Under the Cover of Mercy by Rebecca Connolly

Author:Rebecca Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2023-02-06T22:21:57+00:00

Chapter 18

“Your Highness, this is a welcome surprise.”

Prince Reginald of Croÿ rose with his usual grace from the chair in Edith’s sitting room, though his face was devoid of his usual congeniality. “Matron, I am relieved to see you today.”

“Are you?” Edith blinked in surprise and gestured for him to sit back down. “Why should you be?”

His expression turned incredulous. “Matron, arrests are happening all over Belgium! Surely you have heard what befell Philippe Baucq and Mademoiselle Thuliez this week.”

Edith nodded as she took her chair, her heart clenching as she considered her friends and the dramatic nature of their arrests. “Yes, and it is heartbreaking. In front of Madame Baucq and the girls, too. It will be all right, though. We have destroyed all the evidence, and in a few more days, we will be in our new clinic. The Germans will pay no more attention to us.”

The prince did not look at all convinced. “But they have also arrested Madame Bodart. Did you know that?”

Edith had not heard that one, and she averted her gaze as a lump formed in her throat. Ada Bodart was a young Irish widow of an influential Belgian, and she had hidden several dozen soldiers during the course of their work.

“They used her son against her, Matron,” Prince Reginald said in a low tone. “Asked him about houseguests staying with them, and the poor lad innocently answered. She was arrested not an hour later.”

“Poor Madame Bodart,” Edith whispered around her welling emotion. “And that poor boy. What a weight to bear.”

The prince cleared his throat. “They will stop at nothing. I have left Bellignies to warn as many as I can, and then I am leaving the country. They cannot arrest me if I am not here. I encourage you to do the same.”

Edith smiled sadly. “How can I leave? I have my nurses and my clinic, my patients. Am I to take them all with me?”

His brows slowly rose as he considered her. “You would sacrifice yourself for the sake of your profession?”

“It is no sacrifice to be found doing good works,” Edith murmured, recalling the beautiful words of her morning devotional. “I have dedicated myself to this calling of nursing, just as I have recently dedicated myself to this work with you and our friends. Not all can say they have felt so brilliantly called to such things. How can I now bemoan doing so?”

The prince said nothing for a long moment, then shook his head. “It is a remarkable thing you do, Edith Cavell.”

“I leave remarkable for the Lord, Your Highness,” Edith demurred, mirroring his shake of the head. “And were I truly so noble, I might have encouraged more temperance in my manner, and that of my staff.”

Prince Reginald chuckled. “Ah, yes, I did catch your young Pauline sticking her tongue out at the German inspector as she was moving items out of the Institute. He never caught her, of course, but the show of spirit was fine indeed.

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