Women Of Courage: Daisies Are Forever Part 12

Kurt took no heed of her pleas. With his one strong arm, he lifted Annelies to the window. "Grab her and take her in," he shouted to the woman.

"Ach, of course. We'll take the kinder."

One plump hand and one bony hand each reached from the window and grabbed Annelies by the wrists.

"Don't take her from me." Oh G.o.d, don't take her from me. Before she could reach to pull Annelies back, the worn soles of the child's shoes disappeared from sight.

Gisela picked up Renate and pressed her against her chest. "Don't take this one. She stays with me."

But despite the fact that she clung to Renate with all of her might, Kurt tugged the child from her grasp and handed her up in the same manner. She beat his single arm, but he didn't let go.

Renate disappeared from her sight.

Annelies appeared at the window. "Aren't you coming with us, Tante Gisela? I don't want to go with these ladies."

"I'll come, I promise. They will watch you for a little while until I get onto the train." She turned to Kurt. "Lift me up. Now."

"I can't. There is no way I can lift your weight with my one arm. The kinder are smaller."

"Then bend down and let me stand on your back. Or shoulders."

The engine hissed and blew another puff of steam, then another. The couplings creaked as the wheels began to turn.

"Now. Lift me up now." Gisela couldn't catch her breath. She had to get on the train.

It chugged and chugged some more, picking up speed and momentum.

The carriage containing the girls moved away from her.

The train was leaving.

With the girls.

Without her.

TWELVE.

Mitch scanned the crowd in the train station, first to his left, then to his right. The engine belched steam. Where were they? They had to be here. Right beside him. How could he have lost Gisela and the girls? Not to mention the rest of their little band. He beat his arms against the people mashed against him. If they would just move. At last, he managed to get his arm above his head to wave it. "Gisela! Gisela!"

No return wave. No answer to his call. Sweat trickled down the side of his face.

For a moment, just a small moment, he had leaned to the side to try to gauge how far they were from the train and what the chances were they would be able to get aboard. In that split second, someone had pushed between him and Gisela and then more and more people until she was lost to him.

By the time he turned back to them, they were out of sight. Gone. All of them. In this vast train station, he couldn't locate anyone he knew.

Separated.

Again.

He couldn't swallow.

The crowd pressed in on every side, cutting off his breathing and his circulation. "Bitte, bitte." He dared to use his German.

The wiry, pimple-dotted teenage girl next to him took up his cry. "This man is a soldier. Let him through. Get him on the train."

"Nein, nein." What if they didn't get on? They needed his help. He needed theirs. Like Gisela would insist, they had to stay together. "The women and children go." He pushed a pretty young blond woman with four children ahead of him and up the steps to the compartment.

The girl was insistent. "You gave yourself to the Fatherland. You deserve to get on. You soldiers are all heroes."

Not him. He was far from heroic.

If the teen only knew. Instead, with trembling hands, he pushed her forward, onto the carriage.

Then it began to huff and puff, steam streaming from the engine. Without warning, it inched its way forward like a caterpillar. "Gisela! Gisela!" The noise of the crowd intensified, swallowing his words.

How would he ever find them? But he had to. No matter how much she infuriated him.

Had she and the girls managed to get on? Should he try to board? His heart drummed against his ribs. He couldn't leave them here alone. He couldn't let them go ahead alone.

The train chugged and moved faster. If he didn't act now, he would lose his chance. But if they weren't aboard . . .

He jogged along the train, as much as he could in this ma.s.s of people. He had to commit. Now.

"Annelies! Renate! Girls, girls, girls!"

Gisela screamed for the children, her words lost in the clicking of the train wheels against the track. Kurt had gotten lost in the crowd. How would she ever get aboard? She should have never let Kurt push them through those windows. Never.

When the train left the station, they would be lost to her forever. Two little girls, alone in the world.

And she, nothing but a failure.

She could no longer keep pace with their car. Her breathing became labored. Soon the train would pa.s.s her by.

"Nein, Lord, nein."

Then two long arms reached from the broken window of a car several removed from the girls. If she could get on the train-anywhere on board-she would have a chance at finding them.

Lord, may this man be strong. Don't let him drop me. If he did, the train would run over her. Her palms perspired.

She grasped his hands and held on for dear life.

Audra telescoped her vision and focused on the train in front of her. Her heart pounded in her throat. If she didn't think about the number of people pressing in on her, she would be fine. She had to just focus on breathing.

This was nothing like her brothers locking her in the outhouse for hours. Nothing like the dream she kept having, the one where her bedroom walls pushed in on her, strangling her.

She had to fight for air.

She pulled Bettina and Katya along with her. They hampered her forward progress. How had she gotten stuck with them, of all people? The iron giant loomed in front of her, large and menacing, yet welcoming her with open arms. She surged forward with the crowd.

Another few pushes and she stood on the edge of the platform, the steps to the compartment immediately in front of her. Here was her chance.

"Sister, we will get to ride the train. What a thrill." Bettina was always up for adventure.

"There are so many people here, Sister. Will there even be seats for us? Is this our train? It looks rather old." Katya was more lucid today.

Audra wondered herself whether there would be room on the train for them. Or would it pull away and leave her here with the Holtzmann sisters?

All Audra knew was she couldn't miss this train. It might be the last one out of Danzig. Forever. If she didn't, she would never make it big. She would be doomed to a life of poverty, like the rest of her family.

The women and children pressed hard around her. She pushed Bettina ahead of her and shoved her up the steps, then repeated the process with Katya before Audra raised her foot and set it on the metal step.

The force of the crowd squeezed them farther and farther into the car. The world began to spin and blackness closed in. She swayed and grabbed the edge of the once-plush seat, crus.h.i.+ng the velvet with her fingers.

Her knees buckled. In moments she found herself landing on a lap.

Kurt's lap, to be specific.

"Frulein Bauer, what a pleasant surprise." Very little light graced his eyes.

She studied his face, the angles of his cheekbones, the rise of his eyebrows. The world stilled even as the train lurched forward. "What are you doing here?" She slid from his lap, stood, and brushed off her coat.

"Some would call this a providential meeting."

"Would you?"

"Providential or not, we will be riding this train together for a while."

"I would say you're following me." Still dizzy, she had to catch her breath.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Some, danke. There are so many people in this car."

He moved over on the seat already overflowing with three amputees. "There is no reason you should stand."

"The Holtzmanns should be the ones to sit."

Pink suffused his face. "Of course, of course. If you feel fit enough."

If she could forget the ma.s.s of humanity around her. "I will be fine."

He rose from his seat and offered it to the women. Bettina cackled. "What a gentleman you are. G.o.d bless you, sir, for taking pity on a couple of old biddies."

Katya glared at her sister. "I most certainly am not a biddy."

"I am. And I'm not ashamed of it."

Audra chuckled until the train jerked ahead, along with her stomach. They moved forward, picking up speed. Outside the window, people screamed, frantic to get onto the train.

Light streamed into the window and she knew they had pa.s.sed from the bahnhof into the countryside. The wheels clacked against the track in a steady rhythm, one she wished her heart would copy.

Kurt had to shout above the noise of the crowd and the train even though she stood shoulder to shoulder with him. "Where are the others?"

"You don't know? They aren't in this car?"

"Nein. I shoved the girls on the train, but before I could get to Gisela, the crowd had separated us and I lost her."

"At least we know the kinder are aboard."

The train clacked along and Bettina's and Katya's excitement waned until they dozed in their seats, heads back, snoring like men.

Kurt leaned into her. He must not have been incapacitated for very long. His body was still lean and muscled. Nice.

"Josep is a good man, nein?"

Kurt's question startled her. "I don't know him well enough to say." She noticed his intense blue eyes. He was screenworthy.

"You should talk to him some. Find out what he's like."

Why would he suggest such a thing? "I could."

"You are very pretty."

"What does that have to do with Josep?"

"He has a strange accent, when he speaks at all. You should ask him where he's from. He's dark. Perhaps he's Jewish."

Audra couldn't care less about the Jews. "Why are you so interested? Are you going to turn him in?"

Kurt cleared his throat and stared out the window. "I am not. Not at all. But you should talk to him anyway."

He fell silent. What a strange man.

She swayed on her feet, in rhythm with the train.

The Holtzmann sisters stirred. "Sister, look at that." Katya pointed out the window.

Bettina squinted. "Cannes. You can smell the sea salt in the air. There is no other place I love more than the French Riviera."

In a way, Audra envied the Holtzmanns, unaware of the trouble around them. She allowed her mind to wander. Bright flashbulbs would blind her as she stepped out of her car onto the red carpet. People would shout her name and ask for her autograph. Her house would be the biggest, grandest of them all.

She would make it. She would.