Just then, there was a flurry of movement and noise, and Jack lifted his finger to his lips. He hadn’t needed to silence her, though; she had no intention of making a sound. Cate instinctively moved back as far as she could without allowing her feet to stick out the other side, eyes glued to the scene in front of her.

Her heart was pounding hard, and her breathing was coming in shallow pants. There was Doctor Connor, and the rest of the men she’d worked with for months, slowly lining up outside the chateau. Cate couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried, and she was certain they were going to be seen, given that she could see them so clearly.

If our hiding place is discovered, that’ll be me lined up there. That’ll be my fate too.

Her breath sounded too loud to her, even though she knew it wasn’t possible for anyone to actually hear her from such a distance.

“What are they saying?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” Jack whispered. “My German is fairly basic.”

As one of the Nazis yelled, Cate’s hand covered her face, half-shielding her eyes as she waited for the inevitable. The Germans’ guns were raised, and as she watched the doctors and orderlies stand, hands held high, some of them crying and almost all of them visibly trembling in fear, she waited for the first shot.

Only it never came.

Two of the German soldiers stepped forward, prodding at the doctors and saying something. She couldn’t hear what they were asking, but she could hear one of the doctors repeating over and over that he was a doctor.

And then suddenly they were being yelled at to move as the ground vibrated through her fingers, the dirt moving as a rumbling sound came closer. Cate pressed her ear to the ground, her head at an angle to get a better view of what was coming. She half-expected to see tanks, but instead there were two large trucks rolling in.

Patients were walked out then too, some barely able to hobble along. Jack glanced at her and they exchanged a look of disbelief. She’d been so certain they were going to kill them all, and instead they watched as patients and doctors alike were loaded into the back of one truck. It was covered with a big canvas awning, so she couldn’t see inside.

“The doctors and orderlies are too valuable to them,” Jack said quietly, shuffling further back against her. “They must need them.”

Her lips were so dry she had to moisten them before speaking. “So they’re going to force them to treat German soldiers?”

Jack didn’t bother to hide his grimace. “It’s better than the alternative.”