Thursday, April 27, 1933 Scottish Highlands near Fort Augustus

Benjamin Ford stood atop a hill cloaked in a mist that hid him from God Himself and his fellow man. Head bowed under the weight of his sins, they pressed on his broad shoulders. But he would carry them if it meant an innocent would live.

The cool dampness swirled around him. The lapping of Loch Ness below created an otherworldly sense. There was life beyond the veil. Today, he didn’t want to acknowledge it. Perhaps because yesterday, he’d taken a thirty-fourth life. The exact number of years he’d lived on this earth.

Or maybe because today heralded the sixteenth anniversary of the first time he killed a man.

What absolution could there be for a man with so much bloodshed on his hands? He opened them now, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, revealing the tattoos gained from his time in the US Navy. Droplets formed on weather-worn skin, the mist heavy with water. It couldn’t wash away the darkness that threatened to crush his soul.

“Herr Ford?” a tiny voice preceded the equally tiny child.

“Yes, Amalie?” Benjamin switched to German before kneeling before the brave little orphan girl he’d smuggled out of Germany last night. Her blond hair hung limp about her pale face. “Are you ready to see Miss Blair? She’ll have tea and biscuits.”

“Will I like my new home?” Her blue eyes shimmered. The poor girl had lost so much in a few short hours, stolen by men who thought her Jewish blood made her less than they. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Oh, wee one.” His voice roughened as she slipped into his embrace. He had promised her father, his friend, that he would do all in his power to protect the man’s only child. But she deserved more than the damaged soul of the likes of him.

Benjamin clenched his jaw against the anger that welled within him. Abe Klein and his wife were good people. Amalie’s father, a university professor, helped bring peace to his country after the Great War, which is how Ben first met the man. Then, earlier this year, Chancellor Hitler was elected and turned the government inside out, and Abe turned to providing intelligence to the Brits, using Ben as a go-between.

Amalie whimpered, and Ben pressed her head against his chest. When word came that Jewish children would no longer be allowed to attend school, Abe planned to send his wife and daughter to Scotland with Ben while staying to fight against the coming evil. Only, Ben was too late for his friend and his wife. He’d had to kill to save Amalie, then whisk her and the information her father died to protect out of Germany.

For this innocent child, he hadn’t hesitated to do what had to be done. He couldn’t hesitate now. He tugged Amalie so he could see her tear-stained face. “Miss Agnes loves children, you know.”

“Will I stay with her?” The little girl swiped at her cheeks.

That wasn’t the plan, but Ben reconsidered as he used his massive thumbs to catch two errant tears that sped down her cheeks. “Shall we ask her?”

Agnes Blair was a wizened, elderly lady with contacts within US and British intelligence most would never believe, and the reason he’d lived on the edge of Loch Ness these past ten years. Technically, he worked for the US military. Still, should he be captured smuggling innocents and information out of countries like Germany, Italy, and Russia, he’d be disowned and left to face likely execution. Not that he cared. He was expendable.

“I wish I could stay with you.” She rested her tiny hand on his, and his heart cracked. What had he done to deserve the trust of this child?