Lines of Courage by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Author:Jennifer A. Nielsen [A. Nielsen, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2022-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

July 16, 1916

A shell landed very nearby the house, ripping Juliette away from any hopes that she would be safe as long as she stayed inside. But where could she go if she left? Somehow she had become trapped in the middle of a battle. How could she have been so foolish to think escape would be as simple as a sprint across a field?

Maybe Monique had thought suggesting this plan was an act of friendship, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. Juliette had never been in such a dangerous position before.

That first shell was only a prelude for the symphony of destruction that followed, and in its own way, that’s exactly what it was. In one trench was the German orchestra, with the British in the other. Their generals were the conductors who waved their arms, directing the soldiers to create the battlefield melody.

Every explosion was the crash of cymbals separated by the rhythm of rifle fire. Orders were shouted in trumpeted waves, and the calls and cries of soldiers completed this tragic tune of war.

The song seemed to continue on endlessly, just as this war seemed to have become endless. But it suddenly went silent in Juliette’s ears as a new noise grabbed her attention: footsteps. Somebody else was in the home.

Every muscle of her body froze while she listened for any clue as to who might have entered, or how many people were here. No matter how loud the battle was outside, all Juliette heard were the footsteps walking up the stairs, cautious and slow. Someone was checking the house, looking for their enemies.

Such as Juliette.

Then, in German, “Leer.”

More German followed, faster than Juliette could follow, and so many voices all at once, some laughing, others calling out what seemed to be orders exchanged. She had to get out of here, and fast. But how?

The window! The window of this room had been broken out. If Juliette could get to the window, she could crawl through it just as she had crawled through that gap in the fence. From her position, Juliette could see the jagged edges of glass. It was worth a few deep scratches to escape.

She slid one hand out from beneath the bed and shifted her body toward the edge, then quickly pulled her hand in again as tall black boots entered the room. Whoever wore those boots must have told some sort of joke because when he finished, others out in the hallway were laughing. The soldier quietly repeated the joke to himself as he walked over to the bed and set something down on it. Juliette heard a rustling sound and then what appeared to be the cooing of birds. Why would he bring birds inside a home?

Whatever his reasons, he opened some sort of container, then wings flapped as the bird tried to get free. This made no sense at all.

The soldier stood where he was for a minute while the wings continued to flap, then walked over to the same open window where Juliette had planned to escape.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.