Elise took in his thick brown hair, pushed off his forehead, the blueness of his eyes that shone so brightly despite his filthy face. As she finished bandaging his shoulder, she reached for a cloth and dipped it in the small amount of clean water she had, still warm, then wiped it across his cheeks. She suddenly needed to wipe all the grime away, as if by doing so she could erase some of the horrors they’d both witnessed, but she had barely started when he pushed her hand away.

She didn’t let him deter her, straight away starting to clean his skin gently again, and this time he didn’t stop her.

“I survived beneath the bodies of my friends,” he murmured, and she could feel his eyes searching her face as she carefully wiped, moving over his forehead now. “I lay there, feeling the weight of them and smelling the stench of death, until it was dark. Until I couldn’t hear anything any longer and lay buried beneath them all.”

“And that’s when you crawled to our front door?” she asked.

“I could hear something, but I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not. Turned out to be Peter, writhing in pain beneath a pile of men too,” Harry said, as she moved back and smiled at his now-clean face. “I managed to haul him out, and I knew we had one chance to pick a friendly house.”

“Why did you pick ours?” Addy asked, taking them both by surprise when she spoke after being silent for so long.

Elise sat back so Addy wasn’t blocked by her body, surprised at how brave her sister had been through it all. Her face was still ashen white, and her blue-green eyes were wide, but there was an open curiosity there that told Elise she wasn’t completely traumatized by what had happened. That she was genuinely interested in the men in their house, or maybe at having anyone in their house at all.

“Because I saw you when we ran past, just a glimpse, but I saw you both scurrying into your home as we holed up in that barn.”

Elise froze. “You didn’t see us watching, did you?” What if the Nazis had seen them too? What if they knew there were witnesses to what they’d done? Her pulse started to race.

“I saw two young women as we passed, that’s all. And I figured you might take pity on us.” His eyes met hers, the unspoken words reminding her that she almost hadn’t taken pity on them, and they both knew it. “I didn’t see you watching, and to be honest, I doubt anyone could have.”