Page 46 of Winter's End
Another silence. “Then explain to me what in the name of God you were doing near the Cinema when Klaus so propitiously found you.”
Her father rarely invoked a Creator. Mila raised her chin. “I was – merely passing by, Father. I was walking home. I was on my way.”
“On your way home. What about your alleged bridge game?”
“My friends had given up and gone by the time I arrived.” She hoped the heat in her face did not show. “I was late, as you know, as I had stayed home for dinner, and so I left and was walking home alone.”
Her father looked at her through narrowed eyes. “Are you telling me you know nothing about the blast that took so many German lives?”
Mila stood her ground. “I was near the Cinema, and everything went black, and all I remember is the aftermath,” she said, grateful for the shred of truth. “The blast must have knocked me off my feet.”
She jumped nearly out of her chair as his fist smacked the top of his desk.
“Mila, do you have any idea how fortunate you were that it was theObersturmfurherwho found you? Do you have any awareness of what might have happened had you been found by a less friendly Reich officer?”
Mila blinked.
He pounded the desk again. “Do you?”
“I think so, Father.Ja,it was fortunate that it was he who found me and that he understood my innocence.”
He took a moment. But his voice, when he spoke, held menace. “Swear to me, Mila,” her father said slowly, “that you were in no way involved with what occurred last night at the Cinema…”
“Why would you ask that?” She skirted the question.
“I did not hear an answer.”
She tamped down her dread, raised her chin. “Why do you ask such a question?”
“Because, Mila,” his voice was steely. “I suspect that your actions not only betray me, but that your sympathies lie with the Resistance.”
It took every ounce of calm she could muster. She met her father’s gaze.
“No more so, Father, then you betray our country when you collaborate with the Nazis who are strangling us.”
EVI
There was a flurry of snow on the day before the New Year. Evi let herself out of the barge and let a few flakes melt on her tongue, then shivered, pulled her sweater close around her and let herself back in.
She paced the small cabin, filled with nervous energy. The news from the front was not encouraging. School was closed for the holiday recess, and who knew if it would open again?
She had heard nothing from Mila, and she was eager to know if there would be another rendezvous at a beer tavern. Another German dead would suit her just fine, especially if she could shoot him herself.
She closed her eyes and pictured the scene – the drunken Nazi, reaching for his zipper, then panic on his miserable face at the sight of Evi’s drawn pistol.
“I could do it. I know I could,” she whispered to herself. All she needed was some proper training – and a firearm.
She sat for a moment at the kitchen table, looked out over grey river meeting grey sky at a barely discernible horizon.
She knew where Zoe lived, the little flat she had been to with Mam to deliver an armchair one day. Zoe worked with Daan Mulder, and Daan was one of the Resistance leaders.He surely can arrange for shooting lessons.
The snow had stopped. There were hours of daylight before curfew. Mam was working a shift at the pharmacy. Evi had no way to know if Zoe was at home, but the timing was perfect if she was.
...
Her nose was frozen and her fingers tingled in her woolen gloves by the time she rapped on Zoe’s door.
A long moment. “Who is there?”
