“I couldn’t help but overhear you,” Cate said, her slender arms wrapped around herself. She’d been so confident and capable earlier, doing what needed to be done despite whatever horrors she’d been witness to, not to mention the fact that she’d walked through war and fought to survive in the bravest of ways. But now she looked childlike as she peeked out from beneath her fringe, holding herself, perhaps broken in a way that hadn’t been obvious before.

Elise patted the bed, inviting her to sit with them. “Please don’t think you’re not welcome, because that’s not the case.”

Cate slowly untangled her arms as she sat on the very edge of the bed.

“I just . . .” She let out a loud breath, eyes shut for a beat, as if she were trying to find her words. “I know the burden I’ve put on you, that we’ve all put on you.”

Elise glanced at her sister, watching as Addy leant forward and grasped Cate’s hand. She’d almost done it herself, been so close to catching Cate as she trembled, but something had stopped her. The same something that had made her hesitate before opening the door to Harry and his friend; and the same something again that had made her pause before agreeing to help them or Cate.

“We’ll keep you safe here for as long as we can, Cate,” Elise said. “I want you to know that we’ll do everything we can to hide you.”

“But for how long?” Cate asked, her voice hollow. “We could be stuck here indefinitely, and that’s not fair on you. If they find out what you’ve done, if they—”

“Shhh,” Elise said, shuffling forward and placing a hand on Cate’s shoulder. “We’re all going to be fine, there’s no point fretting about something we don’t even know the answer to.”

“If there’s anything I can do, if there’s some way of making this easier on you or somewhere else we can go . . .”

Cate’s eyes were filled with tears, but not one fell, and Elise found herself wondering how this British woman had managed to survive her ordeal, let alone be standing to tell the story. She wished she knew more about what was happening around them; she’d earlier relied on an old friend of her father’s for news, but she hadn’t been brave enough to make the trip to visit him for some time now. All she knew was what Harry had told her; that soon their entire region would be surrounded by Germans, that the ground would be crawling with them, and that France would surely fall. He seemed certain they were only days away from the French surrendering completely, which meant things would only get harder, not easier, for them all.