Chapter Fifteen Aletta #2
Aletta closed the last of the blinds just as Harry came to the doorway of the living room, and she felt a now familiar rush of anticipation at the prospect of having dinner with him.
‘Is the coast clear?’ he asked.
‘It is,’ she replied, catching his eye as she went into the kitchen to help her mother.
Her father was already seated at the table, a whisky in hand when Aletta brought the first two bowls of soup out, her mother following with a loaf of bread that she placed in the middle of the table.
‘Tell us, Harry, what would you be doing now if we weren’t at war?’ her father asked. ‘What had you hoped to do?’
‘Well, I was actually intending on being an architect,’ he said, smiling at Aletta across the table before turning his attention back to her father. ‘I’ve been interested in buildings from a very young age, and I’d just finished my first year at university before everything changed.’
‘I see.’ She noticed the way her father was nodding, as if he were impressed. ‘Well, let’s hope that you get to return to your studies once all this is over.’
‘I certainly hope so, sir,’ Harry said, holding out his plate for her mother to pass him a slice of bread. ‘Aletta, you must feel the same about your teacher training?’
She nodded. ‘I do. As soon as the war is over, I’ll go back and finish my studies.’
‘It’s all of you young people I feel most for,’ her mother said as they began to eat. ‘These should be the most wonderful years of your life, and instead you’ve all been forced to put your lives on hold for this war.’
Her mother wasn’t wrong, and Aletta wasn’t naive enough to think that war wouldn’t touch them personally, but without the war, she would never have had the good fortune to cross paths with Harry.
‘Aletta, have you heard from Cecilia lately?’ her mother asked, her soup spoon hovering. ‘She must be so bored stuck in the countryside.’
‘I—’
Aletta’s reply was cut short by three short knocks on the door. The thumps were loud enough to reverberate through the room.
She met her mother’s frightened gaze across the table as her father leapt to his feet, yanking Harry’s chair out so fast he almost fell off it.
‘Hide him! Quickly!’
Neither she nor Harry needed to be told twice.
They both ran across the room and down the hall, and Harry practically dived through the little door to get into the safe room.
She reached out to him and he grabbed her hand, holding it tightly for a second before letting go so she could shut the door.
Aletta quickly arranged the coats hanging in the wardrobe and threw two pairs of shoes in, making it look as messy as possible, as if no one had so much as looked in there recently, before hurrying back out to the kitchen as three more knocks echoed out.
Her mother was frozen in fear as Aletta went to stand beside her at the living-room table, their hands interlinking while her father stepped into the hallway to open the door. They could see the front door to the apartment through the living room, and Aletta heard her mother’s little gasp.
Two SS men stood there, and Aletta felt as if her heart might actually stop beating.
‘Can I help you?’ her father asked, politely, in the same voice she’d heard him use when addressing his clients.
She saw the way one of the men stared at her father, but the other was staring past him into the apartment, and Aletta looked away. She felt nauseous, and all she could think about was Harry hidden so close that he would be able to hear the commotion.
‘We’re searching homes,’ the man said in a thick accent.
It was then that Aletta glanced down at their interrupted dinner and realised there were four plates on the table.
Her stomach lurched, but she quickly slid one bowl on top of the other and placed one set of cutlery on to the chair.
Even if they came closer, the tablecloth covered that part of the chair.
They would only discover what she’d hidden if they moved it out to sit on.
She looked up, forcing her face into a neutral expression as the SS man looked at her again from the hallway before stepping around her father and coming into the living room.
‘Who lives in this house?’
‘Myself, my wife and my daughter,’ her father said, and she was impressed that his voice didn’t falter.
‘Are you the only people in this house now?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Please, you may look around if you wish. We have nothing to hide.’
Her father stood back and gestured with his arm, and Aletta grimaced as the man pushed roughly past him. Clearly, he had every intention of looking around, whether her father permitted it or not.
‘May I ask what, or who, you are looking for?’ her father asked.
‘We’re looking for Allied soldiers and hidden Jews,’ said the man still standing by the door. ‘If you have anyone in this house who shouldn’t be here, or you’ve heard of any neighbours who are hiding anyone, now is the time to tell us.’
Her father just slowly shook his head, calm in the face of an approaching storm. ‘We have nothing to hide,’ he repeated.
Aletta watched in silence as the man walked slowly through their living room, looking around.
When he came closer to the table, she shuffled forward a step, pressing the front of her legs into the chair and reminding herself to breathe.
She realised then that their wireless wasn’t hidden, but there was nothing she could do about that now.
The man who’d disappeared returned, and she listened to them converse in German, not understanding what they were saying. The only thing she was certain about was that they hadn’t found Harry.
‘May I offer you a plate of food?’ her father asked. ‘We have just eaten, but my wife could—’
‘Nein.’ The response was sharp, and the men both turned on their heels to leave, although one did stop at the door.
‘What is your name?’ he asked, as Aletta heard the sharp inhale of her mother’s breath beside her.
Her mother’s knuckles were white now, tightening on the back of the chair where she held it.
‘Jan,’ he said. ‘Jan Visser.’
The SS man smirked. ‘Well, Jan, if you value this little family of yours’ – he gestured to Aletta and her mother – ‘you will keep your eyes open for the people we seek. We don’t give second chances to those who betray us.’
When they left, her father shut the door and locked it, and she took hold of her mother as she cried into Aletta’s shoulder. Her father’s arms came around both of them and they stood together in the kitchen for what felt like forever. When he finally let them go, she saw tears in his eyes.
‘We were lucky tonight,’ he said, his voice low. ‘But next time, we might not be so fortunate.’
Aletta looked to her mother, as fear rose inside of her. ‘You’re not suggesting that we—’
‘I’m not suggesting anything,’ he said. ‘Other than we need to be careful, Aletta. Very, very careful. The risk we’re taking . . .’
They stared at one another, until her mother cleared her throat. ‘It’s been quite the night and I think we all know what’s at stake,’ she said.
She nodded and began to clear the table, not even trying to listen to what her parents were saying, and by the time they’d finished talking she’d almost done the dishes.
‘Goodnight, Aletta,’ her father said, kissing her cheek as his hand brushed her arm.
‘Goodnight,’ she murmured, nodding to her mother who also came to press a kiss to her cheek.
‘Goodnight, Mama,’ she said, dropping her head to her mother’s shoulder for a moment.
‘I know you care for him, Aletta, but you do know that he won’t be able to stay here forever, don’t you? There will come a time when he’ll have to move on.’
Tears immediately burned her eyes. ‘I know.’
Her mother said goodnight to her, and she quickly finished the dishes, hearing her parents talking behind the closed door to their bedroom before going to her own room to change into her nightgown.
But she didn’t get into her own bed.
Instead, she pulled on her warm dressing gown and padded quietly down the hallway, knocking gently on the secret door in the wardrobe before letting herself in. She could just make out Harry’s features in the candlelight.
‘Is everything all right?’ he asked, his eyebrows drawn together in what she could only imagine was worry.
‘No,’ she whispered, barely trusting her own voice. ‘No, I don’t think it is.’
‘Come here.’
He shifted over, holding up the blanket that was covering him, and she scooted in beside him, tucking into his side and laying her head on his chest as his arms went around her, intimate in a way she’d only dreamed of until now.
Harry held her as she trembled, even though it was he who should be scared.
But she couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen to him if he was found; where they might take him or what they might do to him.
Couldn’t help but think that she might never see him again when he left the apartment.
His arms tightened around her as his mouth brushed her hair, his heart beating loudly beneath her cheek. ‘Everything’s going to be fine, Aletta. I promise.’
Aletta wished she could believe him, but nothing about tonight had been fine.
They were only ever one search away from Harry being found, and no promise was ever going to change that, no matter how earnestly it might have been spoken.