Harry turned, and Adelaide wished she could comfort him, the pain in his face so visceral as he processed what Elise was saying. “They’ll probably kill him if he surrenders. They’ve already shown what bloody barbarians they are.”

“I know,” Elise said softly. “Harry, please don’t think this is what I want. I’m just being honest about how I see the situation.”

“He’s not just a fellow soldier to me, he’s my friend,” Harry said, his voice cracking with emotion. “He’s all I have left at this point.”

“Then we force him to stay,” Addy said, joining the conversation. “We can keep him in the attic, one of us can watch the door when the other goes in with food, and . . .”

Elise gave her a sharp look.

“He’s not a child or a prisoner,” Harry said, his voice firmer all of a sudden. “Maybe your sister’s right. He’s a grown man, and if he wants to surrender, then none of us can stop him. But I’ll fight with him tooth and nail as long as I can, because I’m not letting him go without a damn good fight.” He cast Peter a sad look. “Because if he walks out that door, he’s as good as dead.”

Adelaide looked from her sister to Harry and then over at Peter. He seemed more lucid now, even though he was clearly as determined as ever to get out of the house. But where on earth did he think he was going to go on his own? Was he going to crawl to the Nazi camp?

“Peter, it’s Addy, from last night,” she said, bending down low and reaching out to him. She touched his arm, gently holding him for a moment before rubbing in small circles. “I need to talk to you for a moment.”

He looked up at her, and the desperation in his eyes broke her heart. Here was a man who’d fought for his country, who’d bravely tried to hold off the Nazis to let others evacuate, crawling on his belly as if he were a wounded animal. She smiled down at him, hoping he could see how much she cared, that she wanted to help him if he’d let her.

“I want very much to look after you,” she told him.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

She could see then, from the way he looked at her and said those two small words, that he was in fact very lucid now. She could see the agony, the pain, within him.

“We can keep you hidden here, with your friend Harry,” she told him. “Do you understand that it’s just the two of you left? There’s no one else. If you try to surrender again, we can’t keep you safe.” She gulped. “Harry truly believes you’ll die trying to surrender again.”