‘Look after Klara for me.’
He half smiled. Of course he would look after her. ‘I’ll try my best,’ he teased, knowing he would give his life for her.
‘Don’t let them get her.’
‘The British won’t hurt her.’
‘You don’t understand.’
She was right, he didn’t.
‘Her real name is Miriam Sara Leske. She doesn’t know that name herself.’
He frowned. ‘Why call her something—’
‘She is a Jew.’
All the accusations and assumptions he’d made at the school came back to taunt him. He looked at the little girl grimacing as she ate a raw egg. ‘I didn’t realize.’
‘Remember her real name. Miriam Leske.Leske.’
Elsa’s need to tell him this had put fire in her veins. She appeared more determined, more alert than only a few moments ago. Yet... her lips were cracked and she looked so very ill.
‘Why are you telling me this, Elsa?’
‘Because I want you to find her family and tell them she is safe when the war is over.’
He looked at Klara. ‘She has you to do that.’
‘She won’t if I die.’
‘Don’t say such things.’
‘Sam, please promise me.’
Elsa looked exhausted and he wanted her to rest.
‘Please, Sam. I beg you.’
‘I promise.’
Elsa closed her eyes and sighed as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her soul.
His throat grew tight. She had taken the risk of hiding a Jewish child in plain sight, an act that was punishable by death or imprisonment. He thought he knew her, but he did not until that moment. However, if Klara had been her reason to fight the illness, she had now passed the responsibility to him and no longer had the same reason to fight it. The realization he might lose her now terrified him.
He held her hand in his. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘All those things I accused you of...’ He fell silent as her handgrew heavy and lifeless. She had slipped away from him and he feared she would slip so far out of reach he would never get her back.
He searched for a sign... and found it. Her breathing was shallow but it was still there and feeding her with life. He couldn’t lose her now, not like this. It would be a pitiful end to a vivacious and courageous woman’s life. She deserved a better death than in the middle of nowhere with no family to mourn her. And what about Klara, who had come to trust them both?
* * *
The faded light was unsettling. Sam propped himself up on his elbows. His mouth was dry as timber and both his mind and body felt sluggish as if he’d been dragged from a deep sleep. His eyes widened. They had slept the day away! While they had slept like babies, the daylight hours had passed like a speeding train. He turned to Elsa and called her name. She did not stir, but Klara did. They exchanged anxious glances. Any hopes they held that she would improve disappeared when they saw the colour of her cheeks.
‘Elsa! You have to drink. You aren’t well.’ He closed his eyes briefly, struggling with the desire to get her help yet knowing the act of mercy would expose him to his enemy. The struggle did not last long. He looked at Klara.
‘I have to take Elsa to a doctor. You stay here.’
Klara stared at him.
