𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞; eugene roe ✔

PART THREE

"How close are they?" Emilia asked, peering through the french doors I had ordered shut.

I allowed my wrist to rest, the flapping of a fan having tired it. "See the mountain? The one behind the lake not the one to our right?"

Emilia looked around, already spotting the landscape in question but trying to find an answer herself.

"Behind there are the Americans. The English are some way further than that."

"What does this mean?"

My eyes had remained off of the girl but now I faced her, the humidity of the room clasping at me from all angles. She turned.

"Captain Siggers has given me his orders. We stay inside and wait to identify ourselves."

"Is his German any better?" Sascha piped up, stood across the room by a settee.

"Be nice, Sascha."

"Has he found a wife yet?"

"Sascha!" Emilia exclaimed.

"What?!" She defended. "Not all of us here have someone waiting for us."

"Say nothing more, Sascha." Teo warned from the other corner of the room, eyeing me.

"No, he has not found a wife." I answered. "I shall propose you as a contenstant next time we converse."

She rolled her eyes. I looked back to the table in front of me and continued to flap my fan, the air becoming even more horrid by the second. A knot tied itself in my stomach and continued to pull, edging me off my seat. To distract myself, I recollected every word I had been told by Siggers - it was wiser to keep such things in your head rather than noted down. Find a Major Winters he said. But bring a translator. They most likely won't have a translator. As if I do? I thought.

"How is your English, Teo?"

He didn't hear me the first time and I repeated the query. After wiping a tea cloth over his forehead he slumped it over his shoulder and pivoted.

"I haven't had the time to speak it."

I knew my own phrases, enough to get by. Teo knew more.

"Talk to me."

Teo pouted, trying to gather his thoughts.

"Come on. Anything."

He inhaled deeply, "It is nice by the sea, isn't it?"

"What kind of phrase is that?!"

"I can't think!" He chuckled. "Go on, say it back."

I huffed, putting my fan onto the table. "It is nice by the sea, isn't it?"

"There you go!" He jeered.

I rolled my eyes, "I sound horrible. It used to be so much better."

"Don't blame yourself, I'm sure-"

A sound similar to pebbles being thrown onto metal rooves scattered through the room. It was a burst, a break in the distance. In between, a few seconds of silence collected, only for another round to continue. We were all looking at each other, terrified.

"Emilia, away from the window!"

She obeyed, hurrying away and sitting down by Sascha. The gunshots resumed, their crack echoing. Even though they originated from over the mountain it sounded as if they were at our front door.