Verena 4
By Gersheimer gersheimer77@seznam.cz
A war-time romance; an improbable but true story. Part 4

1943: Escaped French pilot rescued by a huge German woman - his future wife. 

      Raynal spent the last remaining days before the hunt mostly babysitting 
Verena's babies and nursing his own broken ribs with the help of ointments 
prepared by Verena. The pains slowly receded but his breathing was still uneasy. 
He also studied a big volume named "Jaegerskochbuch" (Hunter's cookbook) found 
at the kitchen.  

      On Monday morning they both went out to get a deer. This time Verena shot 
the 90-kilogram animal herself, without further incidents, and carried it home. 
They also set pheasant traps that morning and in the evening they retrieved five 
birds, which Verena declared to be enough, and they discussed possibilities they 
have when it comes to cooking for the guests. Even though Raynal still felt 
insecure in his forced role of cook-to-be, he asked Verena for several kinds of 
seasonings and on Thursday she went to the nearest town to buy them. >>From that 
day onwards they also decided to stick to the "deaf-mute regime" again. 

      On Friday evening a big cargo van with necessary pieces of furniture arrived 
at the hunting lodge and Raynal again had an opportunity to be amazed by Verena's 
strength and nice attitude at the same time.

      She greeted the elderly driver with glee and a smile and immediately forbad 
him, or Raynal, to unload anything ? "This is a strongwoman's work," she giggled. 
And then she moved the hardwood tables and chairs like they were feathers, mostly 
with one hand apiece, almost without even breathing hard, finally assembling a big 
U-shaped table in the centre of the main room. As a last piece of furniture, there 
came a massive oak upholstered armchair, which the driver announced with a sneer: 
"That is the Reichsmarschall's favourite personal armchair, weighing just the same 
as himself -- a seventh of a ton, 140 kilos, dear Lady." He was stunned, as well as 
Raynal, when she nevertheless raised it with one fluid motion of both her hands on 
top of her head and jumped out of the car as if carrying nothing at all, still 
giggling nicely...

      After that there came big, and apparently heavy, wooden coffers full of glass 
bottles and other provisions, at least ten of them, and two oak armoires, that were 
handled by Verena in an equally effortless way. And then the van was empty but 
the driver still watched Verena with open mouth, not being able to tear his eyes. 
She smiled at him, kissed him goodbye and sat him gently back behind the steering 
wheel. After a while he finally got his composure, turned the ignition on and sped 
away.

      Not believing what he had just seen, Raynal tried to move some pieces himself. 
He was barely able to lift one of the simple chairs, or to raise a little bit just 
one end of each coffer for a few seconds, but each simple act left him exhausted 
and his lungs burning. His greatest defeat, however, he suffered from the 
Reichsmarschall's armchair, which he didn't manage to move nor push by a millimeter. 
'Let's hope that's just because I am still weakened by starvation,' he mused. 

      Verena watched him with a sympathetic smile and immediately started fondling 
him. She had a slight sheen of sweat after her physical exertions and this 
immediately turned Jean on. Wordlessly she carried him to the bed where they 
continued with another lovemaking session -- their longest and most intense to date. 
Raynal peaked several times, and thus had to admit to himself that a "starvation 
weakness" was no longer a reality, rather an excuse... 'How can I be so attracted to 
a woman so infinitely stronger than me? No, how can any man not be attracted to a 
woman so nice and beautiful as Verena, big and strong or not? That's the right 
question!' he finished his thoughts as sleep overcame him....

      The next day, both of them awoke at three a.m. and started preparing the wild 
game meals -- a broth from the pheasants, deer meat rolls with spiced egg filling, 
side of hog with cabbage, etc. Everything for 45 people plus several special portions 
for the top important people, and then desserts, and so on. Verena just went several 
times to feed her babies, but otherwise the time flew by so fast that they didn't 
realize it had gotten dark outside again. Upon opening the remaining coffers, they 
both had multiple opportunities to curse and swear, as the delicacies inside were 
hard to come by even in peacetime, let alone during the present rationing regime. 

      And then a car horn sounded, the entrance door opened and about twenty men 
rushed inside. Two or three were in civilian clothes but, of the rest, half were in 
Wehrmacht, half in SS uniforms, and the two Gestapo men from last weekend were 
here too! Raynal couldn't help feeling his intestines freezing again. 

    "Heil Hitler!" cried one visitor after another. Verena replied in German, but to 
Jean's surprise he didn't understand her now at all. She spoke very fast and in a 
nasal voice in an almost illegible dialect. All he managed to get was the initial 
greeting: "Gross Gott!" and his own pen-name, Hugo.  However, the visitors 
seemed to understand her well.

      Raynal then motioned for the visitors to follow him up a ladder to the attic. 
He knew that those were just the low-ranking hunters, servants and bodyguards etc., 
but the lowest rank visible among them on their insignia was his own, lieutenant. 
Still, they were mostly tall and strong young men. 'Frontline dodgers,' he thought 
with contempt, while showing them wordlessly places to sleep in the hay. To his 
relief, no one tried to ask him anything more, including the two Gestapo men who 
rather tried to avoid eye contact with him at all. 

      The dinner, however, lasted a lot longer than he had expected. The guests 
themselves opened one of the coffers, loaded mostly with rare French wines 
including vintage Champagne (Raynal watched this with fury in his eyes but 
maintained his composure), and ate and drank as if they had just overcome a great 
hunger. They were also yelling at each other, laughing wildly, singing with brute 
voices and so on for some while -- all this adding to Raynal's disgust. 'If I only 
had ten grams of strychnine, you pigs,' he mused. 

      However, around nine p.m. Verena uncompromisingly finished the dinner, 
asking everyone to go to bed. She and Raynal continued tidying up and washing the 
dishes till eleven and then they retired to the bedroom with the already crying 
babies. She then firmly embraced him and whispered in his ears almost 
imperceptibly: "I and everyone else will wake up at four a.m. and go out to meet 
high-ranking officials, and to lead them to the hunt. You stay here and look after 
the babies and finish the meals so that they are ready for consumption around 
four p.m. I will return with all the hunters around three o'clock. They will feast 
and eat and drink till midnight, and then the high-ranking ones will leave while 
those that sleep here will stay till next morning. We will have to tend to them as 
waiters during the feast, but then you can go to sleep. I will tend to the top 
officials at the head of the table, you to the rest. Don't forget that you are 
deaf-mute for a single second, Jean! Only on Monday afternoon we will be finally 
alone and free."

      When Raynal woke up, almost everybody was already out. He went into the 
kitchen and started to prepare the meals and the rest, returning only to feed 
Frederika and Johanna with a spoon. A few low-ranking guests returned sooner than 
he expected, but they didn't bother him. He contemplated at least spitting into 
each meal, but decided not to -- it would have been too down-to-earth. Shortly 
after noon he put everything into the oven and hoped that the hunters would 
return in time. 

      Indeed they did, and even though Jean had been mentally fortifying himself, 
the sight of the Supreme Commander of the enemy Air Force came as a shock to him. 
As fat and ugly as he had expected, but many times more dominating; Ruler of Life 
and Death -- at least among his entourage, that was the feeling he exuded. There 
were at least twelve generals, with one to four stars, both from the Air Force and 
the infantry, as well as the SS; also many colonels and majors. But, one could hold 
every single one of them to be mere servants, as everyone turned quiet when the 
Reichsmarschall entered the lodge, waiting for his orders. He seemed to be in good 
mood after the hunt, though, and just reminded everyone to disrobe, sit by the table 
and wait for the meals in patience. 

      Raynal quickly overcame his gut feelings, disappeared into the kitchen and, 
in great haste, took the food from the oven and began to dress all the dishes. In 
a while Verena passed by him, flashing him an assuring smile, to the bedroom where 
the babies waited. 

      When she returned few minutes later, Jean's jaw fell open. She was suddenly 
dressed only in a white embroidered shirt with short sleeves, and a white skirt that 
looked so short on her, leaving her lower abs as well as her knees bare. Apparently 
she had re-used parts of her wedding dress, and her appearance was very sexually 
inviting, her breasts almost spilling out of the tight shirt. Her lips were glistening 
with a red-hot lipstick and her nails and toenails were the same colour -- she was 
walking barefoot now. Almost like a beautiful young village maid, but half again as 
large. 'It has to be intentional,' thought Jean. 'Let's hope that her plans will go 
well.' He suppressed his horniness and started running from the kitchen to the 
dining room with hands full of plates and back, not paying much attention to his 
environs.

      Verena swiftly joined him in his waiter's duties. When she first appeared in 
the dining room, everyone suddenly fell quiet. But then, a cacophony of voices erupted 
in whooshes, catcalls, and so on. Everyone's eyes seemed to be fixed on Verena for 
long minutes. She was serving only the top officials at the head of the table -- the 
Reichsmarschall, the generals and one rather small, mousy man in civilian clothes 
with a thin moustache. She didn't pay much attention to their inevitable lecherous 
looks and comments and her face was rather expressionless. No one, however, ever 
dared to try and touch her.

      It took the guests some three hours to eat the soup and the three prepared 
courses. Raynal was intentionally paying attention only to his duties, running to and 
fro as fast as he could, and no one ever stopped him. He had a chance to see Verena 
talk several times with some of the guests, most of all with the only prominent 
civilian, but again, she always spoke in that strange dialect so he was hardly able 
to discern the sense of it.

       Before the time came to serve desserts, the Reichsmarschall spoke and, still 
apparently being in good mood, announced haughtily: "Let us all thank our 
beautiful host, the extraordinary specimen of rural German maid, for her excellent 
cooking. Let us also enjoy her other scarce talents though, and ask her to show a 
little of her amazing strength. For those who don't know, she traveled with a circus 
before the war, eclipsing every circus strongman of that time. Let us see this new 
proof of superiority of our nation and hope that its future generations, after the 
victorious war, will all be as healthy and capable as our host!"

      An obligatory applause, cheers and laughter followed and then an order was 
given to clear the space in between the tables. Verena held rather a stony face but 
then went between the tables and asked for six men, all in SS uniforms, to join her. 

      Raynal didn't have much time to watch the spectacle and, in between running to 
and from the kitchen with the dishes, he only managed to catch some glimpses of 
the happenings. He was still disgusted by the haughty guests and wasn't in the 
mood to enjoy anything about his lover. He nevertheless saw Verena holding two 
SS officers for a moment above ground, one with each hand, then holding one 
sitting on a heavy chair on the open palm of her left hand, holding four of them on 
her shoulders and extended arms at one time, and so on. She also tore some chains 
and bent some iron rods brought from outside by the drivers, which always made a 
big impression on the guests.

      Then the mousy man brought a rope from outside and announced a game of tug-
of-war. Verena was always able to overpower three and sometimes even four 
opponents at once. Even though she got finally beaten when her opponents 
amounted to five, it wasn't lost to Jean that being barefoot also disadvantaged her. 
She also seemed to grow more and more reluctant to continue with her displays, but 
she always succumbed to the lengthy persuasion by the mousy civilian. He seemed 
to have some special position among the guests, and Jean wondered whether he 
hadn't seen him earlier. However, he had to mind his own business -- he had 
desserts in the kitchen, ready to be served when the Verena's strength interlude 
finally finished. 

      And then the mousy man announced one last competition. He told the six SS 
men to divide in half, grab the opposite ends of the rope, and start pulling. When 
they did so, Verena stepped to the middle of the rope, crossed her arms, caught the 
rope on two places about sixty centimetres apart and started pulling. Amazingly, 
she was able to pull both ends closer so that a loophole formed on the rope, despite 
the fact that the three men on each side continued to pull with all their combined 
might! She even put the loophole around her own head for a few seconds and then 
removed it and let the opponents regain some length of rope. 

      And finally, after allowing her arms a short rest, she caught the rope again 
the same way, pulling inwards in one short burst of power so strong that all six 
SS-men fell instantly in a heap at her feet. There was again a lot of applause from 
the remaining audience including the Reichsmarschall, calls "Hoch!" and bursts of 
laughter. But some of the military guests didn't seem to enjoy the spectacle judging 
from the sour expression on their faces....

      Once back in the kitchen, Jean took a big silver plate to put the desserts on 
to be carried to the dining room, when suddenly the noise of a china plate falling 
and breaking made him reflexively turn around before he could realise his mistake. 
He wasn't alone in the kitchen; the taller Gestapo man had snuck there and let the 
plate fall intentionally. He then jumped at Jean and caught him by his neck. 

      "Caught red-handed!" he laughed evilly. "You are certainly not a deaf-mute 
village guy, and I think you are not a simple draft-dodger either. I am sure that 
you are rather a dirty Untermensch, racially inferior Russian or Pole, who doesn't 
speak a word of German and disguises that way. But I will make your big lovebird 
pay for the teeth she made me spit out, I will expose you both right in front of 
everyone! The Reichsmarchall will let you enjoy your boldness on the spot, you 
bloody scum!" After that, the Gestapo man let him go and left the kitchen.
      
      (to be continued)