“I can’t believe any of what you did! All I managed was to scrub the doorstep. Honestly, I would have fainted if I’d had to so much as touch either of their wounds.”

After a few minutes, as Addy sank down in the pillows and felt her breathing start to slow, Elise whispered to her.

“So we’re agreed then?” she asked, her voice somber now, not a trace of humor left. “We look after them as best we can, but if we’re discovered, we stick to our story?”

“Yes,” Addy whispered back. “We’re agreed.”

She’d saved injured birds and found stray cats all her life, not to mention rescuing Oscar as a puppy from a farmer who was about to drown him in a sack with rocks. So it shouldn’t have surprised her sister when she’d been so insistent on saving the two men. They would do their best, but if they were discovered, they needed to save themselves and plead for understanding.

“I’m really proud of you, Addy.”

Addy should have told Elise how proud she was of her, too, but instead she just let her draw her close and hold her, almost able to imagine it was her mother holding her, instead of her big sister.

The next morning, after waking up snuggled tight to Elise, Addy rose and quickly got dressed. She roused her sister, not used to being the first up, which told her that the events of the night before must have really taken a toll on her.

Thump.

She cringed. It was a very weird feeling hearing noises downstairs, knowing that they were being made by men; men who were essentially strangers to them. As their family had slowly become smaller, she’d grown used to it being just the two of them, and that also meant having a very quiet house most of the time.

Oscar had already jumped off the bed to go down and investigate, and Adelaide pulled on a thick woolen cardigan as she waited for Elise to drag herself out of bed.

“What time is it?” Elise croaked.

“Seven,” she replied. “And it sounds like there’s a large animal downstairs, so I think we need to get down there.”

Elise groaned, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and rubbing at her head. Adelaide decided to leave her and go down on her own, although the second she stepped into the living room, she wished she’d waited for her sister so she wasn’t alone.

“Oh Lord,” she muttered, as she surveyed the room.