The Rules in Rome by A.L. Sowards Read Free Book Online Page A

Five
    As the train began its ascent through the Gotthard Pass, Bastien left the compartment he shared with three other German officers and walked to the dining car. Gracie wasn’t there, so he checked the other cars. They’d both purchased tickets and boarded the train at the same station but at different times. As was expected of a German officer, Bastien had purchased a first-class ticket. After giving her a final opportunity to withdraw from the mission, he’d suggested she purchase a coach fare. It wasn’t very chivalrous, and Colonel Ambrose had no doubt given her enough cash for a more expensive ticket, but Gracie needed to play her role, and an Italian civilian in well-worn clothing would blend in best while sitting in third-class.
    He hoped she’d backed out before boarding, but he continued his search and finally found her in the last compartment before the luggage car. She met his eyes for an instant before turning toward the blacked-out window. They weren’t supposed to have met yet, so she was acting appropriately, but he wondered if it was playacting or her anger that had prompted her to look away.
    Bastien continued to the rear of the train before going back to his sleeper. By the time he passed her again, she had pulled the collar of her jacket up so it covered more of her neck, and her arms were wrapped tightly around her body. OSS had outfitted her for Rome, not for the Alps during winter. The compartment was heated but not very thoroughly. He felt guilty walking to his superior accommodations while she shivered the night away sitting on an old bench crowded with strangers.
    It’s her decision , he reminded himself. He’d done his best to make her say no. He’d tried to shock her with a kiss, scare her with stories of the Gestapo, irritate her with endless target practice, and infuriate her with his wardrobe check. He felt he’d succeeded in drawing out each desired response, but none had been enough to make her quit.
    Bastien lay on his bed, hoping the movement of the train would lull him to sleep as it left Switzerland for Italy. He felt a hint of regret as Gracie crossed his mind again. He hadn’t meant to kiss her that thoroughly, but something about her and her lips had created a momentary lapse in his judgment. The confusion and vulnerability he’d seen in her face just after stung his conscience. He’d tried to provoke several emotions, but he hadn’t meant to toy with her heart.
    * * *
    Bastien and Gracie switched trains inside the Italian border early the next morning. Bastien walked around the platform, pretending to stretch his legs as he made sure Gracie was in the right place.
    Winter weather had slowed traffic on the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria, making the Gotthard Pass through Switzerland busier than usual. Axis trains sent through Switzerland were supposed to contain no weapons and generally brought coal south and slaves north. With the heavy traffic on the rail system, less important trains were often forced to side tracks to make way for trains with more vital supplies. Bastien passed one such sidetracked train, its cars locked and guarded by members of the SS, and recognized its human cargo.
    The prisoners’ hands were jammed into the cracks between the doors and thrust through the mesh covering the small windows. Bastien could hear their pleas in haunting Italian, begging for water. The Nazis frequently rounded up Jews, Gypsies, and Communists and sent them to camps. They gathered up other civilians too, sometimes bribing them with the promise of work or cigarettes, other times simply taking them. The car looked like a forty-and-eight boxcar—meant to transport forty humans or eight horses. Usually, far more than forty people were shoved inside, leaving the passengers with insufficient room to even sit down.
    The SS guards ignored the requests. The Nazis often locked people in trains for days with no food or water; they did it to POWs, to civilians, and to