Had some fun with this this morning. Frederick is a pilot, but I can't seem to write him out of his anonymity. It's probably because I couldn't initially find a good backstory or post-war future for the Crofts that they took over and decided to tell me what they were.
And, what does Captain Wentworth DO in Persuasion, really? It might as well translate to a shot-down pilot hiding behind a bay of hale.
Admiral Kroft and Mrs Kroft had their guns pointed at each other.
“Put your guns down!” Anne cried – in English for the benefits of the English pilots.
Neither obeyed.
“You are married!”
“He’s a German,” said Mrs Kroft.
“She’s a German,” said Admiral Kroft.
“No!” said Anne, with some certainty. She doubted it very much, anyway.
“She’s working for the Germans.”
“He’s working for the Germans.”
“You re wrong.” The fact that nobody had corrected her previous remark and simply changed their accusations, was telling enough. If neither of them was German, they could not be working for the Germans either. She did not think so.
The guns remained pointed as the couple appraised each other.
“You love each other!” To be honest, Anne was less sure about this than abut the fact that they were not Germans, but she had to give it a try.
Mrs Kroft only raised her chin a millimetre.
“And love is more important than war. You will regret it for the rest of your life if you love someone and you make the wrong choice,” Anne said earnestly. She trusted they would not shoot each other if she turned away. “And shooting makes too much noise.”
She went to peek out a crack in the wood of the barn door and held up her hand. “Quiet! Germans are coming,” she called softly. She ran back and thought quickly. “Pilots, hide. I’ll hide too, And you two…” she gestured at the lower haybales in front of the high pile. “Pretend you’re here for some romance. Hide the guns.”
When neither Mrs Kroft nor Admiral Kroft really moved – except for a slight wavering of their guns perhaps – Anne first unceremoniously pushed Mrs Kroft towards the haybale, and then Admiral Kroft. “I was hoping you would not want me captured and executed,” she said with some despair.
Anne hid in a corner, from where she could not see the door, but from where she had a fairly good view of the Krofts. They were slow to move and inwardly she urged them to hurry. The Germans could be here any second. Then Mrs Kroft hitched her skirt up to her waist and sank down on the haybale. She pulled the Admiral on top of her and said something to him that Anne could not overhear. She did not know where the guns were, but they were out of sight. A second before the barn door was opened, Admiral Kroft kissed Mrs Kroft. Anne did not know if they were acting, but it looked real.
Mrs Kroft reacted with a start to the opening of the door. She blinked at the sudden brighter light and as if she only then saw it was Germans, she took a second to recover herself. But then a stream of very authoritative German words came out of her mouth, but mixed with proper embarrassment. Anne did not understand all of it, but the German soldiers certainly did.
“Apologies. We had been told there were pilots in this barn,” said the leader. He spoke more slowly and Anne could understand that.
Mrs Kroft looked annoyed. “Do you think we would go in here to give pilots a free show? Of course there are no pilots here. We looked for the best spot and found no pilots.”
“Apologies. We shall let you continue, Mrs Kroft.”
“Yes, well!” She looked even more annoyed now. “Let’s hope the Admiral can still perform after this interruption. He is ill, you know. It’s not a given.”
“Apologies,” said the soldier and the group shuffled out of the barn. If they looked back, they would have seen Mrs Kroft pull the Admiral down again.
Anne hoped the Krofts were not really going to continue. But she had best wait a few minutes before she could peek out of the crack again to see if the Germans were really gone. They too might wait a few minutes.
When she felt it had been long enough, she tiptoed towards the crack and peeked out. The Germans had not left. They were arguing some fifty metres away. One kept gesturing towards the barn and another was shaking his head.
She tiptoed towards the Krofts. “They might still be back. Go on.” And then she went back to her hiding place.
The Admiral removed his coat and placed it under Mrs Kroft’s head. “Better get comfortable while they try to wrap their heads around why you would want to seduce a sick man who can’t perform, in a barn of all places.”
“Strike the iron while it’s hot, or something.” Mrs Kroft pulled his face down and evidently felt it was better to distract him from his gun. She did not force him to kiss her just yet, but she merely looked into his eyes, waiting.
Anne glanced away, thinking she should not be privy to these moments. But another part of her wanted to make sure they did not kill each other – or betray the other people in the barn. They could have done so a few minutes ago and they had not, so for the time being everyone was safe. But the situation was volatile – if the Admiral failed to kiss his wife, she might decide he was a German agent after all.
Anne hugged her knees and stared at the floor as she explored that idea. Would Mrs Kroft call the Germans back in that case? No. Not if he was the German. Because that would land her in serious trouble.
But if she was the German, he might have some trouble kissing her. Anne traced lines on the floor with some straw as she tried to analyse the situation. Mrs Kroft was the most dangerous one, she decided. The Admiral – or whomever he was – had cracked first. Unless he got a grip on himself again, he was less dangerous. He thought – or hoped – that his wife was a foreign agent, but of course she might simply be a German agent pretending to be a foreign agent.
