‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself!’ A woman Jack didn’t know pushed herself in front of him, coming within a hair’s breadth of him. Under normal circumstances he would have been quick to show his authority, but tempers were rising. Jack simply stood his ground, as passive as possible, but the woman stepped closer to him. He could feel the tension radiating off her body like an approaching thunderstorm. She was close to spitting in his face. Even as a policeman he had never experienced such an open expression of anger. It wasn’t the first time he had heard those sentiments in the last few days, but it hurt more for some reason. The crowd had pressed in between Jack and David and he was on his own. He stood up tall, the woman shaking with anger in front of him.
‘Please step back,’ he said, close to losing his patience. He didn’t want to be there any more than she wanted him there, but he didn’t have much of a choice.
‘Whose side are you on anyway?’ she replied, raising her voice so that everyone around could hear. The crowd stared at him, no doubt wondering what he was going to do.
‘I’m on no one’s side, madam,’ he said, speaking low so that those prying couldn’t hear. It was a standard police response, but on this occasion it didn’t seem right. He was on a side, but he wasn’t sure which it was.
‘Don’t madam me,’ she continued, just as loud as before. ‘I suppose you’re just going to let them march all over the island and take what they want. Aren’t you supposed to be upholding the law? Or do you just do what they want now?’
Jack took a deep breath and put his arms out, trying to guide the woman away from the crowd. She scowled at him and took a step backwards.
‘They’re not breaking any laws,’ he said, feeling pathetic. ‘There’s really nothing I can do, no matter how much I want to.’
The woman stopped and looked up at him again. She sighed, as if she was taking his words for an admission. They probably were, but he hadn’t meant them to be. ‘One of these days, you’ll have to pick a side,’ she said, before tutting loudly and pushing her way back into the crowd, leaving Jack standing on his own in the middle of the road between the Germans and his fellow Islanders.
Chapter 7
7 July 1940
‘Oh, William. Have you got that money you owe me?’ David asked as he and Jack were leaving the police station to go on duty. He spoke quietly so that his words could not be made out by the policemen in the room next door, separated only by a thin wall. Jack frowned a warning.
‘I thought I’d paid you back?’ William grumbled from behind the desk, leaning on the counter and looking up from the newspaper he was reading. When David didn’t move, he sighed and folded the paper. ‘Give me a second, will you?’
Jack raised an eyebrow, but David simply shrugged, the epaulettes on his shoulders bobbing with the movement. Strictly speaking they weren’t supposed to borrow money from each other, particularly from a senior officer. It was one of the chief’s many codes of conduct, and David knew that. It was a risk speaking about it in the police station itself, but apparently David was not concerned. He smiled at Jack just as William returned.
He sat down heavily at the desk and let out a sigh. ‘Can you wait for it, David? You know I’m good for it.’
‘What’s the problem? Spent it all again?’ David was smiling, joking, but William didn’t seem to notice.
‘It’s this blasted money.’ He put a few of the new German coins on the desk, turning them over trying to see what they were. He reached for his glasses that hung around his neck, perching them on his wide nose before going in for another look. ‘What am I supposed to do with it? I don’t understand. Why couldn’t we just keep what we had?’
‘Pounds and shillings are the property of the British crown, William. In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re not in charge anymore.’ He attempted a smile, but William just scowled at him.
‘It’s a pain in the backside, that’s what it is. If they wanted to keep us onside, the least they could do is keep things the same.’
Jack laughed. ‘Maybe you should be the attorney general,’ he said. ‘Tell him to sort it out. Ask him for a loan while you’re at it.’
David snorted, but William just collected up his coins with a glare and placed them in his trouser pocket.
‘As if they’d ever listen. I’m just a bumbling old man. Not like you, young men, the vision of the future.’ He jabbed a finger into Jack’s chest. William was only a few years older than Jack, but he acted like a man of more advanced years. As for the future, who knew what it held? It was better to take each day as it came. ‘Speaking of the future, hadn’t you two best be off on duty? Don’t make me a party to your laziness.’
‘Hey—’ David started, but Jack stopped him with a hand on his arm.
‘We should be on our way. Good morning, William.’
*
‘William’s right,’ David spoke up when they were along by the Weighbridge, away from the police station. Apparently he had been thinking about it since they left. ‘It’s the blasted clock changes.’
He waved vaguely in the direction of the town hall clock. ‘If British Summer Time wasn’t bad enough already, they have to go and change it again. Now we’ve got nippy mornings, and it doesn’t get warm until the afternoon.’
Jack nodded absent-mindedly. He looked up at the clock tower at the end of the street. The time was wrong anyway, stuck at a few minutes to seven. It hadn’t moved an inch since the Germans had bombed the harbour and its mechanism had been damaged. He didn’t know how long it would stay like that, but he didn’t think anyone was in a hurry to fix it.
‘There are always rules we have to obey,’ Jack said.
‘Oh, I get that there need to be rules. I just don’t see why we need to have the same time as Berlin. It’s miles away, and it’s not like their great Führer is going to visit and they’re worried he might lose track of time.’
‘Shhhh,’ Jack said, putting a finger to his lips.
‘Tish, Jack. What are they going to do to me? Half of them don’t understand English, and the rest wouldn’t demean themselves listening to the likes of me. Unless, you’re going to report me?’ He flashed a grin, but Jack sensed something there, a wariness that David wasn’t quite ready to discuss.
‘Not unless you do something really stupid. I’m just telling you to be careful. They’ve only been here five minutes, and we don’t yet know how they’re going to treat us. We have to be careful.’
David stayed silent for a long moment. ‘You see,’ he said, eventually. ‘That’s your problem … you’re too cautious.’
Jack opened his mouth to object, but David talked over him.
‘You’re never going to get what you want, if you’re always too cautious. Sometimes you have to fight for something; sometimes you have to just do it and worry about the consequences later.’
‘If only it were that easy.’
‘It can be, if you want it to be.’
‘We’re policemen, we can’t just do what we want. As the chief inspector says, we have a duty to the island.’
‘What does the old man know about our island? He’s English, almost as foreign as the Germans.’
Jack stared at him for a minute, waiting for the penny to drop. After a few seconds David’s eyes widened and he took a step forward. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘That’s not what I meant. Sorry! I don’t think of you as a foreigner. Anyway, it’s just a job like any other.’
‘It’s more than just a job. I’ve got my family to think about – so do you. Without our jobs they’ll starve.’
‘I get that, but maybe sometimes there’s more to life than a job. You’ll know what I mean when it comes to it.’ He looked at his wristwatch and placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder. ‘We can always find other work, but I don’t want to argue with you. We need to stick together. We’d best be getting on. These streets aren’t going to walk themselves.’
Jack nodded, uncertain of himself. If David thought it would be easy to find other work, he
was more naive than Jack thought. If they defied the Germans they would lose more than just their jobs. If someone had overheard what they were saying, they could easily get in trouble, not just with the inspector, but the German army. David turned and walked back the way he had come, and Jack fell in a moment later. The island may be occupied, but the Guernsey Police still had a job to do.
*
There was a furious knocking at the door. Three bangs, every few seconds. Jack hadn’t been expecting a visitor, but he jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes. What if the Germans had discovered Johanna’s presence on the island? As he stepped down the stairs, he noticed his mother standing by the bottom banister staring at the front door. She looked up at him, her eyes wide.
‘It’s okay,’ he said quietly as he reached the bottom step and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’ll see who it is and send them away. Go back to the living room and I’ll be there in a minute.’
Her head bobbed in a shallow nod, and she disappeared into the house. Jack took a deep breath and wrenched open the front door as the next knock was about to fall. The door creaked on its hinges and a figure almost fell on him, with a raised fist, but caught themselves before they crossed the threshold.
‘Nicholas?’ Jack said. Nicholas had a large frame and thick, curly ginger hair. The fluffy growths of a beard were breaking out on his chin, irregular and patchy, as if he was trying to look older but failing spectacularly. By comparison, Jack’s own beard grew thick and black if he didn’t shave it off regularly for work.
‘Jack,’ Nicholas replied, breathing heavily as he leant on the doorframe for support. His face was flushed as if he had been running for miles, but then his pale skin always made him look flushed. ‘You’d better come quick.’
He turned to leave, but Jack caught hold of his arm. It was thick and Jack’s hand barely encompassed his whole bicep. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked. Nicholas had been in the same school as Jack, but a couple of years behind him. He only lived at the other end of their road. Jack could tell this was something serious.
‘I don’t have time to explain. Just come. Quick. Please.’ He shook off Jack’s arm and Jack only hesitated for a moment. He grabbed his long coat from the hook by the door and threw it around his shoulders, before stepping back towards the living room.
‘Nicholas needs my help,’ he called for his mother’s benefit. Her moods grew worse every time he left, more so if he didn’t tell her. ‘I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back soon.’
With that he closed the door and followed Nicholas down the road. The younger man, only just out of his teens, walked slightly ahead of Jack, urging him on, and every time Jack tried to match his stride, he pulled ahead again.
‘They’re trying to take our house, Jack,’ he said over his shoulder.
‘Who?’
‘The Germans, they say they need it for a billet. For their soldiers.’
‘Why your house? Aren’t there other empty buildings?’
‘It’s because it’s nearest to the town. They won’t listen to us. I told ’em we’ve got nowhere else to go. You’ve got to help. Tell them you’re a policeman.’
Jack wasn’t sure what he could do. The police had become nothing more than an arm of the German Military Authority. If they had decided they needed something, then you could be sure that they would get it. Jack had already seen plenty of other examples, but this was the first time he had heard of them throwing people out of their home.
*
A German officer was standing outside the house, with his hands on his hips. His uniform was pristine, as they all were, boots polished to an impeccable shine. But this man had gone to another level. There was an almost sycophantic observance to this man’s uniform as if it was the most important thing to him, an outward show of his status, and under normal circumstances Jack wouldn’t dare confront him.
As Jack marched up to the officer, puffing his chest out as much for his own confidence as anyone else’s, he flashed his warrant card. The officer swivelled his clean-shaven head in Jack’s direction.
‘May I have a word, sir?’ Jack stepped to one side, indicating the German officer should join him. Jack’s heart thumped in his chest, and he was already regretting his decision. Why did Nicholas have to drag him into this? ‘I was just wondering if this was a good idea, sir?’
‘What? Who are you?’ The man’s English was not as perfect as his uniform and he called one of his subordinates over to help.
‘I’m a policeman, sir. Island Police. And well, I don’t pretend to speak for the kommandant, but as far as I’m aware he rather wants the occupation to go as smoothly as possible.’ He was bluffing and he hoped that the soldier wouldn’t notice. So much could be lost in translation. ‘This family have nowhere else to go, and they will resent being moved.’
The soldier put a hand to his jawline and looked back over at the house.
‘What you say makes sense,’ he said. ‘I do not wish to upset the kommandant’s plans. But my men, they need somewhere to live on this island.’
He turned to Jack, giving him an appraising stare. Jack was aware of his casual civilian clothes and the lack of an air of authority they gave him.
‘Where do you propose that my men should live, Constable,’ the German continued, enunciating the last word as if it left a distasteful flavour in his mouth. ‘Do you have a house we may use? One that is as convenient to our needs as this one?’
He pointed towards the house and the family that were still standing by the front door, observing in silence. Jack thought for a minute, and then something occurred to him. All of the soldiers had left, leaving empty rooms or homes behind, and a number of the Guernsey militia had gone with them to sign up for the British army. Others had simply left for the mainland, preferring to try their luck in England than to risk life under the Germans.
One of Jack’s old schoolmates, Henry, had lived a bit further up the road, closer to St Peter Port. The house was down a side street, easy to miss from the main road, especially if you didn’t know the area well. It was quite likely that the German officer had driven straight past it.
Henry had been a member of the Guernsey militia and when they had been disbanded, he had gone to England on the boats to sign up with the British army. Jack often wondered where he was now, and how his parents were coping. Since then they had moved out of their family home and into a smaller cottage up in The Vale, probably to escape from the occupying forces. As a result their old home was put up for sale and left empty.
‘There’s an empty house along the road that may suit your purposes. If you’ll permit me to show you, sir.’
‘Very well. You may show me. However, if it is not fit for our needs then I will return here and station my men in this house.’ With that he gave a pointed look towards the family, then turned, clicking his heels together. ‘We shall take my automobile.’
He indicated that Jack should head towards the driver’s seat, and within a few minutes he had manoeuvred the heavy car down The Grange. As he turned the corner, Jack thought he saw a head pop up from behind a wall. He recognised the face, a grin that he knew couldn’t be real, the unmistakable warm eyes of a friend he hadn’t had time to miss, but as he looked back over his shoulder the head was gone, as if there had been no one there at all. He put it down to exhaustion and stress, and focused on leading the German soldier to where they were going.
He showed the German officer Henry’s parents’ house, the house that they were no longer using. From the drive they could see that its grey slate roof was missing a few tiles, and that some of the windows were in dire need of resealing, but at least it had a roof and four walls. He wasn’t sure whether Henry’s parents would mind or not, but he felt that they would understand. The gravel drive clicked as the men walked towards the house, the German pulling ahead to inspect it.
‘It needs a bit of work,’ he said, looking on as the officer flicked a piece of peeling white paint from the wall and then wiped his f
inger with a handkerchief.
‘It does.’
‘But maybe your soldiers can work on it in their downtime? Make it into something they can be proud of and call home?’
‘You think the soldiers of the Third Reich are mere builders?’
Jack stuttered, but the officer headed him off.
‘No,’ he continued. ‘We will make use of the local labourers, support local business. That is, until the Operation Todt labourers arrive.’
There was a nasty glint in his eye that made Jack uneasy. He didn’t know who they were, and he didn’t have an opportunity to ask as the officer and his men stalked off into the house. One of them jerked his head at Jack to indicate that he was no longer needed.
It was clear that the Germans were going to take over the whole island in time. They had even turned the local Woolworths into a shop purely for German customers. The truly crazy thing was that the shop still needed local staff to run it, even though they themselves were not permitted to shop in there. He was sure that this wasn’t the last of the illogical rules that the Germans would put in place, but what could he and the others really do about it?
Chapter 8
9 July 1940
The summer sun was glaring down on the island, almost making it seem like all his troubles were far away. Jack had decided to do something about the back garden that his grandfather had once taken care of, before he had grown too frail. Jack had been down on his knees pulling the weeds from the grass, but the sun had become too hot overhead. He had given up and was sitting in the corner, in as much shade as he could find. It was an idyllic escape from the world. If he could he would spend all his time here, but his duty and honour would not allow him. He wished Johanna was there, but she had found work as a nurse up at the Emergency Hospital in Castel and was doing even longer shifts than he did in the police. At least, he thought, she was safe up there surrounded by doctors and other nurses. He wondered if work would always keep them apart, but he understood her need to keep occupied. Even here away from the outside world his mind couldn’t help but wander back to the occupation.
The German Nurse Page 8
