The Girl Across the Wire Fence: Completely unforgettable World War Two historical fiction based on a true story by Imogen Matthews

Author:Imogen Matthews [Matthews, Imogen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800197152
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Unexpectedly, the decision was taken out of his hands when Nelly came to the Koopmans’ home with the week’s parcels. Frans was in the post room, as the family called it, surveying the parcels piled up in the middle of the table. He was wondering how on earth he was going to get them delivered when Nelly’s voice rang out from the kitchen.

‘Goedemorgen, Mevrouw Koopmans.’

‘Nelly! It’s good to see you. What have you got for us today?’ his mother replied.

Frans shifted some parcels to make space for the inevitable stack Nelly brought with her each week. He took no notice of the murmur of their voices coming from the kitchen until it stopped, when he went over to investigate. Nelly had placed her basket on the table and was lifting an enormous tart onto the large blue-patterned plate his mother always provided. Knife in hand, his mother portioned it into eight pieces. He noticed that the basket, normally filled with parcels, was empty.

‘Frans, I’ve brought an apple vlaai today. It’s your favourite, isn’t it?’ Nelly’s words came out in a rush and her cheeks seemed pinker than usual. She caught him looking at her basket and cleared her throat. ‘Let me explain.’ She pulled out a kitchen chair and lowered herself down heavily. ‘I’m afraid I won’t be coming any more after today,’ she began, her voice cracking. She looked anxiously at his mother, who lifted her eyebrows a fraction. Frans guessed they’d been discussing her announcement moments earlier.

‘It’s my father.’ Nelly’s voice was thin, as she tried to hold back her tears. ‘He’s had a bad stroke and is paralysed down one side of his body. It’s too much for my mother to look after him by herself and I simply can’t be away from him. I’m so sorry.’

‘Nelly, you’ve nothing to apologise for. It’s not your fault,’ said Frans’s mother, taking her hand and stroking it.

‘But I’ve let you all down, the people in the network and all those poor people in the camp waiting on news from their loved ones. What will you do?’ Nelly pressed a handkerchief into her eyes.

Frans exchanged a quick glance with his mother. They’d already discussed the difficulties of the smuggling operation and agreed to tell Nelly that things must change. She gave him an encouraging nod.

‘Nelly, perhaps it’s not such a bad thing,’ he said quietly. ‘I can’t carry on smuggling bulky items on the cart any more. We’ve never been caught, but I can’t take any chances, as there are many more guards trained now to search vehicles going in and out of the camp. So far we’ve been lucky and had a prisoner who helped us inside and made it all happen, but he disappeared a few days ago. He’s left me with no one to do the job.’

Nelly finished drying her eyes and forced a rueful smile. ‘I suppose it was too good to be true. Word’s been spreading about the work we do in getting much-needed essentials to the prisoners and more people have been dropping off parcels with me.

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