Just as she was about to open her mouth again, a noise that was akin to an eruption of sorts sounded from behind her. She lifted her camera and spun around, before slowly lowering it when Andy cleared his throat again, louder this time, and stood to attention beside her. But he needn’t have warned her—she’d have recognized Lieutenant General Patton anywhere. The way he stood, his shoulders impeccably straight as if he had a rod in his back, commanded attention, as did the stern look he was sporting. She only wished that look wasn’t directed at her.
“Can someone tell me what the hell this broad is doing on my battlefield?” he barked.
Danni would have had to be deaf, and perhaps blind, to miss the snigger from the officer who’d caught her eye earlier. When she glanced at him again, he looked as amused as if he were watching a film—he was clearly enjoying it.
“Somebody?” Patton demanded. “Tell me what the hell—”
“It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I’m Danni Bradford, war correspondent and photographer for Time magazine.” She held out her hand, bravely stepping forward, but he didn’t clasp it. Instead he stared at her as if she were an alien. Perhaps, amongst an exhausted, clapped-out array of soldiers, she looked exactly that.
“Major Cameron!” he barked, completely ignoring her introduction even though he was still staring at her, his eyes narrowed.
She swapped glances with Andy, who shook his head as if trying to tell her to keep her mouth shut. Danni wasn’t intimidated by the general; he was only doing his job, and like most old, war-hardened men, he wasn’t used to seeing a woman anywhere near his troops on the field. She’d also heard that he shared the anti-Semitic prejudices of the Germans he was fighting, and that he had a deep-set disapproval of African American men being allowed to fight, so it was hardly surprising to her that he was prejudiced toward women, too. But she wasn’t going to back down.
“Sir, it’s my understanding that she was invited to accompany the 505th, along with her colleague there,” the man whom she now knew was Major Cameron volunteered. “If you ask me, this ain’t no place for a woman though, so I understand your concern.”
I’ll have words with you later, she thought, feeling her nostrils flare with anger as she glared at Cameron.
He just crushed his cigarette beneath his boot as he watched her, still seeming to find the exchange humorous, or at least that’s how it appeared.
“I’m going to give you two minutes to tell me why the hell I should let you stay with my troops, young lady,” Patton said, stepping closer to her with such a fierce look on his face that she should have been trembling. But she wasn’t, because she’d walked this path a dozen times now, fighting for her right to photograph the war, and not even an overzealous, high-ranking officer was going to scare her.
She had a job to do, and that was to show the world what war looked like; what it felt like; what it smelled like; and that’s exactly what she was going to tell him.
If the obvious anger trembling through him doesn’t make him explode in front of me first.
“Well?” he demanded.
Danni cleared her throat. Nothing about convincing Patton is going to be easy, that’s for sure. She had a feeling that for the first time in her life, she might just be up against an impenetrable brick wall.
CHAPTER THREE
LONDON, ENGLAND, JULY 1943
CHLOE
Chloe stared at the letter she’d just written to her brother, tears pricking her eyes as she reread the words one last time. He was going to be furious with her—in fact, he might not ever forgive her—but she knew that this was her chance to leave. If Andy were home, he’d have sooner locked her in her room like Rapunzel and kept her prisoner than let her follow her heart.
She carefully folded the paper and put it into an envelope, scrawling his name on the front and tucking it into her pocket for safekeeping. She’d give it to the lovely old lady next door before she left, to make sure he got it as soon as he returned to visit.
With that done, she smiled to herself and danced across the room to her suitcase, trying her best to forget about Andy. Her case was already brimming with clothes she’d struggled to fit in, and she decided to see if she could find another case to use. She rummaged around in the hall closet and eventually emerged with another, smaller case to put her shoes and cosmetics in.
I’m coming, Gabriel. It won’t be long now until we’re together again!
Chloe hummed to herself as she finished packing, glancing at the clock and realizing she needed to hurry if she was going to make the train. Sitting on her larger case to close it, she spied the small stack of letters she’d saved and quickly crossed the room to scoop them up.
She sighed and looked down at them, able to recite them all by heart she’d pored over them so many times. Gabriel had written to her when he could, when it was easier for him to get mail out of France, and although his letters weren’t full of the outpouring of love that hers were, he’d frequently told her how much he’d enjoyed their whirlwind week together in Paris. She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he saw her again! It had been such a long time since they’d seen one another—almost three years now—but every letter, every memory, meant the world to her.
Tucking them into her smaller case, Chloe stayed bent over a moment, her thoughts suddenly full of her brother rather than her lover. She knew why—because his fury was going to be immeasurable when he returned, which was exactly why she needed to leave now before he had the chance to stop her.
“Don’t you even think about it, Chloe,” Andy fumed. “Nowhere in Europe is safe to travel, and certainly not for a woman on her own.”
“So it’s fine for you, but not fine for me?” she asked, exasperated. “I have traveled before, you know. What do you think I was doing all those years when I was modeling?”
“Stop being so bloody naïve, Chloe!” he shouted. “We are at war, and you need to grow up and understand that, instead of arguing with me like a petulant child! This is not some fun, prewar modeling assignment!”
“I’ll show you, Andy,” she muttered to herself as she shut her case and picked it up, pushing the memories away.
Chloe glanced at herself in the mirror, at her pouty, pink lips, her softly rouged cheeks, and her carefully curled hair. He’d told her to grow up, and she had. Leaving home and going to France was the most grown-up decision she’d ever made, and nothing was going to make her change her mind.
“Farewell, Andy,” she whispered, blowing a kiss in the direction of his bedroom. “Until we meet again.”
He always had the best of intentions for her, but she was tired of being told what to do. Which meant it was time to take charge of her life, starting with where she lived and with whom. The war be damned.
CHAPTER FOUR
JULY 1943
DANNI
Danni stood silently, her hand steady on the camera as she leaned forward, taking the shot.
Click.
The soldier’s face swam before her as he cried out, the light-brown mud slick on his brow as he thrust his rifle forward.
Click.
Another soldier, the perfect picture of calm compared to the other man she’d turned her lens toward, spoke sharply into a telephone. She could see why he’d been chosen for the job, his ability to keep going despite the gunfire around him was invaluable to the rest of his unit. He was lying on his stomach as shots erupted around them, yelling now as the noise amplified.