Footsteps thumped through the entryway.
Hemming pressed his finger to his lips and hurried to the door.
“There you are,” a man said. “I heard—”
“I thought you and Janne went to visit her sister’s family.” Hemming spoke in Danish, and he stood blocking her view of the man.
“My niece has the chicken pox, so we stayed home. I thought I heard voices.” A light-haired man in his forties peered around Hemming’s shoulder, and he scowled at Hemming. “You have a guest?”
Hemming groaned and stepped aside. “Else, may I introduce Thorvald Thorup, groundskeeper, boat keeper, and one of my closest friends. Onkel, this is Dr. Else Jensen.”
Somehow Else stood and smiled and said, “I’m glad to meet you.” This situation only grew stranger. The laborer-aristocrat calling a servant his friend. His uncle.
“The physicist?” Herre Thorup stared at Else, then Hemming. “I can see why you—”
“Onkel.”
Herre Thorup closed his mouth, then nodded to Else. “I’m glad to meet you too. Hemming has said many nice things about you.”
He had?
Color rose in Hemming’s cheeks.
Herre Thorup tilted his head and regarded the younger man. “You brought her here.”
“I’m telling her everything,” he said. “Even about the Havmand.”
“No!”
Else took a step forward. “The Havmand? You know the Havmand?”
Hemming gave her a wry smile. “Quite well.”
Herre Thorup touched Hemming’s arm. “You mustn’t.”
“We can trust her. She’s on our side. She works for the resistance.”
Else gasped.
Hemming stepped closer to her. “I’m right, yes?”
Her mouth flopped open and shut like a dying fish. Never tell anyone. That was the rule. She certainly wouldn’t break that rule for Hemming-Henrik-whoever he was.
His blue eyes brightened with hope. “When you told me you were mimeographing for a good cause, it all made sense. I’ve long suspected Laila’s involvement with the resistance, so it wasn’t farfetched, especially with the late hours you’re keeping. It’s one of the illegal papers, isn’t it?Land og Folk?”
Else’s head notched to the side.“Frit Danmark.”
Her stomach clenched. Oh, a fine freedom fighter she was. If the Gestapo arrested her, she’d crumble under interrogation before they even put handcuffs on her.
But the mouth she’d kissed bent in a smile, gleaming with pride and affection and amusement. “The respectable illegal paper, of course. That’s the Else I know.”
For the first time, she felt a glimmer of something for this Henrik, whom she didn’t know at all.
“Even so,” Herre Thorup said. “You mustn’t say anything more.”
“I must.” He snapped his gaze to his friend. “I’m taking her to the boathouse.”
The older man shook his head and sighed. “Janne made hot chocolate. I’ll have her bring some to you.”
