Chapter 9: Rescues and a place to rest
Georg and Maria scrambled as quickly as they could down the path leading from their campsite towards the old man's farm. Within minutes, they turned a bend and came upon the old farmhouse. Georg only glanced at the rickety, rundown building as he passed it by and made to take the old cart track when he felt Maria stop. He turned to see her looking back behind them. She was clearly distressed.
"Maria?" She flicked her eyes back in his direction.
He tugged her hand gently. "Maria? Come on, we need to quickly catch up to the children."
She looked back again towards the way they'd just come before turning her head back to face Georg. "Georg, I know we do, but it doesn't feel right, leaving Hans up there to face those soldiers on his own."
Georg gave her a sympathetic half-smile. "I understand Maria, I feel the same way, I do. Everything about leaving him up there goes against my military training. Never leave a man behind," Georg quoted. "But darling, we have to think about the children here. We need to get them to safety, and that's our number one priority." Maria nodded, although still not looking convinced.
"Listen," he sighed, "as soon as we reach the village, I'll do my best to organise some sort of rescue party for Hans. How does that sound?"
A wave of relief washed over Maria's face and she leant forward and gave Georg a quick kiss on his lips. "Wonderful. Thank you Georg. I just hope by the time a rescue party can return up here that it's not too late."
"I hope so too. Now, quickly we must go." And with that, Georg took Maria's hand again and they both headed down the cart track.
Almost within minutes they'd caught up to the children. Friedrich had taken the lead, Kurt at the back with the girls in the middle. Liesl had picked up Gretl and was carrying her awkwardly as she tried to rush down the hill. As soon as she saw her father, Liesl put the little girl down and Georg hoisted Gretl up onto his shoulders. Without saying another word, the nine of them continued down the track as quickly as they could. However, it wasn't long before their speed slowed as the younger children were struggling with keeping up with the cracking pace Georg was setting. But by now, he was feeling hopeful that they were not being followed, knowing that if the soldiers were coming after them, they would have caught up to them by now since two soldiers would travel faster than a family of nine. Nonetheless, Georg would not stop to let anyone rest, as he was anxious to get to the village as quickly as possible.
Maria didn't want to admit it, but she was beginning to feel tired. She had been helping Marta along the difficult bits of the track and even carrying her at times when the young girl felt she couldn't walk anymore. She remembered Hans had said the village was around 10 miles away but right at that moment, it felt around 100 miles away instead. She marvelled at the way Georg continued walking with Gretl on his shoulders without looking tired in the slightest. But she knew that while her husband excelled in putting on a strong outer façade, he was actually quite exhausted himself.
Finally after just over two hours of constant walking, Maria spied some pillars of smoke on the horizon indicating they weren't too far away from the village. She let out a sigh of relief as they turned the bend and saw the first few buildings. As they entered the main street, Maria noted that the village was quite small with with only couple of dozen buildings. However, despite this, there seemed to be a plethora of people mingling through along the street and down into what looked like the main square. In the square there were stalls and tables set up with merchants seeling fresh fruit and vegetables along with handicrafts and other wares. It was obvious that it was market day.
Georg halted and lowered Gretl to the ground. He paused for a moment to rub his shoulders for they were terribly sore from carrying the girl the long way from the mountains. Maria was about to open her mouth to ask Georg what they should do next but before she could do so, a man approached Georg.
"Good morning sir," he said pleasantly to Georg. "I haven't seen you before in our town. Are you here for market day?"
"Ah, no," Georg replied cautiously, wondering whether he could trust the man. "We're just travelling through."
"Please let me introduce myself." The man held out his hand to Georg. "I'm Elias and I'm Mayor of this town." Georg introduced himself and the two men shook hands. "Forgive me sir," Elias continued, "but I couldn't quite help but notice that you came from the mountain pass."
"Yes we did." Georg paused for a moment deciding he had to take a chance and trust Elias for the sake of Hans. "Listen, I don't have much time to explain," Georg began. "My family and I left our home in Austria to come to Switzerland and have been walking for days through the mountains. But we came upon some trouble this morning. We were just fortunate enough to be aided by one of your townsfolk, Hans Lechner."
"Hans?" Elias instantly recognised the name. "What happened? Is he alright?"
"Well my family and I were ambushed by some Nazi soldiers early this morning. I am very thankful that Hans found us when he did and helped my fight them off, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here talking to you," Georg told Elias before quickly recounting the events surrounding the attack by the soldiers and their narrow escape thanks to the old man. "But Hans insisted he stay behind to hold the soldiers off while my family and I escaped."
"Hmm, stubborn old man. A good man, yet very stubborn," Elias muttered under his breath.
"Please sir," Maria piped up. "We're so terribly worried about what's happened to Herr Lechner."
"Yes," Georg continued taking Maria's hand in his own. "I told my wife I'd try and see whether a rescue party could be organised once we reached the village."
Immediately Elias agreed and called over a couple of burly looking men. One of them fetched a large horse-drawn wagon and the three men climbed aboard. "Georg," Elias called down to him. "Will you come with us to show us where you left Hans? Also, if these soldiers are as dangerous as you said they were, we could surely use another man."
Georg gave Elias a single nod before looking at Maria who instantly had an expression of panic on her face. "Maria," he quietly said. "I'm going to go with them. Like you said to me earlier, it was never quite right to leave Hans there in the first place. But now that I'm sure you and the children are all safe, I want to go and help him."
Maria nodded, and cast her eyes downwards. "I understand darling, I do. You're a solider through and through, and your bravery and honour are just some of the many things I love and admire about you." She raised her eyes to meet his. "But please be careful. I almost lost you once this morning; I don't think I could bare it if…" her voice trailed off and she looked away, blinking away the tears that had begun to form.
Georg lifted her chin with his finger so that she looked back into his eyes, then he tenderly cupped her face with his hand. "I will be careful. Now listen to me, do you still have the money I gave you before we left the villa?" Maria nodded. "Alright. There should be enough Swiss francs in the satchel. Take the children over to the market place and get them something to eat and perhaps some extra clothing if they sell it. Then find this Johanna who runs the inn. I think we should stay here the night before deciding where we go to next." Maria agreed as Georg gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.
He quickly reassured the children that he'd return as soon as he could, and then climbed up into the wagon with the other men. Georg gave them all a wave before the wagon went up the hill and around the bend out of sight.
Maria closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. She was tired and worried about Georg going with the men, not to mention that she now had seven faces looking up at her expectantly. The children, of course, had many questions about what had happened with the attack and they needed reassurance that everything would be all right after such a close call. Liesl and Friedrich had a better understanding of what had happened than the other children, however all were shaken by what they'd witnessed that morning.
But all of that would have to wait until later, Maria decided. First she wanted to get the children fed then she'd find a quiet spot to sit down and talk with the children.
"Alright children," Maria announced brightly. "How about we go and find something to eat from the market place?" At the mention of food, the children's eyes lit up, especially Kurt's and they were all very happy to follow Maria into the square.
After indulging in a variety of fresh fruit, pastries and hot rolls, Maria led the children over to sit down in a grassy meadow to talk to the children. As expected, there were many questions from the children asking who those men were, and what they wanted with their father. Maria had told the children before they left the villa how Georg had been commissioned into the Third Reich and that joining them was unthinkable. But now, she had to explain to the children in detail why they had to leave Austria for Switzerland and how the Nazis were still searching for Georg. Liesl and Friedrich nodded in agreement as they'd worked out most of what Maria was telling them after their hurried escape from the Festival then from the Abbey. But still, the sudden appearance of the soldiers that morning had shaken them all, especially Marta and Gretl who still didn't quite understand why those bad men would want to hurt their father.
While Maria wasn't able to promise completely that the Nazi's wouldn't come after them again, she was able to reassure the children that she and Georg would do their best to keep them safe from any harm. And finally after the long discussion, the shedding many tears and giving lots of comforting hugs, Maria was satisfied the children had recovered from their ordeal.
Maria glanced down at her watch. It had been over an hour since Georg had left them. It had obviously taken them several hours to come down from the mountain but Georg was riding in a wagon with the other men so she hoped and prayed that he would be back soon. The children seemed happy enough relaxing on the grass, but the wait was killing her. She had to do something to distract her. Therefore Maria suggested they spend some more time wandering about the market place. They'd all been wearing the same clothes for the past four days and the suggestion of buying something fresh and new to wear was almost too tempting to resist. Maria was conscious of not spending too much money but after almost another hour of browsing the various stalls, she'd purchased a new outfit for each the children as well as something for her and Georg.
Maria glanced at her watch again. Several hours had now past and Georg was still not back. Chewing on her lip, she began to worry that Georg and the other men had encountered more than they'd bargained for back up in the mountains. Trying to push all sorts of extreme thoughts out of her mind, she beckoned the children over to her, deciding to go and see whether the men were back yet.
They hadn't gone very far back down the main street of the village when they heard shouting voices. Craning her head through the crowd that had gathered on the street, Maria spied the old wagon coming down the mountain pass.
"A doctor! Get the doctor!" Elias called out into the crowd. There was a scuffle in the mass of people and a man came forward, rushing over to the wagon.
After asking Liesl and Friedrich to stay with the younger children, Maria pushed her way through several groups of onlookers towards the wagon. She felt her heart leap with joy when she saw Georg with the other three men working together to lift down a stretcher from the back of the wagon.
"Georg!" Maria cried. He turned his head and saw her. Quickly Georg offloaded his corner of the stretcher to another man before rushing forward to greet Maria. He enveloped her in his arms and held her close, relishing in the softness of her body in his arms. Georg gave her a light kiss on the top of her head.
"Oh thank God you're back and you're safe. I was worried," Maria whispered into Georg's ear. "What happened? How's Hans?" she asked him. Georg pulled away from her enough to glance over in the direction the men took the stretcher.
"Well he's alive, but he's been beaten pretty bad. He has a large bump on his head; a gash on his leg and his arm is broken. It's lucky we went back though because up on that mountain alone…" Georg's voice trailed off. "But considering what could have happened, his injuries could have been so much worse. At least now he'll get proper care down here in the village with the doctor." Maria closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh in relief then hugged herself to his body again.
"What about the soldiers?" Maria asked hesitantly.
"Well, they'd disappeared by the time we got there," Georg explained. "The only thing we found out from Hans was that after the two soldiers woke up, the three of them fought. Hans hit the first with the pitchfork and shot the second in the leg before the first soldier retaliated and whacked Hans to the ground, breaking his arm and knocking him unconscious. When Hans came to, the soldiers were gone. I don't know where they went. There is a chance they'll follow us to the town, however since we're now on Swiss soil, I'm hoping they won't be brazen enough to try and come after us. I think we're safe for the moment, but we should try and move on in the morning, just in case." She nodded in agreement.
"But what about you Maria?" Georg turned his concern over to her. "And the children? Are you all right?" Maria assured him they were and they made their way back through the crowd to where she'd left the children. At once, all seven children practically threw themselves upon Georg, as they were so pleased to see him.
Just as Georg finished embracing the last child, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Elias standing behind him. "Georg, I just want to thank you on behalf of Hans and this town. If you hadn't alerted us to what happened this morning and helped us find him, I'm sure the old man may have died up there."
"Please don't thank me. I am the one who is indebted to Hans," Georg told Elias seriously. "It was the least I could do to help rescue him."
"Well thank you nonetheless. The doctor says that he'll recover, but he may need to spend several weeks here in the village, at least until his arm heals," Elias told the group before excusing himself to return to check on the old man as the crowd in the street began to disperse.
Georg felt tired and hungry after his journey back up and down the mountain. It was now late in the afternoon, and so he was eager to find the inn. Thankfully the building wasn't that far away. As they entered through the main door, an elderly lady with a kind smile on her face greeted them.
"Welcome, my name is Johanna. Can I help you sir?" she asked.
"Yes, my family and I would like accommodations for the night," Georg began. "There are nine of us: my wife, myself and our seven children."
"Nine? Oh that's going to be difficult. Since it's market day, we have many visitors from the surrounding farms staying in town tonight. I'm afraid we only have one large room left."
Maria glanced over to Georg. "What are we going to do?" she whispered. He threw her a look, telling her he'll handle it before he spoke again to the lady.
"How big is the room?" he asked. "We don't mind squeezing in together."
"There are two large double beds and a sofa."
Georg paused and glanced at Maria. He leant over to whisper in her ear. "If that's all they have, it'll have to do." She nodded in agreement.
"Thank you, madam. We'll take it."
The old lady nodded and bustled around the front desk trying to find the key to the room. Finally she found it and handed the key to Georg. "Room two: down the hallway to the right. I'll provide you with extra blankets should your sons wish to sleep on the floor."
Georg nodded his thanks and turned to leave when Johanna called out to him. "Sir, a thought has just crossed my mind. I may have one extra room that may be suitable for you and your wife if you're still prepared to squeeze in together. It's part of the attic loft and I'm afraid it isn't much bigger than a broom closet. It only has a single bed and doesn't contain its own bathroom but if you're interested, then it's yours."
Georg turned to Maria and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. "But what about the children?" she whispered to him. "I'm not sure we should be leaving them alone, not after what happened today."
Georg glanced over at the children waiting patiently in the open doorway. "I understand your hesitation darling, today has been quite trying. But I'm sure the children will be fine without us and we'll only be right near by should anything happen. But two rooms will give them, and us, more space even if means we need to squeeze in together." He gave her a wink. "Besides," he lowered his voice even further so only she could hear him, "I'm sure we could use some time alone."
Maria met his gaze and felt herself blushing at the implication of his words. She agreed without hesitation, as the promise of having Georg hold her close through the night was too tempting to resist. Maria could understand Georg's eagerness for them to make love since they hadn't been together since they left the villa; however there was another reason the suggestion of privacy appealed to her. But at the moment, more than anything, Maria wanted to be able to talk with Georg about everything that had happened that day. She felt like she was on the edge. She was exhausted, and her emotions were running wild, almost at breaking point. She wanted love, comfort and reassurance from Georg that everything was going to be all right. But she couldn't tell Georg everything she was thinking and feeling until they were alone.
Johanna handed Georg the second key and gave him directions to the small attic-like room that he and Maria were to share. But as they were leaving to go and find their rooms, she called out to them. "Sir, I see you and your family look extremely weary, and most likely hungry. I've cooked a large pot of vegetable stew for my husband and myself. It's not much, but we'd like for you to share it with us."
At once the happy whispers of the promise a hot dinner were heard from the children, with the exception of Louisa who muttered something disdainful under her breath about eating vegetable stew. Georg threw her a scathing glare to be quiet before replying. "Madam, you are too kind. We really are very grateful."
"Good then it's settled. Please follow me, it isn't long before I've planned to serve dinner."
Georg stood back to allow Maria and the children to follow Johanna into the small dining room. He smiled to himself, things were beginning to look up.