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The Crossing - Part 33 free porn video
I was an escaped PoW living as a woman in Nazi Germany, but I was about
to discover I wasn't the only one with a big secret.
THE CROSSING - part 33
by BobH
(c) 2016
- 73 -
After we'd eaten, we worked our way through the other two bottles of
vintage wine Helmut had ordered brought up from the cellar. Both were
also superb. Hans and Gerda excused themselves soon afterwards, eager to
spend more time getting reacquainted in the bedroom. I half expected
Helmut to want us to do the same, but he had other things on his mind.
"I'm not going to get much sleep tonight. There's a lot I need to get
done before we leave tomorrow, so I'll have to spend most of the night
working in my office. I'll see you when I eventually come to bed."
He never made it there. When I awoke the next morning I was alone. I
found Helmut still in his office, adding the last envelope to what
looked like a small mountain of them. I wrinkled my nose the smell of
hot wax in the room.
"The Rumstahl seal," said Helmut, holding aloft a large, embossed ring
on seeing this, "to authenticate the contents of every one of these
envelopes."
"What's in them?" I asked.
"You'll see very shortly. In the meantime let's get breakfast. I'm
famished."
Omelettes and bread rolls had been prepared for us, which we attacked
with gusto.
"You're not looking as tired as I expected you to," I told Helmut as we
ate.
"I'm running on adrenaline," he explained, "and the sleep I got in the
Mercedes when Hans drove us here yesterday. Ah, here's Heinrich!"
Helmut's chauffeur/right-hand man had appeared in the doorway.
"I've done as you asked, Herr Count, and the men are assembled in the
courtyard."
"Excellent! Did you remove the Nazi pennants from the Mercedes?"
"Of course."
"Good. We need to destroy everything in the village with a swastika on
it before the Russians get here, and that includes Frau Engelmann's
shrine to Hitler."
"Already done," said Heinrich.
"Did she object?"
"Frau Engelmann is no longer in the village. She fled the day after you
left for Berlin."
"That...makes sense," said Helmut, thoughtfully. "She was our most
enthusiastic Nazi. She wouldn't have relished the prospect of living
under Soviet occupation. Did her husband go with her?"
"No. She left with one of her Nazi acolytes, a strapping young man half
her age from the next village. Her husband had no idea she was having an
affair. He's devastated."
"That poor man," I murmured. He was weedy and ineffectual, but he
deserved better.
Helmut stood up.
"We'd better not keep the men waiting."
I followed him out to the courtyard where the men in question were
assembled. I immediately recognized them as the village Volkssturm unit,
though none of them were carrying weapons or wearing armbands. They all
doffed their hats on seeing us. Before addressing them, Helmut
positioned himself between a pair of wheelbarrows that had tarpaulins
over them concealing their contents.
"Thank you for coming up to the castle this morning," he said. "As many
of you will be aware my family and I will be leaving Rumstahl today,
possibly never to return. Because of the war work I've been doing over
the past few years, work I'm not at liberty to discuss, the Soviets
would consider me a great prize. I have knowledge that must not be
allowed to fall into their hands. Which brings me to you. Heinrich
assumed command of the unit in my absence and will retain that position.
He's elected to remain in the village no matter what, and he tells me
you all have too. Thank you. However, when the Red Army gets here please
don't do anything foolish. They have more and better weapons than you do
and are both more experienced and more highly trained. You would not
stand a chance against them. Instead I am asking you to destroy your
Volkssturm armbands and membership records and to hide your weapons. Far
better to rise up against them after they're already here if it proves
necessary, though I'm hoping it won't. In the meantime, there's this."
Helmut took hold of a tarpaulin in each hand then yanked them off the
wheelbarrows with a flourish. Both were filled with bottles of wine.
"Some of the finest vintages from my cellar," he said. "I had the choice
of either leaving them for the Soviets to get drunk on when they get
here or to give them to you to enjoy before that happens, which was no
choice at all. Please help yourselves."
They gave a cheer and then did just that, all of them departing with as
many bottles as they could carry.
"That was nicely done," I said.
"I kept back four of the very best for us to drink on the road, which
still leaves plenty of the lesser wines for whoever eventually takes
over here. Now I need to assemble the castle's staff. Heinrich?"
"On it, Herr Count."
Back inside we found Hans and Gerda slowly descending the stairs, each
with an arm around the other's waist, kissing.
"You missed breakfast," said Helmut, smiling, "but I suppose you had
other appetites to attend to."
"We can eat on the road," said Gerda, staring up at Hans dreamily.
"No need to wait 'til then. I'm sure the kitchen can rustle up something
for you before we head off. But first, wait here."
Helmut went into his office. When he reappeared with the envelopes he'd
spent all night preparing, the staff were all filing into the entrance
hall. They lined up and faced him expectantly.
"My friends," he began, "Gerda, the Countess, and I have to leave you
today and we may never return. The work I've been doing over the past
few years has left me with knowledge that I don't intend to let fall
into Soviet hands. Whether you choose to stay here and take your chances
with them or to head west before they get here is a matter for each of
you individually. You've all given our family many years of valued
service and I don't like the idea of leaving you with nothing.
Unfortunately, our currency has collapsed and the reichsmark is now
virtually worthless. Something that does still have worth is the
Rumstahl family diamonds. I've broken the jewellery up and placed the
diamonds in these envelopes along with letters from myself confirming
they were not stolen or the result of looting. They assign ownership to
each of you. These letters may prove important if you head west. We've
all heard horror stories about what life under Soviet rule would be
like, but those were put out by the Ministry of Propaganda. I don't know
the truth or otherwise of any of them, and neither do you. So do you
stay here in your home, or do you head west as so many others have done?
Don't forget that you all qualify as downtrodden members of the
proletariat and me as your evil aristocratic oppressor."
There was some laughter at this.
"If you stay don't hesitate to paint me in as bad a light as you need to
if you believe doing so will help you. I don't mind, and I won't be here
to hear it anyway. Whatever you decide, whether to stay or whether to
go, please choose wisely. Thank you."
Heinrich took the envelopes and distributed them, after which the staff
filed out.
"A dozen envelopes left," he observed, "none of which contain jewels and
all of which have the names of farmers on them."
"I want you to hold on to those," said Helmut. "They contain the deeds
to the land each man farms along with a letter bearing my seal and
transferring ownership of that land to him. Chances are the Soviets will
want to merge the farms into a single collective under state control,
but if it appears there's any chance of the farmers being allowed to
continue as they are then I want you to distribute those envelopes."
"Of course," said Heinrich. "I'll hide them somewhere safe until then."
When he'd gone, and Hans and Gerda had left to find breakfast, Helmut
turned to me.
"Most of my family's wealth derives from the land we own around
Rumstahl, land I'm soon not going to have anymore. Gerda travelled to
Switzerland and deposited most of our liquid assets in their banks a
while back, but this means I'm no longer the wealthy man you married."
"I'm proud of what you just did," I said, slipping my arms around his
waist and kissing him, "and I never married you for your money, anyway."
"I know," he said, smiling down at me.
He assumed I'd married him for love, and I was happy for him to keep on
thinking that. I never want him to learn the real reason was to spy on
him.
- 74 -
"Confession?" I said. "Are you serious?"
"Father Gunther has been my priest since I was a boy. Yet in all my
times in the confessional down the years I've never been totally honest
with him, never revealed my true self. This may be my last chance. I
want... I need... to put that right before we go."
"So you're going to tell him the truth about both of us?"
Helmut's announcement that he wanted to do this had come completely out
of the blue, but I'd known him long enough now to know when he could be
dissuaded from a course of action. This wasn't one of those times.
"OK, fine," I sighed, "but if you're doing this I'm coming with you."
Which is how we found ourselves in the village church, striding down the
aisle to where Father Gunther was tending the cut flower arrangements
next to the altar. He seemed to immediately grasp why we were there.
"When I heard you were leaving I expected this visit," he sighed,
running a hand through his thinning hair. "Before you say anything to me
there are things I have to say to you first. To both of you."
"Of course," said Helmut, frowning at this unexpected turn.
"After the Pope spoke out against the Nazis, non-church Catholic
institutions across Germany were attacked and closed down. Those members
of the clergy who protested this suffered, too. Around four hundred
priests were arrested. None of them have been heard from since. Yet
despite all they've done to us there are still some clergy who support
the Nazis. I chose to keep my head down, to minister to my flock and not
rock the boat. Many of my brother priests did the same. We were
especially fortunate here in Rumstahl. Hitler has a soft spot for the
village because of you and Gerda, Helmut. I have no doubt he would like
to see the church eradicated, yet he took part in your wedding ceremony.
How a man can simultaneously be a monster yet be so kind to you both is
a paradox I may never understand. Probably only the Lord will ever fully
fathom the workings of the human heart. As a boy Hitler was Catholic
himself. I often wonder what happened to turn him against us."
He paused for a moment, weighing up what he was going to say next,
before continuing.
"When I was at the seminary, many years ago, there was another young man
studying there whose name was Michael. The first time I laid eyes on him
the shock I felt could not have been greater had I'd been physically
struck. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."
He paused again then, conflicting emotions dancing across his face.
"What are you trying to tell us, Father?" Helmut gently asked.
Given what Father Gunter had just said, he already knew the answer that
would follow. We both did.
"Ever since I was a boy I've had...urges, urges that I'd been taught
were a sin. I prayed for them to go away, prayed harder than I've ever
prayed for anything in my life, but they didn't. That's why I decided to
become a priest. I thought that if prayer alone wasn't strong enough to
do the job surely giving my life to God would be. Then I met Michael.
And what had been urges never before acted upon became a full-blown
affair. I was in love and felt more alive than I ever had, before or
since. I was also wracked with guilt. Not only was I sinning but I was
doing so in a seminary, in a house of God. I thought I would be
consigned to hell, and there came a point when I couldn't take the guilt
any more."
"What did you do?" I said
"I confessed, expecting us to be thrown out of the seminary, but that's
not what happened. We were only a few weeks away from our ordination. It
was allowed to proceed so long as we swore never to see each other again
afterwards. We agreed and were assigned churches hundreds of miles
apart. That ordination was decades ago and I never saw Michael again.
But I still think of him every day."
"I'm so sorry," I said, laying a hand on his arm.
"Thank you, but the important bit is what I'm going to say next. I ask
that you don't interrupt me until I've finished, no matter what. Can you
do that?"
We both nodded.
"Good, because on the day of your wedding, as I watched Eva looking so
beautiful yet walking down the aisle of my church on the arm of a man
who in many ways is evil made flesh, I had a revelation. I don't know
why but something about her reminded me of Steffi. In that moment I knew
what she was, what they both were."
My mouth went dry at his words, and I felt the blood drain from my face.
Helmut squeezed my hand, but said nothing.
"I believe the revelation came from God, that he was testing me. Did I
denounce you both, which would have led to your immediate arrest and
possible deaths, or did I marry you and so perform a ceremony the church
would consider an abomination? Faced with such a dilemma many priests
would not have not known what to do. For me, because of Michael, there
was no choice at all."
"I don't understand," said Helmut. "What does Michael have to do with
this?"
"Michael was one of the four hundred."
"Oh my God!" I whispered, my hand going to my mouth.
"Michael was always braver than me. I did the wrong thing when I
betrayed our love. I would not betray yours. Which leaves the matter of
my vows and whether or not I betrayed them, a question that rests on
whether or not I take your confession."
"I'm not sure I follow," said Helmut.
"I've come to realise in the years I've been pondering the matter that
despite everything I've been taught, my love for Michael was not a sin.
Something so pure, so joyous, that hurts no one else should be
celebrated, not condemned. I have to believe those passages in the Bible
that suggest otherwise are either wrong or have been misinterpreted.
However, the position of the church in these matters is unequivocal and
not open to interpretation. If I did indeed marry two men then I have
broken my vows. However, until one or both of you confirm Eva's gender I
haven't. At the moment my belief I had a revelation is technically just
my opinion and could be a mistake. So you can see why listening to the
confession of either could be a problem. If you confirm I've broken my
vows I couldn't in good conscience continue as a priest, and I very much
want to, for as long as circumstances permit. So, do you wish me to take
your confessions?"
"No, perhaps not at this time," said Helmut. "What I'd like to do
instead is to shake your hand and say goodbye."
"So would I," I said, "and I'm so sorry about you and Michael."
"Don't be. We may have only been together for a short while, but I
consider myself blessed to have experienced true love. Its light has
sustained me all the days of my life."
"What will you do now?" I asked him. "The Soviets will be here soon and
you might find yourself out of a job."
"I will stay and minister to my flock right up until the moment I am
prevented from doing so. I will not abandon them in their hour of need."
"You're a good man, father," I said, shaking his hand.
"I have tried to be."
Helmut shook Father Gunther's hand, then embraced him.
"I'm going to miss you," he said.
"And I you. Now go, Helmut. Take your wife and your sister to safety."
- 75 -
"So I'm the only one of us who has to ride side-saddle?" I said,
grimacing at the prospect. A short ride across the valley was one thing,
but we had several days of sometimes hard riding ahead of us.
"There are three standard saddles and three side saddles in the
stables," Hans reminded me, "and while Gerda possesses britches, you
don't."
This was true. Helmut liked to see his lovers in stockings and heels at
all times so my closet contained only skirts and dresses. I hadn't worn
trousers in almost two years. I looked at Hans enviously. Save for his
boots, he had abandoned his Wehrmacht uniform. He was wearing the riding
outfit Gerda kept in her closet for him. It looked very comfortable.
Given the current situation, him travelling out of uniform made a lot of
sense. Hopefully we, Helmut, and Gerda would be seen simply as four
civilians travelling together, though we'd do our best not to be seen at
all, of course.
"Haus Ingeburg," I said. "It's been eleven days since we learned that's
where Wernher von Braun and the other rocket scientists are holed up.
How do we know they're still there?"
"We don't. Since communication with them is impossible now we have to
take it on faith that they are. It's the only basis on which we can
proceed. We have no alternative plan for them not being there."
Hans and I were already on our horses and waiting in the courtyard for
Helmut and Gerda to emerge. We might have fond memories of Castle
Rumstahl but this was their home, the place where they were born and had
grown up, so we understood why it would take them longer to say goodbye
to it. When they did eventually appear Helmut was wearing a heavy
rucksack topped by a rolled tent, and he was carrying another. He handed
this to Hans. Watching Hans haul it into place on his back I suddenly
felt a lot less envious of his riding outfit.
When the twins had mounted their horses, the four of us rode slowly
across the courtyard to the main gate, flanked by the castle staff. They
were standing in two rows and applauded us on our way, many of them
teary-eyed. One person missing from their ranks was Gerda's maid Helga.
She had come to see us early in the morning with her boyfriend Joachim
Steiner to let us know Joachim was resigning his position as village
policeman effective immediately and that they had decided to head west
while they still could.
"There's one more thing, Herr Count. Joachim has asked me to marry him
and we'd like your blessing."
It was traditional for the Count to bless unions in the village, a
blessing only ever refused if he genuinely believed the couple in
question were making a mistake.
"You have it, of course," Helmut had said, smiling, "and
congratulations. I only wish the ceremony could be held in our church
and your reception here in the castle. Good luck to you both, and take
care out there."
Looking at the other servants now I wondered how far Helga and Joachim
had got. They had only been gone a few hours, but every minute counted.
Once through the gate and out of the castle we rode slowly down the hill
and through the village. Here the villagers had lined up on both sides
of the road to say goodbye to us and again there were tears and
applause. Finally, we were out of the village and down on the road
beside the river that would take us out of the valley. Here we paused,
silently gazing at the village, trying to fix that image of it in our
minds, each lost in our thoughts. Eventually Helmut wheeled his horse
around.
"Time we got going," he said, breaking into a gallop.
We fell in behind him, and didn't look back.
None of us would ever see the village again.
**********************
To be continued.
**********************
Notes:
And so we say goodbye to the villagers of Rumstahl. Father Gunther
mentioned Catholic clergy who supported the Nazis, and the four hundred
priests arrested for opposing them. For an example of the former look up
Bishop Hudal. As for the four hundred, they were sent to Dachau.
Arisha
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