“Get out, one at a time, hands up.”
“My brother’s too ill to walk,” Ivy said. “He’s on a stretcher.”
“Yes, ma’am.” A soldier sloshed into the water and offered her a hand. “She’s right. Got a kid on a stretcher back here.”
Gerrit laid down his oar and lifted his hands, as did Bernardus. After all they’d been through, the last thing he wanted was to get shot because he made a wrong move.
When a soldier gestured with his rifle, Gerrit stepped out, drenching his shoes and socks. Yet he grinned. On free soil for the first time in over four years.
“Papers?” The soldiers kept rifles and glares trained on the escapees.
“I’m from Jersey.” Jack handed a gum-chewing soldier his identification papers. “So is the girl and her brother on the stretcher. The other two are Dutch.”
“Dutch?” The soldier guarding Gerrit flared his nostrils. “How’d you wind up in Jersey?”
Gerrit exchanged a look with Bernardus and Ivy, and he drew out his paybook. “We’re with Organisation Todt.”
“Forced laborers,” Jack said. “The Germans grab men off the streets and make them build for them.”
“We weren’t forced.” Gerrit handed over his paybook. “We were volunteers.”
Jack’s face distorted, and his hands coiled into fists. “Volunteers?You’re Todts? They’re the worst of the worst. I never would have shared a boat with you.” He charged at Gerrit.
“Hey, now.” A soldier stepped in front of Jack with a rifle.
“We’re with the resistance.” Gerrit kept his hands high. “We joined OT so we could send maps of German fortifications to the Allies.”
Bernardus handed over his papers. “These are false papers. I was injured committing sabotage and went into hiding.”
“Liars.” Jack stayed back, but poison laced his gaze.
“It’s true.” Charlie’s voice warbled as two soldiers carried his stretcher out of the boat. “I was their courier.”
The Americans gaped at the group.
“Hey, look at this.” Gerrit’s guard showed his paybook to the soldier beside him. “It’s this same guy, all right, in a Nazi uniform.”
The second soldier snorted. “We got ourselves a couple of Jerries trying to sneak in.”
“It isn’t true.” Ivy twisted her hands together, and her chin quivered. “They’re good men. They’re on the Allied side. They risked their lives to help us.”
“It’s all right, mijn geliefde.” Gerrit gave her a soothing look. “The truth will come out. No matter what, God is good.”
She nodded, and her face crumpled. “And he is faithful.”
“Even if,” he murmured. “Even if.”
chapter
44
Cherbourg, France
Friday, October 13, 1944
“This is the best food ever.” Sitting up in his cot in the US Army hospital, Charlie closed his eyes in pure bliss.
“It’s just beef broth.” Wearing a waist-length olive drab jacket and matching trousers, Lt. Norma Kincaid set her hands on her hips and laughed. “In all my years, I’ve never had a patient who loved hospital food.”
