Water Song by Suzanne Weyn

Author:Suzanne Weyn [Weyn, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Historical, Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult
ISBN: 9781416940135
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2006-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

Willem and Claudine had gone over to a butcher they seemed to know, a tall fellow wearing a blood-splattered apron. Emma watched the welcoming delight on the big man’s face as he greeted them. They obviously knew one another well. The last time they’d been to market they’d spent a long time together. She wondered how someone so seemingly jolly could spend his days among slaughtered carcasses, killing the animals himself, in all probability. But then, this war had already taught her that people were much more complex—and capable of more good and more bad—than she would ever have dreamed possible.

Emma didn’t know if Claudine and Willem were being held prisoner or had simply stayed on because they had no place else to go. They’d been taking care of the estate for years and probably didn’t care too much who owned it.

Scanning the crowd, she saw that uniformed German and Austrian soldiers seemed to be stationed at every aisle. What exactly were they guarding?

Taking the money Colonel Schiller had allotted her from the cloth purse she’d slung across her shoulder, she purchased a net bag from a vendor. One stall at a time, she filled it with food for her trip. When she came to the husband and wife who made the soap and cheese, she noticed that they exchanged darting, meaning-filled glances as she approached.

Emma was about to ask for a log of the goat cheese from the farmer, but instead of taking her order he beckoned surreptitiously to his wife. “You are Emma Winthrop from the estate, yes?” the wife whispered in a German heavily inflected with Flemish.

Emma nodded.

“Our son is fighting with the Belgian army,” the wife continued, leading Emma over to her soap table and pretending to show her different products. “Recently he smuggled a bag of mail to us and we are trying to deliver it to the proper people. We had a letter for you but didn’t know how to deliver it with the Germans encamped in your home. They would have taken it and arrested us. They are very concerned with spies passing secrets beyond enemy lines. Most of these guards are just here to listen and observe.”

“They have tried to enlist me as a spy,” Emma confided, smelling one of the soaps as she spoke.

“You would never?” the wife gasped.

“No,” Emma assured her. “In fact, I hope to escape down that path.”

The wife reached into her apron. “I have a letter here for you. When I saw you at the market last week, I knew I would have a chance to deliver it to you.” Lifting the letter from her pocket, she put it down on a wrapped bar of soap. “Take the soap and letter and drop it into your bag,” she instructed.

Emma didn’t dare examine the letter but she knew instantly from the elegant, formal writing that it was from her father. Did he have a plan to rescue her? She ached to rip open the letter but fought down the urge.

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