Page 19 of The Secrets We Left Behind
Elise waited. “Of course.”
“Do you have any alcohol?”
She hesitated, seeing the anguish on Peter’s face and the pain in Harry’s as he tried to get comfortable on the small, upright wooden chair she’d sat him on. “Yes, of course,” she eventually said, before calling out to Addy. “Bring Father’s whisky.”
“How many glasses?” Addy called back.
“Just the bottle,” Harry replied for her.
Elise turned back to Peter, knowing she couldn’t put it off for much longer. She stared at the bone, wondering if he even knew that his lower leg was as good as snapped in half.
“Peter, can you hear me?” she asked, placing a hand on his forearm and giving him a little shake. He was tipped back, his shoulders slumped and his head to the side, his body still trembling. What was she thinking? She should have wrapped them both in blankets straight away, stopped them from becoming hypothermic, and started to give them small sips of something,anything, hot as well.
Addy was standing by her side now and she held out the bottle of whisky. Elise took it from her, passing it to Harry. He took a few big gulps that made her cringe just watching, but when he passed it back to her she decided to take a sip herself for courage.
The burn in her throat was instant but she stifled her cough, inhaling through her nose and wondering if it would, in fact, help her. The only thing she knew for sure was that it had landed in her stomach like a pool of liquid fire.
“So what can I do?” Addy asked.
Her sister was as white as a sheet and Elise took one look at her and knew she wasn’t going to be the best hands-on assistant. “I need you to get blankets to wrap both men in, and boil more water. I need them sipping something hot to warm them up from the inside, so you could make coffee.” She doubted they had enough ingredients to make more soup.
“Anything else?” Addy asked, already backing away.
“A broomstick,” Harry added. “To splint the leg.”
Elise cleared her throat as she prepared to lean forward and touch the leg. “Good idea. Get the broom, it’ll be the straightest length of timber we have.”
Elise looked at Harry, hoping he would give her more instructions. She didn’t usually like being told what to do, but in this case she was as good as blind.
“Give him the alcohol first,” Harry said. “Before you touch him again.”
She leaned forward and cupped the back of his head, but his arms started to flail around then and she only just ducked out of the way before he connected with her, his fists flying.
“I need to surrender! Let me go!” he cried.
It was the liveliest he’d been, and Elise had no idea what to do with a violent patient—or any patient for that matter.
Harry was by her side almost immediately, gripping the table with both hands as he inched forward. She didn’t even know what his injuries were, but she wasn’t about to scold him for moving when she needed his help.
“Peter, that’s enough!” he said, grabbing hold of his friend’s arm as it flailed once again. “She’s trying to help you!”
“Should I just start?” Elise asked, not even sure what to start with.
“Pass me the bottle,” he said. “We need to get a good few slugs of this into him first, to help with the pain.”
“Surrender! I surrender!” Peter cried, and Elise was tempted to slap her hand over his face to keep him quiet, worried that if there was anyone lurking outside they’d hear him. What if they thoughtshewas the one stopping him from surrendering to the Nazis?
“You need to find a way to stop him from yelling,” she said.
“You want me to knock him out?”
Elise didn’t reply. Instead, she took a deep breath and placed her hands on Peter’s leg, surprised at how little blood there was despite such a gory break. She did her best to straighten it, hating how flimsy and weak the limb felt, when it should have been so strong.
“Argh!” The yell was loud and fast, and then suddenly there was silence.
She looked up and into Harry’s eyes.
“Well, look at that. You knocked him out all by yourself,” he said.
