Herr Euler went to bed as calmly as if nothing had happened. Michael came in with me as his father expected him to do, after all in Herr Euler’s eyes we were a normal married couple.
I turned my back on Michael and he on me. I was shivering. I felt horrified by the events of the night and yet if I thought about it reasonably, Michael had saved my life and his father, well, his father was only doing his duty, he was shooting a spy who was trying to kill us all.
When I eventually slept, a nightmare dogged me. I could see the dead chicken bleeding and the blood was falling on Rhiannon’s pretty face. I must have cried out because, when I woke, Michael was holding me, shushing me, telling me everything was going to be all right. I started to cry, something I rarely did, and he held me and kissed my forehead and my eyes and then my lips.
I kissed him back, hotly, greedily, my fears gone, my senses dazed by his warmth, his nearness, his obvious arousal.
‘Love me, Michael, please love me, I need comfort so much,’ I whispered against his ear.
He made love to me gently, knowing I was virginal, and I loved him so much and for so long that the joy and pleasure soon outstripped the pain.
We lay afterwards in each other’s arms. Close and warm and sated. In the morning, we made love again and I felt the tumbling sensations of passionate fulfilment, cold words for such wonderful feelings of complete abandon.
We had a few days when we lived like man and wife, none of us spoke of Rhiannon. Or, more importantly, about my sister Hari.
Herr Euler sometimes looked at me with a strange intent gaze and I knew I had to make some explanation about the sudden appearance of a spy in our midst.
We were sitting in the slant of the sun in the farmhouse kitchen when I tried to explain. ‘I found that woman in the top field, making for the farmhouse.’ I said.
‘That’s half a mile from here, what were you doing wandering about like that?’ he asked.
‘Come and see.’
I led him to the spot where the chicken still hung dried-out and half eaten by some nocturnal creature. ‘I was going to cook for Michael—’ I pointed to the chicken—‘and then she appeared. She made me take her to the farmhouse and give her food.’
‘Did you see anything with her, any signs of how she got here, any suitcase, anything?’
I shook my head, avoiding a direct lie. ‘I think she’d been walking a long way, she seemed exhausted but she was so big and strong I was half afraid of her.’ That much at least was the truth.
‘What language did she speak?’
‘German,’ I said at once.
Michael came into the room just then and put his arm around me.
‘You don’t think Meryl was harbouring this woman voluntarily do you father? After all the spy nearly killed her.’
Herr Euler regarded me for a moment, taking me for being a bit slow. He shook his head, convinced by my story.
‘It’s a pity you didn’t see which direction she came from, we might have found some useful information and some equipment. She must have been dropped by plane, that’s what usually happens.’
‘I was so busy trying to catch the chicken I didn’t notice anything till she was there beside me.’
‘Strange she should come here when you were at home,’ he said.
‘Who would know I’d be here?’ I asked. ‘In any case, I was expecting Michael to join me, remember?’
He nodded, accepting the sense of this. He clicked his heels. ‘I must go, my car is outside, my driver is patiently waiting for me. Take care, daughter-in-law. Take great care.’
When Herr Euler’s car drove away I looked at Michael and shrugged. ‘How could I know she was coming?’ I decided to confide in him. ‘She was Welsh you know. Spying for our side.’ I began to cry and Michael hugged me and kissed me. ‘And remember if I hadn’t come in when I did she would have killed you.’
He scooped me in his arms and as I pressed my lips to his, he kicked open the door and carried me upstairs to bed.