Page 35 of The Secrets We Left Behind
How did the woman know his name? Cate’s hand fell away, as if she’d been slapped, terror rising inside her for a moment, wondering what kind of situation she’d stumbled into. Was this a friendly house or not? Were they simply playing a cat and mouse game with her? Or was this woman just a tremendous actress?
But as Wolfgang smiled, waved, and finally turned to go, disappearing into the darkness, the other woman’s sigh of relief calmed Cate’s nerves.
“I’m Adelaide,” she whispered, once he’d gone.
“Cate,” she replied, passing her the dog she’d been holding under her arm. “Thank you for going along with my story, you saved me there.”
“You’re playing with fire, lying to the Nazis.” Adelaide pushed open the door with her elbow. “I suppose you’d better come inside.”
But as they turned, into the warmth, into the type of house that reminded Cate of home, as the door closed behind them, a voice in the dark stopped her in her tracks.
“Oh Adelaide, what have you done?”
The words fell from the shadows, from a woman not quite as beautiful as the other, even though it was clear they were sisters; only this one was pointing a gun at her. And she knew then that if the other woman had opened the door, she may not have readily accepted the lie.
Perhaps this house wasn’t to be her refuge after all.
CHAPTER TEN
ELISE
This can’t be happening. Elise stared at the bedraggled-looking woman standing in her doorway, hair plastered to her head and clinging to her forehead, and a soaking wet blanket clutched around her shoulders.
“Elise, this is Cate,” Adelaide said quietly, her eyes downcast.
“So I heard,” Elise muttered.
Cate stood and blinked back at her like a lost child, and even though Elise could see her shaking with cold, her cheeks so white they looked like they’d been touched by ice, she still didn’t move. She should have opened her arms and her heart to her, taken her in by the fire and made hot coffee for her, but instead her feet stayed rooted to the spot.
We can’t take someone else in. I cannot have another fugitive in my home!
She prayed that Harry wouldn’t make a noise. They didn’t know who Cate was or why she’d suddenly ended up in their home; for all they knew, she could be a Nazi sympathizer despite the scene on the porch. Did this have something to do with Addy helping Peter? Had someone suspected they could be hiding something orsomeoneelse? Elise had never been so openly suspicious of people, but something had changed within her since the war began and their family had been reduced to two, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stamp it out.
Adelaide put her arm around Cate’s shoulders then, ever-nurturing, and Elise hastily set down her gun. She’d been holding it since the knock at the door, ready to defend them if she needed to, and once again she’d sent her sister to answer it. Thank goodness she had—the German commander certainly seemed to like Adelaide, and he’d been too busy smiling at her to bother checking their home.
“Where have you come from?” Elise finally asked. “Why are you here?”
“Elise!” Adelaide scolded. “Be nice, she’s not exactly the enemy.”
Elise glared at her sister, her nostrils flaring out as anger pulsed within her. “She’s a stranger to us, who’s turned up on our doorstep at nightfall in the rain, so no, I will not just be nice. I want to know who she is and why she’s here.”
Adelaide glared back at her, but she didn’t argue. Cate stepped forward, though, slowly opening the blanket she’d been keeping so tightly clutched around her body.
Elise automatically reached for the rifle, but the sadness in Cate’s eyes, the way she dropped the blanket, made her stop. This woman didn’t have a weapon; she was trying to show them who she was.
“You’re—” Elise started.
“A nurse, with the British army,” Cate interrupted. “Everyone else was taken, except for me. I’m no threat to you, I promise.”
Elise was lost for words, studying the woman’s filthy uniform and then her face, trying to tell if she was lying, but she instinctively knew it had to be the truth. The British army had abandoned her? Her heart danced all the way to her stomach and back as realitystruck her: there would be no easy defeat of the German forces by the French and British. It was surely as good as over if this were the case.
“Go on,” she urged, trying to quell the rising unease within her.
Cate’s lips parted, but they were dry and still chattering. There was fear shining in her eyes, and Elise immediately regretted how cold she’d been toward her.
“Adelaide, get her some water,” Elise said, not taking her eyes from Cate’s face. “And something to eat.”
“I can’t stay, I have to get back to Jack,” Cate said, sounding panicked. “I left him, but he’ll die if I don’t—”
