed her long blonde hair and braided it from the front of her head down to her nape and pinned it into a coil. She almost hadn't recognised herself when she looked in the mirror.

'Why don't you take him some coffee?' Frau Grimes said, nodding at Commandant Blake's door. 'He's in a good mood today.'

Beth had learned the previous day that Commandant Blake liked his coffee brought in a silver pot, on a tray, with a bowl of sugar lumps and a tiny jug of cream. When Beth had it all arranged she carried the tray to the commandant's door, knocked, and went in.

Commandant Blake looked up from the letter he'd been reading. His serious face broke into a smile. 'Beth, good morning.' He looked her over appreciatively. 'You look even prettier than the other night. How are you settling in?'

I'm terrified and I have no idea what I'm doing. 'Good morning, Commandant Blake. I'm settling in well, thank you.'

'Glad to hear it. Just put the coffee on the desk here. I'll pour it,' he said, indicating the tray. 'Will you sit and talk to me for a minute?'

She sat in the chair in front of his desk and studied him covertly while he poured himself a cup of coffee. She liked his thick brown hair and blue eyes, and the way his tailored uniform fitted his broad shoulders. He was quite handsome, really. She knew she was supposed to be afraid of the Stasi, but she couldn't feel afraid of him.

He looked up and smiled at her once more, and she felt herself blush a little. It was going to take some getting used to, having a handsome officer smile at her and talk to her so politely.

'Do you know much about the Ministry of State Security, Beth?'

She hesitated. She'd heard all the propaganda about the Stasi, of course, and no one liked to talk openly against them, but she'd have to be blind not to see the looks of fear and dislike on the faces of the people when the Stasi were mentioned. She'd heard tales of people disappearing in the night, being arrested for no reason and tortured, interrogations that would go on for days. It was difficult to know what to believe.

He chuckled. 'I know what people think of us, don't worry. Some of my colleagues rather encourage our bad reputation, but I think it does us a disservice. We're here to protect the citizens of East Germany, not frighten them.'

Beth wanted to ask From what? but didn't have the nerve. Was it all just reputation then, and no substance?

'And now you're an integral part of that,' he went on.

Beth tensed. Was this the part when he asked her to spy for him?

'As one of my secretaries you'll be responsible for the smooth running of this office. Paperwork, typing, filing. It's bureaucracy that keeps a country together. Did you know that?' He went on without waiting for a reply. 'I want you to feel like you can come to me with any concerns you may have. Anything at all. All right, Beth?'

Anything at all? Like, if her typewriter ribbon jammed? But Beth had a feeling he meant more serious things than that, and there was an unusual expression in his eyes. Did he mean if she saw something that concerned her? Was he talking about spying? Or was he just being friendly? 'All right, commandant,' she said.

Frau Grimes glanced at Beth when she came out of the office. 'You were in there a while.'

'He wanted to tell me about the Stasi,' Beth said.

Frau Grimes gave her an amused Oh that, look, and then brought a piece of paper over to her desk. 'We need another two copies of this letter. Do you remember what I showed you about the typewriter yesterday?'

Beth glanced over the letter. It was set out quite plainly without any complicated tables or indenting. 'Yes, I think I can do that.' She smiled up at Frau Grimes.

The intercom on Frau Grimes' desk buzzed. 'Duty calls.' She picked up her notepad and went in to Commandant Blake.

Beth was a few lines into the letter, typing very slowly with her index fingers, when a figure appeared out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw a delivery man in grey overalls.

'Stationary room?' the man asked.

'Just down the hall and second on the right,' Beth said, and then started. The man was tall, with straight dark hair hanging into his eyes and down to his collar.

'Thanks,' the man muttered, and it was the same voice. That same, husky voice that had said Fraulein to her when he'd had his hands about her waist and she had hers on his chest.

He hadn't seemed to recognise her, and he pushed his hand trolley down the hall and out of sight. Beth stared after him. Something seemed odd, but why? He could be a delivery man. Why couldn't he be a delivery man?

Beth didn't know why, but she was certain that he was not a delivery man.

Beth stood, hesitated, told herself to sit down and stop being stupid, ignored herself, and followed him down the now-empty corridor. Where was he? She looked into the stationary room, but it was empty. Strange. She moved along to the next door, the filing room, but the light was off. She stepped in and felt for the switch, flipped it, and then a hand shot out and grasped hers. She had a brief glimpse of the man's face as she was yanked into an embrace, one hand clamping over mouth. He had hold of both her wrists in his other hand and locked his arm around her body, pulling her back tightly against his chest.

'Listen.' He spoke quietly into her ear, his stubble rough against her cheek. 'I'm gonna let go of you in just a second and you ain't gonna scream. You're going to go back to your desk, sit down and do your typin'. You ain't gonna go squealing to your commandant.'

That is exactly where he is wrong, Beth thought, fuming. She was going to go straight to the commandant and this, this … man, whoever he was, was going to be thrown out of the building. She struggled in his arms but she was pinned tight.

'You know why I know you ain't gonna squeal? Because of what you did for Ana.'

She stopped struggling in his arms. He knew about that?

'Okay, I'm gonna let go of you now.'

He released her, and she whipped round and glared at him. He looked her over, amused. 'You scrub up nice, factory girl.'

'What are you doing here?' she hissed. 'You're not delivering paper.'

His face darkened. 'Look, I ain't got time for this. I'm sorry that by helping Ana the commandant saw those pretty blue eyes of yours and you wound up here. Shit happens. Now go back to your desk before we both get thrown in prison.'

There were the sound of footsteps in the corridor. Someone was going to pass by the room, so she only had a split second to decide. She didn't like this man but she didn't want to get anyone in trouble, either. Annoyed with herself, wishing she did enjoy watching people get into trouble, Beth gave the man a dark look, opened a filing cabinet and then closed it loudly, and then marched out of the room. Anyone who saw her would think she'd just been doing some filing.

She sat and typed, feeling all the places on her body where he had touched her and trying not to. She didn't look up when twenty minutes later he passed her desk pulling the now-empty trolley, unhurried and lighting a cigarette. She didn't look up when Frau Grimes came out of the commandant's office, either. She could feel her colour was high and didn't trust the expression on her face.

'Ugh, who's been smoking f6s?' Frau Grimes muttered.

…

The typing class that evening lasted an hour and a half, and consisted of pounding out drills on the keys to the rhythm of a metronome that slowly got faster and faster:

aaa ;;;

sss lll

ddd kkk

fff jjj

On and on, over and over until her fingertips felt bruised. The instructor carried a long ruler and if she saw anyone looking at their fingers she would rap them over the knuckles. Beth got a lot of raps.

By the time she got home she was fuzzy-headed and cranky. Her mood wasn't improved any when she came into the kitchen and the man who had been at Stasi Headquarters posing as a delivery man was seated at the kitchen table, one booted foot resting on another chair and his hands plunged deep into the pockets of his black coat. He looked so insolent that she wanted to march over and slap his face. But before she could lose her cool he put an index finger to his lips and mouthed Shhh.

Maggie was at the stove and turned around when she heard Beth's footsteps. Glenn was sitting at the other side of the table reading the paper.

The man said, woodenly, 'I think the news is on.' Then he got up, flipped on the wireless and turned it up. The loud drone of the newscaster filled the room. The strange man sauntered close to Beth and said in a low voice, 'Keep your voice down, all right? Now sit.'

Maggie took off her apron and sat down, her face tense. Glenn folded away the paper.

The man sat, and looked up at Beth. He said in that same low voice, 'You gonna join us, factory girl?'

Beth didn't know what any of this meant, and she was furious about being told what to do in her own apartment. Glaring daggers at him, she sat, took the Kent cigarettes out of her handbag that Frau Grimes had given her, and lit one. Then she crossed her long legs in his direction and fixed him with a narrow look that said, Do I look like a factory girl to you?

He looked her over, his eyes raking her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. 'Well ain't you taken to your new life real quick.'

Beth turned to Maggie and Glenn. 'What the hell is he doing here?' she said in a loud whisper. 'And where's Shawn? And why are we whispering with the wireless up so loud?'

Maggie's eyebrows went up. 'You two know each other?'

'We've had the pleasure,' he murmured.

'Shawn's got a late shift on the Wall,' Maggie went on. 'And Daryl thinks the apartment might be bugged.'

It was Beth's turn to raise her eyebrows. 'Why would we be bugged?'

'Because most citizens are bugged at some point,' the man called Daryl murmured, 'and you've got a border guard and a Stasi secretary under the same roof. Might be some real interesting conversations going on.'

Yes, like the one they were having now. 'What is he doing here?'

'I asked him,' Glenn said, leaning forward and speaking low. 'I've been thinking about escaping for a while now and a friend of a friend put me in touch with Daryl. We've been talking about it for a few weeks now.'

Beth's eyes shot to Maggie. 'You knew about this?'

Maggie looked uncomfortable. 'Glenn and I had talked about it in general terms. Nothing definite.'

Beth felt strange. Maggie had never mentioned escaping before. She had no idea her sister was so unhappy. The food was bad and the work was hard and monotonous. Their father was in prison. They couldn't leave East Germany legally. They were fed propaganda about work setting them free while the elite took the best cuts of meat and imported anything they liked from the West. It wasn't exactly a shock that Maggie would be unhappy. Beth supposed she was unhappy, too. And their mother was on the other side of the wall. She missed her. But she missed both her parents, and Hershel was here.

'Why didn't you tell me you felt this way? Were you just going to leave one day?'

'Of course not,' Maggie said. 'We'd go together.'

'Shawn too?'

Maggie gave a half shrug. 'Shawn's … different.'

Glenn didn't hedge. 'We can't trust Shawn. He believes too much of the propaganda, and he works for the enemy.'

Beth couldn't believe what she was hearing. Glenn and Maggie had been making plans with this … this … Daryl for weeks, behind her back, and already excluding her brother. And suddenly he was their enemy?

'And what makes you think you can trust me, the Stasi secretary?'

Daryl, who'd been watching them silently, spoke up. 'You helped an enemy of the State steal Stasi files today. Quite a neat little performance, too. That's how it works. You help me for a time, and then I help you get over the wall.'

Beth felt cold. So that's what he'd been doing. He was a traitor, and now she was a traitor's accomplice. She could be shot for this. She should have screamed when she had the chance. She swallowed and said, 'Help you do what, exactly?'

'Keep the escape routes open. Keep tabs on safe-houses, Stasi activities, the safety of the group.'

Beth looked at Maggie. 'And we just leave Shawn behind? What about daddy?'

'Daddy ain't getting out of prison, Beth,' Maggie said softly. 'He ain't even been charged with anything. He's just gone.'

Beth shook her head. She couldn't just leave her brother and father behind. Her home. It wasn't much of a home, it was true, but it was all she'd known. And spying? It just seemed so ... low. 'I don't want to be a spy for the government, and I don't want to be a spy for him.'

'Blake's asked you to spy?' Daryl said sharply.

'Not exactly, but he said something odd this morning about coming to him if I had any problems, but I had a feeling he meant something else.'

Daryl relaxed, and snorted, 'Yeah, he meant something else.'

Beth was indignant. 'What does that mean?'

The man gave her a You know look. 'I don't think he's keeping you round for your typing, Miss Two Fingers.'

Beth blushed. Then she blushed harder remembering how she'd looked at the commandant that morning and thought that he looked handsome. Did Daryl think the commandant just wanted her around so he could sleep with her? 'Don't be disgusting,' she muttered.

Maggie was losing her patience. 'Look, we're not getting anywhere. Beth, I can't do this without you. Please. Are you with us?'

'Maggie, we were just talking about spying two days ago. You saw how frightened I was by the prospect of working for the Stasi. You were all so worried for me. And now you want me to spy for him?' She pointed at Daryl.

Glenn sat back with a sigh. She could see he was losing patience with her but she didn't care. They should have talked to her privately about this, not ambushed her with a government traitor. She glanced at Daryl, wondering about the things he'd done. The escapes never made it onto the news, but people whispered about them. The latest whispers had been about Ana Mueller's boyfriend. In fact, Daryl himself had mentioned Ana that day. A thought occurred to her.

'Did you help Ana's boyfriend escape?' she asked Daryl.

Daryl dropped his gaze. 'Yeah.'

'Then why not Ana too?'

Daryl hesitated, like he knew Beth wasn't going to like his answer. 'He told me not too. Said she was weak, wouldn't be able to keep up or keep her mouth shut.'

Beth remembered Ana's bereft expression as she'd gazed at the Wall the other night. She must have figured out that her boyfriend had escaped to West Berlin without her. How sad for her, knowing she'd been left behind on purpose. 'Did you talk to her to find out if this was true? Or did you just leave her behind not knowing what had happened to the man she thought loved her?'

Daryl leaned forward, angry. 'If there's one weak link then we all die. She couldn't do the work, so she doesn't get to go. That's how this works.'

Beth thought about this. It was cold, but it was a clever arrangement. Daryl needed a network of people to help him smuggle people over the Wall, but as soon as he'd built one up they would leave. If he recruited people for a time and then let them go one by one he could keep an ever-changing network. It would be harder for the Stasi to pin them down, as well.

But it seemed unfair on those who were too nervous or unwilling to perform spy work. They loved their families just as much as the brave ones. Why couldn't someone else do their work for them?

Why couldn't that person be Beth? She turned to him. 'I helped you steal files from Stasi Headquarters today. That's got to be worth quite a bit to you. In exchange, you get Ana out. Deal?'

...

What do you think about how Maggie and Glen surprised Beth with the news that they want to escape? Do you think Beth would have been more understanding if she wasn't already annoyed by and confused about Daryl?