Missing

Chapter Thirty-Four

Sonnenhang, Switzerland — Saturday 5 June 1915

A little past two on Saturday afternoon, Maria steered the lorry into the courtyard, followed by a large Benz-Gaggenau. David opened her door as soon as she had stopped, and she fell out into his arms. "Only two days, but it seemed to have been an eternity," he said as he held her tight.

After a long, probing kiss, he unwrapped his arms from her and greeted Rachel with a hug. "You've everything now from Gottenheim?"

"Most of it's in the large lorry, but the remainder of the wine is in here." She nodded to the Daimler. "Have the carpenters finished the storage bins in the cellar?"

"Last I was told, it should be completed by the end of the day." He turned to hug Maria again. "How were the exams?"

She tilted her face up, a smile filling it. "I topped the class, both with the written and the practicals. Doctor Nausdorf also told me that my essays were among the finest he has ever seen from a student." She looked up into his eyes and blushed. "I'm boasting, but I'm very pleased. Both are being submitted for publication."

"You have every right to boast."

They turned to listen as the removal men approached Rachel and began speaking with her. "Tell us where to place everything."

"Follow me; I'll show you the rooms."

Two and a half hours later, the last of the furniture and bins had been moved into the house and distributed. The lorry driver wiped his brow with his shirt sleeve and said, "We'll pick up the empty bins on Monday when we're here with Frau Eberhardt's belongings."

A quarter hour after the removal men had left, a carpenter told David they had completed the wine cellar. They went to inspect it, then David organised four workers to ferry the bottles of wine from the lorry.

"We had to leave some of the empty barrels behind," Maria said, "but they were old and close to needing replacement, anyway. Other than them, all that's left there are the vineyards, the winery and the empty house."

As they watched the wine being taken to the storage cellar, she turned to him. "I started my bleeding yesterday morning, but I'm so hungry for you. Can we?"

"When the wine is finished, we can go up to your room and arrange it. The hot water is now working, and the water was above body temperature when I checked it at noon, so we can easily clean. We can put towels on your bed."

"I'll go now to begin arranging the room; you don't need me here." She kissed him, then turned to go, but paused. "When they've finished moving the wine, give them each a bottle of the 1913 Riesling with our appreciation for their gentle handling of the wine. They were so careful loading it."

Forty minutes later, the unloading and stowing were complete, and David joined Maria in her bedroom suite. They undressed, then she squatted over the bidet cleaning herself as David watched with fascination. "I had been wondering how these work. That's an ingenious idea."

"Mama had one installed in Gottenheim. I love it — it makes me feel so fresh." She washed her hands and dried herself; then she led him to her bed. An hour and a quarter later as they separated, he looked down at the streaks of blood on his limpness. "Much less than I had imagined."

"The instructor said the average is about thirty or forty millilitres per bleeding. Over four or five days, that's only eight to ten millilitres per day. In an hour, there'd be not much more than a third of a millilitre."

A short while later, they stood under the shower nozzle in the corner of the bathroom enjoying the hot water as they slowly caressed each other. "This is the first shower I've ever had, and I really like it. It's far cleaner than sitting in a tub of water we've dirtied."

"I had never had one either, except under waterfalls in the mountains, until I joined the Army. I've seen nothing but showers there, and I thought it made sense to install them here; they use less water than a bath." He chuckled. "That's not a concern here, though. There's a great supply of both hot and cold."

After they had dried each other, she stepped into a pair of knickers and pulled them up to above her knees, folded a piece of cotton and put it between her legs, adjusted it and pulled the knickers the rest of the way up, adjusting further. "It's a bit awkward, but it keeps me from making a mess." They went back to the bed and lay cuddling and talking.

"You'll have to get a bigger bed for when I come back."

"I still have so much difficulty thinking of your leaving. It pains me to think of it."

"And me. It would be so easy to stay."

"Why don't you?"

"We've been through this many times. We both know why." He held her tighter. "You know your honour wouldn't allow you to neglect your duty. It would be like your abandoning a suffering patient to please your own needs." They lay quiet in their thoughts as they continued to snuggle and caress under the light duvet.

The sound of an automobile engine starting in the courtyard woke him, and he looked at his watch. Seven ten, nineteen ten. We've slept. Maria stirred in his arms as the engine roared the auto into motion, then faded. He kissed her as she opened her eyes. "We've slept. The workers are leaving."

"We should go join the others," she said as she sat up. "They'll be wondering where we are."

"They know where we are... What we're doing."

She nodded and lay to again snuggle into him.