War Girl Lotte Page 3

  “It’s your loss, Schätzchen. One day you’ll accept that you and I are destined for each other.” Hans adopted a charming smile and blew her a kiss.

  Lotte instinctively hunched her shoulders. “Watch me and wait!”

  Hans watched her for another moment and then jumped to his feet again. “If that’s what you want. Next time, then. Let’s go, Uwe.”

  “See you around,” Uwe said, and the two of them sauntered off.

  “You shouldn’t be so rude to Hans. It’s not wise to have him and his father as enemies,” Irmhild said once the boys were out of earshot.

  “He gives me the creeps.” Lotte threw back her strawberry blonde mane.

  “I want to attract men like you do,” Irmhild said, curling her mousy braid around her finger.

  “Me? Except for Hans, no boy has ever showed any interest in me. And I can well do without him.”

  “Come on.” Irmhild rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice that Uwe fancies you.”

  “I didn’t.” The heat rising to her cheeks and the strange fluttering in her stomach told Lotte a different story. She and Uwe had been classmates before he dropped out of school, but today he had looked like an adult, nothing like the boy she knew.

  “I tell you, it’s true. And judging by the way you’re blushing, you like him, too.” Irmhild broke out into giggles, teasing her friend.

  “All right. Uwe’s cute, but he’s friends with Hans, and he’s part of the Hitlerjugend.”

  “They don’t really have much of a choice. Every boy has to join up. Look at me, I’m part of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, and yet we two are still…” Irmhild lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “doing these things.”

  Lotte nodded and then looked up at the sky, where the sun was heading for the horizon. “I need to get back home.”

  Together, they walked to Irmhild’s house, where Lotte had parked her bicycle. On an impulse, she hugged her friend tight. “Promise to be careful and give me a phone call when the papers are ready.”

  Irmhild’s fingers twisted together. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea,” she answered with an unsteady voice.

  “You can’t back out now, you’re Rachel’s only hope. Nothing will happen.” Lotte frowned at her friend.

  “Let’s hope so, my goodness.” Irmhild opened the door and disappeared, leaving Lotte with a bad feeling. She shoved it aside, grabbed her bicycle and mounted it.

  The way home was mostly downhill, and Lotte ducked low over the handlebars to gain speed until the wind ruffled her mane. For all she complained about being stuck in Kleindorf, she loved to roam about the landscape in a way that wasn’t possible in Berlin.

  Fifteen minutes later, she reached her aunt’s farm and hurried to tackle her chores. The cows were already waiting patiently on the square in front of the barn to be milked. Lotte set aside some of the milk, several eggs, and vegetables before she slipped inside the barn to search for the four children.

  She found them in the loft of the barn. Rachel still had puffy eyes, and the other children’s faces were smeared with dirty tears.

  “I brought you food.” Lotte stared at the meager provisions in her hands. It was barely enough for one person, let alone four. Irmhild had been right; they couldn’t stay in here for long. “I’m afraid you’ll have to eat the eggs raw.”

  “Thank you. We won’t stay here much longer. I just need to figure out where to go.” Rachel took the food and carefully set it down on a straw bale.

  Lotte seized Rachel’s arm and pulled her out of earshot of the other children. “You remember Irmhild? She’s working at the town hall and is making new papers for all of you.”

  Rachel’s eyes all but popped out of her face. “Goodness. No. She can’t do that! It is a crime, and if anyone finds out–”

  “We thought about it, and it’s the only way to keep you safe,” Lotte insisted.

  “Lotte! No. You have to stop her. What you’re planning is much too dangerous,” Rachel whispered with horror in her voice.

  “Don’t worry, Irmhild will be very careful. We won’t get caught.” Lotte grinned. It felt good to be a heroine.

  Rachel shook her head. “I can’t accept both of you risking your lives for us. No, please call her tonight and tell her to stop. The risk is too great.”

  “Pah, what can happen to us? It’ll work just fine, you wait and see.”

  But as Lotte walked to the main house, a bad feeling settled in her stomach. Her mother and her sisters had warned her once and again that every tiny act of opposition to the Nazi Party could get her imprisoned – or worse.

  She shrugged and skipped to her room.

  Adults are always afraid of one thing or the other.

  Chapter 5

  Two days had gone by, and Irmhild still hadn’t called. Lotte wondered if her friend had forgotten about their plan – because it couldn’t take that long to make some fake papers, right?

  At the same time, she worried about Rachel and the other three children. They stayed hidden in the barn during the night but left before dawn to venture into the forest looking for something to eat. Mushrooms blackberries, wild garlic, hazelnuts, whatever edible things they could find to supplement the few provisions Lotte could sneak them.

  By the afternoon, Lotte was dying from the uncertainty of not knowing what was happening. She picked up the telephone in the living room and called Irmhild.

  “Town hall,” her friend’s voice came across the line.

  “Irmhild, it’s me.”

  “Lotte, you shouldn’t be calling me at work.” Her voice turned into a hiss.

  Lotte shuffled her feet. “I know, and I’m sorry, but I was getting worried.”

  “Hold on a second,” Irmhild said, her muffled voice indicating she was talking to someone else. After several minutes, she heard the sound of a door closing, and Irmhild’s voice came back on the line. “It’s more complicated than we thought. What we need is locked up, and I have to wait until someone comes in needing those same papers and the seal.”

  “I take it by your voice that hasn’t happened yet?” Lotte asked.

  “No. I wish I could tell you different. I’ll let you know as soon as I can. I have to go now.”

  Irmhild hung up the phone and Lotte did the same, closing her eyes in dismay. This undertaking had turned out to be a lot more worrisome than she’d imagined.

  She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from the tap.

  Aunt Lydia waddled into the house, puffing air. “I wish this baby would come already, I’m moving like a beached whale.”

  Lotte bit her lip to suppress a giggle and then eyed her aunt’s belly suspiciously. It had grown so much during the last weeks, she feared it might explode any moment.

  “Do you want some water, Aunt Lydia?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” Lydia sank down on a chair and gulped down the water Lotte handed her.

  “Good to see you, Lotte. You’ll have to clean out the barn in the next few days. I went into town and organized harvesters for next week.”

  “Next week?” Lotte almost dropped the glass. “Isn’t that a bit early?”

  “No. The weather has been exceptionally hot, and I want to have it done before this baby arrives.” Lydia spread her legs apart and patted her belly.

  “Oh,” was all Lotte managed to say.

  “I need you to sweep out the floors, clean the cobwebs and get everything ready to store the crops.”

  “I’ll get on to it right away.” Lotte dashed off to take stock of the situation in the barn. The refugees couldn’t stay there, not when the harvest began. Work would sometimes continue until late at night, and people would notice if someone had slept in the fresh hay.

  After dinner, she returned to bring Rachel the bad news. She found her in the loft, holding her sister on her lap and softly singing a lullaby to comfort the four-year-old. Lotte’s heart squeezed at the sight. That poor child. She had no idea what was happ
ening in the world and cried for her vanished mummy.

  Rachel looked up at the shuffling of Lotte’s feet and waved her forward. “Come and sit with me.”

  She looked so fragile and yet so much in control. Lotte wondered how she managed to take care of her baby sister and her two mischievous brothers the entire day, keeping them quiet and out of sight of everyone. She settled next to her and then quietly recounted the conversations with Irmhild and Lydia.

  “If Irmhild doesn’t get the papers before next week, I don’t know how we’re going to keep you hidden.”

  Rachel gave her a sad smile and shook her head. “Do not fret. We will leave and find someplace else.”

  “No!” Lotte shook her head, “I don’t want you to leave until it is safe for you to do so. You need Aryan papers to guarantee safe passage.”

  “You’ve been so generous…” Rachel’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Don’t cry, please,” Lotte begged her. “I know Irmhild will come through. Everything will be fine.”

  “Maybe,” Rachel murmured.

  Lotte squeezed her hand and then climbed back down the ladder to the ground floor. After putting the milking equipment back where it belonged, she closed the sliding doors to the barn, her mind focused on the problem of Rachel.

  “Ahhh,” she shrieked when a young man appeared out of the shadows, blocking the pathway to the main house. She pressed her hand to her stomach when she recognized who it was. “What are you doing here, Hans?”

  “Checking on you.” He smirked.

  “You’re spying on me!” Lotte racked her brain, wondering if he might have been able to overhear her talking with Rachel.

  “Are you doing something I should be spying on?” he asked with a teasing grin.

  “I was doing my evening chores. What are you doing at my aunt’s house?”

  “I was in the area and wanted to see you. You weren’t very nice to me the last time we saw each other. I thought without Uwe and Irmhild around you might be more accommodating.”

  Lotte shook her head and pushed past him, but Hans put out an arm, blocking her way and trapping her against the wall with his body. She froze, not sure whether this was one of his stupid pranks, but then he lifted a hand to her head and wrapped one of her strawberry blonde curls around his fingers.

  She turned her eyes on him, glaring daggers of fury in his direction. “Take your hands off of me!”

  “I like seeing you all riled up. Come for a walk with me,” Hans chuckled.

  “No.”

  “Lotte, come on. Be nice to me, and I’ll be nice to you.” His breath blew across the bare skin on her neck, and despite its warmth, she shuddered.

  “I need to go inside,” she insisted, trying to wriggle out of his embrace.

  “Your aunt won’t mind if she knows you’re with me. What else do you have to do? I could help you finish your chores.”

  “I’m done with my chores, leave me alone!” Lotte did her best not to panic. If she screamed, nobody would hear her, except for Rachel.

  “And if I don’t want to?” Hans edged closer to her, his body heat and his masculine odor sending ripples of fear through her body. The next moment, he dipped his head and tried to kiss her, but she turned her face away, making his lips land on her cheek.

  That’s enough!

  “Leave me alone.” Lotte was shaking with fear and fury, but somehow, she managed to raise both hands and shoved at his chest as hard as she could.

  He chuckled but retreated one step. “Come on, Lotte. I know you like me.”

  “Like you? I detest you. You’re nothing more than a coward, flaunting your stupid Nazi uniform and hiding behind your father’s coattails.”

  “You don’t mean that!” Hans’s voice had changed from teasing to menacing in an instant.

  Lotte didn’t respond but used his moment of shock to duck beneath his arm and dash for the safety of the farmhouse.

  She ran as if the devil was at her back.

  Chapter 6

  Three days later, Lotte parked her bicycle at the back of the town hall, which was already closed to the public, and rapped her knuckles on the door three times. Irmhild had called in the morning to tell her that she’d finally been able to steal the proper forms and had already sealed them.

  The door opened a crack, and Lotte slid inside, her heart hammering with excitement. She’d barely been able to wait for this moment. Inside, it was eerily quiet, as the few employees had left for the day. Irmhild motioned to follow her to the basement.

  “Why are we going downstairs?” Lotte asked, her footsteps clicking on the stone floor.

  “Because I don’t want anyone to see us through the windows,” Irmhild answered and led her into a large room with overhead lighting.

  “Oh! Good plan. So, you were able to get the papers sealed?”

  “Yes. I used pictures of my brothers and me when we were children, but now I don’t know what names to put on the papers. We can’t use their real names, right?” Irmhild giggled nervously.

  Lotte hadn’t thought about that. But now it was obvious. Rachel Epstein wouldn’t work well for an Aryan girl, and neither would the first names Israel, Aron, and Mindel. It dawned on her that there was a lot of detail she hadn’t considered before embarking on this rash plan.

  Down in the basement, Irmhild proudly showed her the identification papers she’d prepared. Giggling, they tossed around a few names until they settled for the first names of former classmates: Karin, Ingrid, Peter, and Klaus.

  “Now, we just need to find a proper last name for them.” Lotte sighed and tugged a wild strand behind her ear.

  “That’s easy. We’ll use Müller. Half of the population is called Müller, so nobody will suspect anything.” Irmhild carefully filled in the forms with the names, birth dates, and birthplaces. Then she blew on the ink and waved the paper in the air.

  “Done. Give them to me. I’ll take them to Rachel,” Lotte offered.

  “No, wait.” Irmhild held the papers out of Lotte’s reach. “The most important thing is still missing.”

  “What?” The new identifications looked surprisingly like the one Lotte carried in her bag.

  “The mayor’s signature. We have to forge it.”

  Lotte’s jaw dropped. “You can do that, right?”

  “No, but maybe if we practice, one of us can fake it.” Irmhild produced a paper with Herr Keller’s signature.

  Lotte took a pen and blank paper and looked at the mayor’s signature for a moment. Herr Keller was not only the mayor, but also the Chief of Police, Party leader, and Hans’ father. Ugghh. A queasy feeling settled in her stomach as she remembered her encounter with Hans the other night.

  Her first attempt at forging the signature was a dismal failure, as was Irmhild’s.

  “This is not going well.” Lotte looked at the signature again and tried for a heavier hand. After a dozen or more tries, she finally got the hang of it, and she held up the real signature and her fake one for Irmhild’s inspection, “What do you think?”

  “That’s it! You did it!” Irmhild clapped her hands with excitement.

  “Fine. Let’s get these identifications signed. I need to get back to the farm before my aunt starts looking for me.” When she was done, she admired her forgery work and grinned. “We’re pretty good at this secret stuff.”

  Even Irmhild seemed to have stopped worrying for a moment. She smiled. “You’re right. That’s some fine work we’ve done here. And for a good cause.”

  “If my sisters could see this, I’ll bet they would finally take me seriously.” Lotte already dreamed of fame and fortune, but Irmhild grabbed her shoulder.

  “Lotte, you can’t tell anyone about this. No one. Ever!”

  Lotte waved her concern off. “I know, I know…but imagine after the war is over. We’ll be celebrated as heroines, everyone will admire us. We’ll get invited to all the best parties.” Her imagination was working overtime, and she got up, tossed back her wild c
urls and adopted a pinup girl pose. “Can’t you just see the posters? Lotte Klausen and Irmhild Steinmetz. Female heroes of the war.”

  Irmhild giggled at her silliness and joined in, adopting a similar pose and blowing a kiss to her adoring fans. “I’ll bet all of the boys coming back from the war would want to date us.”

  “We could go to exciting places, and everyone would want our autographs. Just like film stars.” Lotte spun around in a circle, giggling in delight. Then she grabbed Irmhild’s hands, and the two of them danced around the room. “This was fun.”

  Irmhild nodded, and after several more minutes of pure silliness, the two girls picked up their mess and prepared to exit the building. Irmhild hugged Lotte as they slipped out the back door of the town hall. “Ride home safely.”

  “I will. Talk to you soon.” Lotte mounted her bicycle and pedaled fast all the way back to her aunt’s farm. She managed to get her bike stowed in the barn and then settled in to milk the cows as if nothing had happened.

  She itched to tell Rachel the good news, but nobody answered her quiet calls. Lotte tucked the fake papers inside a cubbyhole to keep them safe. Then she sauntered to the main house, smiling from ear to ear with the thrilling images of herself and Irmhild being celebrated as war heroes still fresh in her mind.

  Chapter 7

  “Aunt Lydia, I’m going to work in the barn for a while,” Lotte called to her aunt right after breakfast. It wasn’t normal for her to spend so much time in the barn, but with the harvest only days away, she knew no one would question her.

  “Fine. I’m heading into town and taking your cousins with me. We’ll be back this afternoon.”

  “See you later.” Lotte took off for the barn, hoping the Epstein children hadn’t left yet. She opened the door, pulled it shut behind her, and then smiled when she heard the sounds of Rachel’s quiet voice coming from the loft.

  Lotte retrieved the papers from their hiding spot and climbed the ladder. “Guess what I have?” She waved the papers in front of the children.