And now here they were. With a broken truck. In the dark. Troops moving all around, German planes overhead, explosions coming from the east. She could try to carry Zélie, but she didn’t think they would get far that way. Even if she weren’t so worried about jarring Zélie’s leg, Kate wasn’t sure she could carry her—how far was it back to Montdidier? Fifteen miles? Twenty? Too far. Even a mile would be too far.
Kate smoothed the little girl’s hair back from her brow and tried to think. In the morning, when it was light, it should be easy enough to get help—they could flag down a dispatch carrier, send word to the Unit. But who knew what the morning would bring? The Germans might be moving already, now, under cover of darkness. She’d heard explosions before, and thought, hoped, that it might be their British friends blowing up the bridges across the Somme, but there was no guarantee that would hold the Germans for long.
Who would get to them first? Their friends? Or the Germans?
“Kate?” Kate shivered with cold and misery. She must have been drifting off to sleep, dreaming. She’d thought she heard Emmie calling her name.
“Kate!” There it was again, and it really did sound like Emmie, unless it was the auditory equivalent of a mirage, panic creating false sounds, or just ears gone tinny with the constant booming of the guns.
Gently, as gently as she could, Kate wiggled out from under Zélie, who winced and muttered, her sleeping face creased with pain. Kate’s right leg had gone completely numb; she had to drag it along, trying to flex her toes to drive the blood back into it.
Light arced through the night, half blinding Kate. She heard the sound of a scuffle and then Julia’s voice saying, in a harsh whisper, “Turn that thing off! What do you want to do, send an engraved invitation to the Boche?”
A wave of sheer joy flooded Kate. She might hallucinate many things, but not Julia telling Emmie off.
“Emmie? Julia?” Kate staggered around the cart, so giddy with relief she hardly felt the pins and needles in her right leg.
“Kate!” Emmie grabbed her, hugging her so enthusiastically she couldn’t breathe. “You can’t imagine how worried we’ve been! What happened? The sentry said something about a girl and a goat—”
“I came to find Zélie,” Kate said at the same time, both of them speaking over each other, “and I’ve got her, but the jitney broke down, and Zélie’s leg is broken, and, thank heavens, I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life!”
Julia cleared her throat. “This reunion is very touching, but may I suggest we remove ourselves to an area a little farther away from the battlefield?”
Kate wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, giving a laugh that wanted to be a sob. “I’m glad to see you too, Julia. I’ve left Zélie behind that cart. She’s sleeping. She’s got a broken leg. I had thought I could carry her to a road where we could get a lift with an army truck, but it was hurting her too much. So I thought we’d find someplace to wait until morning.”
Julia borrowed Emmie’s flashlight to twitch back the blanket and look at Zélie’s leg. “You’re an excellent administrator, but you make a lousy nurse. I’m going to need to reset that.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad.” Trust Julia not to sugarcoat it, thought Kate. “Let’s get her into the truck. The sooner we get you both out of here the better.”
They all froze as everything around them shook, lights dotting the sky from miles away. It was like all the Fourth of July fireworks all together, sparks setting off sparks setting off sparks, a crazy funnel of electricity lighting the sky.
Kate stared, half-blinded. “What was that?”
“They’ve been blowing up bridges. . . .” offered Emmie.
“That wasn’t a bridge,” said Julia.
There was a choked, whimpering sound from their feet. The noise had startled Zélie awake, jarring her injured leg. Any other five-year-old would have howled. Instead, she had crammed her hand into her mouth, trying so very hard not to be heard. It cut Kate clear through to the heart, listening to her try to choke back her pain so the Boche wouldn’t get them.
“We’re getting you out of here,” Kate said contritely, kneeling by the little girl. “Do you remember Dr. Pruyn? She’s going to fix your leg for you. And then we’re going to scold you like you’ve never been scolded before for scaring us like that.”
“I needed—Minerva—” Zélie rasped, her eyes wide with fear and pain.