“Don’t worry,” he told her, his voice weary.“I think Henrik can handle a hole in his shoulder, and Frau Lexar has cleaned it so thoroughly, I doubt it will putrefy.She’s bandaged it and he’s already asleep.”
“You look like you could sleep on your feet,” Lise told him, putting her hand out to touch him, then letting it drop.“Thank you.”
He shrugged.“We can’t move him now, or it will surely start to bleed again.”
The farmer, who’d been tasked by his wife with looking out the window, his gun at the ready, turned.“You may stay as long as you like.”
Locking eyes with Jonathan, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.But he seemed preoccupied.Slipping past him, she looked in at her brother, who appeared at ease.He was pale but with a blanket covering him, she couldn’t see his wound.
“He’ll have a devil of a scar to show for this night’s adventure,” Jonathan said quietly.He was so close she could feel his breath on her temple.
“Do you think he can ride in the morning?”she asked.
“He’d ride tonight if he thought it necessary,” Jonathan said.“Though I convinced him you ladies preferred to rest, at least until dawn.”
“Soon enough,” she said.Then turned, so they were face to face.Weary lines were etched around his gray eyes.“Do you think the soldiers will come?”
“Do I think your betrothed will run to the same detachment that held me prisoner and tell them to hunt us down?”He shrugged again.“You would know better than I.”
Frau Lexar had banked the stove fire again, after asking if any of them were hungry.The three of them still standing had declined.“Very well, the young ladies will take the loft.You, sir, are British, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” Jonathan told her, appearing hesitant.
Yet the farmer’s wife only nodded, looking like she approved.Or was grateful.
“You will sleep with the wounded man,” she said to him.
“What about you and your husband?”Lise asked.“You have saved us this night.We are in your debt and we’ve also put you out of your bed.”
“No debt among friends,” the farmer said gruffly.“I’ll make us a spot by the fireplace in the front room.Now, all of you should try to rest.”
Lise was exhausted, but she found herself reluctant to retreat to the loft.An unsettled feeling weighed upon her.Something unspoken between her and Jonathan that needed to be said.She could feel it in her bones, and she’d likely be restless and sleepless until they talked.
At home, or even here in this stranger’s home, if her brother were awake, she would need to secretly signal Jonathan and arrange to speak with him alone.
But she wasn’t at home, Henrik was unconscious, and after all she’d been through, she didn’t particularly care what the farmer and his wife thought of her.
“I wish to talk to you privately,” she told Jonathan.“Anna, go up to bed.I’ll join you shortly.
Anna looked at Lise with wide eyes, clearly unwilling to leave her mistress, but Lise offered her maid a reassuring smile before gesturing with a nod of her chin toward the loft.
“Go and rest.You’ve been very brave tonight.”
Once Anna had climbed the ladder, Lise waited.The farmer and his wife had vacated the kitchen, but it wasn’t enough to insure their privacy.
“Shall we check on the horses?”Jonathan suggested.
Sure enough, proving that they needed to go outside, Herr Lexar called out from the adjacent room, “I’ve seen to ’em.Don’t you fret.Ow!What was that for?”
Jonathan grinned at Lise, and she bit back a smile, imagining the farmer’s wife clobbering her husband for eavesdropping.
Donning her cloak, they exited through the kitchen door with Jonathan bringing the small, red-painted tin lantern from the table.The candlelight flickering inside it was enough to illuminate the pitch black of night as they headed toward the covered stalls, fifteen yards from the farmhouse.
“How do you think Henrik is, truly?”Lise asked.
“I think he hastrulybeen shot,” Jonathan said, with a wry tone.“But I also would wager my future earldom that he will live.”
“Thanks to you,” she said.“Firing back at the house gave us the time we needed.We all might have been injured if not for your quick thinking.”She couldn’t help adding what weighed heavily upon her.“It was my fault he was shot.If he hadn’t come to rescue me from Friedrich.”
