22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson

Author:Amanda Hodgkinson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Literature, Fiction
ISBN: 9780670022632
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2011-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Poland

Silvana

A cold wind installed itself, sweeping through the forests, blowing the leaves off the trees. Silvana watched the leaves tumbling down, circling and dancing around her. It had been over a year since she had left Warsaw. Over a year since she had last seen Janusz. She heard a noise of cracking twigs and sat up as Gregor lumbered into view, carrying a sack, which he dropped in the middle of their camp.

He made a great show of emptying it, handing out black bread and apples to everybody.

‘And I have … salt!’ he said.

He dipped his finger in a paper parcel and licked it. ‘We will need it for the winter. We should make a store if we can. There’s a woodsman who has a cottage a mile or so from here. He’s friendly and willing to give us food. I treated his wife for stomach pains. I used chaga, a fungus that grows on birch trees. She’s promised me she will kill a couple of chickens for us. Then we can have a feast.’

In dribs and drabs after that, Gregor brought other things, some milk in a can, more bread, some potatoes. The now heavily pregnant Elsa ate first. She wasn’t far off giving birth, that was obvious. Gregor sat beside her until she had had enough. Silvana pushed Aurek forward.

‘After her, he must eat. He’s a child. He needs the food.’

She sat him on her lap and guarded him while he ate. The others talked about her but she didn’t care. The boy had to eat.

They reorganized the camp for winter, weaving wild clematis and the bark of the birch trees into panels to make walls for their huts. Branches were bound together to make shelters, which Silvana padded with moss and dried bracken. Gregor walked among them, undoing mistakes and handing out sheaves of willow canes he had gathered. Without him, Silvana doubted any of them would survive.

He came to her again one night, pushing his rough hands into her clothes, disturbing the small amount of warmth she had, sending cold air against her skin. His breath smelt sour.

‘Who are you keeping yourself for?’ he asked. ‘Your husband is never coming back. He’s dead on a battlefield somewhere. Stop this ridiculous show of independence. It’s not worth it.’

His words broke something in her, and she gave a sob as she opened her arms to him, pressing her lips against his.

It was over fast. He was on her and Silvana was bucking under his fingers, already finished with him as he pushed himself inside her. Afterwards she lay in his arms, aware of Aurek next to her, fidgeting in his sleep.

‘You’d better go,’ she whispered.

‘I like you, forest girl,’ he said.

‘Please, just leave. I made a mistake. I’m sorry.’

Silvana heard him pissing against a tree. Gregor was a dog, a wolf with his pack. She felt like a fool.

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