Page 88 of The Secrets We Left Behind
“Elise?” Cate turned and found her friend close behind her now, and she reached for her, holding her hand as they waded out. The boat was only small, just big enough for them all, and she knew they had to move fast, in case there were patrols nearby. If the Nazis saw them, if they were discovered, their shot at freedom was over.
“Lift him.”
Cate put her hands under Jack’s back and did her best to help, standing on tiptoe as they heaved him up into the boat. Her lower half was soaked through now, her boots sodden as she clambered up into the boat, breathing heavily as she landed like a fish being hauled on a line, scrambling to right herself.
“We need to go,” someone said, but in the dark she could barely make out the faces. She bent low over Jack, ear to his mouth, her fingers frantically searching at his neck for his pulse.
He’s still breathing. That’s all that matters.
“Stay with me, Jack,” she murmured. “We’re so close, do you hear me? Just keep breathing.”
She stroked his forehead, hoping he could feel how strongly she felt for him. When he lifted a hand and touched beside his eye, she wasn’t sure what he was trying to tell her, until his trembling hand hovered over his chest, before pointing at her.
I love you. That’s what he was trying to tell her.I love you.
“I love you, too,” she whispered, pressing a kiss to his forehead, lips hovering as tears slid from her cheeks to his skin. “I love you too, Jack. So don’t go leaving me, do you hear? You hold on.”
“This all we’re waiting on?”
Cate sat up, scanning the people in the boat. Where was Elise?
“Elise?” she asked, panic rising as she realized there were only men around her. “Elise!”
“I’m here.”
She feared they were dangerously exposed standing there, but as she turned on her flashlight it gave her enough light to see her friend still standing in the water, her hand on the side of the wooden boat.
“Elise, quickly, get in,” Cate urged, holding out her hand.
But Elise didn’t take it.
“Come with us,” Cate begged, as Elise finally took her hand. “I can’t leave you behind, not now. Get in the boat.”
In her haste to get Jack to safety and get into the boat herself, she’d forgotten that this was supposed to be goodbye to Elise. But after everything that had happened, surely she wasn’t going to stay?
“Elise?”
But Elise’s hand pulled away from hers the moment she said her name.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ELISE
“Elise!” Cate said again, as Elise tried to back away. “Elise, you have to come with us. I can’t leave you.”
It would have been so easy to say yes and go, but she’d already made up her mind. She’d never forgive herself if she turned her back on France now.
“I can’t,” she said, as the boat rocked, putting more distance between them. “I have to stay and fight for my country.”
Tears ran freely down her face, the pain inside her building to an almost unbearable crescendo. She’d lost so much, and now she was saying goodbye to Cate, too. She pushed through the water then, reaching for Cate as the men on the boat pushed their oars down, the splash of their paddles the only sound other than her moving through the water.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” she said as Cate reached down for her. They embraced. Elise held her tight, tried to convey in her hug how much she loved the nurse who’d come unexpectedly into her life and ended up being like a second sister to her.
“I’m going to miss you, too.”
“Last call,” one of the men muttered. “You coming or not?”
Elise pulled away and reached into her bag, lifting out the little dog. She pressed him to her chest, kissing his scruffy head.
