The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff [highly recommended books txt] 📗

but considered the question. I was old enough to get married. If the war had not happened, I might already have a husband, perhaps even a child. But that world had been taken from me and the idea of marriage and a normal life was so foreign and distant I could hardly imagine it. I loved Saul, though, belonged with him. A life with him, even under these circumstances, felt right.

Still, part of me wanted to wait. Everything had happened so quickly. The sewer was nowhere to begin a life together. Yet this wretched place was all we had; there might never be anywhere else. It was now or never, perhaps our only chance to make our love for one another into something permanent and real. We could be together, not just in those stolen moments where we took more comfort in one another’s arms than we should, but as actual man and wife.

“Yes,” I said at last. He smiled, and it was the first real happiness I had seen in his eyes since Bubbe had died. Then he kissed me. “When?” I asked, after we broke apart.

“Now!” he exclaimed, and we both laughed. “That is, not tonight, but tomorrow.” I started to say that we should wait until my mother returned. But who knew when that would be? With every passing day and week, it seemed less a hope than a fantasy. “Let’s tell my father when he wakes up in the morning and he can help us get everything we need together straightaway.” I nodded, wondering if Pan Rosenberg would be happy about the news. Once he would have minded that I was not observant, perhaps protested rituals that were less than in strict accordance. Still, we had all been forced to change down here, and I hoped he would welcome me warmly into his dwindling family. “We can get married tomorrow,” Saul repeated.

“I want to see Ella first, if I can manage it,” I said. “I would like to get married under the grate so she can be there.” With Mama still missing, my whole family was gone. I needed Ella to be by my side—or at least as close as possible.

I expected Saul to protest, but he nodded. “I understand. We really shouldn’t wait long, though.”

We sat in silence for several minutes. Saul rested his head on mine in the way that had become familiar to us in the nights we read by moonlight. Soon I recognized the slow, even sound of his breathing. We should go back to the chamber and Saul’s father, I thought, perhaps even check on the munitions on the way. But Saul needed his rest. I didn’t want to disturb him, at least not yet.

My eyes grew heavy, too. I blinked several times, willing myself to stay awake.

“Sadie...” I heard a voice call. I opened my eyes, startled. We were still in the annex. I had drifted off in spite of myself. I did not know how much time had passed. Saul slept beside me, mouth agape. “Sadie!” a voice called again, more sharply now. My eyes snapped open. Krys stood at the entrance to the annex, face panicked. For a second, I was confused. It was still the middle of the night.

“What are you doing back so soon?” I asked Krys.

“I was able to arrange transit of the munitions sooner than I expected,” he replied. “Where are they?”

I sat up, trying to get my bearings. “The munitions,” he pressed. “What did you do with them?”

“We left them right beneath the grate,” I replied. “You told us there was no need to move them any farther. So we didn’t.” Beside me, Saul stirred.

Krys’ eyes widened. “They’re gone.” I leapt up and followed him from the annex, Saul closely in tow. “You must be mistaken.” Krys was unfamiliar with the sewer, I told myself. He had simply looked in the wrong place.

But as we neared the spot beneath the grate where Krys had lowered the crates to us, my stomach clenched.

The munitions Krys had entrusted us to watch were gone.

“We left them, just like you said,” I offered.

“You told us that there was no need to stand guard,” Saul added, his voice defensive.

“Perhaps someone else moved them,” Krys suggested desperately.

I shook my head. “It is only us, and Saul’s father.”

“He would never have the strength,” Saul added. “Perhaps one of your men came.”

“None were available. That’s why I’m here myself.” We looked at one another with a growing sense of dread. We didn’t have the munitions, nor did Krys. Which left us with only one terrifying possibility.

Someone else had come into the sewer and taken them.

“Go back to your hiding place,” Krys ordered.

“We have no hiding place.” Only the chamber, just steps from where the munitions had been taken.

“Go back,” Krys repeated, seeming not to hear me. “Don’t leave, no matter what, even to go to the grate. I will go find the munitions.” He sprinted off, footsteps echoing off the tunnel walls as he ran.

After he disappeared, Saul and I stood in stunned silence for several seconds. “Someone was here.”

“That doesn’t mean they know about the chamber or where it is,” Saul offered. “That doesn’t mean they know about us.” The words were of little comfort. Someone else had been in the sewer. That alone was enough.

“Krys will take care of things,” he said, surprising me. Saul did not trust non-Jews, and the fact that he was counting on Krys to protect us seemed the most ominous sign of all. “Try not to think about it anymore. We’ve got a wedding to plan,” he joked, trying without success to chase the worry from his eyes.

“You still want to get married, after everything that just happened?”

“More so than ever. Each day is a gift down here, tomorrow promised to no one.” I nodded. I had not thought about it that way, but Saul was right. Even before Krys hid the munitions, our lives in the sewer were dangerous and uncertain. “Why