A Call to Service: An engrossing, powerful and heart-breaking WW2 novel by Holly Green

Author:Holly Green [Green, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hera
Published: 2024-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Ravna Gora, October 1941

A hundred yards outside Brajici, Steve pulled his horse to a standstill and looked back. He had a strong urge to return and challenge the man who had so brutally ended his conversation with Alix, but after a moment he thought better of it. The man had said Alix was ‘spoken for’. He had called her his fiancée. If he went back it would only start an argument, maybe even lead to a fight. He had no right to interfere in Alix’s private life. He was amazed to see her here, but after all this was her country. Obviously she had decided to go home rather than stick out the war in Paris; but why was she working for the communists? Then he reminded himself that she had had a communist lover when they first met, and when it had come to a choice between them she had chosen to stay loyal to him. Thinking of it like that, he wondered why he had cherished such fond memories of her for so long. He kicked his horse forward and rode away.

Mihailovic, when he caught up with him, was involved in an angry argument with Hudson.

‘The meeting was a waste of time! I have had messages from our government in London appointing me as commander in chief but Tito refuses to accept that. He offers co-operation but will not desist from his attacks on German garrisons. He must accept my authority.’

‘Perhaps,’ Hudson suggested, ‘the meeting might have been more productive if I had been allowed to take part. Tito was prepared to accept that. It was you who banished me to another room.’

‘Why should I trust you, after you have been spending time with that communist rabble?’

‘Colonel Mihailovic,’ Hudson protested, ‘my only concern is to see you and the communists working together for the common end.’

‘And what, in your terms, is that?’

‘To carry the fight to the Germans. To make life as difficult as possible for them, so that they have to withdraw troops from the eastern front in order to keep control over what happens here.’

‘And at what cost?’ Mihailovic demanded. ‘More massacres, like the one at Kragujevac? That is what will happen if Tito is allowed to go on killing Germans. I am beginning to think that he and his communists are a greater danger than the Nazis.’

Hudson said, ‘Maybe when I go back to Uzice I can persuade Tito to take a more conciliatory approach.’

Mihailovic turned in his saddle, his eyes flashing with fury. ‘I tell you now, if you go back to Tito, or attempt to communicate with him in any way, that will be the end of any relationship between us. I shall regard you as a traitor.’

At that he spurred his horse forward and cantered ahead, putting an end to the discussion.

Back at camp, Mihailovic held a meeting with his closest advisers.

‘As you know, my instructions are to make life difficult for the occupying forces by sabotaging rail lines and trains but not to undertake any actions that would bring down reprisals on the civilian population.

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