Unsettled Shores by Kelsey Gietl

Author:Kelsey Gietl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction, World War I, Spies, Romance, Inspirational
Publisher: Purple Mask Publishing
Published: 2021-05-15T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY- THREE

November 26, 1917 –

Clermont Farm, France

Peter lit up another cigarette as he watched Amara walk back to the farmhouse. He had never smoked before the Deutsches Heer. Never smoked a day in his life. Never wanted to. Then he landed in the trenches and men were killing other men and he was surrounded by rats, lice, and rotting flesh from every angle. So, when Zeke offered him one, he tried it. Coughed and sputtered and hated it at first, but after a few more, he began to notice that it did relax him a little. Not enough to forget why they were there or that only a few hundred yards away lay dead men that he had shot to the ground. But it did make their situation seem more normal, almost as though he and Zeke were standing in front of their feed store while his cousin stuck another smoke between his lips.

He understood why Amara was disappointed in him, but his sister would never understand what he had been through. Nor would she understand the position she had placed him in by her presence here. The two women he loved most in the world were only miles from an unimaginable threat. How could he do his duty to Fides et Spes and protect them both? He couldn’t.

He needed to find a way to trust this Emil character. He supposed he should trust Amara to have chosen a worthy husband, but did she know enough of the world yet to choose one? What if her husband wasn’t trustworthy? What if he was a spy? What if he would turn in Fides et Spes to the French or German authorities? Their entire system, everything they worked so hard for, would be dismantled in a moment, leaving thousands of innocents with no way to send letters across the line. And him with no chance of saving Father Ferdinand.

Keep your friends close, he thought, and your enemies closer. Until he determined which Emil was, he would need to hold his brother-in-law tightly in his sights. He would speak privately with Bill on the matter in the morning.

Closing the hayloft window, he limped across the wooden floorboards, practically dragging his right leg so he wouldn’t need to bend it. Succumbing to exhaustion, he stumbled and fell onto his makeshift bed, one blanket between him and the hay, the other draped over himself. He lay on his back, pulling smoke into his lungs and silently back out through his lips, and somehow managed to keep himself from drifting asleep and setting the barn ablaze. He considered if dying in a fire would hurt worse than having a stone church collapse on him.

Smoke in, smoke out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Josie had been the one to help him climb into the loft tonight. She had encouraged him one agonizing ladder rung at a time until he sat at the top panting from the exertion. His body hadn’t hurt this much since the early days at the convalescent home.

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