Saving the Rifleman Read Online Free PDF Page A

dear.”
    “He came in here and questioned me. He would have hurt me had the Brit not stopped him.”
    “This is a disaster.” Rose shook her head.
    Tears flooded Maria’s eyes. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.”
    “What’s done is done, we’ll have to muddle through.” Rose met her gaze. “This officer saw you? Questioned you?”
    Maria nodded.
    “What happened to him?”
    “The Brit guarded him while I used ether to knock him unconscious.”
    One of Rose’s brows rose. “You’re going to have to leave with the soldier, help him across the border.”
    Maria opened her mouth to protest, but Rose held up a hand. “No, there’s no way I can protect you from that one.” She nodded at the German. “You must go.”
    “What about you?”
    “I’ll be fine. But this will mean trouble for the hospital, unless we do something…inventive.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I think our German friend here is going to be a bit of an embarrassment to his superiors. If we douse him in brandy and have his men find him in the kitchen panty with a half-empty bottle, no one is likely to believe a nonexistent British soldier was here.” She turned and regarded Maria. “And you are going to run off. I’ll concoct a story about you following a soldier you met or some such nonsense.”
    Maria blinked tears away. “Rose, I don’t want to leave you.”
    “You must. I’m not happy about it either, but you’ll be arrested if you stay and everyone else here will be suspect. We must do our duty. Both of us.”
    “It’s more than duty and you know it,” Maria said with a watery smile for her friend.
    Rose smiled back. “Indeed. Let’s shift the Brit out of the way and get him covered up. Then we can move the German officer out of the closet and into the kitchen.”
    Maria grabbed a blanket and with Rose’s help, rolled the British soldier onto it. Then the two women dragged him over to Maria’s corner of the room, pushed him up against the wall and covered him with more blankets. Now he looked like an unmade pallet.
    They walked to the closet and looked down at the German officer.
    “How are we going to get him to the kitchen?” Maria asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    A knock at the door had both women staring at it.
    “Nurse Culver?” Came a polite query through the wood. Someone tried the knob. “Are you all right?”
    “It’s Dr. Geoff. What do we do?”
    Rose contemplated the question for two full seconds. “Have you ever played cards?”
    “What?” Maria stared at her mentor. “No. My father used to, but mother made him stop. We didn’t have enough money as it was.”
    “Well, I’m going to do something called a bluff.”
    “My father was never very good at that…are you sure it’s wise?”
    Rose didn’t answer as she walked to the door and opened it wide. “I’m terribly sorry, doctor, but Maria is distraught.”
    “About what?”
    Maria couldn’t see him, but she could hear the impatience in the doctor’s voice.
    “Perhaps it would be best if I showed you.” She stepped back and gestured him into the room.
    He did, glanced at Maria then stared at the officer lying on the floor of the closet behind her.
    “What’s this?”
    “He attacked her,” Rose explained.
    Dr. Geoff pinned Maria in place with a sharp look. “He what?”
    She swallowed and nodded. “He accused me of having special favourites among the wounded…like…like some whore.” She was talking too fast, but she couldn’t seem to stop her tongue from tripping over the words coming out of her mouth. “He…he grabbed me and shook me and I think he would have h-hurt me if I hadn’t knocked him out.”
    As she spoke, Dr. Geoff walked over to look at the officer’s face. “I know this man. He’s responsible for the deaths of two physicians, friends of mine, who refused to torture a couple of captured soldiers. This demon had them shot for treason or some such sheisse . Only my family’s station and military connections saved