and praises. She must have meditated night and day before . . . well, until she died. It’s quite an example to follow, and somehow God intervened to get this to me.”
Though she held the book like the treasure it was, his heart weighed heavy at the thought of the nurse standing before a firing squad. Edward pushed away the image of Isa facing the same fate.
“Isa.” He bit the desperation in his voice, too late to call it back.
She folded the Bible to her chest and placed her free hand across his lips. “No, Edward. Don’t say anything except that you love me. I couldn’t stand anything else.”
He held her against him, fighting tears. “I do love you, Isa. I always have even though I tried to ignore it. Now I know what a fool I was to hold that back, to wait until it’s too late. I’m sorry.”
“You did what you thought was best for both of us. Don’t be sorry.”
“I want to marry you.”
The sound of her laughter was like music. “I’ve wanted to marry you since I was seven years old. But whom would you care to invite to this sacred ceremony? Will the guard be enough or did you want General von Bissing here too? Or maybe we could wait until the Kaiser is in town . . .”
But she didn’t finish. His arrival would be the day of her execution.
He drew her close and felt her tremble. “I came here today to give you hope, to tell you I’m working on a plan to free you.”
He rested his forehead on hers, but she didn’t respond.
“I love you, Isa. I would spend every moment here at your side if they’d let me.”
They heard the Major clearing his throat, and Edward stepped away at the approach of the guard.
Edward left Isa with a smile he knew must have seemed grim, but it was the only one he could muster. As he walked away, he secretly vowed that nothing, nothing, would prevent him from stopping her sentence—or he would join her in heaven trying.
“Marry her! Of all things,” the Major said. “It’s out of the question.”
They talked in the kitchen of Isa’s home, the Major seated while Edward leaned against the sink. “At the very least it’s out of the question because I suspect you plan something else. You don’t want simply to marry her. You think you can break her out of there, don’t you?”
Edward’s silence was enough to confirm the truth. He’d expected some resistance to his plan to visit Isa again, but not such a quick, flat denial.
“It’s too dangerous. Any attempt would be downright foolhardy.”
“Which? A wedding or trying to get her out?”
“Take your pick; either is equally foolish.”
“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying,” Edward said patiently. “What I am saying is that I intend to get her out, and if that attempt works, all the better. If it doesn’t, well . . . it won’t matter.”
“And I’m saying it does matter. You’re a young man, Edward. What about your mother?”
His mother, who at this very moment hid at Rosalie’s, protected by Henri. Praying, as Edward did, for a way to save Isa. “My mother is a woman of faith, Major, as you know. I’ve made it clear to her I would rather live in the next world with Isa than without her in this one.”
The Major shifted in his seat, folding his hands on the table. For a long moment he said nothing, and Edward didn’t know if that was a good sign or bad.
At last the Major shook his head. “There is only one way to do this if you’re determined to go through with it.”
Edward stood straight as if at attention. “How?”
“You won’t like it.”
“Tell me.”
The Major came laboriously to his feet to stand before Edward, leaning on his cane with both hands. “Wait until the day of her execution.” He held up a hand to still Edward’s protest. “When they transport her from the prison at Vilvorde to take her to Tir National. It is the only way.”
Edward shook his head. “I won’t wait that long. To the day? No, I won’t have it.”
“You won’t have it? Young man, I don’t see that you have any choice.”
The Major was right. And yet to wait until the last minute, with no time for a second chance . . .
“If you think we have more than one try at this, you’re quite wrong. Either we get it right the