The following morning found its way slowly. With the vague amount of light, the candle produced, she continued forcefully scrubbing at the visible bloodstains etched in the light gray fabric of Albert's uniform. The dawning day was beginning to produce a hazy light beneath the door when she heard Albert rustling in the bed. Between breaking his fever and fighting her own nightmares, Eloise found no sleep in the still darkness the night had offered.

"Eloise..." Albert's hushed voice trailed off.

Eloise quickly glanced up from what she was doing and gazed at Albert who had awoken in the corner. In his hands he held a small piece of white linen, studying it in great detail. She could sense the confusion on his determined face as he traced his fingers along the embroidered letters.

"Is that your name, ma'am?" He finally asked, looking up at the staring Eloise.

She watched him for several seconds in silence, pondering on the decision to lie before nodding hesitantly. Her identity was known, and it was a truth that could no longer be hidden.

"You have a beautiful name, Ellie." He stated plainly, offering her a kind smile as he rose. His weak legs staggered clumsily in her direction. "You didn't have to lie about it." He reached her the simple linen cloth and sat down onto the heavy chest. "What other secrets are you hiding in here," he paused, patting the heavy wooden box. "Eloise."

Eloise folded her arms over her chest and began tugging nervously at the top button on her blouse. "Nothing, sir." She replied simply, scrubbing the coat vigorously.

A displeased expression came over his face, making the nervous feelings resurface once again. "How did a woman like you get in the woods?"

Eloise's eyes grew wide at the unexcepted question, glancing back at his unimpressed gaze. She was at a loss for words, uncertain on what to say.

"Don't tell me that you don't know how, either." Albert bluntly said, taking the objects from her hands. "I want to know about you, Eloise."

Eloise could feel her heart pounding violently in her chest. "It is a long story, sir." She paused and nodded. "I don't think that you would want to listen for that long."

"I have nothing but time." He grinned cockily, crossing his legs. "As you can see, I am in no condition to go anywhere; and if my mother asks me who saved me, I can tell her—"

"No." Eloise quickly cut him off, shaking her head. Albert stared respectfully at her without speaking. "I am sorry, sir. I didn't mean to cut you off." She paused for a moment and shrugged her shoulders. "If I tell you about myself, you must tell no one—not even your mother. I don't want to be found by anyone. That is my greatest fear."

"I understand." Albert nodded collectively. "If you do choose to tell me anything, I assure you that I will never speak of you to anyone."

"How can I trust you?" She calmly asked, pushing herself up from the ground. "I don't know your character as a person."

He looked away and sighed, "Do you know why I crashed my plane?" The question was completely out of context and baffled Eloise.

She shook her head with confusion.

"The gentleman who I was fighting saved my younger brother's life." Albert paused, forcefully rising from where he sat. "I made him a promise that I would return the favor—a life for a life. When I realized that he was my opponent, I stopped fighting him with hard determination. I hoped that he would go on so he could live." He limped toward a chair and eased down. "I let him shoot my plane down in order to clear the promise made on my family's name"

"You could have died doing such an act."

Albert nodded in awareness. "I had a promise and I kept it. I would rather be dead than my family's name be ruined." He offered Eloise another smile. "Now that my debts are paid, he shall watch out for the wrath of my Albatross."

Eloise kept her blank stare on him, unsure on how she should feel toward the man. "What does that have to do with anything about me, sir?"

"I always keep my promises." He answered flatly, crossing his arms coolly over his broad chest. "If you do not believe me, just know that I have never lost a battle in the air."

She let out a long sigh and averted her stare away from his eyes. "I am going to go against my conscious and trust you, like I did the witch woman."

Albert immediately shook his head and let out a slight chuckle. "You are comparing me to a witch woman? I don't know whether I should be insulted or complimented."

"Well, she was a very delightful woman—strange, but delightful." She informed, recalling the face of her former friend. "It should be a fine compliment, sir."

He raised a single brown. "If you insist." He kept his answer simple as his chipper expression quickly became serious. "Tell me, Eloise," Albert spoke with amusement, patting the large chest he sat upon. "What exactly is in this chest?"

She stared at him blankly, uncertain on how to respond. The remnants that remained of her past life filled the battered trunk, reminding her of the life that she once knew before it disappeared with time. What did he want from her, she silently wondered.

She shrugged, "I suppose that it is just memories that are sealed off into their own world within that box." Her words seemed distant as she recalled her previous years. "You are more than welcome to look. You won't be finding anything that is a secret."

His eyes pierced her once again, focusing on the shy half-smile that rested on her tender face. Eloise quickly pulled the two chairs around the trunk, plopping down onto the wicker seat. Albert slowly moved from where he sat, fixating his attention onto the relic before him.

"You don't have to show me anything if you don't desire." He stated, glancing up at the hesitant Eloise.

She lifted the lid, exposing the many private memories she held of years gone by—exposing the secrets she had forgotten with time.

"I don't mind, sir." She candidly replied, tracing her fingers lightly along the aged wood. "In fact, I would be honored if someone knew of my life." She paused peering at the contents inside. "I would hate to die and know that I was completely forgotten."

"I thought your wish was to be forgotten."

The statement rang true throughout her mind, knowing that her desires appeared that way. In reality, she didn't know what she wanted. One moment she longed for life-long love, the next she wished to be left alone in the woods.

"It is," she looked up at him quickly only to correct herself. "but it won't hurt if someone else knows of my existence." She shrugged. "You have a legacy that follows you. If you were to die, people would know your name. They would remember you and what you done." She stopped speaking, looking around the quaint interior of the cottage. "If I die, I die alone with not even a full name."

"Then why don't you leave here?"

"Because the truth of the matter is I am afraid of being known." She spoke disheartened, fearing the words that rolled off of her tongue. "I have been out here for so long now, I wouldn't know how to live with others."

He calmly tilted his head to her and unwittingly rested a steady hand on her knee. "You seem to be getting along just fine with me, Eloise."

She immediately tensed at his touch, inching away from him shyly. Her eyes locked back onto the opened truck, hoping to ignore his kind actions.

"You said your family was all dead," Albert paused momentarily, staring at the ground. "but it wasn't the war that took them..."

Eloise shook her head. "No, sir, the war didn't take them." She stated expressionless. "My mother died during childbirth when I was twelve and my father died in America."

"In America?"

She nodded plainly. "He had been an inventor in Germany before he married my mother and moved to Belgium. Four years after her death, he received a letter from a man who wanted him to come and help them invent. They promised him handsome riches." She stopped and bit her lower lip. "I never heard from him again. After a year with no word from him, I received a letter that read about his death—poison took his life."

"I am sorry, I did not know." Albert sympathetically replied.

"They didn't even return his body so I could bury him." She shook her head. "I never got any closure and that is what made it the hardest." A pause came over her as she felt her heart pondering on the bad parts of her past. "Since I was the only child of an unpopular family," She answered mockingly, tilting her head. "I was not welcome in the orphanage, nor did any family want me because they wanted young children and I was fifteen. One day when I was living in the streets a lady they called Madame Delphine found me."

A slight smile came across Eloise's lips at the thought of her friend. "She was the social outcast, just as I was. They all called her a witch." She sighed, "She could conjure spells for any occasion and for that she was not accepted by the townspeople."

"What happened to her?"

Eloise drooped and became silent at the thought of the question. "I don't know." She shrugged. "She went out one day to find herbs and she never came. I looked all around for her, but I never found her. A few days after she disappeared, German troops began to heavily pass by the spring. I knew then that Delphine wouldn't be coming back."

"It must get lonely out here." Albert replied softly, glancing around at the empty room.

She slightly shook her head, reaching into the chest to pull out a stack of old books. Her fingers trailed along the heavily worn covers, tracing over the golden print relaying their names.

"It isn't that lonely. I manage to read sometimes," she answered, reaching the books over to Albert. "but one can only read the same books so many times. However," she opened the worn book in her hands. "if you have a book you are never truly alone."

He studied the old books, reading each of the titles carefully: The Holy Bible, Grimms' Fairytales, Herbal Medicine, and a spell book bound with soft leather. The shocked gaze he held proved to Eloise that he was also uncertain on his company.

"You're a witch?" he asked, placing the books carefully back into their location.

She shook head, letting out a slight chuckle in denial. "No, sir."

He raised his brows, pointing to the books he had just found.

"I know what it appears to be, but I don't read those." Spoke Eloise informatively. "Those were Delphine's. I would read the Bible while she would read her spells." She pointed to the mantle where two skulls sat. "They used to sit upon the mantle, but I put them all away when she left."

He chuckled slightly, "I bet you two made a great pair. The witch and the orphan."

"We were a great pair when she was here," A shake came to her head. "but she had to leave, too." she paused, forcing a smile onto her face, recalling memories. "As she conjured her spells, I would read scriptures of love and faith and even sometimes about witchcraft. No matter what either of us read to each other, we never became angry with each other, we always stayed the best of friends." Her words ceased as she thought to herself. "Just like the useless books, I crammed all my heart in this chest. I didn't need to read about love, just like I didn't need to read about spells."

A stillness came over them as Eloise continued rummaging through the chest, pulling out her past one piece at a time...