Though Katerina did not venture to Chora or the port village of Karavostasis, news of atrocities filtered back from those places on the wind, reports of beatings, lootings, and the swift imprisonment of any soul who dared to resist the enemy’s demands. Whispers spoke of a black-hearted German general with a quick temperwho boasted of his closeness to the Führer and had a no-mercy policy when dealing with adversaries.
“I would have a no-mercy policy in dealing with him,” Katerina muttered to Leni, who shushed her with furious irritation.
“Be quiet, silly girl, you will get us both killed. Do not forget what the men told us: The enemy has ears in the walls.”
“But this is our home—” Katerina protested, only for Leni to flap her hand in front of her face.
“Nowhere is safe anymore,” she hissed. “You must keep your thoughts in your mind only.”
Stefanos and Michalis had left three days before the occupiers arrived, accompanied by a clutch of men from the village, Constantine and Giorgos among them. The wails of anguish that had splintered the air as Katerina and Leni returned after the wedding ceremony had come from their neighbor Phaedra. She had discovered that her son, Kostas, had disobeyed her wishes and gone with his father to join the fight.
“He is only fifteen,” she’d cried, clutching the baby Elpida against her bosom. “He cannot hold a gun with a broken arm. How will he survive?”
While Leni and Dafni had soothed the wretched woman, Katerina had been struck by an idea. Initially, she had planned to hide Esther up in the mountains with the brothers Atlas and Zephyr, but would it not make more sense for the Jewish youngster to remain in the village?
After some discussion, Phaedra agreed to take her in, and the three women set about disguising the girl, first cutting off her long hair, then dressing her in Kostas’s clothes and wrapping her arm in a sling. She was to keep her head down and avoid speaking to anyone. As far as the other villagers and any marauding soldiers were concerned, the teenage Kostas had never left. There would be no suspicions raised if they were careful, no reason to believe thattheir plan would not work. They knew it had to. The alternative would surely mean death for all of them.
Katerina longed to visit the two brothers in their hiding place, but they had told her to wait. The enemy would be on the lookout for such spies and messengers. It made more sense for Katerina to prove to them that she was no threat, gain their trust as far as she was able, thus allowing herself a better chance at slipping away unnoticed when the time came. Atlas and Zephyr had enough supplies to last them a month or so, and they needed her to be their eyes and ears, map the Italian outposts and military bases across the island, compile numbers of troops, and gather the names of those in command.
“Go as the bees do and gather us the pollen we need to grow our defense,” Atlas told her, earning him a terse eye roll from his brother. Zephyr had little patience for poetry or metaphors.
“Do what you must, but be smart,” he advised. “You will be no help to us dead, Kat.”
The word landed like a slap. It had never occurred to Katerina that she might die in this war, not even once.
“How can you be so naive?” Leni had asked. “Is there no caution in your heart?”
“None,” Katerina retorted. “I leave the caution up to you.”
They were so different in that way. Mama had always said as much, had called them her “oil and water” for as long as Katerina could remember. She thought of her parents often in the days following the invasion. Santorini had been swamped, earmarked as an important base for the enemy, and there was no way of knowing what fate would befall those living there. She wondered if Baba, who was nearing fifty, would join the Resistance fighters, or if he would remain atGiagiá’s house to watch over her and Mama. She knew any stubbornness in her had been inherited from her father, and worried privately where that fire would lead him.
“Mama will not let him do anything foolish,” Leni reassured her. “All will be well, you’ll see.”
Katerina had said nothing.
Folegandros was not a big island, though within only a week of the occupying forces’ arrival, it became clear that keeping everyone fed was going to prove a challenge. Crops did not grow well on the wind-battered hillsides, and stocks that had been plentiful were dwindling at an alarming rate. Soldiers, especially those who were removed from imminent danger, had few tasks to occupy them save for daily patrols. Many idled away the evenings drinking, eating, and entertaining one another with music or song.
“Di più, di più!” they would shout at the local taverna staff.More, more!
Katerina had split her herd of goats, giving two to the brothers before moving several more to higher ground, where they would not be so easily spotted. The mature nanny she kept close for milk, butter, and cheese, while Chrysí, the younger goat, barely left her side. Each night, she would carry the animal up the wooden ladder to the attic and sleep with her arms wrapped around her, Chrysí’s soft golden fur warm against her cheek.
One afternoon, she and Leni were counting the remaining sacks of grain in the outbuilding behind her sister’s house when the sound of engines broke the stillness, low, steady, and far too close.
“I want to see.”
Katerina moved away before her sister could grab her, Chrysí at her heels as she raced by the rough stone wall onto the hillside. There were three Jeeps, the last of which was open-sided with a large gun fixed to the rear. A soldier leaned against it, the very picture of insouciance, his narrowed eyes boring through her with disdain.
Katerina took in his muddied uniform—not quite gray, green, or blue but a sludgy mess of all three—and fought to keep her face from twisting into a sneer. More soldiers were climbing down from the other vehicles, rifles slung over their arms, wool straps flapping away from their ankles.
These pathetic men, they could not even dress themselves properly.
Chrysí dropped her head and began to nibble at the sparse patches of grass around Katerina’s feet, her tail swishing to ward off flies.
Leni came to stand beside her.
“What is happening?” she whispered, darting a wary glance toward the men.
Two of the group broke away, and Leni grasped Katerina’s arm as they approached.
