Chapter 11 #2
Elsa had been joking when she’d referred to it as a mission. She certainly wasn’t Luke’s commanding officer. “But this was meant to be a lark,” she said. “It doesn’t matter.”
A small smile curled on Tom’s lean face. “It mattered to you. You going to eat that?”
She still clutched the forgotten sandwich. “I’ll take my lunch break here.”
The rope was still feeding into the tunnel when she finished. With nothing else to do, she turned back to the expedition log she’d just discovered and searched for relevant data.
It did not make the time go any faster.
“Long tunnel,” Tom muttered. Sweat beaded his brow.
“He’s still going. Man, I really hate tunnels.
I’m trapped in a tunnel almost every night in my dreams. Well, not a tunnel exactly.
It’s a trench, but I know that if I were to go over the top to get out of it, my head would be blown clean off.
So I just run back and forth between bomb blasts that get closer and closer together. ”
“In your nightmare?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t too far from what happened.”
Elsa stayed quiet for a moment, out of reverence for what Tom and his fellow soldiers suffered, and for the loss of peace that haunted them still. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you.”
“Good. Don’t try. And don’t worry. If the rope stops moving, I would figure out a way to get to Luke if I had to.”
“For both of your sakes, I sincerely hope that won’t be necessary.”
“You and me both.” He grinned, and then the rope went slack.
Tom paled, then turned his blue eyes on Elsa. He tugged the rope a little, and there was no resistance on the other end. “Where is he?” he whispered. The tremor in his hand grew worse.
Elsa left the desk and came alongside him. “You reached the end of the rope, and so did he. He untied himself, just as he said.”
But her gentle reminder seemed to gain no purchase. The young man dropped to a knee at the opening and called into the darkness for Luke.
No response. That was no surprise, given the length of rope used. But Tom called again, a note of desperation edging his voice.
Standing, he whirled away and paced the den, twisting his hands. “He could be hurt. He could have fallen and the fall jerked the knot loose and pulled the rope from his body. I can’t leave him. But I can’t—how can I go in there?” He whispered as if he’d forgotten Elsa was still there.
She met him where he was and grasped both of his hands.
“Tom. Remember what you told me. He was a fighter pilot. He can handle a tunnel. You saw that knot he tied around his waist. It wouldn’t come loose with a hard jerk, it would get tighter.
So there’s no reason to believe he fell.
We have no reason not to believe that he did what he said he would do.
He reached the end of the rope and untied himself. He’ll come back.”
Tom squeezed her hands until they hurt, though she knew he had no intention of bruising her. Oh, where was Barney when Tom needed him?
“Do you think I should go after him?” He cast a sidelong glance at the dark opening.
She definitely did not. “I think he’s on his way back to us right now. Shall we wait here or go outside and see if we can find where he’ll come out?” Maybe they’d spot Barney while they were at it.
“Wait here.” Tom seemed rooted to the floor.
So be it. She would stay rooted with him. Surely Luke would reappear in a matter of minutes.
“Say, this is a prime opportunity for me to hear some of your stories,” she said. “What’s your earliest memory of Luke?”
“My . . . what? My earliest memory of him?” Tom’s brow furrowed as if trying to call it forth.
“I’d love to hear it.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “It must have been the day he found me in his father’s stable. I was six years old, and he was fourteen. The groom was ready to take a switch to my hide, but Luke stopped him. He said that I had come to the stable for my first riding lesson.”
“And had you?”
“I didn’t know it when I snuck in there, but yes.
” Tom chuckled, and his grip relaxed, though he didn’t release her.
“Luke took me to the horse he’d intended to ride himself, helped me on it, and started teaching me how to ride as if this had been his plan for the day all along.
I should have been scared, being up so high on a powerful animal I didn’t know.
But I did know Luke. And I trusted him.”
“How remarkable,” Elsa mused aloud. Luke had told her that he’d had no idea that Tom had looked up to him. But if this was Tom’s first memory of him, she understood completely.
“Although,” he added, “I did fall off.”
Before Elsa had time to respond, another voice caught up to them.
“Hey, what are you trying to do, make me look bad while I’m not here?
I caught you before you hit the ground, don’t forget.
” Grinning, Luke filled the doorway to the library, his hair wet and dripping onto his bare shoulders and chest.
Tom dropped Elsa’s hands, a sigh of palpable relief whooshing out of him. “What are you trying to do, showing up half-dressed with a lady present?”
Elsa’s cheeks heated, and she looked away, but not before she noticed a shirt in Luke’s hand, and that he was wearing different trousers than the ones he’d had on before he left.
“Sorry, Elsa. I thought you’d be taking lunch in the courtyard, so I came around from the other direction,” he explained. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“But you mean to make me uncomfortable, is that it?” Tom’s teasing must mean he was feeling more like himself.
“Other than having to stoop through most of it, that tunnel isn’t so bad to get through, but I came out the other side dirty and smelly.
So I rinsed off in the river since I was smart enough to bring a change of clothes after we got caught in that storm Monday.
But I might have cut my back on some rocks.
It stings a little.” He turned to let them see.
“See anything? I don’t want to bloody a clean shirt. ”
At this, Elsa shed her schoolgirl shyness and directed him to step into the library, where the light was much better by the windows. She moved close enough to get a good look at the cut on the left side of his lower back.
“It doesn’t look deep,” she said, relieved he wouldn’t need stitches. “It just needs to be cleaned and covered.”
Tom fetched their first aid kit from the other side of the room.
“Figured.” Luke curled an arm around and tried to reach the cut himself. “Right about there? Pass me a cotton ball, would you?”
“Nonsense.” Elsa laughed, and Tom held the kit open for her. “No matter how strong you may be, some wounds we can’t reach by ourselves.” She cleaned the cut and bandaged it, glad to be of use. “There’s no shame in letting someone help.”
Luke pulled on the clean shirt he’d been carrying, then turned around to face her. “I’ll have to remember that.” The twinkle in his eye said, So should you.