Simple Faith (41 page)

“And my son?”

“I give you my word, Anja. Daniel and your friends will arrive safely in England.” He stood up and offered her his hand. “You have to trust someone, Anja. Let us help you.”

Her head was pounding, and she did not know what to do. “I need a moment alone,” she whispered, ignoring his outstretched hand.

She kept her head bowed and her eyes closed until she heard the click of the door closing. Then she drew in a deep breath and centered herself as she prayed for guidance to know what she must do.

After the meeting with the doctor and vice consul, Peter took a walk in the gardens. He needed to work through all the options for getting Anja and Daniel safely to England. As long as they were on embassy property or inside an embassy vehicle, they were safe from arrest. The plan for them to take a car to Seville and board a Norwegian merchant ship that would take them on to Gibraltar seemed the best possible solution to their situation. What concerned him was that the British authorities in Gibraltar might agree to transport him but not Anja.

But if she went with the others to the doctor’s house, what was the point of splitting them up in the first place? The doctor and vice consul were right—she was in the greatest danger, and her very presence endangered others. He knew Anja would never agree to going with Lisbeth’s family. She would know the risks they were already under, and she would not add to them—especially not if she agreed to allow Daniel to travel with them.

He sat on a stone bench and buried his face in his hands. There had to be another way. He loved her. She loved him. Surely God would never be so cruel as to allow them to come all this way—physically and emotionally—and then not give them the chance to fulfill the promise of that love. How many nights had he fallen asleep imagining the war over and Anja, Daniel, and him back in the States—married and living in a house of their own where …

Married!

If he and Anja were married, could the Brits refuse her passage? Surely not. He ran back to the embassy and up the stairs to the room where he knew that Anja was attending to Lisbeth and the baby.

He did not knock but burst through the door as if he were being chased by wild dogs. Lisbeth and Anja looked up at him, their eyes wide with the fear and concern that had become their natural reaction to any such sudden interruption to their day.

“Hi,” he said, embarrassed that he had caused them alarm. “Where is Josef?”

“He took Daniel down to the embassy library. Has something happened?” Lisbeth cradled her baby a little closer to her.

“No, not at all. I was just … That is, Lisbeth, could you spare Anja for a few minutes? I need to ask her something.”

He was doing this so badly, stumbling over his words and unable to meet Anja’s stare of curiosity.

“Of course,” Lisbeth replied. “We’ll be fine, won’t we, Gabrielle?” She nuzzled the child, who raised one tiny fist and touched her mother’s cheek.

“Pretty name,” Peter said.

Lisbeth’s smile was radiant. “It is, isn’t it? A beautiful name for a beautiful child,” she cooed.

“I’ll be right back,” Anja said as she leaned in and kissed Lisbeth’s temple.

Once they were standing outside the closed bedroom door in the shadows of the upstairs hallway, Peter hesitated. This was hardly the setting for asking her to marry him. He took hold of her hand and urged her to the stairway. “Let’s go into the garden.”

“It’s about to rain,” Anja protested. “Something has happened, Peter. I can see it in your face. Just tell me.” She sat down on the top step, and he had no doubt that she had no intention of moving until he did as she had asked.

Below them they could hear the click of typewriter keys and the low voices of embassy employees going about the business of the day. On an ornately carved table that stood under an equally ornate mirror at the top of the stairway was an elegant crystal vase filled with fresh flowers.

Peter broke off a single blossom of lilac.

“Peter?”

He walked two steps below where she sat and rested one knee on the step between them as he tucked the lilac into her hair above her ear. “I love you, Anja.”

She started to say something, but he stopped her by pressing his forefinger to her lips.

“Let me get this out. You said that you also love me, perhaps not as you did your husband—or even Mikel—but nevertheless …”

Had anyone in the history of the universe ever done a worse job of asking a woman to marry him? She was practically twitching with the need to state her protest.

“I want you to marry me, Anja—as soon as possible. Will you?”

There, it was said. Badly, but out loud.

Whatever she had been anxious to say apparently died on her lips. She stared at him as if she had never seen him before. Outside it began to pour, and thunder rumbled.

To his disappointment, she shook her head and caught the lilac blossom as it landed in her lap. She pressed it to her nose, inhaling the heady perfume that he could smell as well. He knew that from this day forward the scent of lilac would always remind him of this moment—the rainy afternoon when Anja had refused to marry him.

“Are you sure?” she whispered, the words catching in her throat even as tears glistened in her large ice-blue eyes.

“Never more sure of anything in my life.”

“We hardly know each other,” she pointed out, and he grinned because he saw that in the years to come she would be the practical one in their marriage.

“What do you want to know? Ask me anything.”

“It’s not so simple. We are from such different—”

“Shhh. Just say that you will think about it and give me your answer before the day ends.”

A slight frown creased her forehead. “Surely there is no rush. We have far more urgent matters to …”

He knew that he would have to explain things to her eventually, and it was unfair not to give her the whole story. So he sat beside her on the step and told her why they needed to marry as soon as possible.

“Oh,” she said quietly when he’d finished. “I see.” She stood up and pressed her hands together. “I will think about it, Peter. Thank you.” She started back down the hall.

Peter stumbled up the three steps to catch her. “Wait. You are misunderstanding me.”

She paused but did not turn around. “I understand perfectly, Peter. I said that I would think on it.” She had her hand on the doorknob to Lisbeth’s room.

“Just remember one thing, Anja—I love you and want to marry you. Today, tomorrow, next year—whenever you say. That is completely separate from the need for us to do this before we reach Gibraltar. I am trying to protect you because I love you and want you in my life. If we are married, we have a far better chance that the Brits will take us both. If not …”

She stood stone still, her back to him—that familiar posture as if she had steel in her thin shoulders and spine. “Let’s get one thing straight,” she said. “I loved my husband very much. He was my life, but he is gone—as is Mikel, whom I treasured as a friend. Each of these men has shaped my life in ways I would not have believed. But when this terrible war is over, I do not wish to live with ghosts. I will not allow Daniel to dwell in the past. He will remember his father, of course, but he will need your guidance and counsel as he grows to be a man.” She turned around to face him. “What you need to understand, Peter, is that what I feel for you—that love—has a life of its own, and God willing, it also has a future.”

Peter was confused. “Are you saying you will marry me?”

For an answer, she opened her arms to him, and when they embraced he heard her murmur, “I will marry you, Peter Trent—today, tomorrow, or a year from now.”

They kissed, surrounded by a lilac haze as the flower she held was crushed between them.

   CHAPTER 21   

L
isbeth was sitting up in the large bed as if she’d been waiting for Anja. She squinted at her and grinned. “What’s this? You are looking different—pleased, perhaps even happy.”

“Peter has asked me to marry him,” Anja admitted. The truth was that she was fairly bursting to tell someone—anyone. She was very glad that the first person to know was Lisbeth. “It’s not what you think,” she hastened to add. She told Lisbeth about Peter’s fear that she would not be allowed to board the British ship with him in Gibraltar if they weren’t married.

“It is exactly what I think,” Lisbeth said as she laid the baby in the makeshift crib the embassy staff had created and sat on the side of the bed. “Get me some paper and a pen and go find Josef. We must get things in order here.”

By nightfall Lisbeth and Josef had gotten the ambassador to agree to permit Lisbeth to contact her parents in Wisconsin. Josef and Peter helped her downstairs to the embassy offices where a staffer had managed to make the connection. Her father was the clerk of their local Friends meeting, and although the connection was not good, Lisbeth did her best by shouting to explain the situation and the urgency.

Meanwhile Anja explained what was happening to Peter. “The usual process would be for the couple marrying to send a letter to the clerk declaring their intention to wed. The clerk would then convene a committee with the assignment of determining if the couple was ready for marriage and would also help with the arrangements for the ceremony and any social gathering to follow.”

“We don’t need some committee telling us we’re ready,” Peter grumbled.

“Oh Dad, that is so perfect,” Lisbeth squealed suddenly. She covered the receiver. “My father suggests that Josef and I serve as your committee.” She returned to shouting into the receiver, declaring her love for her family and promising that she and Josef and her parents’ new granddaughter would be home soon.

As soon as the call ended, Lisbeth began handing out assignments. “Peter, you and Josef need to set up a circle of chairs in that lovely salon that overlooks the garden. Daniel, you can help. Anja, you and I need to improvise a wedding costume for you. We Quakers may be plain in our dress and traditions, but I will not permit you to be married in clothes you’ve been wearing for two days and used to help deliver a baby.”

“I may be able to offer some help with that,” the secretary who had taken Daniel to see the new arrival announced. She went to a coat closet and pulled out a navy blue crepe dress with a small lace collar. Seeing their surprised faces, she rushed to explain. “There are times when we need to work through the day but also attend some function in the evening. I keep it here for those occasions.”

“It may be a bit large, but we can pin it to fit,” Lisbeth said.

“It is so lovely,” Anja said. “I’ve never worn anything so lovely.”

“Go try it on,” the secretary urged. “I’ll go see if I can find some pins.”

“Wait. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we need to be legally wed,” Peter reminded them. “We may be asked to show some sort of a certificate.”

“I can take care of that,” the young man who had set up the phone call said. “I mean I can make up a certificate.”

“In our faith, Peter, it is the religious spiritual union that is more important,” Lisbeth explained.

He was clearly not convinced. “I don’t think we can count on that working.”

Dr. Alonzo stepped forward. “With your permission, I will have a word with the ambassador. Why don’t all of you get on with the tasks of setting up the room and dressing and let me take care of the legalities?”