September 14th, 1941
"Good morning!" I salute to the king, sitting high upon his horse. His uniform is crisp, and the double row of buttons on his breast glitter in the sun. A small military hat sits upon his head. Every morning, even before the occupation, he rode throughout the city to be with his people. Within days after the German invasion, he resumed his daily rides. He was always alone, never with his guardsmen. It renewed my faith in Denmark every time that I saw him. Our leader didn't run away when the Nazis invaded. No, he stayed with us. He walked among us. He didn't give in to their demands. As long as he was around, things weren't going to get too bad. Our country was still something worth fighting for.
King Christian gives me a small smile and lifts his hand in a wave. I pick up my pace and hurry down the sidewalk towards the park.
Summer is in full bloom in Copenhagen. The grass is lush and greener than I ever remember it. Birds chirp in the fresh morning air. Beams of sunlight filter through the thick trees and cast intricate shadows on the ground. Shop windows are filled with freshly picked sunflowers and daisies. Children wait in line for ice cream, counting the coins in their hand to see how many scoops they can buy. A few leaves crunch under my feet to remind me that the warm feeling against my skin will soon be replaced by the brisk wind of a Copenhagen autumn.
"You know you're late, right?" Jacob asks me when I reach our tree, his lips pressed in a thin line. I give him an incredulous look.
"You only called me an hour ago!"
He cracks a smile. "I'm only joking, dear."
He moves forward to place a kiss on my forehead. Unexpectedly, his arms go around my midsection, and he hoists me up in the air to spin me around. I giggle into his shoulder and smell the clean scent of his shirt.
"What is the good news?" I inquire when he puts me down, his arms still wrapped around me. He leans his forehead against mine.
"You're now looking at the newest attorney of Koch and Gade Law," he grins.
"Jacob, that's wonderful! I'm so proud of you!"
He had finished law school about a month ago and had been looking for a job ever since. I didn't think he would find one so quickly.
His face glows with happiness. "Everything is beginning to fall into place. With you going to the Danish Academy for music next year, and me having a steady job, we can make it."
My heart pangs in my chest. I hadn't really talked to him about not staying here. I had been pushing it off, afraid of what he was going to say.
His hands push my hair behind my ears. "And you know what I'm going to do?"
I'm almost scared to ask. "I don't know, what?"
"I'm going to start saving for a house."
"So quick to get out of the bakery, huh?"
"Well, yeah. But I also want a house for us."
Guilt tears through my entire body. "For us?"
He kisses my lips. "I have every intention of marrying you, Ana Clemensen."
My smile falters for a few seconds. I'm quick to recover, but he notices immediately. "What's wrong?"
"It's just that I'm so young. I'm only eighteen."
He laughs a little bit. "Oh, no. Not right now. I meant when we're both ready. I know that you have dreams of your own, I'm not going to interfere with that."
Disbelief colors my voice. "Wait, really?"
Jacob smiles at me. "Yes, really."
"What if I don't want to go to the Royal Danish Academy?" I ask slowly.
His smile immediately turns into a frown. "Where is this coming from?"
I play with a loose thread on my shorts. "It's been something I've been thinking about for a while."
"Well, where do you want to go?"
"The Royal Academy of Music in London. It's hard to get into though."
He's silent for a moment. "If there's any bit of London left after this war, I'd love to go see it. I've heard it rains a lot there though."
I feel my blood rushing through my veins. "You'd come with me?"
"I would follow you anywhere, as long as you would want me to," he cups my face. I surge forward to kiss him. As my arms wrap around his neck, he loses his footing, and we both fall backward. I land on his chest, so, unfortunately for him, he gets most of the impact.
I scramble to sit up. "Are you okay?" I exclaim, my mind flashing back to the day that we met. I guess some things haven't changed after all.
He grunts. "I'm fine." He pushes himself up into a sitting position. "I don't think anything is broken."
I cup his face with my hands and lean forward to kiss him. "I'm so sorry!"
He just grins. "I'd fall for you again anytime, Ana Clemensen."
I roll my eyes. Taking my hand and pressing his lips to it, his expression returns to something more serious.
"Ana, I want you to be able to talk to me. You should've told me about the music academy earlier."
"I was scared of what your reaction would be," I admit.
His eyebrows furrow. "What did you think I was going to say?"
I shrug my shoulders again. "It just seemed like you were content here. I didn't think you would want to leave. Or that you would want me to leave."
"Don't get me wrong, I love Copenhagen. But I can't stay here forever. Besides, Copenhagen could never be home if you weren't here anymore. You're my life now; I'm always going to choose you."
I close my eyes and kiss him sweetly. The taste of the maple syrup that he must've had with his breakfast still clings to his breath. His lips are soft and warm and move slowly under mine. One of his hands comes up to cradle the back of my head, while the other goes to my knee. I allow myself to get lost in the kiss as the sugariness of it melts away and is replaced with infatuation. My breath hitches in my throat when I feel his hand begin to slide up my thigh to trace the skin underneath my shorts.
I break way when I hear children laughing in the distance. "Maybe this isn't the right place for this."
He grins. "Another reason to have my own place."
I move forward to give him a small peck on the cheek, but he stops me. "Ana, I was serious. Don't lie or try to keep stuff from me. Please. Promise me?"
My heart beats painfully in my chest and threatens to break. Nevertheless, the lie slips out anyway: "I promise."
His beautiful green eyes light up. I'm rewarded with another sweet, but brief, kiss for my answer. He stands up from the ground and offers his hand to me. "Come on, we're going to get some celebratory ice cream."
The voice inside my head screams at me for being a liar. Deep down, I know that this charade can't last forever. But I can't stop myself from taking his hand anyway.
****************************************************************
Thunder rumbles above me. One, two, three, four, five. A bright blue streak lights up the black sky. The hair on my arms stands up.
You're going to be fine, you've done this before, I quietly think to myself. However, the thought doesn't purge me of the wariness that stirs in my stomach.
The back of my neck tingles as I ride down Kastelsvej St, past all the foreign embassies in the city. I turn my head around to look for anybody who might be following me, but the street is empty. All that moves are the leaves on the ground, blown around from the harsh wind of the storm.
It's all in your head, I reprimand myself for being so paranoid. No one is going to be out here.
The sky cracks open again.
104 Kastelsvej St. is abandoned. The brick house has boards across its windows, and renovation scaffolding runs up its side. The shrubs and small trees that lived in front of it are now dead and devoid of life. One touch to a black branch and it would probably crumble. I walk up the three small steps in front of the porch.
I pull the envelope out of the lining of my raincoat. The front is sealed with a small blob of red wax, and the back bears no name or address. Inside is a note with the location of an old warehouse that now served as a secret stash for Nazi weapons.
Slipping the letter through the mail slot of the front door, I turn around to leave. Above me, gray clouds ominously twist around each other. Their inky outlines are only highlighted by the blue strobe of light that flashes behind them. A few drops of water fall onto my head.
The back of my neck begins tingling again.
"FREEZE!"
My body goes completely still. I straighten the leg that was about to go on the other side of my bicycle. My hands instinctively squeeze the handlebars.
"Drop the bicycle!"
I do. Without even thinking about it, my fingers feel for the gun in the lining of my jacket.
"Good, now turn around."
Shuffling my feet, I slowly turn my body around. I'm blinded by a bright light that shines directly into my eyes. The only things I can make out are a dark hat and a pair of shiny black boots. I already knew what that meant, though. I had been caught by a Gestapo officer.
My mind races, searching for a lie or story that seemed plausible enough. I was on my way to see my boyfriend, officer, or I was on the way back from seeing my mother at the hospital.
I don't get the chance to settle on one.
"Ana Clemensen?" the voice rings out.
I feel the color drain from my face. I open my mouth to say something, but no words come out. How does he know me? I think about reaching for the gun.
The bright light flickers off. The officer lowers his flashlight, but I still can't make out his face. However, the longer I stare at him, something about him becomes more familiar.
Slowly, he reaches up to remove his hat. The first thing I notice is the piercing blue eyes, then the blonde hair that is swept to one side—
The sky opens up, and rain begins to pour as I'm hit with recognition.
"Elias Norgaard!?"