Page 16 of The Secrets We Left Behind
“Oh my God!” she gasped.
She’d expected German troops demanding to be fed, watered and put up for the night, but this ...
She bravely stepped forward, using her right hand to press her sister’s rifle down and out of the way as she stared at the scene in front of her.
It’s nothing short of a miracle.
CHAPTER SIX
ELISE
Survivors.Elise almost dropped her rifle, she was so surprised by the scene in front of her, and she put a hand on her sister’s shoulder to steady herself as she looked down.
The two men wore what was left of their British army uniforms, and they were on their knees in a bloodied, muddy heap on her front doorstep. Their faces were thick with dirt, but one pair of eyes glinted up at her, searching her face, as she had the sudden and impulsive thought to haul her sister back into the house and lock the door. She tentatively pulled Addy back a little.
“Elise, we have to help them!” Addy cried, dropping down, her hands hovering over the closest man, the one who’d been so intently staring up at Elise.
Elise stared a moment longer before panic set in. She frantically, futilely scanned the darkness, wondering who could be watching, who might see the two men who’d somehow hauled themselves to her house.Why us? Why did they have to come here?
“Get inside,” she said, catching Addy’s wrist and pulling her back. “Now.”
“What? Why?” Her sister’s face was a picture of confusion. “We have to help them!”
“No, we can’t,” she said, surprised by how firm her own voice was. “It’s too dangerous.”
The men were groaning, one more than the other, and she watched as one of them crawled forward, like a broken dog hauling himself across the doorstep on his hands and knees. Her heart broke and her stomach churned uneasily at the sight of him, but she had to protect Addy. There were only two of them now, and she wasn’t about to lose her sister or risk being taken herself for helping strangers. It was a luxury they couldn’t afford.
“Elise!” Adelaide begged. “We can’t turn our back on them! They have nowhere else to go!”
Tears streaked down her little sister’s face, but Elise stood straighter, not about to give in. Addy was the soft one, the one who always followed her heart, which meant that she wasn’t the right person to be making the decisions for them. She’d never had to be the one taking charge.
“Adelaide ...”
“Please,” the man closest begged, pulling himself up to his knees, holding up his bleeding hands. “S’il vous plaît.”
His French was heavily accented, his words slow. But she’d understood him in English anyway.
“Help us.” His voice was more of a choke, the words dragging out as he reverted to English. “You can’t leave us out here.”
She looked from him to Addy and back again, so close to dragging her sister inside and standing in front of the door with her gun trained on her just to keep her safe. But for every second she stood staring down at the broken man in front of her, her willpower diminished tenfold.
“Elise,please,” Addy begged, her voice almost childlike. “We can’t turn our back on them!”
Louis.She could suddenly see his face as clear as day in her mind. What if this were her brother, begging for mercy, for someone to show him some compassion, as he cried on his knees, moaning in pain, smeared with blood? What if her brother had been given that same chance to survive, and the one person who could help had turned him away? Something inside of her started to soften.
“Elise!” Addy cried.
“Fine. Bring them in,” she muttered, reaching down and pulling the first man up. His eyes were so bright, despite the state of his face and his broken body, and she kept hold of him tight, arm around his waist, as she helped him into the house.
“You speak English?” he asked, sounding surprised.
“We do,” Elise replied, before scolding the dog as he almost tripped her up, no longer in Addy’s arms. “Go away and sit down.”
The stench coming from the soldier told of death, and she forced herself to breathe through her mouth so her stomach didn’t churn. They had a modest fire burning, and she knew that one of them would have to go looking for more wood if they were going to keep these soldiers alive. The one she was helping was starting to shake almost uncontrollably, and she wasn’t certain whether it was from shock or from getting so wet out in the rain.
“Sit here,” she instructed, lowering him into a wooden chair. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but she’d never get bloodstains off the fabric sofa.
She gave him a long, cautious look, wondering if he’d even make it through the night, but there was something about the way he sat, proud even in defeat, that made her think that if anyone could make it, maybe he could. And with that, she dashed back to the front door, seeing that Adelaide was having a much harder time getting the other soldier off the ground. He’d half-crawled,half-dragged himself with Addy’s assistance, but she needed him inside and hidden from sight immediately.
