Anna nodded and struggled to her feet, picking up the suitcase. Evelyn bent to pick up her cases again and, as she did so, a shiver of warning went down her spine. Through her exhaustion, instincts she didn’t even know she had took over and, instead of picking up the cases, she straightened up with her rifle in her hands. Seeing her swing the gun into her grip, Erik and Philip both did the same, spinning around to look for the threat.
“What is it?” Anna asked in alarm, looking around.
Before Evelyn could answer, a man stepped out of the shadows near the end of the fence. He carried a shotgun, but at the sight of three rifles pointed towards him, he raised his arms in a placating motion.
“Whoa, easy there!” he said, keeping his grip on his shotgun, but stopping well away from them. “Who might you be?”
“Who might you be?” Erik countered.
The man looked at him for a long moment, then lowered his arms and his shotgun.
“That’s my property behind you,” he said, nodding at the expanse of land behind the fence Evelyn had been leaning against. “I was out checking on the goats when I saw you.”
Erik lowered his rifle, Philip and Evelyn following suit.
“My apologies,” Erik said. “We ran into some German troops yesterday and it’s left us nervous.”
“Germans? Where?”
“Near Steinkjer.”
“Ah. We’d heard they were moving north from Trondheim.” The man nodded and moved forward, holding out his hand. “My name is Jørgen.”
“I am Premierløitnant Erik Salvesen, and this is Sekondløitnant Philip Andersen,” Erik said, shaking his hand. “This is my sister Anna, and her friend Marlene.”
Jørgen nodded to them. “It’s a very cold night to be out, and more snow is on the way. Where are you headed?”
“Namsos, but we won’t make it tonight. We were going to look for somewhere to take shelter in the hills.”
Jørgen scratched his neck under his chin, looking at them thoughtfully.
“Not likely to find much up there,” he finally said. “Most of the old homesteads up there were torn down years ago to make way for the logging. How long have you been on the road?”
“Since early this morning.”
He shook his head. “You must be near to frozen. I’ve got some room. Not much, mind you, but enough. If you don’t mind the floor, you’d be quite welcome.”
Erik glanced at Anna and Evelyn, then looked back at Jørgen. “I thank you. We’ll be on our way at first light.”
The man waved his hand dismissively. “My son is away and won’t be back until Monday. It is only me in the house, so the company will be welcome. Come.”
He turned and motioned for them to follow him and Evelyn looked at Anna, relief flooding through her at the prospect of imminent warmth. Anna smiled and hooked her arm through hers as they followed the men.
“Perhaps this is a sign that things are looking up,” she said, leaning against her tiredly. “We just might make it after all.”
Evelyn looked up as Erik sat beside her at the wooden table. She had Peder’s radio open in front of her and had been tinkering with it for the past fifteen minutes trying to make it work, all to no avail.
“No luck?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I think it must have been damaged, perhaps when he was shot and it fell. It powers on, but the switch isn’t working. I can’t search for a frequency.”
“So you have no way of contacting London,” he said in a low voice.
“No.”
Erik stared at the radio pensively for a moment. “Kristian would be able to fix it,” he said. “His is just like this. They built them together, you know, while we were in school. Over the years, they added and changed things, made what they called upgrades, but they’re still essentially the same machines.”
“But Kristian is in Drammen,” she said, “so that is of no help to me now.”
Erik glanced at her. “What do you want to do? Do we continue to Namsos?”
“Yes. I have to assume everything is still the same. If I get there and find otherwise, then that’s another problem I’ll face then.”
“Peder gave you the radio. Will you take it with you?”
Evelyn looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead, to be honest,” she admitted. “I don’t think I really thought we’d make it this far. Jørgen says that Namsos is only about an hour walk from here.”
“Yes, provided the Germans haven’t destroyed the bridge. If they had, though, Jørgen would have told us.” Erik looked at the radio thoughtfully. “If you leave it with me, I could get this to Kristian and he will get it working again. Then I will have a way to get information out and back to England.”
Evelyn glanced behind them. They were quite alone. Anna was washing up in the back room and Philip was helping Jørgen in the large kitchen on the other side of the small house. She returned her gaze to his face.
“Erik, you realize how dangerous that will be?” she asked in a low voice. “I know what you’re determined to do if the Germans succeed in occupying Norway, but please consider carefully. Peder is dead now because of this radio.”
“And many Norwegians are dead now because of the Germans,” he replied evenly. “I know the risks. I knew them the other night when we discussed this, as did you.”
Evelyn’s lips twisted as she thought of how naive she had been even two nights ago, thinking only of how useful it would be to have Erik and Anna here on the ground in Norway. Now she understood just what would happen to them if they were caught by the Germans.
“Watching Peder...” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat.
“Made it all real,” he finished for her. “I understand. Yet this is our world now. This is what we have to survive in. This radio will help us
