“Perhaps near the beach.”
Blast! Miss Driscoll wasn’t certain where her sisters were, which could get them arrested and killed.
“Why would they be on the beach? They are supposed to stay off the beach.”
“Near the beach because that is where the coconuts grow and are more likely to drop where they can be gathered,” she argued before her eyes grew wide with alarm. “Why? What is wrong?”
“French soldiers. Get the two washing and get them in the house. I will get the other two.”
He ran out before she could respond or argue with him.
The two youngest were likely where they could be discovered.
As soon as he reached the edge of the trees, Rhys stopped and searched for the girls. Ruth stood beside a tree not far away. He slowly approached. When she saw him, she smiled and opened her mouth but he quickly put a finger to his lips and pointed toward the soldiers. When she saw them, fear filled her eyes and her smile disappeared.
He then pointed to a bush and they both got behind it.
“Where is Ellen?” he whispered.
“She was over there,” Ruth pointed a little further away.
“Stay here and be quiet,” he ordered just as Miss Driscoll joined them.
She should be in the house with her sisters, not here. The more of them who were on the beach the better chance of discovery. Hopefully she had retrieved Margaret and Nicoll before she came here.
He watched the area, looking for Ellen and watching the soldiers, his heart pounding in his chest.
“What do they want?” Miss Driscoll asked.
“I do not know,” he returned.
Maybe they hoped supplies had been dropped.
Movement at the edge of the trees caught his attention when Ellen stepped out.
Miss Driscoll sucked in a breath.
After noting that the French soldiers were not looking in their direction, he rushed forward, wrapped an arm around Ellen at the same time he clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle any scream, then rolled to the ground, partially hidden, but not totally, and watched the French soldiers approach.
“Be quiet,” he whispered more to let her know that it was him who had her and not somebody else.
The child stopped struggling and Rhys could only assume that she saw the soldiers too.
He nearly held his breath as they drew near and he was certain they would be discovered but then the soldiers stopped. The four of them turned and faced each other.
“There are no turtles,” one of them complained in French.
“We were told to bring back turtles for soup.”
“We cannot do that if there are not any.”
“Captain will just have to eat the same rations as the rest of us. I am not going to walk the beaches all day searching for turtles.”
“We need to be gone long enough so he thinks we tried,” another said. “If I thought the soup would be shared with us, I would look harder.”
“What do we do?” one of them asked.
Go away! Rhys wanted to scream at them.
