Piana di Caiazzo
November 26, 1943
Georgie stood in the aisle of the ward tent, clutching her present under her raincoat, her heart aching with love for Hutch.
He hadn’t seen her yet. He sat on a camp stool beside a girl with casts enveloping skinny legs up in traction. Together they sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” with hand motions.
Someday Hutch would be a wonderful father, wise and loving and gentle and firm. If only she could have the privilege of sharing the joys of parenthood with him. She shouldn’t think of such things so early in their romance, but how could she help it?
After the song, Georgie stepped forward. “Hello, Hutch. May I meet your friend?”
“Geor—Lieutenant Taylor.” He grinned and got to his feet so fast the camp stool fell over. With a sheepish smile, he set up the stool again. “It’s good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you too.” Nothing was better than looking up, up, up into his smiling face. Unless it was kissing that face.
“Lieutenant Taylor, I’d like you to meet my friend Lucia. Lucia, vorrei presentarle la mia amica Signorina Giorgiana.”
Oh, he sounded so romantic speaking Italian. “Hello, Lucia. It’s nice to meet you.” She leaned over and held out her hand to the little girl.
Lucia’s smile had several charming holes. “It’s-a nice-a to meet you too.”
“Your English is so good. Hutch told me how fast you’re learning.”
He scooted the stool toward Georgie and motioned for her to sit. “Much faster than I’m learning Italian, but I’m trying.”
“Sounds fabulous to me.” She unbuttoned her raincoat. “This should help—your Thanksgiving present.”
He took the book from her. “An Italian-English dictionary. Wow. Where’d you get this?”
“In Naples.” She sat on the stool.
“This is swell.” He perched on the cot next to Lucia’s pillow and flipped through the dictionary. “Look, Lucia. Let me show you. Italiano . . . Inglese. Il orso . . . the bear. Grrr.”
She giggled. “Stelle . . . star-zay.”
“Stars.” He chomped off the end of the word.
“Star-zaaaay.”
They laughed together, and Hutch smiled at Georgie. “She does that just to bug me.”
Warmth filled her heart. “You don’t look annoyed. You look smitten.”
“Times two.” A lightning flash of a wink, then he tugged Lucia’s long dark braid. “She can’t read yet, but we’re working on it. When the nurses have quiet moments, they teach her. So do I. She knows her alphabet now.”
“Alphabet-a.” Lucia lifted herself on her elbows and gave Georgie a bright-eyed smile. “I sing-a for you?”
“Please do.” She leaned her elbows on her knees.
“A, B, C, D, E, F, G, ’ow I wonder what you are.” Her big brown eyes twinkle, twinkled.
Hutch burst out laughing and ruffled her hair. “You little rascal.”
“She’s a mischievous one, isn’t she?”
“Maybe teaching her English wasn’t my smartest idea.”
“A brilliant idea from a brilliant man.”
“Careful.” His voice lowered, and he glanced around the ward. “People will get the wrong idea.”
Or they’d get the right idea, which would be a problem. She gave him an understanding nod. “Are you teaching her astronomy too?”
He winced. “That’d be difficult. Someone stole my telescope.”
“Oh!” She shut her mouth before a dozen endearments escaped. “Oh dear. You must be so upset. I know what it meant to you.”
“A whole lot.” He raised a sad smile. “I keep telling myself it’ll help feed a couple of urchins for weeks.”
Admiration added new facets to her love for him. “Not just brilliant but compassionate.”
He rolled his eyes and looked at his watch. “It’s getting late. Gotta get back and let Ralph take his lunch. Would you like to walk with me, Lieutenant?”
“I’d be glad to.” She tried to sound casual.
After they said good-bye to Lucia, Hutch and Georgie left the ward tent. Georgie flipped up the hood of her raincoat. She had to restrain herself from taking Hutch’s hand. “Lucia’s absolutely adorable. I see why you’re smitten.”
“Yeah.” He tucked the dictionary inside his field jacket. “I worry about her though. The casts come off in a few weeks. We can’t keep her here forever. The Red Cross will place her in an orphanage in the Naples area. They’ll take good care of her, but after the war . . .”
“An orphanage. What a shame.” She burrowed her hands in her pockets to keep them somewhat dry.
“I can’t stand the thought of her growing up like that. After the war she’ll be one of thousands of orphans in this country, and even worse off if she can’t walk well.”
An idea swirled in her head, but it involved marriage and the future, places she didn’t dare approach yet. “She’s very attached to you.”
He nodded, and droplets splattered off his helmet. “I’m hoping to . . . I’d like to adopt her.”
She turned up her face to him, not caring about the rain, only wanting him to know she shared his thinking. “That’s your most brilliant idea ever.”
A flash of a shy smile. He got the message. “Watch your step. It’s muddy.”
Georgie wrestled back a laugh. Just like a man to change the subject.
He nudged her with his elbow. “Thanks for that letter. Why didn’t you tell me in person you saved a man’s life?”
“I didn’t have time. And I didn’t save his life. General Ridgway did.”
Hutch faced her. The dictionary in his jacket made him look as if he had a potbelly—kind of cute, actually. “Do you have any more doubts that you made the right decision about flight nursing? That you can be strong and still be incredibly attractive and feminine?”
“No.” In Hutch’s presence, she felt stronger than Rosie the Riveter and cuter than any pinup girl. “I’m right where the Lord wants me.”
“I’m glad the Lord and I are on the same side.” He motioned down the pathway. “Come on. I can hear Ralph’s stomach grumbling from here.”
She followed him into Pharmacy, greeted Ralph, and thanked him for telling her Hutch was with Lucia.
After he dismissed the tech for lunch, Hutch took off his helmet. A glint entered his eyes. “We’re alone.”
Her heart flipped around. “We are, aren’t we?”
He beckoned her with one finger. “Come here. Wait, let me take off my wet jacket.”
“Me too.” She fumbled with the buttons on her raincoat and suppressed a giggle. If her mother could see her now. Disrobing so she could kiss a man—a man who wasn’t Ward Manville.
She shrugged the coat off her shoulders and reached out to drape it over the counter, but Hutch threw his arms around her waist and kissed her breathless.
“Sweetie,” she mumbled against his warm and giving lips. “Let me put down my coat.”
“Go ahead. Don’t let me stop you.” He nestled his mouth into her neck instead.
She laughed, feeling woozy, and tossed the coat onto the counter. Her attention and her kisses returned to the man in her arms. The previous summer, if she’d ever let herself imagine what his kisses would be like, she would have imagined something cozy and sweet. Never could she have imagined the delightful passion in this quiet man.
He settled a kiss on her forehead. “When you said they were letting you fly now, I thought I wouldn’t see you up here again.”
“Special request.” Georgie straightened his necktie. “Lambert thinks it’s good for me to come up here and orient the patients before their flights. And deep inside she has a romantic heart. She understands I want to see my boyfriend.”
Hutch’s face drew long. “You told her?”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t say who. Only Mellie and Kay know it’s you, and they can keep secrets. But everyone can tell I have a new man in my life. Everyone knows I’m in love.” She clapped her hand over her mouth. Oh, why couldn’t she ever keep her mouth shut? She’d ruin everything, talking like that.
His gaze riveted onto her. The knot on his necktie wobbled.
Georgie slid her hand over her eyes. “Oh no. Why’d I say that? What must you think of me? The man’s supposed to say that first, and it’s far too early, and—”
“Georgie.”
She peeked over her fingers.
He wrapped his hand around hers and held it to his chest. “I love you.”
“Sugar, you don’t have to say that to make me feel better. I know it’s too early.”
He kissed her forehead. “I . . .”
And her nose. “Love . . .”
And her lips. “You.”
She studied the depths of his brown eyes. He wasn’t the kind of man to toss around his affections or his words. “Oh, Hutch.”
“Someday I hope to hear those words from you.”
He already had. What a gentleman to pretend he hadn’t. “Why, I do think I’m in love with you, John Hutchinson. Now say my name in Italian again.”
“You like that, huh?” He leaned close. His lips hovered over hers, and his breath mingled with hers. “Ti amo, Giorgiana.”
The minuscule distance between them—she couldn’t bear it, and she eliminated it.
His kisses would be her undoing. Her thoughts whooshed together into a delicious mess. All she could think of was the warmth of his body against her, the strength of his arms around her, and the passion of his love flowing through her.
Someone on the other side of the tent broke into a loud coughing fit, but a canvas divider shielded them from curious eyes.
Hutch set his hands on her waist and pushed her away. Why? Ralph wouldn’t return for at least fifteen minutes, and who knew when they could be alone together again?
“Not yet, sweetheart.” She pulled his head down and kissed him.
He stiffened and stepped back, alarm in his eyes. “Georgie, no.”
“Sergeant Hutchinson!”
Georgie spun around.
A short, middle-aged officer stood by the flap that separated pharmacy from lab. His face reddened. “What is the meaning of this?”
Oh goodness. What now? Georgie smoothed her hair, mindful that her face was probably flushed.
Hutch’s shoulders slumped, and he stepped away from Georgie. “Lieutenant Taylor, may I introduce my commanding officer, Lieutenant Kazokov?”
His commanding officer? She’d gotten him in trouble. And the look in his eyes broke her heart. Frustration. Resignation. Defeat.
“She’s an officer.” Kazokov marched right up to Hutch. “Fraternizing with an officer? That violates military regulations.”
“It’s my fault, Lieutenant.” Georgie offered him an apologetic half-smile. “I threw myself at—”
“Georgie, don’t.” Hutch closed his eyes.
Kazokov glared at him. “Calling an officer by her first name? Don’t you know anything about military courtesy? Look at me, boy.”
Hutch obeyed. “I apologize, sir. It won’t happen again.”
It wouldn’t? Georgie frowned. Would he break up with her over this? Or would the Army force them apart?
Kazokov clasped his hands behind his back and paced in a circle, giving Georgie a glance as he passed. “To think I actually wrote that letter of recommendation for you. Fraternizing with an officer, and on Army time. I’ll have to write you up.”
“Please!” Hutch held up one hand, his eyes frantic. “Please don’t write me up, sir. Discipline me. Make me do KP, latrines, midnight guard duty, whatever. But please don’t write me up, sir.”
Georgie’s face tingled. A disciplinary infraction would destroy his chances of getting into the Pharmacy Corps, wouldn’t it? “Oh, please, Lieutenant. You know what the Pharm—”
Hutch cut her a short, hard gaze, silencing her. “This isn’t your battle, Lieutenant Taylor.”
Yes, it was. If she’d let him push her away, Kazokov wouldn’t have seen them kiss. Time for some Southern charm. “Lieutenant, this is his first infraction, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so.”
Hutch groaned. “Lieutenant Taylor, don’t—”
“Please, let me speak.” Georgie focused her charm on Kazokov, but guilt twanged on her heartstrings. In essence, she’d ordered Hutch to be silent. Any arguments he raised could be considered insubordination.
She’d apologize later. Right now, she had to undo the damage she’d wrought. “Since it’s his first infraction—and his last, I’m certain—mercy is in order, don’t you think?”
His small dark eyes glanced away. “The Army isn’t designed for mercy.”
“Oh, but you are, sir. I see it in your eyes. You look like a kind and merciful gentleman. I know your wife would be pleased to see you turn your head—just this once—for the sake of young love.”
His mouth shifted to one side. “I’m not married.”
“You’re not?” Georgie widened her eyes. “What is wrong with the women in your hometown? If you came to Virginia, I could find you a wife in the blink of an eye.”
He softened slightly. “Thank you, ma’am. That’s very kind, if not completely true. For your sake only, I’ll let this slide. One time.”
“Oh, thank you! I appreciate it so much.”
“Yes, thank you, sir.” Hutch’s voice sounded strained.
“Very well.” Kazokov strode to the tent entrance, held open the flap, and motioned to Georgie. He certainly wouldn’t allow a good-bye kiss.
She fetched her raincoat and slipped it on. “Good-bye, Hutch.”
“Good-bye, Lieutenant.” He turned away without meeting her eye, one hand pressed over his stomach.
Georgie’s heart drifted low in her chest, but she managed a polite nod to Kazokov as she exited.
“Pardon me, ma’am,” he said in a low voice. “Heed my advice and be more careful whom you associate with.”
She ignored the boiling sensation in her head, tilted her chin, and smiled. “How kind of you to be concerned about my welfare.”
Georgie pulled up her hood and headed into the rain. Such disrespect. Honestly. How could anyone treat her sweet Hutch that way?