Battle Hymns (22 page)

Footsteps echoed behind them, and there was a loud
bang as the lights illuminated from above. Will stepped back, and
Charlotte quickly smoothed down her curls and adjusted the front of
her dress.

A tall bald man in blue coveralls strode toward them
with a sprightly gait for someone his age. He squinted and then
grinned widely, his teeth white against his dark skin. “Is that
Will Kendrick? That guy was right about riffraff wandering around,
causing trouble.”

Will laughed and approached the man. They shared a
hearty handshake. “Well, if it isn’t Leon Chambers.” He turned to
Charlotte. “Charlotte, this is the man who taught me how to fly. He
also owns the airfield.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Chambers. You must’ve
known Will for a long time. Was he always this enthusiastic about
aviation?”

Leon nodded. “I couldn’t ever get him to leave. I
think he spent more time here than he ever did at home. Even before
his father bought his plane, he’d sit by the runway, sketching them
as they took off and landed.”

“He never told me he could draw. What else are you
hiding from me?” Charlotte tossed Will a teasing look.

Will chortled. “It was only a childhood hobby. And
that’s enough with the stories, Leon.” He motioned to the airplane.
“Why is she here? I haven’t been paying for this space.”

“After everything you’d been through, you think I was
going to scrap it? You’d gone off to war. It was the least I could
do for you.” Leon shrugged. “In fact, you can continue keeping it
here at no charge.”

Will frowned. “I can’t let you do that. You could
make good money renting out this space. Listen, I’m going to pay
you for it until I fly the plane down to D.C. I still have to find
arrangements in the area so it might not be until the fall.”

“You’re moving to D.C., huh? Well that’s too bad for
me, but I wish you all the best.” Leon patted Will on the back.
“Say, you should take her out since you came all this way. Today’s
a perfect day for flying. Great wind speed and visibility.”

Charlotte glanced to Will. “What about the
crosswinds?”

“We don’t have enough time,” Will said, avoiding her
stare.

Why would Will lie to her?

Not wanting to discuss it in the presence of company,
she smiled at Leon instead. “Unfortunately, he’s right. We have
dinner reservations.”

Some of the tension eased in Will’s face. “Let’s go
ahead and settle the financial arrangements. Then Charlotte and I
will scram.”

While the men discussed business, Charlotte explored
the hangar. But as much as she tried to busy herself, she couldn’t
shake Will’s lie from her mind.

Twenty-Eight

O
nce provisions had been
made for Will’s airplane, they said farewell to Leon and returned
to the train station. Unlike their previous trip, only an hour
passed before they arrived at Grand Central Station in the heart of
Manhattan. The first place Charlotte wanted to visit was the Empire
State Building, the tallest skyscraper in the world.

“We should change the plot of
Love Affair
,”
she declared as she beheld the view of lower Manhattan from the
observation deck. “I’ll pretend to be Irene Dunne, except I won’t
get run over by a car.”

Will poked his head over the railing and looked down.
“I haven’t seen it.”

“It’s romantic. Lovers promise they’ll reunite at the
top of the Empire State Building. The man waits for the woman, but
she’s struck by a car on her way across the street.”

“That sounds tragic, not romantic.”

“They’re together in the end. That’s all that
matters.”

Will leaned further over the railing.

“Please be careful,” Charlotte said.

He chuckled and readjusted his hat. “Am I making you
nervous?”

“It’s a long way to the bottom.”

Will gave her a boastful grin. “I’ve been
higher.”

She rolled her eyes. “First you’re an artist, now
you’re a daredevil. I’m learning all sorts of new things about you
today.”

“Hopefully they’re all good things.” Will backed away
from the railing. “Are you ready to go?”

“Sure. I don’t like being this far from the ground,
although I’m glad we did it. It’s quite a view.”

Back on street level, Charlotte looped her arm
through Will’s for their stroll through Midtown. Having grown up in
Washington, D.C., she was no stranger to metropolitan areas, but
the capital paled in comparison to the buildings and lights of
Manhattan. The size of the city was nearly overwhelming, and she
was glad Will knew where they were going.

“Are there any other places you want to visit?” he
asked.

“Many.” She counted off the attractions with her
fingers. “The Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Chrysler
Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Times
Square . . . Need I go on?”

Will laughed. “You’ve made your point. We’ll have to
visit again sometime.”

“For longer than one day?”

“If you’d like. However, your parents would surely
disapprove of you spending the night with me.” He grimaced. “Sorry.
Was that too forward? I’m not presuming anything, I promise.”

Charlotte blushed. She was unaccustomed to such talk.
Still, the notion excited her. “No, it’s fine. My parents would
certainly disapprove. Though, they don’t have to know everything.”
She smiled teasingly.

Her heart fluttered as she waited for Will’s
response. Unfortunately, he averted his gaze and escorted her to
the curb. “Let’s take a cab to the restaurant. I think I’ve handled
as much walking as I can for today.”

Charlotte exhaled a shaky breath, hoping to hide her
disappointment. “Of course.”

The restaurant was a ritzy nightclub off Madison
Avenue with a four-piece band, crystal chandeliers, and patrons
dressed in suits, gowns, and furs. Even though Charlotte and Will
were having an early dinner in order to catch the evening train,
the establishment was packed. She felt underdressed in her navy
blue cotton dress, but Will didn’t seem to care about their attire,
so neither would she.

They ordered martinis and listened to the band until
their drinks arrived.

Charlotte leaned forward so Will could hear her over
the music. “Have you been here before?”

“No. It only opened last year. There was a feature in
the newspaper a few months ago when Frank Sinatra performed here.
It said it’s the best food on the East Coast.”

She lifted her martini glass. “And you thought you’d
love to take me here.”

He grinned. “Maybe I did. Or, perhaps I’m
compensating for months spent in the hospital with terrible food.”
He picked up the menu. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m
finally having a steak.”

An hour later, the bill was settled. The meal was the
best Charlotte had eaten in a long time, on account of the
country’s food rationing. She was sure Will paid handsomely for the
privilege.

While Will finished the last of his second martini,
she eyed the couples on the dance floor. She didn’t know if he was
a dancer or not. She hoped he was.

“Let’s dance.”

He glanced at his watch and placed his napkin onto
the table. “All right, but we don’t have much time. Our train
leaves in an hour.”

She stood and took his hand. “That’s plenty of
time.”

Will led her to the dance floor as the slow tempo of
“Moonlight Cocktail” began. He placed a hand on the small of her
back and stepped forward into the foxtrot. He was a decent dancer;
a little rusty, but skilled enough that she was able to avert her
attention from her own steps.

Nine months ago, Charlotte never would’ve imagined
this day. Back then, she was engaged to Nick, and Will was
bedridden in the hospital, covered with bandages and not talking.
Much had changed since. Will had taken great strides in his
recovery. Yet in many ways, he was still the patient who trembled
at a crashing bedpan.

“Are you afraid?” Charlotte whispered.

Will frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s a reason you didn’t want to take out your
plane this afternoon, and it wasn’t the crosswinds or the time, was
it?”

His jaw tensed. “I’m sorry for lying to you about
that.”

“I want you to be able to tell me what you’re
feeling.” She sighed. “You haven’t flown a plane since your crash.
It’d be completely understandable if you were reluctant after what
happened. And combined with your
nightmares . . .”

Will stopped dancing and dropped his arms to his
sides. An unmistakable pain dimmed his features. “Do you know what
it’s like to be terrified of something you used to love?”

Charlotte’s eyes grew misty. She placed a hand to his
cheek. “It may take some time, but everything’s going to work
out.”

Will’s lips lifted into a halfhearted smile. He
kissed her wrist and then took her hand. “Let’s go home.”

They hailed a cab to Grand Central Station. Will was
lost in his thoughts, and they barely spoke a word to each other.
Charlotte caught her last glimpses of Midtown Manhattan as she
followed him through the station to the platform to catch the seven
o’clock train to Washington, D.C.

“Apparently not many people travel on a Sunday
night,” Will commented as they entered the passenger car. A group
of sailors carried on in the back, while a young woman with a
sleeping baby sat toward the front. Otherwise, the car was
empty.

“We should see if any of the private compartments are
open,” said Charlotte.

“All right.” He gestured for her to take the lead.
“After you.”

Will followed her through the vestibules between
train cars until they reached the first compartment car. She peered
through the small windows on the doors. There were plenty of
unoccupied compartments.

“I was wrong about you,” Will said as he settled next
to her. He extended his long legs and leaned back. “You’re not
afraid of getting into trouble.”

“What’s the worst that can happen? If we get caught
without the correct ticket, we’ll return to the passenger car.
Besides, we never have any alone time.”

The whistle sounded and the train began its crawl out
of the station.

Will sat up. “I need to ask you something. Do you
tell people about me?”

Her cheeks heated. She fiddled with the clasp on her
pocketbook. “What do you mean by ‘people’?”

“Your friends . . . your parents?”

“Well, Natalie knows all about you.”

“But you have more friends than Natalie. Where do
your parents think you are right now?”

Charlotte closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see his
reaction. “They think I’m with my friend Sandra.” The words tumbled
from quivering lips. “They don’t know I’ve been seeing you. In
fact, I haven’t mentioned you at all since you came for dinner in
April.”

Will’s warm hand touched her knee. “Darling, open
your eyes. I’m not angry, though I would like to know your
reasoning.”

She met his gaze and drew in a deep breath. “When I
started falling for you, it’d only been a few months since Nick
died. Do you know how that would’ve looked? When more time passed,
I wondered, what if this doesn’t work out? What if you came to the
conclusion that I was the only reason you were in D.C., and I
wasn’t a good enough reason for you to stay long term? Then, as
soon as everyone stopped feeling sorry for me about Nick, they’d
start feeling sorry for me for being jilted. I can’t go through
that again. I can’t have my heart broken again.”

“You won’t have to.” Will looked at her in earnest.
“I’m in love with you, Charlotte, and I have been for quite some
time. You know that, right?”

She blinked back tears. “Yes, I know. And I’m in love
with you.”

Will slid closer and lifted her chin. He kissed her,
his lips parting hers with the slight taste of gin and fervor far
greater than anything he’d shared with her previously.

Charlotte wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed
him back with everything she had, her body surging with longing.
It’d been so long since she’d been kissed with such passion. It
felt as though she were laying her soul bare to him. The notion of
what this meant for them and their future together was
exhilarating.

And utterly terrifying.

Twenty-Nine

A
s much as Charlotte
dreaded the admission of her deception, it was well past time to
tell her friends and family about her relationship with Will. She
cared deeply for him, and she wanted their relationship to progress
without secrets or any other obstacles enabled by her
insecurities.

She waited until her girlfriends returned for their
final year at Trinity College in September. Over lunch at the
dining hall she told Sandra and Evelyn as nonchalantly as possible
that she’d been seeing a man over the summer. Their initial
reactions were disbelief and uncertainty, but they came around to
the idea after Natalie explained that Charlotte nursed him back to
health at the hospital. Since then, Sandra had asked, on numerous
occasions, for a double date with her and Frankie.

Sharing the news with her parents proved more
problematic. She had lied to them all summer whenever she was out
with Will, pretending she was meeting one of her girlfriends or
volunteering at the hospital. As expected, her mother was
suspicious when she finally announced she’d been seeing him.
However, her parents had liked Will ever since he’d joined them for
dinner in the spring, and they expressed their happiness—and
relief—that she’d moved on after Nick’s passing.

Her parents also wanted to meet Will again, yet
Charlotte made excuses each time, both to them and Sandra. She and
Will still only saw each other on Sunday afternoons, and she wanted
to spend her time with him alone, not sharing him with others.