Krista's Chance

by Gemma Jackson

  “Who do the ashes belong to?” Krista asked.

  “A woman destined for a pauper’s grave,” Waters said. “She agreed, while dying, to allow us to use her ashes. She just asked that we set up a bench with her name engraved on a plaque on the grounds of her local church.”

  “Could you not have paid for a resting place for the poor woman?” Perry asked.

  “I did what she asked of me.” Waters almost laughed, thinking of the feisty old woman Evans had introduced him to. “She wanted to make people in her village think about how much money she might have had when they saw the fancy bench with her name on it.” He did laugh now, surprised that he could. It was the old woman’s joke on a world that had largely ignored her.

  “If that was her wish.” Krista thought of the portrait of her great-great-grandmother hanging in pride of place in her son’s study. She would use the memory of that woman if anyone asked questions of her.

  “The industries near to your camping sites have good train service which is of vital importance if this woman is to reach you. You must stop at all four places. It is imperative. I have given the woman all four locations. It is hoped if she can’t make one, she will have a chance of joining you at another.” Waters stopped.

  “Captain, this all sounds very impractical.” Krista couldn’t imagine a woman on the run travelling across Germany. The trains were patrolled by soldiers. She would be checked frequently for her papers and reason for travelling through Germany. How would she answer?

  “Krista, Perry,” Waters stared from one to the other, “when this mission was planned we thought it would be prudent to remove the scientist from Germany but we did not feel that we were putting you in great danger. That is no longer the case.” He took a deep breath. “We doubt that the German scientist will keep our original plan to himself. Possibly he will. For his wife’s sake. But that remains to be seen.” Thank God he had never told them he was about to send a young couple in a campervan to meet them.

  “Captain, how have you been communicating with this couple?” Krista wanted to know.

  “Carrier pigeon.” He almost laughed at the surprise on both faces. “They will be an invaluable source of gathering information in the coming days. If I could, I would send a crate of the birds with you in the van!”

  “Let me see if I understand.” Perry was confused. “You want us to camp in four marked locations. We are to help an unknown female who may or may not join us to cross borders into England?”

  “That is the mission.” Captain Graham Waters knew it was a dangerous plan, but it must work – it simply must.

  “How will we know if the woman showing herself to us is really the wife of this missing scientist?” Krista asked. “We know that Nazi soldiers can extract information from unwilling people. It would be a simple matter to send a woman to us, claiming to be the scientist’s wife. We will have no way of knowing.”

  “Krista, Perry, the woman fleeing for her life through Germany is my twin sister.” Graham Waters looked at them both. “We are so much alike that it would be impossible for anyone to fool you. Gisele is my female counterpart.”

  He laid a photograph on the table.

  “Here she is.”

  “Good God!” Perry exclaimed.

  “Oh, captain!” Krista shook her head.

  Chapter 4

  “Have you ever sailed, Krista?”

  “No,” Krista replied, her eyes firmly on the road. She wanted to laugh aloud at the very idea. She’d had little opportunity for adventure growing up. The walls of the auberge de ville had been her whole world, it sometimes seemed to her. “Why do you ask?”

  “When I was being shown what was what in the campervan, it struck me as very similar to the small yachts I have sailed.” Perry too was watching the road. He was keeping an eye on his driver too. He had been assured Krista had passed her driving test with distinction but his life was now in her hands. Not a comfortable position for him to find himself in.

  “How so?” She was aware of his feet moving towards non-existent controls on the floor at his feet. He was nervous about her driving!

  “There is a place for everything,” he replied. “It is a clever little craft with everything we might need for our comfort. However, we must return everything to its place and be sure it is locked down before we move the van.”

  “You will need to teach me and remind me until it becomes automatic to me.” Krista didn’t want to make mistakes.

  “Yes.” Perry wondered if he should mention something. With his fingers crossed that she would not take offence, he said, “I noticed you left the tea-makings out on the counter that time you made us a pot of tea, the first time we saw the van.”

  “This is all new to me, Perry.” Krista was thankful one of them knew what they were about. “I will learn with your help.”

  “Are you nervous?” Perry asked after there had been silence for some miles.

  “Very much so,” Krista replied. They needed to be truthful with each other. From this moment on, they had only each other to depend on.

  “Why?”

  “I cannot like the fact that Captain Waters is so emotionally involved in the safe escape of the woman we are to meet. It is my opinion only, Perry, but did you not think he was making errors in judgement?”

  “How so?”

  “Why has he installed that chair?” She answered his question with her own, pointing to the wheelchair.

  “He wishes me to exaggerate my infirmity.” Perry had been in intensive French and German language lessons for this journey. He had also been receiving lessons in what the boffins were calling spy craft. He had been trained to take notice of everything around him, no matter how seemingly innocent. “It is believed that my infirmity will assure any officials who might question us of my …” he stopped for a moment to think of how to phrase it, “uselessness,” he finally said with slight bitterness.

  “It is a mistake.” Krista was frowning as she watched for the turn-off the captain had told them about. They were to camp in a farmer’s field. With that man’s permission. She thought it fortunate that they were to stop in an area that appeared deserted. It would give them a chance to discuss their mission. And she was nervous about this first night together. It was important that they set up rules and find a way to live together in such close quarters.

  Soon the van was rattling over tractor tracks in the muck of the laneway she turned into.

  “This is it.” Perry’s voice came out shakily as they came to a gate in a long white fence, leading into an empty green field.

  She stopped the van and he stepped out, slamming the door behind him. “I’ll close the gate after you,” he said, speaking to her through the open window. “I suggest you park the van near that stream over there.” He gave the side of the van a brief pat before going to open the gate.

  Krista pushed herself up in the driver’s seat, looking for the stream he’d mentioned. She saw it. She was biting her lip in concentration as she drove the van through the gate and over the field in its direction. She pulled up in what she considered a good spot and, with a sigh of relief, turned off the engine.

  “Well done!”

  Perry’s voice caused her to jump. She hadn’t been aware of him approaching.

  “Let’s get ourselves organised. We can have a cup of tea in the fresh air.”

  “Fresh air?” Krista questioned, stepping out of the van. “That wind would skin you.”

  “Serves you right for dressing as if you were going on a cruise!” He laughed at her shivers.

  “What is wrong with what I’m wearing?” Krista held her hands away from her body. “This is the sort of outfit Captain Waters demanded.”

  “It would be wonderful if we were strolling along the deck of a cruise liner!” Perry opened the door into the shell of the campervan. “Go on, make us a pot of tea – I’ll join you in a moment.”

  Krista took the spirit stove and stand out and put them on the counter that divided the t
op and bottom of the fitted cupboard.

  “In the name of God!” came in loud tones from outside while the van shook.

  She looked towards the door, wondering what was happening. Did he need help? She would busy herself with making tea and wait until he asked.

  “Is all of that Louis Vuitton luggage stuffed into storage belonging to you?” Perry demanded in tones of shock.

  “Who else would it belong to?” Krista snapped. After all, she was just doing what she was told.

  “Thank you, Mother!” Perry, carrying two haversacks, raised his eyes to heaven as he stepped up into the van.

  “Thank her for what? What has your mother to do with anything?”

  “To do with anything?” Perry laughed out loud. “Imagine my amazement,” he said as he dropped one of the haversacks on the floor, the other on the bench under the window, “when one of my instructors in covert operations turned out to be my own dear mother!” He had almost fallen out of his chair when she walked into the classroom and up to the lecturer’s table. The woman who had kissed his hurts and held his hand through childhood – an expert in covert operations – it was a ground-shaking discovery for her son.

  “You didn’t know?” Krista didn’t know why she was so surprised. After all, it seemed every day since she had arrived in England she discovered something she hadn’t known about herself. Why should Perry be any different?

  “I didn’t have a clue.” Perhaps he should have had when his father briefly mentioned his mother’s brilliance. But what son could think of his own mother as a femme fatale?

  “So what are you thanking her for?” Krista busied herself with making tea, waiting to hear what expert advice his mother had shared with him.

  “Mother was of the opinion that a man should never be put in charge of a lady’s wardrobe.” Perry played with the ties on one of the haversacks. “Under any circumstances.”

  “Yes?” she prompted while moving a haversack and getting the table out.

  “The clothes you are wearing, Krista, while delightful, are not suitable for camping in muddy fields.”

  “You are wearing a suit.” A very expensive suit if she were any judge.

  “Yes, I am, and I am about to change out of it and put it into storage for the duration of our journey.”

  “Oh, I see.” She put mugs on the table with a glass bottle of milk she’d found in the cool box. This was no place for fine dining. She knew Perry like herself did not take sugar in his tea.

  “Mother got your measurements from Captain Waters.” Perry pointed to the haversack on the floor. “In there you will find oiled twill trousers, a mariner’s jumper with leather elbows and an oiled soft hat to protect your face and hair. It also contains wellington boots and an oiled trench coat.”

  “What? After all the fuss that has been made about getting my wardrobe right? All the instructions delivered to Lia? All my dressing up and parading around? Now it turns out to be a waste of time?” Krista stood, hands on hips, furious.

  “Calm down! Your fancy clothes may need to be aired yet – just not in a muddy field!”

  Krista turned the driver’s seat around and locked it into place then picked up her mug and sat down. She began to sip her tea, glad of the warmth.

  “It is fortunate Captain Waters ordered us to camp here tonight,” she said at last “We will have a chance to talk and exchange ideas and concerns.”

  “Yes, indeed.” Perry sipped his tea, looking around at the space which suddenly seemed so much smaller to him. “We will be travelling in very intimate circumstances. The campervan does have a pull-out attachment outside which can be used for sleeping or dining but,” he held up his hand when she looked to be about to speak, “we are into the month of November. It will be no weather for sleeping outside. In any case, we are supposed to be newlyweds so must give the impression of sleeping together. We will have to arrange ourselves as best we can inside the van at night.”

  “We will probably be glad to share body heat – I mean, of course, to share the same air.” Krista tried not to blush. “The van is quite chilly.”

  “We do have a log fire,” Perry said. “We will have to be sure to have logs and firing to hand when we travel.”

  The two sat for a while enjoying the pot of tea and thinking about the problems ahead.

  “Krista,” Perry said suddenly. “You never did tell me why you were so concerned at the introduction of the wheelchair into the van.”

  “I think it would be a grave error to present yourself as someone who has difficulties in getting around.” She shivered as memory bit.

  “You have a reason for saying that,” Perry said. “From the look on your face it is far more than a woman’s intuition.”

  Krista hesitated. She had to be careful in what she said. Perry had no idea she had grown up as the child of auberge owners, that she had worked in the family bar/café/tabac almost from the time she could toddle. She had no wish for a man she was going to travel in close confines with to suddenly think of her as a serving wench! “I am remembering conversations I overheard while living in France.” She thought for a moment how best to explain her concerns. “I don’t know quite how to explain. I overheard a great many things I did not understand. Conversations between men that meant next to nothing to me at the time.” She shrugged. “Since I arrived in England, I have been giving some consideration to those titbits of conversation. They now make more sense to me.”

  “And?” Perry prompted.

  “In Germany today . . .” She jumped to her feet, wanting to pace but unable because of the small space. She gave a hastily suppressed groan of exasperation and sat back down. “Listen, I simply believe the last thing in the world you want to do is present yourself as handicapped in any way.” She gulped air for a moment.

  “Explain.” It had been suggested to him that he exaggerate his injury and conceal his own physical fitness and capabilities. It was thought that a man with one leg impaired would not be considered a worry or a worthy opponent in any difficult situations that might arise.

  “Not to put too fine a point on it,” Krista was having difficulty even saying the words, “the men I overheard in conversation discussed the idea current in Germany of eliminating anyone who is not a perfect physical or mental specimen.”

  “Strange, I had heard something similar.” Perry wanted to kick his own backside. Why had he not considered that he might be putting himself and Krista into a great deal of danger by playing such a role. What had any of them been thinking of? Perhaps it was simply because the thought of killing people who were not perfect was against everything a civilised people believed in?

  “I think, Perry,” Krista said slowly, “that from this point forward we should plan our own movements. We will, of course, gather as much information as we can. We will make every effort to meet up with the captain’s sister … but Perry …” She paused to stare into his eyes. “We are on our own. We only have each other to count on. We must work as a team. If one of us has concerns, there can be no keeping them to oneself. We must discuss everything we think and do – together. Do you agree?”

  “I agree.” Perry nodded. “We will make every effort to work as a team and give our all to completing this mission and returning home.”

  They each reached out without thought and shook hands on the matter with slightly shamefaced smiles.

  “Now,” Perry slapped the top of the table, “if you will tidy away our equipment, I will change my clothing before stepping outside to use the bushes to relieve my needs. You may use the bathroom in the van.”

  “Where will you change?” Krista looked around the small space.

  “We will start as we mean to go on with an honour system in place.” Perry removed his suit jacket and hung it in the wardrobe alongside Krista’s coat. “I will not look in your direction while you change. You will give me the same courtesy. Does that suit?” He was removing his shirt as he spoke.

  “I believe I would prefer to sit with my e
yes covered until you are finished.” Krista sat in the driver’s seat and covered her eyes with both hands.

  “As you please.” Perry opened his haversack and hunted out the outfit he planned to wear most frequently on their travels. He laughed softly to see Krista sitting with her hands almost clamped over her eyes as he continued to undress.

  It seemed to Krista that many minutes has passed before she heard his voice again.

  “You can look now.” She heard him open the van door. “I shan’t be long,” He stepped outside laughing.

  “Oh, dear Lord!” How on earth were they going to manage to live at close quarters like this?

  She jumped to her feet and with haste restored order to the van, folding the table away. She almost ran into the tiny bathroom. There was a sort of toilet stand but it opened down directly onto the grass below. Heaven help her.

  She was just stepping out of the bathroom when Perry returned.

  “You should change. But now that the table is out of the way I can show you this. There is a concealing curtain that pulls along over the driver and passenger seats and allows us some small privacy. It is supposed to be used for sleeping but we can also use it while one of us washes and dresses.”

  “Fine.” Krista was thankful for small mercies.

  Perry withdrew behind the curtain.

  Krista bent to open the haversack. “Oh – what is this?” She had pulled a strange-looking garment from the top of the haversack Perry’s mother had prepared for her.

  “May I look?” Perry’s voice came from behind the curtain he had pulled across.

  “You will have to!” Krista snapped. “I have no idea what this is.” She shook the garment she held as soon as his head appeared around the curtain.

  “You are holding the bottom half of the garments you will wear under your clothing.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  He laughed – the dog!

  “There are several pairs of gents’ undergarments included with the clothing my mother thought we both would need on this journey.” Perry pulled the curtain back and stood up. It was obvious she was not going to dress until he explained further.