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Author Insight
When Goodness Must Wear a Disguise
There are times -- like ours -- when good people anxious to help those in trouble must resort to subterfuge because tyrants and their helpers have imposed a reign of ruthless inhumanity. In this excerpt, the year in 1949. Half of Germany is occupied by the Soviets. A British air ambulance has gone down over the Soviet Zone, and the woman pilot is missing. Jasha, a refugee from the Soviet Union and former slave-labourer in Nazi Germany, has received a mysterious letter from someone she doesn't know that suggests the pilot is in hiding. Jasha disguises herself as the batwoman of a Soviet Officer to travel deep into the Soviet Zone in search of her friend. They spend the night at partially ruined medieval convent with just five nuns, and in the morning the Soviet Officer goes hunting leaving Jasha behind.
Book Excerpt
Cold Victory
The ringing of the bells woke Jasha. Such a lovely sound! The Soviets had silenced the bells when she was still very little. She had only faint memories of them, but they were good memories. She associated them with incense and candles, cinnamon and sugar sweets, and playing games with other children. She rose and dressed and followed the bells.
She found the church and the five nuns in the choir reading the mass together without a priest. Jasha sat at the back and let the service wash over her. The nuns’ voices were frail and wobbly and slightly off-key anyway, so she tuned them out. She prayed simply, first the Lord’s Prayer, and then naively: “Dear Mother Mary, help me to find Emily. Help me to bring her home to those who love her, away from the forces of evil that have been unleashed upon the world. She is a good person, and so is her husband. They don’t deserve to suffer for trying to help others.”
The nuns had stopped singing, and Jasha opened her eyes. The nuns were standing around her. “You aren’t really a Russian soldier, are you?” The abbess asked in a suspicious voice.
Jasha shook her head.
“Why are you here? What do you want?”
“I’m trying to find a friend.”
“A friend? A nun?”
“No, a man. Karsten Damien Stift Schenk zu Schwerin.“
“Karsten? You know Karsten?” The Domina sounded astonished, and Jasha’s heart began to hope. Maybe Karsten Stift actually existed? In answer to the question, Jasha explained, “Not directly. He is a friend of my friend Christian, but Christian could not come.”
“Does Mila know about Karsten?” The Domina sounded alarmed.
Jasha shook her head vigorously. “No, no, but I told her a friend had been lost in the snowstorm, and she offered to help because she knows the region.”
The nuns were frowning and ill at ease. Jasha was afraid they would not help her because of Mila, so she made a new appeal. “Please help me! My friend is a good person. She was helping sick people and children get out of Berlin before Russians take over.”
“Then it is a woman you are looking for.”
“Yes — Mimi Preis. She was injured, and I must find her and let her know that her husband is searching for a way to help her.”
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