Posted As Missing

Chapter Thirty-Eight

They were all up, dressed and partway through breakfast when the seven o'clock bell sounded below in Eggingen. "Looks like we'll have a beautiful sunny day for our family stroll." Rachel smiled at David and Maria. "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to do it this way. Simply be down there as part of the scene."

"We need to sort out what to carry with us," David said. "We don't need much... In Freiburg, in Gottenheim, did the German soldiers or other officials stop to question people? Ask for identification like those two soldiers did the other day? Did they search?"

"Never happened to me." Maria shook her head. "I spent a lot of time walking into town to school, exploring at lunch break, walking through town to the gasthaus. The soldiers looked at me a lot, but I was never stopped. But it's not close to the border like here."

"They looked at you because you are so spectacularly beautiful," he said. "No healthy man could keep from looking at you, at the graceful way you move, the confidence you exude."

"He's right, Maria, even if you weren't my daughter, I'd still say you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, even more beautiful than I was at your age and I'm told I turned a lot of men's eyes and hearts in those days."

"You two are making me blush."

"The colour looks so good on you," Rachel said. "Come, let's finish breakfast and go set-up a dressmaking shop."

In addition to the seamstress supplies and the other bedrolls to sit on, David took the crutches and began practising on a circuit of the lookout slab, pausing each time he passed the prow to take a thorough look down on the valley floor. He watched the Erzingen border, the eight o'clock mustering of the troops and the three squads as they headed out to the same posts as they had on the previous day.

New activity was a squad heading along the line of trees beside the river downstream of the camp. They stopped a short distance beyond the slough, then four of the soldiers headed back with a body slung by ankles and wrists, head dragging on the ground.

The other five members of the squad remained and moved in a seemingly random fashion. After confirming their activity, he said to the girls, "They're hauling back the corpse. Others are resetting the trap. How are the dresses coming? Do you need any help?"

"No, we're moving along well. An extra hand at the moment would only complicate it," Rachel said. "We've ripped the leg seams, have the darts cut, and we're just now beginning to stitch the skirts together. These will be surprisingly fashionable. We'll do a modelling session within the hour."

He bent and kissed each of them before he returned to his crutch practice and watch routine. He was lying on his belly at the prow, scoping the valley when he heard Maria behind him.

"Introducing the latest in ladies' summer fashion."

He rolled over and sat up as mother and daughter strutted arm-in-arm back and forth across the granite, swishing their full woollen skirts which swept about three inches above the slab.

"Those drape wonderfully, nicely rounded folds, they move well and have a high-quality look to them. You could go into business."

"We're not finished yet," Rachel said. "I'm going to work on completing Maria's outfit, make a simple laced bodice, modify her shirt sleeves and add some shoulder puffs and details. We have lots of material from our spare shirts, the flannel and the clean white cottons. When I've finished with hers, she'll do mine."

He admired the way Rachel lifted a piece of cloth, placed it on Maria's shirt, moved it around and tried another piece, tilting her head. "I'll go back to watching valley. I want you to surprise me with the finished outfit."