There were British soldiers, about four or five of them, riding toward the house. Freya's heart pounded within her chest as she turned around and walked, almost ran, back to the barn. Opening the doors, she went straight to the ladder, pulling herself up and looking at Axel, who was laying down with his arm over his face. He moved his arm and seeing her he shot up, eyes wide as he saw the fear and concern on her face.

Freya whispered, "There are soldiers. Here. Hide. In the hay." She didn't want to risk anything. Axel blinked gently, his green orbs trying to comprehend what she was saying.

Desperate, she pointed at his soldiers coat, letting his eyes follow her finger as she proceeded to point outside. "Hide in the hay! They could find you..." She stepped past him, bending down and moving the hay and motioning to it. His face was a mix of utter confusion and nervousness as he slowly pulled himself into the hay, allowing Freya to throw some on top of him. She covered him up, making sure he wasn't visible, and then remembered his clothes. She grabbed those too and slid them under the hay, then stepped back.

Nothing could be seen. Just an oddly large pile of hay.

She climbed down the ladder, brushing off her dress and straightening her bun before walking calmly out of the barn, her heart pounding within her as she headed toward the house. Her blue eyes picked out the horses and then she saw a few riders on them, two of the horses's riders were not on them though. She reached the house, the soldiers attention turned to her and one of them said a polite 'hello'. She smiled shyly back, replying with a soft hello as she opened the doors and went inside.

She was met with a British soldier on his way out and he stopped to move aside to let her through. She walked past, calmly and carefully so she wouldn't give  her fear away. She saw her grandparents on their chairs in the main room and a high ranking soldier sitting in a chair across from them. Carefully, she walked into the room while the soldier was speaking, slipping silently into the room and sitting in a chair as his gaze flickered to her for a small moment before returning to her Grandpa's. Freya tuned into the conversation, listening to what the soldier was saying...

"We don't know how long it had been there, but the passerby stated clearly that it was a body. We just ant to double check that you haven't seen anything...out of the ordinary..." The soldiers voice was deep and hard, eyes narrowed as he spoke. Freya's heartbeat increased as she heard what he had said.

Was she not the only one who had see Axel on the beach? Maybe they were talking about something else. Hopefully.

Grandpa chuckled, "No, we haven't seen anything. My granddaughter here was actually on the beach around that time, she didn't see anything." He smiled at her, and Freya forced a smile back. Grandma was looking at her, then focused her gaze back on the soldier.

The soldier turned to Freya, his old eyes fixing on her. "You didn't see anything at all?"

Freya swallowed and then replied, "N-no, I almost walked the whole beach. No...body. Why?" Her curiosity increased at what the soldiers knew. "Did someone see a body?"

The soldier nodded, bringing his hand up to his coat to flick off some lint that had been under his rank, then responded, "Yes, ma'am. A passerby on their way home from the town had seen a shape lying just out of reach of the tide before the sun had come up, around 1745 and reported it. Must've been before you had arrived, but for all i know the person could be making it up. Or the tide had sucked it back in." He paused, and at that very moment, a soldier opened the door and walked in, his young face almost excited.

"P-permission to speak, sir?" He asked, removing his hat and standing awkwardly in the middle of the room as he waited.

Freya froze. Had they found Axel? Her face paled, lips opening slightly in fear as she waited.

"Go ahead." The higher ranking one replied.

"Someone was definitely on the beach, sir. We just had two of the others ride down to get a closer look and they found a bunch o-of German materials scattered around. Still no sign of the body, but we found a little bit of bloodstains too. The materials are all soaked through though, sir. They had to have been there for more than 12 hours now." The soldier exclaimed, shooting glances around as he stood in front of his commander.

The lead soldier stood up, his eyes narrowing. He turned to Grandpa, then paused, gaze sweeping back to Freya.

"Miss, you saw nothing on that beach?" He asked quietly, watching her intently.

Freya frowned, narrowing her eyes back as she let them flicker around the room, pretending to think deeply and recall what she had seen.

"Um, I don't remember seeing anything out of the ordinary. But i wasn't too close to the shore, either. If the materials were there, I didn't notice them. I'm sorry." She said quietly, meeting his gaze.

The soldier nodded, then smiled. "Nothing to be sorry for, young lady. This here is my job. To protect people like you. But, if you do see any Germans running around, feel free to give us a call. We'd love to come down and take care of the..." He muttered the last part of the sentence under his breath, and then nodded at Freya, Grandpa, and Grandma. "Wish you a safe time, and wish us the same as well." He then exited, his soldiers following.

Freya let out a small sigh, thankful that they hadn't checked the barn and found Axel. She did realize that this was a close call, though. The way the soldier had talked about the Germans bothered her for some reason. How he wanted to come down and 'take care of them.'

Grandpa cleared his throat. "No Germans are going to be running around on my land." He joked cheerfully, making Grandma smile. Freya couldn't force a smile this time, because she knew for a fact that there was a German on his land.

"Freya, did you know that young lad Roger in planning on enlisting?" He snapped Freya out of her thoughts.

"Really? Why?"

"Because he see's the need. It's a brave and honorable thing to do. He reminds me of your father a little." Grandpa relaxed in his chair, eyes on her.

"Oh, well I guess so. How do you know, though?" She asked, generally curious.

"Ran into him in town the other day, told me himself. Also asked if we needed any help out here on the farm and I said, 'Lad, if anyone needs help, it's definitely us. Feel free..." He kept on talking, but Freya didn't hear.

Roger was enlisting? Why hadn't he told her? She knew that they weren't exactly the closest of friends at the moment, but he was one of the only people in their town her age and they had always supported one another when needed. She pictured him ending up like her father. Trampled underfoot by germans. She then snapped back into focus when she heard the farm statement.

"I can handle the farm myself!" She interrupted, standing up in confusion. Grandpa trailed off from whatever he had been saying, and grandma stopped sewing the little blanket she was currently working on to look up at her.

"Freya, we know that, honey. But we also know just as much as you do that we won't always be here. Maybe it would be a good thing if Roger came down for a bit and worked on the barn and farm, you two could get to know each other better. And it would leave you time to learn how to cook, sew better..."

Freya interrupted her grandma. "What do you mean, get to know each other better? He's rude! We used to be close friends but over the war, that disappeared."

Grandpa sighed. "We can't leave you here alone, Freya. We would feel a lot ore comfortable if, when something happens to us, you had someone to take care of you. Roger isn't rude, I just think that that's his way of playing around. He had a rough past, you know. Lost both of his parents, was raised alone..."

Freya groaned. "I understand that you want me to be safe. But it's not like you both are going anywhere soon. If it makes you happy,, I will go and talk to Roger, but I don't want him coming to talk to me. I have the farm." She insisted. If Axel was discovered by Roger, she could only picture scenarios.

Her grandparents shot each other a look and then sighed. "Freya, Roger agreed that until the end of the year, which is only another six months, he would help out on the farm. Then he would enlist. So i'm not going to change anything. You can put up with him, and it's not like he'll be here every single day. You'll survive." Grandpa replied.

Freya blinked, her chest tightening and throat aching as she suddenly got emotional. "Fine." She turned around and walked outside, done with the conversation.

How dare they invite one of her least favorite people over to take a job that didn't need filling! For a year now she had been working on her own, waking up early every morning and feeding the animals, then she would clean the barn, clean the horses, and do all of the other chores that needed to be done. She was perfectly capable of doing things on her own. They just couldn't see it.

She found herself heading back to the barn, looking once back to make sure there weren't any people following. No horses, soldiers, or grandparents in sight.

Maybe a hopeless conversation with Axel would help. Maybe he would understand.

After all, his English was improving.