I switched off the lamp and started the engine. For some time Lin sat staring into the darkness. “You don’t believe me, do you?” she spoke finally.
“Why should you lie to me, Lin?”
“I have no reason to lie to anyone!” She fascinated me. It might have been that quiet, persistent resignation in her voice, her sadness, her way of talking. I sensed some mystery beyond her enigmatic smile and wanted to know more about her.
It was past nine when we arrived at the outskirts of the city. I pulled up and asked Riedl to take over the jeep. “I am taking Lin to eat something,” I told him in German. I helped the girl to the pavement. Riedl slipped behind the wheel and handed the girl her bag.
“What’s in it, Lin?” I asked, reaching for the bag.
She handed it to me with a smile. “Just a few old clothes. No bombs.”
“Nothing valuable?”
“Nothing at all.”
I threw the bag into the open field. “Why did you do it?” she asked me. “I might need them.”
“Let me take care of what you need, Lin,” I said matter-of-factly and turned to Helmut. “I will be back by six.”
“Take care, Hans!”
“I will, don’t worry.”
I took a cab to Ba Dinh square, then we walked until I found the shops I wanted. Half an hour later Lin had a lovely, light-blue “Ao Dai” and a pair of matching shoes.
“Are you satisfied?” I asked and she blushed.
“Satisfied? I don’t really know what to say.”
“What have you eaten today?”
“Not very much,” she admitted reluctantly. “I wouldn’t mind a sandwich or something.”
I took her to a small restaurant. At the entrance she stopped and asked me with concern, “Won’t I embarrass you?”
“Embarrass me? Why?”
“I am… not very… clean.”
“They have a ladies” room and we have time.”
Lin took her time but when she returned a good half an hour later, she looked much younger indeed and she was beautiful. “Do I look a bit more acceptable?” she asked turning on her heels childishly.
“Acceptable, Lin? You look smashing!”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” she bowed, casting a deep level look at me. I reached for her hand and she accepted my hand gayly. “Let’s go.”
The bar was almost deserted. I led Lin to a secluded table in a quiet corner. “Please, Hans,” she addressed me by my first name for the first time. “Some sandwiches will be fine—for me, of course.”
“You should have a proper meal.”
I ordered curried chicken with rice, salad, fruit salad, some wine, and coffee. Lin glanced around with face flushed and eyes gleaming. “It is so heartening to be among people.”
The waiter came, placing a bottle of wine on the table. He filled our glasses. Lin unbuttoned the uppermost part of her tunic and showed me a small crucifix on a thin silver necklace, apparently very old. “An old missionary sister gave it to me in the brick works where we used to work,” she explained. “She told me that this little cross brought her father back from the Boer War, her husband from Flanders Field, and their son from the Second World War. She gave it to me in the belief that it would show me to freedom.”
“And it seems it did… Where have you been in China, Lin?”
“Near Kweiping.”
“I am glad you weren’t somewhere in the Sinkiang.”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t think I would ever have returned from there.”
“Was it hard?”
“They were savages!” she burst forth. “You have been a soldier for many years, Hans, but I don’t think that you have seen so many dead people in your life as I have seen in two years. The militia just kept moving from village to village, holding trials, sentencing people to death—sometimes two hundred people in half an hour___” The waiter returned and I was glad for his timely appearance. I felt that our conversation had begun to slip toward painful remembrances and I did not want to upset the girl. When the waiter finally left, I saw Lin was staring at her plate. “Anything wrong, Lin?” She raised her face. Her eyes were filled and she was trying hard to fight back her tears. I placed my hand gently over hers. “What is the matter?”
“Nothing.”
She shook her head. “Only… you see, I haven’t seen a table like this for such a long time and…”
Her lips curled down and quivered.
“Then why don’t you carry on?” I suggested softly.
Lin ate like one who hasn’t really eaten for years. She seemed at a loss and couldn’t decide what to take first. She touched everything, mixed up salt and sugar, slipped her fork, and almost upset the wine. Then she glanced up and her cheeks reddened. “I… I have forgotten how to eat properly…”
“Take your time, Lin.”
A second wave of color flushed her face.
“I am embarrassing you.”
“You do nothing of the sort.”
When Lin finished her meal with a long, deep sigh of satisfaction there was not much left on the table. “Would you like a drink now?” I asked, reaching for the bottle.
“I might try.”
“Cheer up a little, Lin… Things will be better from now on.”
As we drank the wine, I looked at her. In the strong light she seemed much younger than before. I knew that she was from a decent family, and I wanted to know more about her past. I had already made up my mind about her immediate future. I would take her to the only possible place I could think of, Colonel Houssong’s house. I was certain he wouldn’t object. Later on we might contact the British Consul. After all, Lin had been born in Hong Kong and her father was British. She did not tell me where her family was. I suspected that her parents were dead, but her father ought to have relatives somewhere.
I excused myself and went to the phone. Colonel Houssong listened to my story without interruption, then asked me to hold the line. I knew he was consulting with his wife. They had a sixteen-year-old daughter, Yvette, and a fifteen-year-old son, Jacques. Madame Houssong, I knew, was generous to charities, and she was spending much of her spare time and household savings on refugees.
The phone clicked, and I again heard the colonel’s well-known, throaty voice. “Well, bring her over, Wagemueller,” he said. He could not refrain from adding teasingly: “Your humanitarian aspirations are truly overwhelming. You should have joined the Salvation Army instead of the Waffen SS.”
“Oui, mon colonel… It might have been a better idea.”
I returned to the table and sat down. “Lin, you are coming with me.”
“With you?” she exclaimed. “Where to?”
“To some place where you can sleep.”
She blushed. I gave her a mysterious look and her eyes widened.
“I… I cannot do that,” she muttered, barely audible. “I… please…”
“I hope you are not afraid of me, Lin?”
“Still…”
She lighted a cigarette nervously, then averting her eyes she asked, “Are you… living alone?” I laughed. “I am not taking you to my place or to a cheap hotel, if that’s what you are thinking, Lin.”
Instantly she seemed relieved. “I am taking you to a very nice family where you will find a girl of your age and a temporary home. Then we shall see what we can do about your getting a British passport.”
“I am so sorry…”
“1 understand you, Lin. Don’t worry.”
The colonel’s family was waiting for us. They all eyed Lin with sympathy as she sat on the edge of a chair twisting her hands. She looked like a frightened little bird. “Please, excuse me.”
She was finding it hard to form her words. “I really… I did not want to disturb you… If only I could stay for the rest of the night…”