Elise glanced at her. “German soldiers, I’d suspect,” she said. From what she’d heard, the war wasn’t exactly going in their favor, but there’d been so much to deal with after their father had passed that she hadn’t given it too much thought. Perhaps, like almost everyone else, she’d secretly believed that there was no way one army could defeat the British and French armies combined, not to mention the Belgian and Polish troops fighting alongside them. Perhaps she wasn’t so dissimilar to her father—his optimism had always been too far-reaching.

“They’re going past our house,” Adelaide whispered. “What are they going to do here? Why are they here?”

Elise’s stomach knotted. She hoped they weren’t about to be stuck in the middle of all-out fighting. “I don’t know. But we need to get back to the house soon.”

She looked at Oscar in her sister’s arms, her fingers tight across his muzzle to stop him from barking, and reached out to touch his wiry fur. He’d been their brother’s dog, and had sat on the doorstep every evening for almost a year, as if waiting for him to arrive home, and she knew she’d protect the animal almost as fiercely as she’d protect her sister if it ever came to it.

As she turned her focus back to the British soldiers, she estimated there were eighty, maybe even a hundred of them as they continued on, passing their house and disappearing through the clearing on the other side. She leaned out, taking a few tentative steps to see if any more followed. There was movement; she could hear it in the trees but she couldn’t see anything, and something told her it might be their only chance to make a run for it.

“Quickly, let’s go!” she urged her sister, grabbing for her hand and letting her go on ahead.

Elise kept looking over her shoulder, praying they’d make it safely inside before gunfire erupted again. And just as they made it, as her foot connected with the bottom step leading up to their house, she heard something that made her blood run cold.

German voices. German shouts.

“Get in!” she yelled at Adelaide, roughly pushing her up the stairs and fumbling for the door.

They fell inside, stumbling over one another as Elise slammed the door behind them. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled for the lock, making sure it was securely fastened before running through the house to check the kitchen door, too.

“Make sure all the windows are closed,” she called to Adelaide. “And pull all the curtains.”

She had no idea if she was even doing the right thing, but it seemed safer to close everything. German soldiers could easily storm the house and kick down their doors, but it was all she could think to do, and it felt better than doing nothing.