‘I had to trust you just now! I had no choice.’
Elsa rolled her eyes and marched on.
Sam caught her elbow and swung her round to face him. ‘I had no idea what they wanted me to do, but I went with them becauseyouwanted me to.’
‘They just wanted you to help push the vehicle.’
‘I know that now, but I didn’t at the time.’
‘What did you think they wanted you to do?’
‘I didn’t think they wanted me to do anything. I thought they were marching me to my execution.’
Elsa’s stomach dropped. Had he really thought he was about to die? She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you. How could you think you were going to die when I was prepared to laugh and talk with them?’
‘Theyareyour army,’ he replied.
‘That is not what I mean and you know it. How could you think I would happily betray you?’
‘If you had not realized their true intention!’
Silence descended like a dark, ominous cloud. Sam suddenly sighed and opened his arms for a friendly embrace, attempting to lift the darkness with a single word. ‘Truce?’
She folded her arms.
‘We are upsetting Klara,’ he said.
She stood her ground. ‘We have to trust each other, Sam.’
‘I’m sorry I doubted you. Can we call a truce now?’
She frowned. ‘I don’t know what that means.’
‘Agree to stop fighting.’
She observed Klara, who had watched their fight unfold. She looked scared.
Elsa reluctantly walked into his open embrace. ‘Agreed.’
In his arms, she suddenly felt tired of fighting and rested her head against his chest.
His soft, gentle voice vibrated beneath her cheek. ‘We shouldn’t fight.’
‘No, we shouldn’t.’
‘The danger’s passed now. I should have told you about the papers.’
‘I was scared they’d kill you.’
He hugged her closer and could not resist grazing her hair with his lips. ‘I know. I was scared too.’
Chapter Eleven
‘What is it?’ asked Elsa.
Although redbrick and timber-framed buildings were not unusual in north Germany, this one was very large, and topped by a strange rusting metal tower. Elsa had never seen anything like it before. They had entered the pine forest with a vague plan to make a rudimentary shelter from branches and ferns, but a sudden downpour of biting rain had taken them all by surprise and made their plan now seem naive and foolish. The trees’ canopy offered a little shelter but sleeping outside in such weather risked everyone’s health. This large, abandoned building, with a solid roof of red tiles and patches of corrugated metal, appeared too much of a miracle to embrace without caution.
Elsa noticed the neatly stacked, bare tree trunks to the rear of the building. ‘It could be a sawmill.’
