‘Explains why you’re so good with these little ones.’
Everyone in the house was smiling at them, and before she knew it, as the smell of vegetables and spices filled the air, she was being shown all the things Harry had done during the day. More villagers came inside and showed her their mouths or feet, one of the children with an arm bandaged, all wanting to pay their respects to him.
‘You’re a good man, Harry,’ April said, when the house was almost empty again and they were being served yet more food.
‘We grew up very privileged, but my father was determined that we would understand the concept of giving back,’ he said. ‘He was a doctor, too, and we used to help him run a free clinic every month. Mothers would line up for hours on end to see him, and his doctor friends would laugh at what a waste of time it was to give up his time for the poor, but he didn’t care. He did it every year until he retired.’
‘I think I’d like your father very much.’
Harry met her gaze. ‘I have a feeling he’d like you too.’
They thanked their host for their meals, but as April went to take her first mouthful, not sure what she was eating but loving the smell of it, Harry caught her eye again.
‘When all this is over, when things settle down, I’d like you to meet my family, April.’
She couldn’t help the grin that took over her lips, and she nodded as she brought her fingers to her mouth, scooping up the food as she’d been shown the first time she’d eaten with a local family.
April ate and listened to Harry laugh and attempt to learn local words, loving the sound of his hearty laugh and the way he seemed to fit so easily into any situation. He’d been a good friend to her—she would never forget that—and maybe, just maybe when the war was over, it might turn into something more.
When it was finally time to go, they said their goodbyes, and April happily took Harry’s arm when he offered it, walking in the dark with only the moon to guide them back to camp.
‘Harry?’ she asked.
He met her gaze, looking down at her, and she could make out his smile even in the half light.
She stopped walking and touched her hand to his shoulder as he stopped beside her, then swallowed her fears and stood on tiptoe to bravely press a kiss to his lips. He was still for a moment before his arms circled gently around her, his mouth moving against hers.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, before lowering herself back to her heels again.
‘For what?’
‘For tonight, for believing in me, for showing me what makes a great doctor.’ She caught his hand and leaned into him. ‘For everything.’
Harry tucked her against his side as they started to walk again, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as they moved in silence. They’d spent the evening sharing a meal with strangers, and yet it had been one of the best nights of her life.
Only hours after dinner, April lay curled up in her bed with newspapers stuffed around her as insulation as she shivered to stay warm. At one point during summer, they’d had to stop taking the patients’ temperatures during the day because the thermometers always ran too high due to the scorching weather, and yet now they were so cold she was convinced she’d wake up with part of her body frozen like an icicle.
‘I thought I was going to lose you both,’ Eva said, her voice barely a whisper in the dark. ‘That day, when you never came back and we were inundated with casualties, I honestly thought I was never going to see you again.’
April was grateful for the blanket of darkness as tears welled in her eyes. She wasn’t sure if Grace was asleep already, but it had been her greatest fear that day too.
‘When we were waiting on the beach, I thought it was the end too,’ she admitted. ‘I was frozen there with Grace and Teddy on one side and Harry on the other, and I didn’t think any of us were going to make it back.’
‘I remember holding Teddy’s hand, before I passed out, and wondering what I was going to tell Poppy when we arrived in heaven,’ Grace said, her voice washing over April as she lay there, listening. ‘I felt so guilty holding his hand, but I just didn’t want to let go.’
‘We’ve all lost too much,’ Eva said. ‘Why can’t someone see what we’re losing and just stop all this bloodshed? I’m so sick of it, of the loss, of all those men dying and blown to pieces every day.’
April listened, feeling the same but not sure what to say. She wondered the same thing, sometimes thought that if only the powers that be could see what it was like at the front line, what these men were actually going through, they’d see how fruitless it all seemed.
‘How’s Teddy?’ Eva asked.
There was a long pause before Grace answered. ‘He’s broken. There’s no other word for him.’
‘Arthur was broken, too—don’t forget that,’ Eva said, her voice cutting through the otherwise silent night air. ‘He was so badly broken I never thought anyone could put him back together again.’
‘And now?’ April asked.
Eva’s laugh was warm. ‘He actually asked me to marry him the other day.’
‘He what?’ April gasped. ‘How many days ago? I can’t believe you’ve kept it a secret!’
‘Three days ago,’ Eva whispered.
April shut her eyes, smiling to herself as she thought about Eva and Arthur. He’d been such an ass in the beginning, but she’d seen for herself the way he looked at her friend now, the way he cared about her.
‘Congratulations,’ she finally said. ‘I’m so happy for you. Will you marry before he leaves?’
Silence greeted her for a moment before Eva answered. ‘I think so. He knows about my father, about how complicated it is for me.’
April nodded despite the dark, wondering if she would be the only one of the three of them to move on to the new hospital. It would be strange without her sister and Eva, but she wasn’t going to dwell on it. Since they’d plunged headfirst into the war, she’d come to realize that nothing ever turned out as she expected.
As she shut her eyes and tried to sleep, she heard Grace sniffling quietly to herself and recognized the sound of her crying. After their mother had passed, Grace had cried every night, and April had always done her best to comfort her, preferring to look after someone else rather than give in to her own emotion. For so long she’d blamed Grace for the burden of having to mother her, but she knew the truth was that she’d taken on the role as much for herself as her sister.
April pushed her covers back and rose, then slipped into bed beside Grace, ready to resume that role again, and scooted her body tight against her sister’s warm frame, wrapping her arms around her as her slender body shook.
She didn’t know if Grace’s tears were for Teddy or what they’d been through or who they’d lost, but it didn’t matter. Her sister needed her, and she would hold her all night if she had to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
GRACE
‘Grace, is that you?’
Grace leaped to her feet and leaned over Teddy, grabbing his hand as he spoke.
‘Yes! Teddy, can you see me?’
He blinked, and she watched as he turned his head, frowning slightly. ‘I can see you, but you’re very blurry. It’s like I’m looking through thick glass or peering through rain or something.’
She let out a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding. ‘You’ve been in and out of consciousness for over a week, Teddy,’ she said, still standing close and squeezing his hand. ‘Your eyes were so filled with debris, but I sat and removed every piece myself.’
He grunted. ‘I know. I kept waking and hearing you, but I couldn’t see you.’
‘The doctor was worried you’d never regain your sight.’
He pushed himself up, and she quickly rearranged his pillows, trying to make him comfortable; then she reached for his water and helped him with the straw. She’d surprised even herself with how strong she’d been, determined to tend to Teddy herself no matter how gory the procedure.
‘Do you
want food? You must be so hungry, and I’ll get the doctor to come and check you to—’
Teddy’s hand closed around her wrist, and she stopped talking, her heart racing at his touch.
‘Thank you, Grace,’ he said, his unsteady eyes searching hers. ‘Thank you for saving me. I’d have died that day without you.’
Grace opened her mouth, wanting to tell him he was wrong, to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal, but the second she did, her throat clogged and she could only sob, tears falling down her cheeks in big ugly plops as she collapsed over him, crying as he held her, his arms warm and firm around her shoulders.
‘I couldn’t lose you, Teddy. It was like being back there; all I could think of was Poppy and that day, that day . . .’ Her voice trailed off, and she tried to catch her breath.
‘Shhh,’ he whispered. ‘You were so brave. You saved me, Grace. No one else would have come for me.’
She knew she’d saved him, because she’d been determined not to leave that beach without him no matter what happened, but hearing the words, knowing how grateful he was, only amplified her emotion.
‘You’re not just little Grace Bellamy anymore, are you?’ He chuckled. ‘You’ve become quite a fine nurse.’
She laughed and finally raised her head. ‘Only it wasn’t me; it was my sister who stitched you back together that day on the beach.’
His smile melted something inside of her. ‘But it wasn’t your sister who held me and stopped me from bleeding out while shells whizzed past our heads, was it?’
Grace stared down at him, wiping the tears from her cheeks as she studied Teddy’s face.
‘When you told me, that night in your tent, that I didn’t need to protect you from what I was going through, you were right.’
‘I couldn’t lose you too, Teddy,’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ he whispered as she fell back down, shoulders heaving again as his arms circled her once more. ‘I know.’
Hours later, she woke to the sensation of someone stroking her hair. Grace slowly lifted her head and licked her dry lips, surprised to find that the firm pillow beneath her head hadn’t been her bed but Teddy.
‘How long have I been asleep?’ she asked.
He chuckled and shrugged. ‘I didn’t have the heart to wake you, but when I started to lose feeling in my arm, I thought it was time.’
She quickly touched her hair and wiped her cheeks, old tears leaving her skin feeling dry.
‘I’m sorry—I don’t know what came over me.’
‘Perhaps the fact you’ve been sitting with me for over a week and you’re exhausted?’ he asked. ‘Because that’s what your sister told me.’
Grace groaned. ‘April saw me like that?’
He smiled. ‘Honey, everyone saw you like that, but no one had the heart to move you.’
‘What else did they say?’ she asked as Teddy’s fingers started to stroke against her arm.
‘That everyone’s moving on to a new hospital, and that I’ll be heading home soon to recover.’
Grace gulped. That was what she’d been afraid of.
‘I don’t want you to go,’ she whispered.
Teddy’s hand lifted, and she sighed when his palm touched her face, pushing her cheek against him as his eyes met hers. ‘I don’t want to leave you either.’
She smiled as she saw the way he was looking at her, truly looking at her, and knew from his gaze that his sight had improved yet again.
‘Teddy, I know you said you thought of me like a little sister; I know you were Poppy’s sweetheart, and that it’s inappropriate, but . . .’ She frowned at the look on his face. ‘What?’ she asked. ‘What’s so funny?’
He leaned forward, his palm still against her cheek, his mouth warm as it closed over hers in a long, slow kiss that left every part of her tingling.
‘You’re as far from a little sister to me as remotely possible,’ he muttered.
She opened her mouth and laughed. ‘But you said . . . in Hawaii, you said—’
‘That was before I’d had time to grieve the woman I loved, before I saw you like this,’ he said. ‘You’ve changed, Grace. You’re not the girl I used to know.’
She swallowed. ‘I’m not?’
‘No,’ he whispered as he cupped her head and gently pulled her down, his lips finding hers again and tracing back and forth against them. ‘No, you’re not.’
She sat up, hand to her mouth as she glanced over her shoulder and saw other soldiers watching them, some whistling at the kiss they’d just witnessed, and her cheeks burned.
‘What would you say if I told you we needed to pretend we were married? So I can come home and nurse you?’
He raised a brow at her. ‘Married?’
She nodded. ‘I’ll find rings, and we need to pretend like, ah, that I thought you were dead, but that we’ve just been reunited.’
He laughed. ‘Fine, I’ll pretend to be married to you, but you might find it easier to use your recovery as an excuse. April told me you were shot trying to drag me to safety? Is that what happened to your arm?’
Grace shrugged as if it were no big deal, even though the sound of the bullet whirring toward her and driving into her flesh was something she’d never forget for as long as she lived. And she still had her arm heavily bandaged, and it hurt to so much as wiggle her fingers. He was probably right; she’d most likely not be cleared to keep serving anyway.
‘Are you sure Poppy wouldn’t hate us?’ she asked, needing to see his face when she asked him the question. ‘I’ve felt so guilty ever since the day she died, that it was me you saved, that it was me in your arms instead of her.’
Teddy found her hand and linked her fingers with his. ‘Poppy was your best friend, Grace. She would have wanted you to live, and I know she would have wanted you to be happy.’
Grace bent low, her forehead to Teddy’s as she breathed deep and let his words wash over her.
‘Can you see me properly?’ she asked.
‘Almost,’ he whispered. ‘But you could be any pretty nurse, for all I know.’
Grace swatted at him, but even half-blind he still managed to catch her hand and pull her down for another kiss as the beds around them erupted into laughter and clapping.
‘Grace!’ she heard, recognizing her sister’s sharp scold. ‘Get off that bed right now!’
She slowly turned, red faced as she found her sister standing with her arms full of equipment and a horrified look on her face.
But then she looked down at Teddy, and they both burst out laughing, not caring who saw them. And instead of obeying her sister, she just shrugged and dropped a final kiss to Teddy’s lips before slowly extracting herself from his bed. She didn’t care who told her off or what kind of trouble she got into; she’d almost sacrificed her life that day on the beach, on the front line, and whoever decided to scold her would be reminded of exactly how dedicated to the cause she’d been.
She glanced at Teddy, seeing the full-of-life man he usually was, not the man in a hospital bed who’d had his eyes bandaged for a week, whose eyes had been so full of debris that the doctors had told her not to bother trying to remove it all.
She’d saved him, and right now, that was all she cared about. She’d always loved Teddy, from the moment she’d first laid eyes on him, and she wasn’t going to feel guilty about it for a day longer, not after everything they’d been through.
Not bad for a girl who was reduced to tears at the sight of blood on her first week on the job.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
EVA
‘Look what Harry managed to find for us,’ April said as she passed out Hershey’s chocolate, then winked as she slid Eva an extra piece. ‘It’s his wedding present to you both, but I’ve just given you Art’s piece too!’
Eva took the chocolate and opened it, grinning at April. ‘What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. I love the man, but I’m not sharing this with him!’
She popped the chocolate onto her tongue and savo
red the taste, even though it wasn’t quite as delicious as she’d expected. Eva sighed. Since the war, nothing had tasted the same, but still it was nice.
‘I can’t believe it’s your wedding day,’ Grace said, opening her own chocolate and sitting down beside Eva.
They were gathered near the hospital, in a clearing that had been deemed safe enough for them to meet for the ceremony. Art had insisted he make his own way despite her protests, so she’d walked with the girls, trying to quell her nerves.
‘I can’t believe it either,’ she whispered. ‘All I keep thinking is that he’ll change his mind. That he’ll realize what a mistake he’s making.’
‘Mistake?’ Grace laughed and pushed Eva’s hand toward her. ‘Eat the rest of the chocolate, and stop thinking silly thoughts.’
‘She’s right,’ April said. ‘He’d be a fool not to marry you.’
Eva unwrapped the second piece of chocolate and took it out. ‘There’s another reason I think he might not want to marry me,’ she said, taking a deep breath before bravely looking up at her friends.
They both sat silently and looked back at her.
‘I’m not going home with him.’
Grace spluttered on her chocolate. ‘You’re not what?’
April nodded as if she understood, and Eva cleared her throat, raising her voice this time. ‘I’m not going home with Art,’ she repeated. ‘I lost my way after Charlie—it was like I forgot who I was and what was important to me—but I can’t go back with him.’
‘Why not?’ Grace asked.
‘Because I’m a nurse, and I’m a damn good one,’ Eva said, wadding up the chocolate wrapper. ‘I don’t want to go home when there are so many men on the front line who need me. It’s just not right.’
Grace’s face changed, her smile fading. ‘So you think I’m a coward for choosing to go home, then?’
Eva shook her head and reached for Grace’s hand, hating how stiff it felt. ‘No,’ she said softly. ‘I think you’re wonderful, Grace. You’ve been a great friend to me, and you’re so brave, but you’ve never loved nursing like I have. It’s all I wanted to do, and it still is. I need to do this.’
The Girls of Pearl Harbor Page 32