“Enter.” The voice inside belonged to Charlotte, her sweet tone barely carrying through the door.
Audrey opened the door and stepped in, sweeping her gaze around the room. Charlotte worked by her food shelves, while the rest sat around the table—Papa Durand, Andre, and even Brielle and Evan. The tension in her shoulders eased, and she smiled at the group. As natural a smile as she could manage. She’d located Brielle; now she just had to get her alone to talk.
Papa Durand and Evan both rose as she entered, then Andre hastily followed suit, stuffing a bite of food in his mouth as his chair nearly toppled behind him. She motioned them all down again. “Don’t bother yourselves on my account. I’ve come to see if I could borrow Brielle a moment.” She glanced at her friend and gave a hopeful look.
Brielle nearly glowed, the happiness of the return of her betrothed showing clearly in her expression. “Of course.” She pushed to standing, and her gaze slid to Evan as her voice lowered. “I’ll be back soon.”
The besotted look Evan returned to her tightened something in Audrey’s belly. It should be happiness for her friend, but Evan’s words against Monsieur Masters still rang in her memory.“I don’t trust him. Something’s not right.”
Brielle followed her into the hallway, but Audrey kept going until they reached her own apartment—the only place they would have privacy to speak plainly. Papa still snored on his bed, but she and Brielle could keep their voices low.
“What is it?” Brielle’s tone held a mixture of curiosity and frustration.
Audrey turned to face her. “I’m sorry to pull you away from your beau on the night of his homecoming, but this is important.”
Brielle’s expression turned worried, and she sent a glance to Papa’s sleeping form. “What’s wrong?” More than once, Brielle had stepped in to help when Audrey was at her wits’ end with her father. Sometimes she simply listened to Audrey’s worries, but other times she’d come up with ways to make things better, to ease Papa’s angst or keep him from using up all her winter supplies.
This time, though, she needed help of a different sort. “It’s the newcomer.”
Brielle’s attention jerked up to her face. “The British spy? What has he done?”
Audrey reached out to lay a soothing hand on her friend’s arm, anything to ease the tension coiling through Brielle. “He hasn’t done anything. Nothing bad, that is. It’s just ... I don’t think he means us any harm, Brielle. I know Evan had a bad experience with him, but I’ve spoken with the man—several times, actually—and he—”
“You’ve spoken with him several times? Why?” Brielle’s tone was half-curious and half-wary.
Audrey started to make light of her time with the man but paused just before the words slipped out. This was Brielle. They’d spoken of their deepest secrets. Their innermostfears and dreams. She would understand if anyone would. Audrey inhaled a steadying breath. “Something doesn’t feel right about his situation, Brielle. The way we’re treating him, as though he’s come to infiltrate our town and kill us all ... that’s not his plan, Brielle. I really think he’s a good man.”
Now the curiosity had stolen completely over her expression. “How can you know that? What has he said?”
“He’s struggled with the lying involved in his work for the army. He’s relieved the war is over and he can return to his parents and sister in Kettlewell. His father is confined to a chair, his legs unable to hold him—the same way Jeannette’s husband is—so his mother and sister make cloth to sell. He seems just like one of us.”
Little by little, all hint of emotion slid away from Brielle’s face. This was her Le Commandant expression, the one where she honed her focus to protecting and providing for Laurent. She would show no mercy to their prisoner in this mood.
Audrey reached for Brielle’s arm again, but it took everything in her not to shake some sense into her friend. “Please, Brielle. Speak with him yourself. See what you think, but do it with an open mind.”
Brielle shook her head. “I’ll speak with him eventually, but my father and the council have determined what shall happen. A fast tomorrow, then the vote in three days. I’ll share my opinion by voting with the others.” Then the solidity of her face eased, and her eyes softened. “That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you. The way you want so much to see the best in people, even when it’s not there. Just ... please be careful, Audrey. Don’t let yourself get tooworried about his situation.” The encouraging smile Brielle gave her turned joyful. “I’d better get back now.”
But as she left, she pulled all hint of that joy from the room, leaving only thick foreboding that wrapped around Audrey like a smothering fur. Brielle would do nothing to help. Where else could she turn?
Audrey stifled a yawn as she curled in her chair by the fire. She’d been up since the wee hours of the morning as usual, but with today being a day for fasting, she’d not begun her typical baking. She’d missed the scent of pastries filling their apartment in those sacred early hours.
Not today, though. She’d spent the morning seeking God’s will in the situation with Levi Masters. Pleading for His guidance. Searching Scripture.
Yet nothing had presented itself as direction from the Lord. The Scripture had nourished her spirit, of course. The Psalms always did that, especially the ones written by David. She could relate so well to his cries for righteousness, for God’s hand on his life.Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Her own soul cried the same, yet it gave no answer in the situation with Monsieur Masters—Levi, as she’d begun to think of him in her prayers.
Papa still snored from his bed, but enough time had passed that the prisoner and his guard should be awake. She could take them fresh water. Maybe the path the Lord intended for her would make itself known along the way.
With two large mugs in hand, she slipped out the backdoor into the corridor. This hallway had been built in the rear of the apartments so no one would need to go outside during the winter snowstorms to visit their neighbors.
She kept her tread soft to keep the sound from echoing off the stone walls. No one else should be out this early, but the stirrings of families beginning their day drifted through many of the doors she passed.
When she reached the storage room at the end of the hall, she tapped her knuckles, then slid the bar open.
Leonard must have been assigned night duty, for he lifted groggy eyes to her when she stepped inside. He was one of the newer guards, a year younger than herself. Brielle didn’t usually give him night shifts. Only a few of the men could manage them well, Philip among them. Perhaps Brielle hadn’t fully focused on her duties yet since Evan’s return. Audrey had seen her only in passing the night before, just long enough to ensure she planned to check on Philip and the prisoner.
Audrey shifted her gaze to Levi, and something inside her clenched at the sight of him. He sat much as he had the evening before, hands tied behind him, knees bent with his ankles also bound. But he didn’t look quite as ... put together. Maybe the feeling came from the stubble on his jaw or the rumple of his dark hair. Her fingers itched to comb through it, though to do so would be dreadfully improper.
