Th new heartbreaking World War 2 historical fiction novel for 2023. From the bestselling author of The German Nurse comes The German Messenger.
As the bombs fall, the race to save her son begins.
The door crashed open, bouncing off the hall wall with a bang. It sounded as if a bomb had exploded outside. Ruth rushed into the hallway to see what had happened and found Harriet standing on the threshold, her eyes wide. She was alone.
‘Where’s George?’ She couldn’t control the volume of her voice. ‘Where’s George, Harriet?’
She didn’t realise until that moment that she had grabbed hold of the other woman’s arms. Harriet shook in her grip and Ruth couldn’t tell whether she was trying to break free or whether her anger at the woman was the cause.
‘A man,’ she said. ‘There was a man.’
‘What man? Where’s my son?’
‘He was so convincing. It was only afterwards that I thought, there’s no way an official would take a child like that. He must have been following us. He said he was from the evacuation office. I didn’t know who he was. He had identification and everything. I had no reason not to believe him.’
Ruth hauled Harriet into the kitchen and almost threw her into a chair. It rocked back like some kind of prop from the Playhouse, but she wasn’t laughing. The front door banged in the breeze.
‘Tell me what happened, and where this man is now,’ she said.
Harriet’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. ‘We were down at the docks again. Under the dockers’ umbrella, the overhead railway. This man came over, he had this warming smile. He said hello and showed us his ID. It was all official looking, but I didn’t get a proper look.’
‘And you just let him take George? My son!’ Ruth stormed to the kitchen window and gripped the worktop to stop herself from falling.
‘I didn’t have a chance to stop him. As soon as he showed me his identification he grabbed George and put him in the back of a car. I tried to follow, I promise I did, but it drove off too quickly and I was left there with no one to help.’
‘What did he look like?’ Ruth took a hold of Harriet again, staring into her eyes as if looks could kill.
‘I don’t know,’ she replied, shaking her head.
‘Think. You must remember something about him.’
‘He was tall, maybe six foot, fair. Sounded like a docker, but not local. He wore a long coat. That’s all I can remember.’
‘What about the car?’
‘I didn’t get a good look at it. I’m sorry! I didn’t recognise the badge, and it was black and battered, all rusted up, like. It’s what made me realise he couldn’t be who he said he was.’
How could Harriet have been so careless? The scant details she remembered didn’t narrow things down at all, but at least it was something. Ruth would head back to the docks and see if anyone had seen anything. She let go of Harriet, but the older woman clawed at her as if trying to embrace her. Ruth pulled away. She didn’t want to be touched right now. It was too much.
‘How could you give my son to anyone else? I trusted you. You of all people, I trusted. You were like family. Better even. I trusted you where I couldn’t trust them.’
Harriet burst into tears. ‘I didn’t know. Oh god, Ruth. I’m so sorry.’
Extract from The German Messenger by M.J. Hollows
