“May I ask how you two met?”
I nodded, thinking back.
“I was injured. Shot three times. Once in the arm, once in the leg, and one life-threatening shot through my back to my abdomen.” I met her eyes across the table. “She was the nurse on the plane taking me from France to a hospital in England. I thought she looked like an angel. Partially from the blood loss, but mostly because she looked like an angel. She had these beautiful pale blue eyes and soft-looking long blond hair that was pulled back into a bun. But a lock had come loose and I was mesmerized by her slender fingers and the way she kept tucking the strand of hair behind her ear, the look on her face so serious as she checked my wounds. So I asked her to marry me.”
Selene’s eyes widened. “While she tended to your injuries?”
“Is there a better time?” I laughed. “She apologized and said she’d already promised herself to a guy with a head injury the day before. She said it with such a straight face—I laughed so hard my stomach wound started to bleed. She was mortified.” I shrugged. “The pain was worth it just to have her attention on me that much longer. In fact, she ended up saving my life. Because of the nature of the wound and being in the air...” I waved a hand and laughed. “I’ll spare you the gory details.”
“What happened after that?”
I turned back to the view and smiled.
8
Kate
January 1944
“Kate?”
I groaned and then screamed out in pain as I opened my eyes and reached wildly for something...someone...anything.
“You’re okay.” Char’s face came into view and she grabbed my hands as they flailed and held them tightly to her as she leaned in closer. “You broke your leg during the landing. I’ve splinted it, but it’s gonna hurt like hell until we get you back to base.”
I let out a stream of expletives and she nodded.
“I know,” she said and then turned to look at Gus, who’d just come into view.
“How you doin’, kid?” he asked.
I swore and he laughed. “Sounds about right,” he said and glanced behind him at the patients.
“They okay?” I whispered.
“A few bumps,” Char said. “A lot of whining. But no worse for wear amazingly.”
“You ladies had them strapped in nice and tight,” Gus said.
“And Mac?”
“He’s fine. He took off for base about twenty minutes ago. You were out like a light. I imagine the pain hit you over the head.”
I didn’t remember anything.
“What happened?” I asked.
“That damn utility box they packed came loose,” Char said, wincing and shaking her head as though reliving the moment. “I saw it just in time to move my legs, but apparently you didn’t. It narrowly missed your left leg, but it wedged in pretty damn good against the right one. The guys pulled it away and I splinted it as fast as I could while you were still unconscious.”
“I don’t know how you gals do it,” Gus said. “I nearly lost my lunch at the sight of bone. Mac did lose his. But Char wasn’t fazed in the least.”
She grinned and gave my hand a squeeze.
“That’s the job, right Kate?”
I nodded. “Thanks, Char.” I gestured with my head toward the soldiers still in their bunks. “They really okay?”
“Incredibly,” she said. “Worst injury was that one.” She pointed to my leg and I ventured a look down. My pant leg had been cut away midthigh. Just below my knee it was wrapped, splinted, and bloodstained. There was a sticky pool of red beneath my blood-soaked sock and boot.
