Hitler's Angel

by William Osborne

  “Will you help me?” she asked the girl.

  Angelika stared at Leni uncertainly, then glanced down at her tormentor on the stone floor. She scrambled off the bed.

  “What do you want me to do?” she said.

  “Lift her feet for me, please.”

  The girl hesitated, then lifted Sister Margareta's feet off the ground. Leni quickly tied the nun's ankles together, removed the pad from the nun's mouth and rolled her over so she was lying on her stomach. She pulled her arms behind her back and tied them together, too. Then she and Angelika rolled her on to her back again, and Leni fashioned a gag with a strip of sheet.

  Angelika watched Leni work. “We're in a lot of trouble,” she said.

  “No, it's going to be all right,” soothed Leni. “Help me get her into the bed, Angelika.”

  With a supreme effort they managed to heave the nun off the ground, with Leni at the shoulders and Angelika at the feet, and half-dragged, half-lifted her on to the bed. Leni pulled the blanket up over her head.

  “You're strong,” she said, and saw the girl smile in the darkness.

  “Who are you?” Angelika asked.

  “My name is Leni. Leni Fischer.”

  “Oh,” said Angelika, then seemed to realise it was a silly question. “What are you doing here?” That was a better one.

  Leni climbed up on to the table, then leant forward and opened the window. It was a good twenty metres down. She hoped she had enough rope. She looked back at the girl staring up at her from the floor.

  “What's it look like? I've come to rescue you.”

  “Rescue me?”

  Leni made a loop at one end of the rope and then carefully placed it over the iron handle of the window's lock. She played out the rest of the rope to the ground below, and gave a tug on the loop to check it was secure.

  “That's right. Well, not exactly rescue you, but get you away from here. Get you to Switzerland.”

  “Why?” said Angelika. She sounded very confused, as well she might.

  “Well . . .” Leni didn't want to get bogged down with explanations. Any moment now, the door could open and they'd be captured. The consequences of that didn't bear thinking about. “Look, please trust me. It's for your own good, I promise.”

  The girl was frowning now. Leni felt a terrible panic rising in her chest.

  “I know this is all strange and a shock, but I'm really here to help you. Please say you'll come with me.”

  The seconds were turning into minutes and time was running out. Leni tried to keep her voice level.

  “I promise I'll explain everything more clearly, but right now we need to go.”

  Angelika finally reacted to the urgency in Leni's voice and glanced towards the door, clearly thinking about angry nuns.

  “Now. We have a boat waiting.”

  Leni could see the girl was struggling to make a decision. She weighed the anaesthetic-soaked pad she was still holding in her hand. Any more delay and she'd be forced to drug the girl and try to lower her down on the rope. That would be a nightmare.

  Angelika looked at Leni, then at Sister Margareta lying in the bed, and finally at the stone floor, the bare walls. “I don't want to stay here. I hate it,” she said simply.

  “Then take my hand, Angelika, take it now.”

  Angelika reached out and Leni pulled her up on to the table. Angelika grasped the rope.

  “You think you can climb down?”

  Angelika swung her legs out over the window ledge. “Climbing trees is all I get to do around here. It got me three days in detention last month,” she said, and with that she dropped out of the window. Leni looked at the pad in her hand, hesitated for a moment, then moved swiftly back to the nun. She pulled the blanket back from her face and placed the pad over the nun's nose and mouth. It would definitely keep her out till the morning. She ran back to the window.

  Outside, at the bottom, Angelika was waiting for Leni as she dropped the last few feet to the ground. She grabbed the home-made rope and flicked it, setting off a rolling motion that travelled upwards. After a minute or so, she felt the rope free itself of the window catch and fall into a pile beside her. She scooped it up, looping it into a coil and swinging it over her head. All set.

  “I bet you know this place like the back of your hand?” she said to the girl.

  Angelika smiled at her in the moonlight. “Specially at night,” she whispered back. “When I'm thirsty.”

  “But you didn't drink that milk,” Leni said.

  “No, not this time,” said Angelika, then she frowned. “But how do you know?”

  “Because I did!” said Leni.

  Angelika's smile became even wider then, and she grasped Leni's hand.

  CHAPTER 18

  20 JUNE 1941 - DAY TWO

  As soon as Otto saw the torch beam flash three times he felt he could breathe again. Leni had done it. She'd got Angelika and she was on her way to the jetty. He responded with four flashes and almost immediately received two in return. That was the sequence they had agreed over their supper. If someone had got her, she would have flashed four times and Otto didn't really know what he would have done. Made a run for it or tried to rescue her? He liked to think he'd have tried to rescue her, but . . . Well, he didn't need to think about that now. It was just after midnight, according to the convent's clock and his own watch. They were ahead of schedule.

  Five minutes later he made out Leni and the figure of a young girl hurrying down the jetty, their feet thrumming on the wooden boards. He made his way quickly to the stern of the boat. They were puffing hard, but they were there. That was all that mattered.

  “We ran the whole way,” Leni said, gasping for breath.

  He felt her shaking as he helped her climb aboard. Then he held out his hand to the younger girl as she stepped down into the boat. So this was the child. She was smaller than he had imagined, her brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. She looked like a typical Bavarian country girl. Why was she so important? He put the question to the back of his mind. As far as he was concerned, he had a job to do. And the job was to deliver this girl to MacPherson in Switzerland pronto.

  “I'm Otto, by the way,” he said.

  “Angelika. Pleased to meet you.” She gave a little curtsey.

  He laughed. He supposed she'd been taught to greet people like that by the nuns. “And me you,” he said, bowing formally. “Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable on our luxury yacht.” He grinned at her, then glanced back at Leni. “I was getting worried,” he whispered. “You've been gone a long time. Did it go all right?”

  Leni nodded, catching her breath. “Yes . . . sort of . . . mostly.” She peeled off her pack and dropped it on the deck.

  “She knocked out Sister Margareta,” Angelika said breathlessly, glancing at Leni with something like admiration.

  “What?” said Otto.

  “I know!” replied Angelika. “Can you believe it?”

  “It's nothing . . .” Leni's breathing was still ragged.

  “She tied her up and stuffed her in the bed.” Angelika giggled nervously. “It was . . .” she searched for the right word, “. . . spectacular!”

  “Sounds like it,” muttered Otto.

  “Can we just get out of here?” said Leni.

  Otto nodded and untied the stern rope.

  The boat floated free of its mooring. Otto wasn't sure which way the current in the lake would take them, but, as luck would have it, they started to drift north, away from the buildings. They all sat quietly for a few minutes until he could see the outline of the convent bell-tower against the night sky and judged they were a few hundred metres from the island. Then he turned the skeleton key in the ignition, listened for a moment to the fuel pumps whirring, and stabbed his thumb down on the starter button. The engines turned and fired. The sound was like a gunshot in the silence of the night, but it would be fainter by the time it reached the convent.

  He threw the throttle lever forward and the launch p
ulled away from the island, heading out across the lake towards Stock. The bow sliced through the water, its blue hull gleaming darkly, a thick white wake opening up behind them.

  Leni leant forward and pulled the bed-sheet rope she had slung across her chest over her head. She stood up, got her balance, and flung it overboard. Then she sat back down and put her arm around Angelika in the well of the cabin. An occasional tuft of spray caught their faces.

  “Are you feeling all right?” Leni asked the girl.

  Angelika looked up at Leni and smiled. “I think so,” she said. She squeezed Leni's hand. “I feel like I'm in a dream.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Leni.

  Otto prayed it wouldn't turn into a nightmare. He dropped the engines to a low idle a few hundred metres from the main jetty and aimed for a large paddle steamer moored there. When he was fifty metres away he cut the engines completely, letting the boat drift in. It bounced gently on the steamer's cork fenders. He couldn't believe it. He'd finally managed a good landing. If only the manor's instructor could have seen it!

  He let the girls climb off, then jumped on to the jetty and released the rope. What they needed now was for the current to hide their trail by catching the boat and taking it out on to the water.

  There were still a good few hours of darkness left and the village was deserted. They made their way to the small stone church Otto had spotted the day before. It was the only building that would definitely be unlocked and empty at this time of night.

  Once inside, Otto led them to the vestry at the side of the altar and they crowded into the little room. He slid the bolt shut on the door, then struck a match and lit the wall lantern. Leni stripped off her novice's habit and indicated for Angelika to follow suit.

  “What are you doing?” Angelika asked, as Otto rummaged through one of the packs before retrieving some smaller clothes.

  “These are for you, they should fit fine,” he said.

  Leni started to help Angelika dress. As she was only nine she would be wearing the summer uniform of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the League of German Girls.

  Otto stepped across to her with a tube of what looked like oil paint. “We also need to dye our hair a different colour, Angelika.”

  “Why?” Angelika frowned.

  “It'll help us get to Switzerland faster, that's all. Stand still, please.” He squirted a dollop out of the tube and started to rub it into her hair. Leni finished buttoning her dress and took over from Otto. He squeezed some of the paste into his own hair.

  “Is it like a disguise or something?” asked Angelika. “Like dressing up?”

  “That's right,” said Leni. “We're going to pretend to be a family, travelling across Bavaria together.”

  “A family?” Angelika stared at them. “You mean, like you're my brother and sister?”

  “Yes, your big brother and sister,” said Otto, adding, “so we all need to look the same. If that's all right with you.”

  Angelika frowned. “But what's our name?”

  “We're the Fischers from Salzburg. We'll tell you all about us as soon as we're on the road.”

  Leni finished rubbing the dye into Angelika's hair and quickly started on her own.

  “I've always wanted a brother and sister.”

  “Well, now you've got them.”

  They waited twenty long minutes for the hair dye to act, then rinsed their hair under the tap as best they could. The water was freezing and Leni yelped with shock. She rubbed Angelika's hair dry with her novice's robe, then did the same to her own before using a comb on them both. Otto combed his hair with his fingers. The three of them were now blond. Standing together in their uniforms they looked like poster children for the Third Reich.

  Leni's voice was quiet but there was no mistaking the anger in it. “I hate these stupid clothes.”

  “Me too.” Otto touched her arm. “But let's try not to think about it.” He handed Angelika a child's pair of tortoiseshell spectacles. “There's only clear glass in them.”

  Angelika took them tentatively from him and slipped them on. She blinked owlishly through them. “I love them! The nuns in the library wear glasses. Do I look like a librarian?”

  Leni smiled approvingly. The transformation was remarkable.

  “No one will recognise you now, little sister,” she said.

  Angelika frowned again. It was a lot for her to take in, but she was coping with it remarkably well so far. “Why shouldn't people recognise me? Is someone going to look for us?” she asked.

  “The nuns. Just the nuns,” said Leni, hurriedly.

  “Let's get moving, shall we? The sooner we go, the sooner we'll be in Switzerland.” Otto was anxious now not to make her any more apprehensive. He took a step towards her.

  She stepped away from him. “But what's in Switzerland? Why are we going there, really?” Angelika stuck out her jaw. Now that they were away from the convent, and she was in a new place with new people, she seemed to be realising just what she'd done.

  Leni shot a look at Otto. He nodded: they had to tell her something. Now was the time to give her MacPherson's story.

  Leni took the girl's hand. “Because your parents are in Switzerland, Angelika.”

  The girl's eyes widened. “My parents? But . . . that's not possible! I don't know anything about my parents . . .”

  Leni put her other arm around her. “Well, we're here to help you get to them. You're a very special child and the people who've been keeping you in that place didn't want you to know the truth.”

  “But why?” the girl asked. She was starting to look confused, and, worse, her eyes were filling with tears.

  “We don't know,” said Otto. “Our job is to get you across the border in the next twenty-four hours before they realise what's happened and try to recapture you.”

  “Recapture me?”

  Otto saw she was really alarmed now. He cursed his choice of words.

  “Not recapture you, as such. But the nuns will be worried, quite naturally. They'll want to find you, make sure you're safe.” He smiled as reassuringly as possible.

  “I'm sorry. I know it's all a terrible shock,” Leni added.

  The three of them stood in silence. Leni bent down and tied Angelika's shoelaces tight with a double bow. Then she stood up and put her hands on the little girl's shoulders.

  “How long have you been on that island?” she asked.

  “Four years, three hundred and sixty-two days, and about thirty minutes. I was five when I arrived. And this Monday,” she added with a touch of pride, “it's my birthday. I'm going to be ten.”

  Admiral MacPherson hadn't told them she was expecting her birthday. Perhaps it wasn't relevant, thought Otto. But he wondered now what else had been kept from them.

  “Well, you'll be able to have the most wonderful party with your parents, won't you?” said Leni brightly.

  “Do you think so?” Angelika said, anxiously. “I've never met them. No one ever told me a thing about them.”

  “We're sure of it, aren't we, Otto?” Leni and Angelika both looked at him.

  Otto nodded as sincerely as he could. But all he knew for certain at that moment was that they should be getting away from this village as fast as they could. There was still no light in the sky but dawn would be here soon enough.

  “But look,” Leni said, “if you really don't want to come with us, it's fine.”

  Otto stared at Leni. What was she playing at?

  “We'll drop you at the dock,” Leni went on, “and you can explain everything to the Mother Superior in the morning.”

  “Leni, what—” Otto began.

  “But if you choose to come with us now, we promise to do everything in our power to keep you safe and get you to Switzerland.”

  “And my parents are really there?” Angelika looked at Leni. “I could find out who they are?” The hope in her eyes was almost painful to see.

  Otto wondered what Leni would say. Was she capable of telling this y
oung girl such an awful lie?

  “Yes,” said Leni, firmly, but she flinched slightly as she said it.

  The church clock suddenly struck the hour, making them all jump. It seemed to jar the girl into making a decision.

  “I'm sorry,” said Angelika. “I am grateful that you've helped me get out of that place. Honestly, I am. It's just . . .” She hesitated. “I'll come with you.”

  Leni leant forward and hugged her.

  Otto quickly collected up all the evidence that they'd been there and dropped everything on to Leni and Angelika's discarded robes. Then he rolled them up and tied them into a ball.

  “What are you going to do with that?” asked Leni.

  “We'll drop it in a ditch on the way.” He took a quick look round to make sure he hadn't missed anything. “Ready?”

  The three bicycles were still where they had hidden them under a tarpaulin at the back of the boat yard.

  “It's a couple of hours to Rosenheim,” Otto said, wheeling his bike out towards the street. He glanced back. Angelika was standing still, holding the bike by the handlebars. “What's the matter, Angelika?”

  The girl's eyes finally filled with tears. “I don't know how to ride this,” she said.

  Leni and Otto looked at each other in horror. They hadn't thought of this. They'd assumed every child could ride a bike.

  “I asked the nuns once,” Angelika went on, “but the Mother Superior refused. She said she didn't want me to injure myself in any way. She was always saying that, making sure I didn't do anything fun, like running and jumping and climbing.”

  Otto walked back to her. “It's all right, you can sit on the back of mine.” His was an adult bike with a strong steel pannier over the back wheel. He helped Angelika on, then pushed the bike on to the street. It would slow them down. But he could only hope it wouldn't slow them too much.

  He kicked up the pedal and placed his foot on it, a sudden sense of urgency gripping him.