Elise swallowed, not wanting her sister to see how rattled she was. It was her job to keep their little family together, to make sure they were safe. “I’ll be fine, I have a very strong stomach. You just worry about your job, and I’ll worry about mine.”

Addy suddenly threw her arms around her neck, and Elise embraced her back, not used to her sister being quite so affectionate. “Thank you, Elise. We did the right thing opening our door to them.”

Elise gave her a quick squeeze back before retrieving her father’s rifle from where she’d dropped it, carrying it with her and putting it on the table within easy reach, as Addy disappeared to clean the step. If either of those men thought they could lay a hand on her or her sister, she planned on teaching them a very fast lesson.

“Where did you learn to speak English?”

Elise turned at the sound of a raspy, deep voice. She could see that the first soldier had tried to stand, holding on to the table for support. He was the leaner and taller of the two, his eyes a warm brown and the dirt smearing his face doing little to hide how handsome he was. His hair was a dark blond, but mud clung to the tips and made it stick up at the front.

“Sit down,” she ordered. “Our mother had a love of languages and our grandmother was English, so it was important to them that we learn.”

He smiled, and she was surprised how white his teeth were, or maybe it was just because of the contrast against his dirty cheeks.

“Need t-t-to s-s-surrender,” the other soldier chattered, his teeth audibly clanging together as he stuttered. “Help me surrender. Please.”

“That didn’t go so well for you the first time, so I’d say that option is off the table,” Elise said, setting the water to boil and finding some old towels that she kept for cleaning. She scooped them up and marched back to the table, touching a hand to the soldier doing all the jabbering. He looked like he was about to slide straight off the chair.

“You saw what happened, didn’t you?”

She met the gaze of the more coherent of the two again. “Yes, we did see,” Elise said gently. “I’m so sorry.”

“Those bastards, they just massacred us! We tried to surrender and—”

“I know,” she replied, taking a deep breath. “I know what they did, I saw all your men, and you’re right, it was nothing short of a massacre. I’m so sorry.”