44.
~ Maurice Fisher responded well to the sulfa treatments. His bladder infection cleared up and he was soon much more articulate when he spoke.
"My son became a head shrink." The older man grumbled as Ariadne helped him out of his bath. "What kind of profession is that? Bunch of cry babies talking about their feelings."
Even after his illness had passed, what Robert had told her was true, Maurice wasn't a pleasant man.
"I think he helps a lot of people." Ariadne told the older man as she helped him dress.
Maurice was winded after the work of bathing and dressing he wanted to rest.
"You're a nice girl." He said patting her hand as she helped to lay him in the bed. "I'm glad Robert found you."
~ "So, you moved out of your mother in law's house?" Robert asked as she prepared to leave. The well groomed young man liked to talk to her when he first came home. She was cooking dinner for him and Maurice when he decided to wake up.
"Yes, Beth and I found a nice little apartment here in the city. I can walk here very easily." She told him.
"You just go the cast off. I can pick you up. Save you all that walking." Robert offered.
"I need the exercise." Ariadne said.
Robert looked at his plate. Those clear blue eyes of his doing nothing to hide his feelings.
"Have you heard anything from your husband?" He asked.
Ariadne wanted to tell Robert what happened.
"I got a letter from him. Then a telegram saying he was missing in action. I've been to the war office a few times, they can't tell me anything." She said not looking at Robert.
"I'm so sorry." He said.
"I hope he's alright, that's all I can do." She said trying not to cry. She had cried enough already.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked kindly.
She shook her head.
"I telegraphed the Matron at my old hospital in London. I told her Arthur was missing. That he might come into London wounded and to contact me if she finds him." Ariadne told him.
"That's good. Do you think she will?" Robert said. "A lot of wounded go through London."
"You don't know the Matron." Ariadne laughed.
Robert was quite for a long time. Waiting for her to speak.
"I know he's someplace cold. I know he's hungry and scared." She said in a soft voice.
Robert sat listening to her in that kind, non judgmental way of his.
"Sometimes, I stay out in the snow for a long time. Sometimes I don't eat for a long time because I want to feel hungry. Like I know he is."
Robert said nothing for a long time.
"Ariadne, I want you to promise me you won't do that anymore." He said at last. "Promise me, you won't do anything to hurt yourself. Even if you think it's not that bad."
She bit her bottom lip. She could make this promise. Robert had been a good friend and a better employer then she could have ever hoped for.
"I promise." She said a tears fell out.
She felt Robert take her hand in his. His hands were soft and without calluses.
"You don't want to hurt your baby do you?" He asked looking up at her with those clear blue eyes.
She jumped away from him then. Her condition wasn't noticeable yet. She wasn't showing at all.
"How? How did you know?" She breathed.
Robert shrugged.
"Every time Dad yells at you, you put your hands over your belly. A reflex action. You wouldn't do it unless you had something to protect." He added knowingly.
"Mr. Fischer-"
"Robert, please." He interjected.
"Robert." She said slowly. "I promise this won't be a problem. My sister-in-law can look after the baby when the time comes and it will not interfere with my taking care of your father."
"When the time comes, I would hope you would bring the little one here. I love children." Robert said.
She looked at him in surprise.
"I think it would be good for Dad to have a baby around." The well groomed young man added.
~ Beth had started work at a newspaper. Her job was simple copy editor and it was mindless work. But she loved having her own money. She found it liberating and empowering to have her own checking account. The girls moved into the city. Beth proclaiming she had always wanted to live in the Village.
Their apartment was small, but cozy. Beth tried to learn to cook and finally gave up and was thankful they were so close to restaurants.
They were surrounded by artists and faint music would drift though their open windows as the snow melted and the smells of spring were not far away. Ariadne felt guilty for being happy sometimes.
~ "At the paper, they talk a lot about wanting first hand accounts of the war. I was thinking I could write your story. Might get me a position as a reporter." Beth said one evening after they had gotten off work. Robert insisted on driving Ariadne home in his car the past few days.
The pretty nurse looked up from her sewing. She was making a jumper for the baby.
"My story?" Ariadne repeated. "It's not very exciting."
"I disagree. You fled the invasion. Escaped through Dunkirk, worked as a nurse in London under the air raids, marched back into France with the Allies. Met and married a handsome GI. It's very interesting." Beth said. "It's a love story and those things sell. We could even make this a novel."
Ariadne laughed.
"We don't have an ending." She sighed. "If Arthur dies over there, it will be a sad ending. No one wants a sad ending."
"I don't believe your story will have a sad ending." Beth said.
Ariadne looked at Beth.
"Well, the war for us started with radio reports. Nothing happened for ages. Then, the bombings started." Ariadne started.
~ Arthur had decided the Nazi didn't scare him. Once he was properly warm and dry by the fire, he stood up and casually started eating the bread and cheese. The Nazi officer had even had one of his
lackeys bring in hot coffee.
"Sit. Sit down, please." The officer said with a repugnant smile.
"No, thank you." Arthur said casually. "I only sit at a table with friends."
Arthur, though weakened from hunger and a prisoner, seemed to an outsider to be the one in charge. He stood tall over the sitting Nazi and stretched his legs as he ate.
'Slowly, eat it slowly.' He told himself 'No use throwing it back up again.'
"Yes, very good. I want us to be friends." The Nazi said with his smile that showed a healthy set of teeth. "Tell me. Tell me everything about America. I think it's a very interesting country. Even with all our faults. Your wife, she is in America, yes?"
Arthur said nothing. His stomach clenching at the contact of food and the mention of his sweet wife on this man's lips.
'Little Prick.' The Major thought remembering Colonel Burch. He suddenly decided that was what he would call the Nazi in his mind. A mental shield that would keep the enemy in his place.
He didn't respond to 'Little Prick' as he slowly sipped his hot coffee. The Nazi officer only laughed.
"Of course she is in America. Telegraphed you from New York. Expecting a baby I see." He said pulling out the yellow telegraph from behind her picture. Arthur felt his blood run cold. He never hid his emotions well, but this time he had to.
"Haven't seen her in a while. Kids not even mine." Arthur said carelessly. His heart paining him as he tried to steel himself from the longing he felt.
"Oh dear." The Little Prick said. His voice dripping with sympathy. "Unfaithful to her husband in war time. Such a shame, but it happens."
"You know that from your history classes?" Arthur asked finishing his bread and picking up the tin of fruit.
"Yes. Only Odysseus, with his precious Penelope can expect a loyal wife." He said. "Then, it is not easy to be a soldiers wife. All the loneliness. The worry."
"Are my men being fed?" Arthur asked sipping the coffee. It was snowing heavily outside as he looked out the window and couldn't see the barrack.
"Why do you care, Major?" The Nazi said standing next to him. "They no longer respect you. They feel you have betrayed them."
"Let me save you some time, Sir." Arthur said casually finishing his coffee and wiping his mouth with the a napkin.
"I don't believe a word you are saying. I think you will tell me anything at this point to get what you want." He said.
"And I don't believe a word you have said about your wife." The Nazi said indifferently. "I think you love her. More then Odysseus loved Penelope. I think a man who keeps a lady safely hidden in a case like that... I think you love her and the child. The child is naturally yours."
Arthur said nothing.
"Do you think, Major, that your wife worries over you now? You have been here almost a week. Surely she has been told of your disappearance." The Nazi had a pleased look on his face as two other Nazis silently came into the room. Arthur didn't look at them. Didn't acknowledge 'Little Prick'.
He knew what was coming.
"Did you get enough to eat? More coffee perhaps? I am very sorry I can not offer you sugar." The Nazi said.
"I'm fine." Arthur said numbly. Taking a deep breath.
The guards advanced on him them. While the 'Little Prick' was smoking his cigarettes and looking at the photo in the silver case, Arthur was beaten. He tried to protect his face and vital organs but the men held him down and kicked him till he was coughing up blood.
"I believe, I shall take your lady to bed with me tonight." The Nazi officer said with a sinister smile. "She may prove a distraction."
Arthur looked up at him and tried to see through the fast swelling of his eye. His body hurt and he was spitting out bright red blood. As he watched the him leave with the silver case, the photos and the telegram. All that was precious to him in the world.
~ In London, the Matron had just climbed out of the air raid shelter with the few patients who could walk. Air raids were once more becoming a way of life for them. Like a game children play.
'Oh here comes the siren, everyone run and hide!'
Run and hide was right. The halls were always eerily empty during a bombing. The only ones left were the critical who could not be moved.
"We are alright!" She called out to her nurses as they helped the wounded back to their wards. "We still have dinner to serve and work to do. War or no war, we must carry on."
It was the Matron's weapon against those who bombed her. To be strong for the nurses and wounded. To have a spine of steel that the Germans could not break.
'Never show anyone you are tired or afraid. Be a pillar of English strength and courage for everyone around you.' She told herself as she stood a little straighter and walked swiftly to the ward for the critical.
She had gotten a telegram from the Red Cross nurse, Ariadne, yesterday. She had told her she would look, but she had no confidence her husband would be found alive. This war had taken so many.
The Matron looked over the critical men, fresh from the front lines. Their charts saying nothing more then their names. No information about where they were or their unit. Several were British who were deep in the throws of fever.
"Mal." Came a weary voice. "Mal." It said again.
The Matron went over to the wounded man. His chart showing he was an American. A Colonel.
"Mal? Bad is it?" She asked remembering her Latin. "Your safe now. Your in London."
"Arthur? Where is Arthur?" The Colonel asked. The Matron froze.
'Arthur. That's Ariadne's husband's name.' She turned and looked at the man. He was sweating. Succumbing to blood poisoning from his leg wound.
"Did you say Arthur?" She asked.
"Arthur." The blond man repeated dumbly. "He was right behind us. In the camp. Where is he?"
The Matron gave Colonel Cobb some water and went to search each bed. She carefully looked over charts and names. No Arthur, and Cobb was the only officer brought in with these men. The Matron raced to the locked medicine cabinet. The Doctor had pronounced the Colonel too far gone to spare antibiotics on. These medications were hard to get with the recent bombing and needed to be saved for those who had a chance. Cobb was given pain pills and left to die.
The Matron filled a syringe of very powerful antibiotics and refused to let him.