She drew a fortifying breath and stared hard at the two German soldiers pacing before the prison entrance. They were casting annoyed looks her way and would boot her out soon.
Courage was such an elusive yet magnificent thing. A person could conjure it out of thin air. Courage could change the world. Courage wasn’t the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome her trepidation and act in spite of it.
Bluffing her way into a German prison had scared Delia down to her foundation. But she was tired of being frightened. She drew a deep breath, ignoring the familiar knots of fear beginning to gather, and imagined herself becoming as strong as the granite blocks of the prison walls that held Finn trapped inside.
She turned to Inga. “I want to see Finn, and I need to get past those guards to do it. Will you translate for me?”
35
Finn couldn’t believe it when the guard said his American lawyer was here to see him. He didn’t even have a lawyer, but perhaps the Red Cross had managed to finagle something to help him.
Finn wouldn’t argue. Anything to get out of this tiny cell would be like manna from heaven, even though he had to hold his wrists out to be handcuffed. The soldier’s nose wrinkled, and he withdrew a few paces the instant he completed the chore. No doubt Finn smelled pretty rank, although he couldn’t smell it anymore. It would be nice to clean up before meeting with the unknown lawyer. Then again, he didn’t have any pride anymore. He intended to enjoy the chance to stretch his legs for the long walk down the cellblock hallway to the meeting room, and if the lawyer was appalled at his condition, so much the better. Perhaps it would result in some changes.
Each footstep felt odd, triggering a prickly sensation in his feet as he walked. The tingling in his hands and feet had been getting worse over the past week. Maybe it was just the lack of exercise. His sense of balance was off, and he focused on keeping each footfall steady as the tingles engulfed his feet.
Hope warred with anxiety as the door to the meeting room came into view. One of the guards stepped forward to open it, and Finn angled to peer into the room through the widening gap.
He blinked furiously. Delia?Delia?There were others in the room, but all he could see was Delia, who beamed the most glorious smile at him. Why wasn’t she in New York? What had kept her here?
Laughter bubbled up inside and echoed in the small room. “Dee!” he shouted through his peals of laughter. “Oh, Dee, look at you!”
“Hello, Finn.”
Was this a dream? Yet his dreams never involved handcuffs or tingling feet. He struggled to make his brain piece together a coherent sentence. “I-I figured you’d be in New York by now.”
She shook her head. “The Red Cross has rules that lawyers are allowed to conduct random welfare checks on their clients. So here I am.”
What a load of rubbish! Whatever had prompted Delia to hoodwink her way into Saint-Gilles Prison was a surprise, but he was determined to go along with the subterfuge. “I’m grateful,” he said. And overjoyed. Just knowing she was still in Belgium was a great relief. “You look good, Dee.”
He probably shouldn’t be saying such things to a lawyer. Some of the guards in the room might understand English, and he needed to pretend she was just an ordinary Red Cross lawyer. Delia took a seat at a small wooden table, and he took the chair opposite her. A guard warned them not to attempt to touch each other or exchange any materials.
Finn nodded his agreement. In light of the guard’s ability to speak English, he had to be extra cautious about what he said. He scrambled for a safe topic. The most painful one immediately sprang to mind. “Any update on Mathilde?”
“She’s free,” Delia said.
He leaned forward, and his eyes locked on hers. Keeping hisvoice cautious, he asked, “Is it true? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“It’s true,” she assured him. “The kaiser granted clemency on the condition she go to Switzerland for the duration of the war. She has accepted his terms and was released this morning.”
Finn sagged back in the chair. He ought to be embarrassed by the tears stinging his eyes, but he was too relieved and listened as Delia filled him in on all the details. The trial, the guilty verdict, but also Kaiser Wilhelm’s last-minute intervention to spare Mathilde’s life. She was on a train to Zurich this very moment.
In his mind’s eye he imagined the train chugging through endless green fields, meadows of wildflowers, sunshine, with an impossibly blue sky overhead. The image was so breathtaking it caused a lump in his throat.
“I hope she will be happy there,” he choked out, “and that she’ll have a view of the mountains and the sky. I’ll bet the flowers are in full bloom.”
Mathilde deserved every happiness. She’d been imprisoned far longer than he had and deserved the mercy she’d been granted. A pause stretched in the room, and his fingers began a nervous tapping on the tabletop. Was it possible? He hesitated to even ask, yet he needed to know.
“Did the kaiser include anyone else in that clemency?”
The light faded from Delia’s lovely face. “We appealed for you but didn’t have any luck,” she said gently.
It was as he’d expected, but the blow still hurt. The chain on the handcuffs rattled as he clasped his hands to stop them from shaking. He forced a light tone into his voice. “That’s all right. Mathilde deserves it. I’m happy for her ... and grateful to you for pulling everything off.”
He stared at her, trying to etch her image onto his soul. He had to keep his chin up lest she sense the crushing weight of disappointment that threatened to choke him. She’d obviously fought hard to get permission to visit him. It should be enough.
His bravado didn’t work. Delia could always see right through him. “Finn, I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but hold tight to the thought that the warwillsomeday end, and you’ll be alive to walk out of this prison and be a free man once again. The rest of the world is going to need you when this nightmare is over. They’ll need your humor and optimism. Finn, they’ll need your kites.”
He stifled a cynical snort, and she latched on to it. “Yes, they’ll need your kites,” she insisted. “Right now, the whole world is sore and aching and wounded, and those kites will remind people that there’s still joy to be found on any sunny afternoon. When people are tired from rebuilding or tending graves, they can take their children out into the fresh air to watch a kite soar in the air and remember that the world is still an amazing place.”
