And You Will Find Love

In a dark hour before dawn, Stephen heard voices outside the barn. At first he thought they were Russian, then decided they were Polish, Czech, or Slovak.

Some men outside tried to open the door to the barn, but found it had been locked from inside.

Stephen reluctantly awakened Barbara but cautioned her that someone was outside. He didn't know whether they were friend or foe.

"Comrades?" a foreign-sounding voice called out from the other side of the door. "Yanks? You come?"

"It could be a trick," Stephen said to Barbara. "They could be Jerries."

"We don't have much choice but to open the door," she said.

"They know it was locked from the inside. If it's Nazis, they'll knock it open or burn the barn down."

"It's okay, Yanks," another voice outside said in slightly better English. "We comrades."

"'Comrades' makes me worry they're Ruskies," Stephen said as he and Barbara began putting on their clothes.

When they were dressed, Stephen told Barbara to wait up in the loft while he went down and tried seeing who was outside.

He looked through a crack in the door and was reassured. The two men outside were not in Nazi or Soviet uniforms, but wore peasant clothes. He removed the wooden latch and opened the door.

Two thin old men with age and weathered lines in their faces greeted him. One held out small gifts of bread and sausage, and the other a jug of water.

"It's all right, Barbara," Stephen called to her. "They look friendly."

Barbara came down from the loft and the two men smiled at both of them.

While Barbara and Stephen ate and drank, the two men tried to explain why they had come, but neither could understand them.

Finally, in whatever language they were speaking, a word came through that could be understood.

"I think one of them said 'horse,'" Barbara said.

The two men immediately nodded their heads up and down excitedly.

"Ya, Yanks. Horse!" one said, pantomiming by placing one hand a few inches over the other to indicate they meant a small horse.

Then the men motioned for the Yanks to follow.

Barbara and Stephen followed as the two men led them off the farm and back up the mountain path. Near the shrine where they had met the girl the day before, they saw a small brown foal almost hidden in the shadows of some bushes and trees.

Barbara ran to the filly and gently stroked her neck. Finding the foal to be calm, she kissed her cheek and spoke comfortingly. Afterwards, she looked on its left cheek and saw an initial "L" branded there, and on its left hip the letter "P" with a crown above it.