Shadowed by Grace

by Cara Putman

  In a few minutes the group of soldiers joined the others pouring out of the barracks and toward the different rest areas the army had established.

  After waiting in line awhile, they entered the officers’ club. A festive air filled the building with a band playing swing tunes. Most of the men headed to one of the bars while Scott decided to find a place to sit. Blake joined him a bit later with two Cokes. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. I figure you’ll earn it showing me the ropes.”

  Scott rubbed his jaw and sighed. “There isn’t much to show.”

  “Nah. I’ve watched. You’ve got a can-do attitude I need.” Blake took a swig from the glass bottle, then wiped his mouth. “This isn’t Oxford.”

  “You can say that.” The band switched from a Dorsey tune to something he’d heard Bing Crosby sing on Armed Forces Radio.

  The man studied the room, then turned back to Scott. “It may not be Oxford, but I’ve always wanted to see Italy. Now I get my chance. Looky there.” Blake tipped his bottle toward a table across the way. “You see what I see?”

  Scott looked around, taking in the large room filled with well-dressed officers. There were a few women, some in uniform, some in dresses. They looked like hummingbirds flitting around the room, surrounded by men or dancing on the floor. “You’ll have to narrow it down a bit.”

  “Over there. By that fake palm.” Blake gestured. “I see a couple fine-looking women.”

  Scott laughed because most of the soldiers described every woman that way, even the half-starved Neapolitans. He’d heard terrible stories of some soldiers paying them with Monopoly money and kept his distance. “I’m not interested.”

  “Sure.” Blake grinned and tapped his half-empty bottle against Scott’s. “I’ll get another bottle while you’re not interested.”

  Erikson wormed his way through the crowds, and Scott monitored his progress. Despite his claims, he was curious about the women who had captured the man’s attention. A small pixie of a woman leaned against the wall, a bright smile on her face as she listened to the band play Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing.” A tall Amazon stood next to her, long legs highlighted by the skirt she wore. A third member of the group disappeared in the fake fronds.

  Blake approached the group and talked to the gals for a few minutes, his attention focused on the tall gal. She almost matched him inch for inch, not an easy task since Blake was a bear of a man. But the pixie nodded too. In no time Blake had them following him across the floor. “Scott, let me introduce Babs, Dottie, and . . .”

  “Lieutenant Lindstrom.” Rachel’s voice taunted his ears through the band and background conversations.

  “Captain Justice.” He stood straighter and felt the room telescope around her.

  Blake helped the women into chairs. “Can I get y’all something to drink?”

  After accepting orders, he moved to a bar, leaving Scott with the ladies. The other soldiers’ glares burned Scott’s back. Here he sat with an abundance of women when he wanted to focus on one.

  The gal named Dottie chatted with Rachel while Babs waited for Blake’s return. A couple soldiers drifted past their table with loud voices and pointed looks, but Rachel ignored them while Dottie smiled and shook her head. “I’m quite fine, thank you.”

  Rachel shook her head as she watched her friend. “You dragged me out here so you could smile and say no?”

  “Well, I came to spend time with you.” Dottie grinned. “Besides, the right one hasn’t walked by.”

  Scott couldn’t help himself. “You mean I’m not him?”

  Dottie froze, then gave him an apologetic frown. “Why, no. You certainly aren’t. My momma told me I would know the moment I laid eyes on my true love. I must not have met him yet.”

  “Dottie, you are one of a kind.” Babs rolled her eyes and then smiled when Blake returned with a Coke. “I thought you might bring something stronger, soldier.”

  “Not this one, ma’am.” Something in the way he said it seemed to charm the girl.

  The military band took off with “In the Mood,” and Rachel swayed in her seat.

  “Would you like to dance?” Scott stood and offered her his hand.

  Her chocolate doe eyes considered him, then she slipped her hand in his. As she did, he stood straighter with the knowledge the most beautiful woman in the room had chosen him. Even if for one moment.

  Chapter 10

  This was a mistake.

  The thought raced through her mind as Rachel accepted Scott’s offered hand.

  As he adjusted her hold and tightened his fingers around hers, she could feel it to the depths of her toes. This man was a mystery. Yes, they’d spent moments together, but she didn’t know him. Not really. Yet as she’d watched him with the priest, seen him with the various children they’d come across, his heart peeked out. She saw a passion for protecting what he valued. What would it be like to be the object of that attention? Did he worry anyone who caught a glimpse of the real man, the one who cared deeply, would walk away?

  This was a mistake.

  If he probed, she wasn’t sure she could keep her heart hidden from him. His gaze seemed to penetrate to her heart, and if he could see through her, it would be simple for him to penetrate her walls. She couldn’t afford to let a man distract her from her twofold purpose in coming to Italy.

  A distraction would cost her precious time. Time she didn’t have to save her mom.

  Her thoughts flitted to the way a man had woven Italy into a magical land that led to heartbreak. She couldn’t let that happen. Not to her.

  Rachel fought the sudden desire to yank her hand from Scott’s grip before he had her on the dance floor. Before he could encircle her in his arms and she relaxed into his embrace.

  One thing she knew to her core: Scott Lindstrom, enigma extraordinaire, could demolish her reasons in a heartbeat.

  “I can’t do this.” The words whispered from her mouth.

  Scott hesitated a moment in the path to the center of the hall. He cocked his head toward her. “I’m sorry?”

  Dottie waved her fingers at Rachel over a soldier’s shoulder as he whirled her around the floor. She looked so relaxed, so contained with a hint of joy that Rachel longed for a breath of that. One dance. One moment of forgetting she was in bombed-out Naples. She could close her eyes and imagine instead she was here during the same time as her momma. The 1920s. A carefree time when the world couldn’t imagine a war as all encompassing and devastating as the one crossing the globe.

  “Do you need something to drink? Water? Punch?” The concern in Scott’s voice led Rachel to shake her head.

  “One dance.”

  He smiled, slow and confident. “That’s all it takes.”

  She tucked her head against his shoulder, unsure how to take his words. Maybe for a few moments she’d forget everything. Instead of wondering or worrying, she’d imagine what her momma had felt the first time she’d danced with her father. Maybe she’d begin to understand the love and passion that convinced her momma to live her life alone since Italy.

  That’s all it takes? Scott wanted to stop the dance, march out of the officers’ club, and straight to the nearest bucket of water. Maybe if he dumped it over his head, he’d regain his senses.

  What was it about this petite, brown-eyed woman that turned him into an absolute idiot?

  It had to qualify as a miracle that she’d accepted his request for a dance. The band started up with a rendition of “A String of Pearls.” Not swinging music; neither was it a hold-the-girl-close-and-snuggle-up-for-three-minutes tune. Perfect for their current relationship. Who was he kidding? Were they even friends? He shouldn’t count on spending any more moments with Miss Justice. He enjoyed the pockets of normalcy he imagined with her. He could forget they were here. Maybe they’d run into each other at a dance in Philadelphia.


  He swung her lithe frame away from him and then tugged her back. She floated with a grace that made him think she’d had lots of lessons or opportunities to perfect her dancing.

  As he maneuvered through the couples on the floor, he noticed several soldiers looking at Rachel rather than enjoying the gals they swung around the floor. “Is your dance card full?”

  She startled and looked up at him.

  He leaned closer to her ear. “Dance card full?”

  “No. It never is.” Her eyes twinkled. “I came for the refreshments.”

  “I doubt the guys give you a chance to sit down.”

  She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. This is the first one I’ve attended. A girl can only hide so long.”

  “Why?”

  “Dottie can be persuasive. And I couldn’t tell her no since I leave tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  She nodded, her hair brushing his chin in a whisper-soft motion.

  He swallowed. “Think you’ll miss her?”

  “Absolutely. She doesn’t get in my things, and she’s so kind.” Rachel faltered a step and her eyes filled. “She’s almost like I imagine a sister.”

  “Bet you left a couple of those behind.”

  “No. Only my mom.” Tears collected in the corners of her eyes. What had he said now?

  The song ended, and Rachel turned toward the band to applaud with the rest. Before the band started another song, she edged from Scott and the dance floor. She didn’t make it far before a couple of officers surrounded her, acting like high school kids. If her tight posture was any clue, she didn’t relish the attention. Still, he wasn’t sure she wanted him to intervene. Maybe he should watch from a distance for a few minutes. Get a better read on how she liked the attention. Then he could come to her assistance the moment she looked like she’d welcome help.

  The music made it impossible to listen to the conversation around Rachel. Though her face looked relaxed, the skin around her mouth was tight, and it wasn’t from the smile she’d painted on.

  Scott elbowed his way through the crowd. “Excuse me, gents.” He turned to Rachel. “I believe you saved me this dance.”

  Her eyes widened and then her smile broadened. “There you are. I wondered where you’d disappeared. I was about to head out with one of these fine men. No sense wasting the night.”

  “I’m here now.” He extended his hand, wondering if she’d accept.

  “Yes, you are.” She turned toward those assembled around her, looking a bit like Scarlett O’Hara in that movie Elaine had dragged him to while they dated. “I’m sorry to disappoint, gentlemen.” Then she accepted his hand, and he led her toward the floor.

  The music swept around them as they danced, and he would swear she snuggled close as the music wrapped around them. The others faded into an impressionist surrounding, details washed out by the moment of holding her. Of feeling how well she fit next to him. The music eased to an end, but Rachel remained where she was, so he continued to sway from side to side. What song did she hear? The bandleader announced a fifteen-minute break, and Scott tipped her chin up.

  “Rachel, we should get off the floor.”

  “Hmmm?” She kept her eyes closed, and the longing to lean an inch closer and kiss her overwhelmed him.

  “Rachel, honey?”

  “Yes?” Her chocolate eyes opened and she startled. “I’m so sorry.”

  With a swirl of her peacock-blue skirt, she tugged her hand from his and slipped out a side door.

  Her heart pounded as Rachel slipped outside. She needed air and distance. Thanks to the Fifth Division, she’d have plenty of space inserted between Lieutenant Lindstrom and herself starting in the morning. Right now, though, he edged perilously close. As they danced, she’d longed to have him hold her forever. She felt like she’d found her home, and she never imagined that would be with a person. The way he’d marched into the middle of the flood of uniforms and swept her away spoke to her. She’d felt alone and trapped in an unwelcome sea of admiration. Then he freed her.

  He’d seen her. And he cared enough to step into the fray.

  She liked to stand on the side, camera poised to snap pictures, but never of her. Always of what she saw, the way she experienced the world.

  She closed her eyes, then tilted her chin toward the sky. The world around her was dark, but an array of stars filled the sky, almost as vast as those she’d seen from the road that fate-filled day she toured with the lieutenant.

  The uncountable nature of the stars made her feel so small, so insignificant.

  A tear threatened to escape as she tilted her face further to the sky.

  “There you are.” Lieutenant Lindstrom’s voice sounded tense.

  She swiped under her eye, then lowered her face, still not looking at him.

  “It’s the middle of the night in Naples. You don’t want to be out here alone.”

  He was right. Rachel knew it was foolish to leave the building. Yet had he sensed she didn’t want to remain alone? How much her heart cried for someone to see her?

  “Can you take me home?” She turned toward him and forced a small smile. “I have so much to do before morning.”

  Scott studied her a moment, his gray eyes laced with concern and awareness.

  Please don’t say it. She couldn’t bear to hear him acknowledge her pathetic excuse.

  “Should you say something to your roommate? Dottie, right?”

  “Yes, we can go back long enough to find her. Then I’m ready to leave.” If they could find Dottie. Was it even possible in that crush?

  “You’ll be all right.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, staring into her face through the shadows.

  What did he see? What kept him looking at her, an ordinary girl far from home? For just a moment she wanted to see the world from his perspective. See herself the way he did.

  His hands slid down her arms until he caught her hands, a trail of goose bumps following his touch. He tugged her a step closer, until they were standing with mere inches between them. Her breath hitched in her lungs, and she felt time still. She tried to read his eyes, but the shadows made it impossible.

  His hands found her waist and pulled her closer still. “I wish you could see the woman I see, Rachel.”

  “I do too.”

  A slow grin spread on his face, and she felt it to her core. “Let me show you.”

  His head tipped down until their lips were a breath apart. He paused as if giving her the opportunity to back away. When she didn’t, he closed the distance, and she felt as if the stars exploded around them.

  In that moment she knew how her mother could give her all to another, and it terrified Rachel even as she wanted to prolong the moment. Scott must have sensed her moment of panic because he eased back and touched his forehead to hers. She felt emptied yet honored by that small whisper of distance. She leaned toward him and he groaned.

  “Let’s get you home.” The words were ragged as if it took everything in him to say them.

  They found Dottie, and her eyes widened as she glanced at Rachel, but in a moment they were walking the streets of Naples. Rachel’s thoughts spiraled. She could not get attached to Scott. She’d leave in the morning and he’d stay here. The chance they’d see each other again diminished to miniscule odds the moment she left Naples.

  Where would he be when she left? She’d be on her own and couldn’t imagine finding him again. And in that moment all she wanted to do was beg him to follow her. He saw her and didn’t press. He seemed to cherish her as he would a friend yet with a spark of more. The potential for something much more.

  Scott held tight to Rachel’s hand as they wove their way through the city back to her hotel. His senses still buzzed from their kiss. He hadn’t planned his next step yet knew they could never go back and didn’t want to. No, he wanted to beg he
r to stay in Naples with him. To chuck her plans to travel with the Fifth when they left the next day. Here it was safe and he could watch over her.

  As soon as she left, he’d have no way of knowing if she was all right.

  Yet he couldn’t push the words out.

  She had a job to do just as he did. And the army called the shots for both of them. She couldn’t stay any more than he could leave.

  When they reached the hotel, she paused, and he tugged her against the wall. She fell into his arms and he tightened his hold. What was he doing? Had the war heightened the way he felt about Rachel? Elaine had never felt so much a part of him.

  “What?” Her gaze collided with his, sending a jolt through him.

  He studied her, wishing they had more time. “You’re sure you ship out tomorrow?”

  She shrugged, and still he didn’t let go. “As sure as I can be with the army.”

  “Remember me?”

  “What a crazy thing to say.”

  If there was even a chance they could reconnect, explore what could happen after the war, then he had to take it. “Look for me in Rome.”

  “Rome?”

  “You’ll be there next. And I’ll be behind you.” He tipped her chin up, memorizing every feature on her perfect face. “I will find you.”

  Chapter 11

  June 3

  DeWald and the other Venus Fixers sat grumbling as Scott entered the office. Here he belonged and shared a purpose with men of learning and drive. It should be enough. The drumbeat to do more filled him, and the grumbling only stirred that urge. He’d come with orders to save Western civilization. The longer he sat in Naples, the less likely he’d fulfill that mission.

  He bit back words that would add to the cacophony of discontent.

  Rumor had it the army would enter Rome in the next day or two. The knowledge left Scott ready to abandon Naples with or without orders. If Rachel was in Rome, then he wanted to be there.