Raised voices silenced them both, and Danni quietly lifted her camera to capture Patton as he stood glaring at Cameron.
“Sir, with all due respect,” she heard Cameron say, his voice lowered. “General Alexander made it clear that we are to head west. Are you certain you want to defy that instruction?”
“And I’ve told you, we’re marching toward Palermo at daybreak,” Patton barked.
Danni frowned as she saw the way Cameron looked at Patton, wishing she could have captured the image on film as Patton stormed away. She hated that she wasn’t going to be following them, but the photos she’d taken so far had been outstanding, even if she hadn’t got that one last shot, and she was prepared to take one step backward given how far she’d already come. Besides, it wouldn’t do her any favors if she showed Patton in a bad light. She could send her films back to London from the hospital, and they would be published before anyone else had the chance to beat her to it.
She’d seen firsthand the Allies drive German and Italian forces out of North Africa, and now Sicily was another notch on her belt. Finally, it felt like she was photographing success instead of simply slaughter, and that, at least, meant her struggles had paid off.
Danni lay on her bedroll and stared up at the star-filled sky. Her boots were heavy on her feet and made it hard to get comfortable, but she’d learned to be ready for anything, and that meant being prepared to leap up from bed and run if she needed to. She sighed, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes for a moment. Already it felt like she’d been following the war for so long, and the tiredness that thudded through her body on a daily basis told her just how much of an effect it was having on her. Not to mention what a long day it had been today. The fight had continued, on and on, for so long that the troops had looked like they were going to drop, but it had eventually turned in their favor and that seemed to spur them on, giving them all a final boost of energy to secure the beachhead.
“The memories make it hard to sleep, don’t they?” Andy said, his voice low and soft as it came to her on the warm night breeze. “It never seems to get any easier.”
“You can say that again,” she replied, reaching for her camera in the dark. For some reason she always found comfort the second she touched the cool metal, as if it awakened something in her and made her think about her job rather than the past. She slid her hand against it, through the shirt she always wrapped around it for safekeeping at night.
“It was a tough day today,” Andy muttered.
She grunted. “You can say that again, too.” Danni shut her eyes, squeezing the thoughts away as she remembered who they’d lost. It was the hardest part of following along so closely with troops—they were no longer nameless casualties of war, but actual human beings. “Anything on your mind?” she asked, as Andy went silent beside her.
“Actually, I was worrying about my sister,” he said. “Do you remember I told you that she fell in love with that older man when she was in France?”
Danni laughed. “Trust me, it’s not something I could easily forget. She’s not still pining over him, is she?”
Andy groaned. “She keeps asking me when I think the borders will open for travelers again! It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I try to explain that Paris is occupied by the enemy, so it’s not like there’s just some arbitrary ban on tourists.”
Danni patted his hand. “You’re doing a great job. You’re probably fretting over nothing; she’ll fall in love with someone else well before the borders open.”
Andy sighed. “By twenty-two I would have thought she’d understand the mechanics of war more intimately, but it seems I was wrong to make that presumption.”
Danni didn’t tease him, even though she would have loved to tell him that his sister Chloe clearly knew something about being intimate. He’d virtually raised his much-younger sister after their parents had died, and it was the only subject Danni wouldn’t ever tease him about. She might be a beautiful model, but Chloe was also naïve and quite the handful, and from what he’d told Danni, Andy did his best to keep her in line when he wasn’t on assignment.
“How long have you two been working together?” came a voice in the darkness. She thought it was the young soldier who’d asked to hold her camera the day before, but she couldn’t be certain.
“Since before the North African campaign,” Andy answered, “so I’d say just over three years. Clearly I did something wrong in another life, because I’ve been charged with babysitting her ever since.”
Danni scoffed and reached out to punch him, but he expertly dodged her arm, despite the dark.
“What he meant to say is that he’s been fortunate enough to tag along with me for a good few years now,” Danni corrected.
Now it was Andy chuckling, and it made her smile. Despite everything she’d seen, and everywhere they’d been together, their friendship had never wavered. She was lucky to have him, and she hoped he felt the same about her, despite the teasing. Even when they weren’t on assignment, the rooms they kept at The Dorchester were side by side, and there wasn’t a day that passed when they weren’t together. And although he’d never said anything, she got the feeling that she wasn’t exactly his type. She’d wondered often, even though he’d never said and she would never explicitly ask, whether she was in fact entirely the wrong gender for him to be attracted to. Which was why she didn’t care at all if anyone presumed they were together, not if it protected his secret.
“I didn’t even know women worked as photographers,” the same voice said. “But it’s kind of nice having a woman around, you know?”
Danni stared up at the sky, not sure what to say in response.
“I didn’t expect to cross paths with a female war photographer either,” Andy said, and she smiled as she listened to the way he talked about her, always ready to defend her honor or go to bat for her. “To be honest, I wasn’t convinced she should be there either, until I was asked to keep an eye out for her.” He chuckled. “Actually, my editor told me it was part of my job description to work with her and make sure she made it back to London in one piece. Now though, there’s no one else in the field I’d choose to work with ahead of her.”
“Andy, have you been drinking?” Danni teased. “It’s not like you to be so nice to me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grunted, and she heard the rustle of him moving on his bedroll.
There were other men scattered around them—her correspondent’s card meant she was technically treated as a captain, although she had no official rank, and she was allowed to mess with the officers. Without it, she wouldn’t have been allowed near them unaccompanied. She guessed they were all listening now, but given it was her final night with them, she supposed it didn’t matter what they learned about her. Men always seemed to be curious about what she did, most not understanding why she was so damn determined to do her job, and if they wanted to listen, then she had nothing to hide.
“How long have you been taking pictures, Danni?” another voice in the dark asked. “What made you want to do this?”
“I’ve always loved photography, and I actually learned alongside my father when I was a little girl,” she said, remembering the little darkroom her father had created for her in an unused part of their garage. “And what else is there to photograph during times of war, other than war itself?”