She studied her face in the mirror. Clara Bergmann, wife and midwife. She could now add spy to her credentials. She took a deep breath as she thought of why she was about to commit a crime. It wasn’t about her, it was about the women and babies. She had Friedrich to protect her, they had no one and they were most vulnerable. It was her duty as a midwife to protect them. But more importantly, it was her duty, her desire, as a person to help another human.
She left the apartment a short time later, stepping out onto the pavement. She pulled the collar up on her cape and hurried down the street towards the tram.
She had just reached the end of her road when, seemingly from nowhere, a figure moved out from a doorway and fell into step alongside her.
‘Don’t be frightened, Frau Bergmann. It is me. Paul.’
‘I’m just on my way to work,’ she said, pre-empting his question. She glanced around the road but there were only a few people, themselves hurrying to work. No one seemed to be paying her any attention. ‘What is wrong?’
Paul hesitated. ‘One of the pregnant women, she is .?.?.’
‘Bleeding?’ prompted Clara.
‘Yes.’
‘How much?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
‘This one time or other times?’
‘This is the third time. Please, can you come?’
They rounded the corner onto a main street, a short distance from the tram. ‘I can’t. How many months pregnant is she?’
‘Seven and a half.’
Clara felt torn between not being late for work and going to the aid of the mother, who clearly needed medical help. She couldn’t risk getting into trouble at the clinic when she’d only just started working there. She turned to the lad. ‘I have an afternoon home visit. I can come then, but it will have to be quick. I will use my lunch break.’
‘What time?’
‘Three o’clock. Meet me on the north side of the Weidendammer Bridge.’
‘I’ll be across the road,’ said Paul. ‘If it is safe, I will swap my newspaper from my left to my right hand. You will then follow me.’
Clara nodded. ‘Understood. Go back now and tell the mother she must have strict bed rest. Tell her to put a towel underneath her so I can assess how much blood has been lost when I get there.’
He nodded and then strode on ahead of her.
Clara glanced around and again couldn’t see anyone watching her or paying her any attention. Good. It needed to stay that way.
Clara took the opportunity of the tram ride to regain her composure and settle her racing pulse. She was aware her mind was flitting from one dilemma to another, making it difficult for her to think straight. She was a nurse, a midwife. She was trained to be calm and capable. She just had to apply that mindset to everything she did.
By the time she walked into the clinic, she felt much more in control. She would deal with one situation at a time. She was very conscious of the pregnant woman who was bleeding but as Clara couldn’t do anything about it right now, she would not focus on it. She would go about her duties at the clinic, meticulously as she always did and not draw attention to herself.
The clinic was busy that morning which kept her mind from dwelling on things she had no control over.
The first patient Clara saw was an older mother pregnant with her fourth child. The woman had her three children with her ranging from two years old to seven. The poor woman looked exhausted.
Clara gave the children a stethoscope to play with to keep them occupied while she examined the mother. ‘I would suggest some sort of bed rest but I’m going to assume that’s not possible.’ She looked over at the children who were taking it in turns to listen to the beat of each other’s heart.
‘I have my sister coming to stay with me in a couple of weeks,’ said the woman.
‘In the meantime, I’m going to prescribe some iron supplements,’ said Clara. ‘If you wait here, I’ll get them for you.’
The small space of the supply room smelled of iodine and camphor, its shelves lined with neatly labelled medications. She moved directly to the glass-fronted cabinet where the iron supplements were kept.
She set the glass bottle on the counter for her patient, then paused, her gaze returning to the row of identical boxes. Her encounter with Paul that morning and the Jewish woman she had agreed to see flashed through her mind.
