Page 79 of The Secrets We Left Behind
“I’ll be the one giving orders,” Elise snapped, pushing past him to lead the way. “You’re the one who landed on my doorstep in the first place, and you suggested Addy go to that godforsaken Nazi, so forgive me for not wanting to hear the sound of your voice just now.”
Jack’s fingers brushed past Cate’s then, their knuckles grazing, and despite how angry she’d been with him she caught his hand and held it for a few steps, needing someone,something, to take hold of. She knew Elise wasn’t really cross with Harry, she needed someone to blame and he was an easy target for her to be angry with.
Because if Adelaide had done the unspeakable ... Cate shuddered. It didn’t matter what anyone said, she wouldn’t,couldn’t,believe it.
“Are you all right?” she asked, not sure if she was imagining the strain on his face.
Jack said nothing, giving her only a tight smile in reply.
“Jack?”
“I’m in pain, that’s all,” he said. “Something isn’t right inside me, hasn’t been right since I started bleeding on our walk here.”
She nodded. “We just need to get you to that boat. Even more reason to get moving.” Cate refused to think about all the things that could be wrong with him, even as her mind started to race. But it was a flash of white that distracted her in the end.
“Elise, look! There’s Oscar!”
The little dog came trotting out of the trees near the house, breaking into a run when he saw them. Elise bent low and scooped him up as he came near, his pink tongue lolling out as he licked at her face, his leash still attached to him.
“He’s panting heavily,” Cate said. “Do you think Adelaide could be coming back?”
They stood and listened for a moment, ears strained.
“She’s not coming,” Elise said, her voice flat as she held up Oscar’s tattered lead. “Addy loves this dog more than anything, and she would never have let go of him. And if she did, she’d have been running and hollering after him.”
Cate exchanged a long look with Elise, who kept the dog tucked under her arm.
“We need to go,” Jack said. “I’m sorry, Elise, but we can’t wait.”
Elise had tears shining in her eyes, but she forged on ahead, and Cate noticed that she never, not once, looked back. It was as if she knew her sister wasn’t coming; but Cate kept looking for her, certain that she was about to see a mane of blonde hair flying in the wind behind Adelaide as she raced to catch up with them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ADELAIDE
ONE HOUR EARLIER
Adelaide had drifted along on her own and had then sat beneath a hefty oak tree for hours, wrestling with her thoughts. She’d become so used to being under her mother’s wing, and then Elise’s, and now she was all alone.
I’m not alone.
She lay her head back against the rough bark of the tree, eyes shut, lost in thought. She wasn’t alone, because Elise was waiting, always waiting, with open arms; and yet right now, she’d never felt more alone in her life. And with a choice to make that was ripping her in two.
She stroked Oscar, who’d loyally and patiently followed her and then sat in her lap. His rough coat was familiar beneath her fingertips, and when she finally rose, she had his lead between her fingers. It was time to go.
When she reached the two Nazi soldiers on guard, stationed well ahead of the house where Wolfgang was living, she raised ahand and waved, making sure to smile. She received a warm wave in response.
This was why she was so lucky: she’d become untouchable. She was marked as Wolfgang’s, and not a hair on her head could be harmed. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
“Could you take a message to the commander for me?” she asked, speaking slowly to make sure they understood her German, which had improved since meeting Wolfgang, although they mostly spoke in English since they could both converse fluently in it.
She passed a folded piece of paper to one of the men, knowing it wouldn’t be worth their lives not to pass it on to him. And then she went to wait, by the same tree she’d sat under, Oscar trotting along beside her, her constant partner in crime.
She’d asked Wolfgang to meet her, said that she had to see him. She’d toyed with whether to go through with it or not, whether her ruse would be plausible, or if she was even going to go ahead with a ruse at all.
But in the end, there had been only one decision she could make.
“I can’t back down now,” she whispered to Oscar, bending to pick up her little dog and bury her face in his fur as she tried her hardest not to cry. “What’s done is done.” She just hoped her sister would forgive her for not having said goodbye before she left the house. She’d gone about everything the wrong way, but there was nothing she could do about that now.
