It involves a woman on a farm after world war two. She has two farmhands, one a former Nazi, the other a former allied soldier. Also there's the proverbial macguffin, providing the "science" of the story. The macguffin was hidden on the farm by either the woman or one of the men, I'm not sure but one of the men might be killed at the end of the story. Since part of the intrigue was that both men could stay on her farm, as long as they tolerated each other.
I think the macguffin had something to do with time, as far as I remember it was small enough to be hidden in a haystack. (Seriously a macguffin with tentacles, tell me about that one. And is a macguffin with tentacles, technically, still a macguffin?) Obviously the macguffin was a piece of machinery, small enough to be hand-held. And yes, most certainly advanced tech.
It's a very simple story really, 3 main characters, and rather pastoral. Not much happens, I think the story revolved around keeping the macguffin safe. Other than the obvious dynamics between the two men
Actually, to be totally honest (you people are gonna hate me), but the story might not be done be a genre writer. As I've always read more "high" literature than genre (perhaps a literature writer infusing some SF ?), I came late to genre fiction. The story has a pastoral sense, think Clifford d. Simak (still my favorite sf writer), but with a more "literate" sense (?).
Most likely it would have been from a short story collection of one particular writer, rather than from an anthology. Also, I apologize, I'm not quite sure it was a short story. But I figured the particulars, though sparse, were quite telling and memorable (i.e. WW2) Most likely a golden age writer, during that time I wasn't reading a lot of contemporary SF.
I hope someone can help me out, this particular itch has been irritating me for a couple of years now.
