A Feather on the Water(52)

“Are there any babies missing from the ward?” Martha asked. “Could one of the new mothers have done this?”

Delphine shook her head. “I doubt this child was born in this hospital or any other. My guess would be that the mother gave birth in secret and disposed of her baby before anyone knew what had happened.”

“Do you think it was someone from the camp?”

“Possibly. But it could just as easily have been a local German girl. We don’t know where the baby was put in the river, do we? The body could have traveled some way downstream before the fishermen found it.”

“How many pregnant women are there in the camp?”

“Twenty or so that I know of,” Delphine replied. “I have a list of those I’ve examined, if you want to see it. But there could be others, of course, who haven’t come to me. I haven’t had time, yet, to find out how many pregnancies there are among the new arrivals.”

Martha glanced at Stefan. He was standing next to the baby, but his head was turned away. He was staring at the floor. His hands were clasped together, the knuckles showing white. She saw the muscles of his jaw tighten. She wondered what was going through his mind. Did he know something that Delphine didn’t?





CHAPTER 15


It didn’t take long for news of the grim discovery to spread throughout the camp. The wedding party fizzled out as word of what had happened passed around the tables.

Kitty came over to the hospital, her face flushed from dancing. Dr. Jankaukas was with her. He carried out a second examination of the baby, confirming Delphine’s opinion that the child had been killed before the body entered the river.

It was getting dark when the three women made their way back to the cabin. Martha had summoned a hasty meeting of the blockhouse leaders, but none of them had been able to cast any light on what had happened.

“What would make someone do that?” Kitty said.

“Could be all kinds of reasons,” Delphine replied. “If she’d been raped—like the women next door were. It wouldn’t have surprised me if any one of them had done something like this.”

“But they didn’t, did they?”

Delphine shook her head. “There could be others we don’t know about carrying babies fathered by Nazis. It’s not difficult to conceal a pregnancy if you wear the right clothes.”

“But like you said before, it could have been a German woman’s baby,” Martha said. “God knows what went on around here in the last few months of the war. I’ve read reports of soldiers raping every woman in sight when the Allies took control of a place.”

“That’s true.” Delphine nodded. “I saw it in Paris. There were some who thought they had a God-given right to sleep with any woman they fancied—whether she wanted it or not.”

“Someone from the military is coming here tomorrow,” Martha said. “Major McMahon says there has to be an official investigation. If they find out who the mother is, she could face a jail sentence.”

“That’s appalling.” Delphine huffed out a breath. “Whoever she is, she must be in a terrible state, psychologically. What she did will haunt her for the rest of her life. Don’t they realize that’s punishment enough?”

“What about Jadzia?” Kitty said suddenly. “Has anyone seen her?”

Martha and Delphine looked at her, then at each other.

“Oh my God,” Martha whispered. “Why didn’t I think of her?”

“But the leader of her blockhouse was at the meeting,” Delphine said. “Surely someone would have noticed if she’d disappeared?”

“Not if it happened during the night,” Martha said. “She could have gone off into the woods and given birth and come back before anyone realized she was missing.”

Delphine nodded. “I suppose we’d better go and find out.”



The leader of blockhouse six was surprised when Martha and the others came knocking on the door. She was a woman of about the same age as Delphine, dressed in a long cotton nightgown, with an embroidered shawl draped around her shoulders.

“Wszyscy ?pi?.” Everybody is in bed, she said when Kitty explained why they were there. She said she hadn’t seen Jadzia since lunchtime, that she’d been resting and was probably asleep by now.

“Tell her we won’t disturb anybody,” Martha said. “But we need to check that Jadzia is okay.”

The woman nodded when Kitty relayed the message. She put her finger to her lips as they filed past.

The American paraphernalia that Jadzia had strung up was still there. Martha pulled back the blanket that screened off the bed. There was no light inside—but the dim glow from an oil lamp in the neighboring compartment revealed the shape of someone lying down.

“I think only one of us should go in,” Martha whispered. “We don’t want to frighten her.”

“I’ll go,” Kitty whispered back. “I’ll just say Delphine’s come to see how she is, shall I?”

Martha nodded.

Kitty tiptoed inside and crouched down beside the bed. “Jadzia, ?pisz?” Are you awake?

Martha saw the covers shift slightly.

“Piel?gniarka jest tutaj—ona w?a?nie . . .” The nurse is here—she just . . . Kitty never got the chance to finish the sentence. Jadzia gave a strangled sort of cry and scrambled out of the bed. She crouched in the corner, between the wall and the suitcases, her arms bent over her head, as if she expected a bomb to drop at any moment.