Page 48 of Hearts of Resistance
‘I’ve let my guard down around you, and I shouldn’t have,’ she told him, not seeing any point in pretending otherwise. ‘Don’t ask any questions, especially when the others are back, otherwise you might find yourself without a group of women prepared to risk it all to get you out of here.’
He nodded. ‘I just wanted you to know that it’s nice to hear a familiar voice. I didn’t expect to hear the lovely lilt of an English lass here, that’s for certain.’ Harry smiled. ‘That came out all wrong. What I meant was that it’s a nice familiarity.’
Hazel grinned back at him – she couldn’t help herself. He was too charming and he knew it. ‘Are you missing your wife or fiancée?’ she asked. ‘Or is it just a sweetheart you’ve left behind?’
This time it was Harry laughing, only he groaned as soon as he made the half-choked gurgle. Hazel jumped up and bent down, placing a hand to his chest. She’d suspected broken or cracked ribs from the beginning, and now she was more certain, but she had no idea what to do about it.
The door opened with a slam then, hitting the wall so hard Hazel was certain she’d felt the house jump from the shock of it.
‘Quickly!’ Rose shouted, running past them and legging it up the stairs.
Hazel’s heart felt like it had leapt into her throat as she watched Sophia darting past, hot on Rose’s heels.
‘Get what you need and break the radio down. We’re leaving!’ Sophia panted out. ‘There’s no time to transmit.’
‘Hurry!’ Rose screamed from upstairs.
Hazel didn’t need to be told twice. She saw Harry’s panicked face, wished there was something she could do to reassure him, but there wasn’t. She had no idea what was wrong, but something serious must have happened for them to storm into the house like that, ready to leave.
She hurried into the back room, checking her radio over and closing it inside the suitcase. She held tight to the handle, knowing it was the single most important thing in this house aside from them. In fact, it was probably more important than them.
Hazel ran up the stairs, breathless already, more from panic than exertion. ‘What happened?’ she asked as she grabbed her bag, the one she’d landed with and thankfully hadn’t taken anything out of yet.
‘No time, we’re going now,’ Sophia said, eyes wide as she held up her own bag and fled the room, calling over her shoulder. ‘If we can move him we’ll take him, otherwise he stays.’
Hazel’s body went cold as she froze to the spot. Stay? How could they leave him behind?
‘Downstairs, now,’ Rose ordered, grabbing her arm. ‘Grab whatever food you can carry in one hand or stuff into your bag, then pass it to me. We need to leave.’
She forced herself to follow Rose, taking each step as fast as she could. She followed her into the kitchen, grabbed what she could, wondering where they’d be spending the night, how everything had managed to change so quickly. What had happened to them out there?
‘Get him up,’ Sophia ordered, taking charge.
Hazel didn’t question her, knowing it was in her interests to do what she was told. And the one thing she’d been able to find out about Sophia when they’d been told during training about ‘the fox’ was that she’d garnered the name from her ability to sneak about undetected, to elude everyone who wanted to capture her. That meant Hazel was going to do everything she ordered her to do right now, because she might just be able to save all their lives.
She wondered if Sophia knew that she was on the most wanted list, the one woman the Germans were determined to catch more than any other. It was a piece of information she’d overheard from Smith during her combat training and never forgotten.
‘Harry, you need to move with us. Now,’ Hazel hissed. ‘Get up.’
She watched him struggle, put down the food to give him a hand. He grunted and let out a low moan as he managed to place his legs down. But getting on to his feet was almost impossible.
‘We’re going. Now!’ Sophia called out, pushing open the back door with a bang. ‘Give him this and then leave him.’
Hazel grabbed the broom that Sophia shoved in her direction, wondering how on earth she expected Harry to use it as a crutch in the condition he was in. But she saw the grim, determined set of his mouth as he stood on one leg and took it from her.
‘Get me a towel,’ he said. ‘Anything I can prop on top so I can have it under my armpit.’
Hazel dashed back into the kitchen but Rose had beaten her to it, giving her two towels before hurrying back out.
‘I don’t want to leave him behind, either,’ Rose muttered. ‘But if it’s us or him, we have to choose us. We’re needed more than he is right now and there’s no time to waste.’
Hazel agreed, she knew that in her heart it was the only way to think in this situation, but she wasn’t going to give up without trying. She helped him with the towels and hated seeing the pain etched into every groove of his face as he took his first tentative step and then another.
‘If you can keep up with us, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you survive,’ she said honestly. ‘But you have to move now.’
Hazel saw the panicked look on Rose’s face and followed her out, holding the door for Harry. She had her own things to carry, plus a radio to protect that was too valuable to their entire circuit in the area to lose, and hefting that around was heavy work. Their radio was the key to communicating with Paris and London, and connected them and others to their only lifelines.
‘You’re our pianist,’ Sophia said, glancing back at her and using the undercover term for a radio operator. ‘That means you’re the most valuable of all of us, so I’ll go first and Rose will be behind you. I want you in the middle whenever we’re out in the open or approaching a new area.’
