Chapter Sixteen Aletta
Chapter Sixteen
Aletta
Aletta sat cross-legged across from Harry, holding her cards close to her chest. She’d already completed her lesson plan for the next day and come up with some fun activities for the rest of the week, but now Harry had her undivided attention.
‘Stop trying to peek!’ she laughed as Harry made a dramatic move to stretch and lean around her.
‘Hey, if you can’t keep them hidden . . .’
Aletta shook her head and bit her lip to stop herself from laughing again. ‘Just play your card, come on.’
He’d taught her a game called Gin Rummy, and even though she should have been bored silly from playing so many card games after work and late into the evenings, somehow playing them with Harry made it fun.
Although she was starting to wonder if they couldn’t just be out in the living room rather than cooped up in the secret room.
No one had knocked on their door again; as far as she was aware no one was looking for him, and maybe they were being a little bit too cautious.
Although her father’s warning still echoed in her mind.
You never know when someone could come, Aletta.
Or who will betray us if it’s a choice between their family and ours.
You heard what those SS men said, how convincing they sounded. We can’t trust anyone, not anymore.
‘Harry, I’ve never asked you what happened to the other men you were with.’
He glanced up at her, and even though his smile barely faltered, she saw the pain etched around his eyes. She’d been in such close quarters with him for days now that she imagined he’d notice every small change in her, too.
‘Honestly? I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I try so hard not to think about that day, it would drive me mad otherwise.’
She nodded, torn between wishing she hadn’t said anything and knowing that it had been time for her to ask.
‘Is there anything I can do?’ she said. ‘To try to find out for you?’
‘You’ve already done enough, Aletta,’ he said, and he set his cards down then, their game clearly forgotten. ‘I don’t want you putting yourself in danger any more than you already have.’
He swallowed and she reached for his hand, touching his fingers.
‘I was unconscious when I was dragged from where I’d landed,’ Harry said, his voice low. ‘I don’t remember a lot, but the men I was with, they were like brothers to me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Aletta said, and she meant it, with all her heart.
Harry’s smile was sweet. ‘I suppose it’s easier to pretend they’re each cooped up in a warm little room with a beautiful girl, like I am.’
Aletta’s breath stalled as Harry leaned in closer. He hesitated, as if he were giving her time to pull away and change the course of what was about to happen.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she closed the distance between them.
Their lips touched, and then there was an awkward moment when her teeth bumped into Harry’s before his hand lifted and gently cupped the back of her head.
He kissed her so softly it stole her breath, his mouth moving over hers.
And when he finally pulled away, she still felt as if she couldn’t breathe.
‘I think I saw your cards,’ he whispered.
Aletta laughed. Her cheeks were on fire, and she had no idea what to do next, but somehow, Harry had known how to make her smile and stop the moment from being awkward between them.
She touched her fingers to her lips and cleared her throat.
‘I think I’ll go and make us a coffee,’ she said, needing a moment to gather herself.
Harry grinned. ‘I’ll shuffle the cards.’
But when she went to stand, Harry still had his fingers linked with hers, and he lifted them, gently kissing her hand before letting her go.
Aletta stood and glanced at him one last time, shaking her head before leaving the little room. But she’d barely had time to process the fact she’d had her first kiss when her mother called out.
‘Aletta, you have a visitor.’
A visitor? She wandered out into the living room, wondering who it could be – she hadn’t even heard anyone knock – and she gasped when she saw a familiar face. She stopped dead when she saw who was standing there, the biggest smile on her face that Aletta had ever seen.
‘Cecilia!’ she cried, throwing her arms around her friend. ‘What are you doing here? Why didn’t you write and tell me you were coming! When did you get back to the city?’
‘I did write,’ Cecilia said, hugging her back just as fiercely. ‘But I’m guessing the post is a little slower than it used to be.’
Aletta found herself glancing at the wall that separated Harry from the kitchen, hoping that he wouldn’t come looking for her when she didn’t reappear.
‘Come and sit, let me make us coffee,’ she said, linking her arm through Cecilia’s and steering her towards the kitchen.
‘I want to hear all about this mystery man of yours,’ Cecilia said, leaning against Aletta’s shoulder for a moment. ‘I’m so jealous of you still being in the city. I’m bored out of mind in the country stuck with my brothers.’
‘Mystery man?’ Aletta’s mother asked as she appeared in the doorway.
Aletta knew that her mother would have been checking the door to Harry’s room, but now she stood with a hand on her hip and her eyebrows raised in question.
‘I wrote to Cecilia about a young man I met where I was volunteering,’ Aletta said, surprised at how easily the lie ran off her tongue. That was exactly what she’d told Cecilia in her letter, but still, saying it aloud felt wrong.
‘Well, I’ll let you two catch up then,’ her mother said with a warning glance. ‘I’m going back to the butcher to see if he hasn’t had any more meat arrive.’
Aletta immediately wished that she hadn’t told Cecilia about Harry at all, because omitting a large part of the truth had seemed easy in a letter, but face to face?
Cecilia was her best friend and Harry was hidden only metres away from where they were standing; nothing about lying to her seemed right.
Especially when her lips could still feel the soft imprint of his kiss.
‘So come on, tell me everything,’ Cecilia said, grabbing her arm and laughing. ‘But we’ll have to make do with sitting in your kitchen, because I’m not going anywhere those damn soldiers can ogle us.’
‘Cecilia, swearing?’ Aletta giggled. ‘What would your mother say?’
‘My mother chose to send me to the middle of nowhere,’ Cecilia grumbled. ‘You’d be swearing too if you were stuck with my little brothers. They’ve gone from cute to downright painful. It’s as if they’ve been tasked with driving me crazy.’
Aletta turned and set to making the coffee as a knot settled in her stomach.
She was desperate to go and get Harry so that her friend could meet him, but she’d made a promise to her father to keep him hidden.
No matter how much she trusted Cecilia, telling anyone about Harry could compromise them all.
‘So, tell me about him, come on!’ Cecilia said as she sat at the table and Aletta brought two steaming mugs of coffee over.
‘Hopefully it tastes all right,’ Aletta said. ‘We’re mixing in a little of the good stuff each time to make it drinkable.’
Cecilia grabbed her hand then and she looked up into the trusting, beautiful eyes of her friend. Her friend that she’d never, ever told a lie to before Harry, which was why she felt so unbearably uncomfortable.
‘Aletta.’ Cecilia raised her brows.
She sighed. ‘He’s wonderful.’ Her voice sounded breathy and nothing at all like her. ‘He’s handsome and sweet, he’s just . . .’
Aletta was grateful that Harry didn’t understand Dutch, and he’d have needed his ear pressed to the wall to hear them anyway.
As far as he was concerned, she was just off making them coffee, not talking to a friend about him.
Unless her mother had told him that someone was in the house and to stay quiet, which, now that she thought about it, was very likely.
‘So why the sad face?’ Cecilia asked. ‘Don’t tell me, he already has a sweetheart? Gosh he isn’t married, is he? You look so sad talking about him!’
‘I just wish we’d met before the war, that’s all,’ she said.
‘He’s, well . . .’ Tears welled in Aletta’s eyes as she tried to think of what to say, as she tried to explain whatever was developing between her and Harry without giving it all away.
‘He’s involved with the Resistance,’ she said finally.
‘That’s why I’m being so elusive about him, because he’s sworn me to secrecy and I wasn’t even supposed to write to you about him.
But I just, well, I couldn’t keep him from you.
We’ve always told each other everything. ’
Cecilia’s face softened, which made Aletta feel even worse about lying to her. ‘I understand. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. But just tell me what he looks like. I need to picture this man in my mind, you lucky thing. Has he kissed you?’
‘Cecilia!’
‘Well, has he?’
Aletta grinned, she couldn’t help it. ‘Once,’ she said, knowing that she was blushing. ‘He’s kissed me once and it was, it was . . .’ She groaned. ‘It was everything I thought a first kiss would be.’
‘Are you in love with him?’
Aletta glanced at the wall, grateful that Harry wouldn’t be able to understand what they were saying, even if he was listening.
‘Maybe. I mean . . .’ Her skin felt like it was on fire.
‘I don’t know, but I think it could turn into that, if we had longer to spend together.
’ At least now she was telling the truth.
Cecilia clamped her hands together. ‘Well, it sounds to me like you’re smitten with this boy and I cannot wait to meet him.
’ She grinned. ‘It certainly sounds a lot better than wandering around fields and talking to any animals that I find. The most interesting gentleman I spoke to last week was an old horse, and trust me when I say he didn’t have a lot to say back! ’
They both laughed and Cecilia’s hand touched hers, catching her fingers for a second. Aletta had missed her even more than she’d realised.