Free Capital Union, A by Victoria Hendry Page B

Pledge themselves to escape. Then he’ll simply vanish and we can get on with our lives. He’ll never make it to the coast.’
    I sat down at the table, which was covered with a white crochet cloth. The pattern of flower motifs was perfect, regular . I wondered if Professor Schramml’s wife had made it. The thought of her death made me feel sad. I was tired of people dying, of fighting, of being alone.
    ‘I’ll do it,’ I said. ‘No one need know, and then we won’t have the police back. When the German is well, he can tell uswhat he wants to do. Maybe he doesn’t want to fight any more? And if he gets out of hand, I can take the broom to him, like you say.’
    ‘What about Jeff?’
    ‘I won’t tell him.’
    ‘There should be no secrets between a man and his wife. A woman has a duty to her husband.’
    ‘Believe me, Mrs MacDougall, I’ve come to realise that Jeff has more than a few secrets of his own. Perhaps I should be allowed one, too?’
    ‘You’re as big a fool as I thought,’ she said, ‘but I am grateful to you. I always had a soft spot for Schramml. A very good man for a German.’ She passed me the key to the flat. ‘I don’t know what you’ll do when he gets hungry,’ she said. ‘My ration would never have stretched to feeding two.’
    She left me alone. It was odd knowing Jeff was moving around beneath my feet. I tiptoed to the airing cupboard and switched on the water heater, but there was no electricity. The sheets would have to wait. I got the heebie-jeebies without Mrs MacDougall around, but I filled a basin with cold water and went into the room. He was sleeping, or unconscious. I could feel a faint pulse in his neck, but he didn’t stir.

12
    Downstairs, Jeff came out of the bathroom dressed in his best suit. ‘You were a long time with Mrs MacDougall. Don’t tell me you have sued for peace?’
    ‘Where are you going?’ I asked, as he kissed my cheek.
    ‘Douglas’ appeal at the High Court. I told you.’
    ‘No, you didn’t.’
    ‘Well, don’t make a fuss now. I have enough on my plate. We’ll talk later. Perhaps you could give the place a good clean after last week’s unpleasantness?’ He put on his hat and walked out the door, banging it shut.
    He was gone all day and came back in the evening. I was glad he was late. I had got the sheets done and had given the German a couple of aspirin and a little gravy from a fresh rabbit stew. The vegetables from the garden had made a nourishing stock.
    Jeff looked scunnered when he came in. Douglas had been sentenced to twelve months in Saughton prison on the spot.
    ‘It could be me next, Pip. Thank God, Mother isn’t here to see this. He had a thirty-page defence and they took five minutes to sentence him. Douglas never had a chance. The judges all served in the last war. They weren’t going to humour a CO with nationalist tendencies; said this was no time for a loose cannon as he was led down to the cells.’
    ‘I suppose not,’ I said.
    ‘You suppose not? What do you even know? What do you do all day, anyway?’
    ‘I look after you,’ I said. It wasn’t a lie.
    ‘You look after me? All you do is wander round the flat twirling a feather duster.’
    ‘Perhaps you’d like to try it, then, if it’s so easy? You try getting food from a butcher that doesn’t like you, and keep the peace with Mrs MacDougall. See how long you last before you’d be begging me to take you away from this flat. It is like a museum, Jeff. A museum to your mother.’
    ‘Leave my mother out of this.’
    ‘Her clothes are still hanging in the wardrobe in our bedroom . It’s still her room. It is even her bed.’
    ‘Well, you don’t need to sleep in it.’
    ‘And where would I go? I am your wife.’
    ‘Try the Anderson shelter. What kind of country woman can’t even keep a decent fire going in the hearth? You’re making things difficult for me with the police.’
    ‘How am I making things difficult for you? You’re the one who had