REMEMBER ME
chapter 11
Absently fiddling with a sharply shaped pebble between his fingers, Goerg got absorbed in his thoughts.
Maria, Maria, Maria.
Warm, bright sun was gliding through the trees, illuminating her already heavenly features as if she were an earthly angel.
Which she was indeed.
They had been strolling for so long that they had even lost the count of how many times they had wholly toured the extensive grounds of the Villa.
It was early spring, but nature was blossoming in every corner and, of course, Maria never missed the chance to delight Georg in her unfailing knowledge about the precious treasures the gardens guarded between their tall trees. She would tell him everything about every kind of flower or blossom, opening his senses to the wanders of the natural world and slowly teaching him the difference between roses and camellias only relying on the delicate scent of their petals.
These also happened to be the only interruptions she made, otherwise she could have listened to him for hours on end.
Not only because she found his voice the most soothing sound her ears could ever treasure in her heart but also because she knew that talking out his demons was helping him to unburden himself from them and slowly let their weight drop off his shoulders.
He would tell her about the striking anxiety before each important battle, about his despise for the irregular relationship he entertained with the children, but most of his talks were focused on his coping with Agathe's death.
Some of the times, he had asked her if she minded his mentioning her so constantly, after all it wasn't uncommon, not even unreasonable, for any other girl to be bothered at the ever-present ghost of the past lover of the man she was dating.
But she was not any other girl. She was Maria.
And of course, she didn't mind, she was a lady with a soul so golden to understand that it was helping him to face her loss and heal from it once and for all.
She understood, and therefore she healed.
He couldn't think of a love more profound than the one she gifted him every day but, of course, she wouldn't have given herself the credits she deserved.
It was just in one of their strolls during their engagement that he discovered himself completely powerless in front of her restless love.
He had been boosting himself about being a refined connoisseur of nature thanks to her expert lessons for the entire day, so much that when they walked outside for their daily stroll, she changed her mind about the activity she had planned.
It wasn't something she had thought of earlier, it just came to her mind the minute he sat on the bench in front of the gazebo and got his eyes bandaged by the silk handkerchief she had sewn for him a while back as an engagement present.
It's delicate and sweet but also fresh and somewhat … quite familiar …" his voice was pensive and concentrated, "I know, edelweiss" Georg gave his final answer.
Nothing. Utter silence surrounded him for a couple of seconds before he could hear the precious sound of Maria's giggles, muffled probably by her hand trying to hide them.
"Well, what's so funny?" he asked, removing the bandage from his eyes and opening his lids.
The sight of her was revealed beneath him: she was laying into the neat grass, her short hair fluffy and unkempt from her rolling with laughter, and his favourite smile crossing his favourite lips, brightening his day more than the sun ever could.
"I know what you're trying to do to me, but I am absolutely sure it's edelweiss, I have no doubt about that" he firmly confirmed his theory
"The old wound acting up again, Captain?" she asked, bringing an arm under her head to lean onto and better look at his face
"Wound? I have no wound at all" he tapped his bust all over with his palms
"I was referring to your ego" she teased, giving him a gaze he knew lethal for him
"Hey, watch it".
His breath tickled her lips as he pronounced those words for he had now lowered himself over the grass, pinning her right beneath his weight.
Time seemed to stop right there and then.
The intensity of his icy blue eyes looking at her made her feel as though she could hardly breathe at all, suddenly none of them could remember what they were talking about a minute before. All they could think of was how madly in love they were with each other.
His head leaned in, closing the distance between their lips, and pressing over hers a kiss that deepened as soon as he licked her bottom lip, and she allowed his tongue to caress hers until their lungs ran out of air. Offering a last, gentle peck at her lips, his started their ascent to her jawline first and then to her neck which he peppered with wet, open-mouth kisses.
It was then that he recognized it.
What he had smelled before was not a flower, nor a fruit, not even a perfume.
It was her own scent.
He abruptly broke her revelling in the delightful pleasure of his kisses, raising his head to look into her eyes and offer her a knowing gaze only to come back to his favourite activity with even more desire and ferocity.
His lips roamed over the softness of her skin with ease as he hunted the spots where her scent would inebriate him the most, going from the naughty bite at her earlobe and then descending her swan neck again. She gripped his head, entangling her fingers in his dark curls tightly as he hungrily travelled along her shoulder and her collarbone before nuzzling his nose in the skin of her chest, fearing, and knowing that he would be the death of her.
But nothing could ever overcome his own desire, he felt as young and renewed as a schoolboy.
God, he loved her, he needed her.
To survive. In his spirit as well as in flesh.
The rumbling noise of a vehicle strolling by shook Georg off his heavenly thoughts.
His head turned to the side, and he spotted a black Nazi car making his way out of the base.
The previous night had been risky but more than worth it. He had followed the path of streetlamps and swastikas flags meticulously but had been so focused on the activity not to realize that his feet had directed him out of the mountain, and he had almost bumped in one of the flags at the side entrance. He feared someone could have caught him since a flashlight had been lit to better see but the dim light of the isolated street had allowed him to sneak back onto the hill fast enough to shelter behind a thick tree and avoid the threatening light itself.
His heart had been pounding for a while, his breath wheezing kept as silent as possible for an even longer while but once he had calmed down, his thinking became lucid again and he was able to realize that, after all, he had been quite lucky.
Dawn was raising so he couldn't take the risk of remaining there at the feet of the mountain, it was better to hike far enough to be safe from their controls and close enough to act promptly when the right moment came.
He nestled himself in a not-too-big valley sheltered by tall bushes and trees and lowering his gaze to his wristwatch, Georg realized it hadn't taken him longer than ten minutes to reach the spot. And it was an uphill walk, the rush downwards would have taken him even less.
He adjusted his back against the tough burk and pulled one of the bread rolls he had stuffed in his pockets before the children could leave. He was hungry and something between his teeth would have helped him to reason straighter.
Let's see … the main entrance is guarded by two soldiers and so must be the others. It's a three-story building so if I enter from one of the easily reachable windows, Maria must be kept either on that floor or the lower, whose direct access has probably escaped my sight or is most likely inexistent.
After mapping this reasoning into his mind for several times, he committed it to memory and tried to focus on something else that could have helped in making his plan more accurate.
Having spent a night and almost an entire day hidden behind those bushes, he had been able to ascertain that cars arrived and left roughly every three hours for the change of guard, leaving the base uncovered for no more than a mere couple of minutes.
It didn't matter that much, though, getting in was the hardest part but once it was done, he had Rolf's gun and enough rage and determination to get he and Maria out of that building without stopping at any obstacle.
Another car passed by, driving on the opposite direction, and meaning that it was just arriving.
About five minutes had passed by since the previous one had left which confirmed him that the basement was almost abandoned at night and procedures were certainly slower and looser.
Good. Well, at least, good for him.
Three more hours before another change of guard.
Three more hours before night could climb in.
Three more painful hours before he could reunite with Maria.
Three more painful hours before he could tell her she would be fine.
His hearing was attentive, ready to catch the first roar of the vehicle engine put into operation.
Midnight on the dot.
A turn of the key.
A brake pulled down.
A roaring motor.
A speeding car.
Now.
It was time.
Two more minutes before another car could arrive and double his risk of getting caught.
Without thinking twice about it, his fingers lowered the hat onto his forehead in one swift motion and his legs began the rush, long steps, quick pace, hitting the ground steadily before he could feel the solid asphalt beneath his feet.
As Georg found himself in front of the main entrance, the relief that it was uncovered as he had expected vanished in less than a split second. Just one gaze at the cold, dark, dirty, and stinking place was enough to make his guts turn.
He couldn't dwell on such things, there was too little time and too many things to do.
A light was coming from the corridors at one of his sides, probably the illumination of the offices on that floor.
That wasn't the right way, and he ought to leave it as soon as possible.
Then he seemed to hear something, a weak, muffled sound, much like a moaning. It was undoubtedly coming the lower floor.
Now, that was the right way.
He hurried down the stairs, descending them as fast as he was allowed, meticulous attention was needed in avoiding making any noise.
The stairs revealed to be much shorter than he thought but the darkness of the corridor that now opened in front of him exceeded all his expectations.
If it wasn't for the moaning increasing, he wouldn't even know he was walking straight and not into a wall, it was pitch dark.
He had tiptoed enough into its depths for his eyes to get accustomed to the darkness and begin to see in the slightest, but he couldn't rely on that precarious sense, nor on his hearing either since the moaning had stopped.
For the smallest while, a chill of fear rushed through his spine at the thought of having been caught but he couldn't stop, not then.
He was way too far into it to do anything else but carry on.
Now all he could rely on was his touch and soon enough he discovered thick, steel bars sliding against his palm.
It was then that he saw her.
He couldn't be certain of it at first, after all, everything he could see was a slim body curled into a tight ball, frozen as if the mere movement of simply breathing could hang its life by a thread. But for how little he could see, he would have recognized the golden strands in her strawberry hair from miles apart.
It was her.
"M-Maria?" he spoke her name with a shake in his voice, almost as if pronouncing it was forbidden to his hopes.
He saw her head raising from her curled knees, her eyes squinted and almost in a loud thud, she collapsed from the bed and fell onto the ground, never so relieved at the sight of him.
"Georg? How d-did you find me?" her voice sounded shocked as if she had just had a vision.
And at that very moment, her husband was being the most glorious vision she could ever wish for.
Georg felt his stomach viscerally squeezing at the sound of her knees rubbing against the concrete and probably tearing apart the thin layer of her stockings. But she couldn't find the strength to stand up and walk to him, actually she didn't have it either. But it couldn't matter less at that very moment.
"Oh, thank God ... Come here, let me hold you" his voice was soft and tearful.
The bars didn't represent an obstacle, he needed to touch her, hold her to fully believe she was alive. His arms slid into the tight spaces between the bars, his blood circulation almost stopped for the pressure against the veins of his elbows, but it didn't prevent his arms from pulling her close and hold her into him for as much as he was allowed.
His hands soothed small caresses at the back of her shoulders, her muscles as tense as he had never felt them before, then he pressed a kiss to her cheek, discovering it soaked with tears.
But hers were the first happy tears she had spilled in long days, this was the nicest gesture someone had offered her after having been treated so inhumanly by those dreadful Nazis. Oh, how much she wished she could bury her head into his neck and cry of relief as loud as she needed.
"Are you hurt?" he dared to make the question, although not certain he wanted to hear the answer
"No".
She lied.
She had been in excruciating stomach pains and threw up at least twice for the moldy food she had been fed, that's what she had been moaning about before he found her.
"Could you untie my wrists?" she asked in a trembling voice, almost guilty about asking him such a superfluous thing in a moment like that.
When she turned and he felt the thick and rough rope tightly tied around her wrists, he felt a visceral squeeze to his stomach, it was tight enough to affect her bones if she made a wrong movement.
But he was good at knots, he had learned tons on his ships and the rope loosened around her sore skin in no time, no wonder it had left marks and deep furrows on her delicate skin.
She badly needed to wipe her mouth from her release, the collar of her blouse hadn't been of much help, but as she did, the pace of his words quickened.
"I need you to do one thing for me, Maria. You have to tell them were we've been hiding".
Georg's words cut through her like a knife.
Why on earth should she reveal that?
"But the children!"
"They're safe, you have to trust me"
"And I do" she replied sincerely.
It was true, she trusted him with everything she was but the reason he was asking her to do such a thing was still a mystery to her.
With heavy defeat causing her head to bow down she turned, offering him her poor wrists and the rope.
"You can't ask me to do that, Maria" his voice was no higher than a whisper, but she knew he would be screaming if he were allowed to speak
She sucked in a shaky breath, "it will be worse for me if they don't find me the way they left me … please".
It was unthinkable.
The moment the rope went just as far as brushing her skin a painful moan escaped her mouth. His hands trembled, he couldn't be doing this aware of the pain he was causing her.
"Stick your index in this hole and pull, the grip will loosen, and you can free your hands when you need it. Then, pull this flap, this way the knot will hold" he instructed her gently on the way he had bound her wrists, hoping this would work.
She then turned and their eyes met once again.
"Now, remember to tell them as I told you and tomorrow we'll be out of here. You have to hold on just one more day, my love, I promise".
His voice was statuary, determined and yet soft and reassuring, her only beacon of light in the darkness of that moment.
Georg's hand cupped her cheek and brushed a caress against it, wiping some of the gushing tears with his thumb. He leaned in to press a long, thoughtful kiss to her forehead through the bars, so deep and profound that she felt like her body weighted nothing at all. All the pain, the cramping and the stinging was gone under the soothing touch of his lips.
Then spinechilling steps echoed through the walls of the empty corridor.
The night vigil, of course, she had completely forgotten about it.
The couple's eyes widened as they plunged into sheer fear.
Damn, he was late.
It could only take an instant and he could be caught.
"I love you" a weak, shaky whisper left Maria's mouth.
It was all she managed to utter before their foreheads detached and he begun a new rush, up the stairs and out of the base. She prayed he would make it out safe.
You have to hold on just one more day.
He had promised.
Author's Note: Hello everyone! Here we go to a more interesting part in the story, this was one of my favourite chapters to write and I can't wait to read what you thought of it. I might have been a bit too mean to Maria but I hoped you still managed to enjoy Georg's memories about their engagement, something I wish we saw more of in the movie. Thank you for being here and I hope to see you all next weeks with a new chapter!