Chapter 17

June 20, 1943

The last notes of the closing hymn lingered in the base chapel. The smell of paint touched the air, and sunlight played across the floor in rich colors filtered from the stained glass. The day stretched in front of Tom as he considered his options. After a full Saturday, he had time to relax before another week spent balancing basic training and teaching the new dog teams started. He’d struggled to focus on his tasks yesterday when he couldn’t shake how cold and wet Lainie’d felt. Nor how small, tucked against him.

Had he done enough? Should he have violated orders and chased after her? He thanked God Daisy had found her way back. Mud had covered the horse past her fetlocks, but she’d looked beautiful when she arrived with Lainie on her back.

Tom walked to his car, waving at the guys who yelled but not stopping. A baseball game held no appeal today. He had to make sure Lainie was okay. Somehow during the last month she’d become important to him. He couldn’t pinpoint where or how, but he couldn’t fight reality. The fact she might not feel the same way weighed on his mind. Maybe today he could probe her thoughts.

Puddles dotted the sides of the highway, lingering traces of the storm. He’d found the dogs soaked but otherwise untouched. A few tree limbs strafed the road as he turned into town. He skirted around them, making a mental note to return and clean them up on his return.

The street in front of Mrs. Babcock’s was empty. She never opened on Sunday, declaring the Lord’s Day too precious to violate. He climbed the steps and knocked on the door. Minutes passed and he waited. He knocked again, this time louder. Finally, he heard the echo of steps on the wood floor.

A thin girl opened the door and stared at him. She looked all brown with her light-brown hair pulled back with a ribbon and a dress that matched. He’d seen her before in the dining room, so maybe she boarded here.

“Can I help you?”

“I wondered if I could see Lainie.”

The girl stepped back. “Come in, and I’ll check with Esther.”

Tom did as told, hoping her words weren’t meant to be as foreboding as they sounded. She showed him to a small parlor that sat to one side and disappeared. He paced the length of the small room and wondered when Mrs. Babcock would appear.

“Aren’t you the picture of a nervous bull?” Mrs. Babcock marched to him. “You can’t see her, Tom.”

“I promise not to stay. I need to see she’s okay.”

“The doctor ordered strict bed rest. She’s on that new drug, penicillin, too. This isn’t the first time she’s been sick, and we have to be careful. Doc says her heart could be damaged. According to him, she’s lucky that didn’t happen the first time.”

“Is she going to be fine?”

“She thinks so. She’s fighting the bed rest hard. Pray the drug works and we can keep her down until she’s better.” Mrs. Babcock shook her head. “The girl’s stubborn to the core.”

“She wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“True. Come back in a couple of days.” Mrs. Babcock shushed him and cocked her head to stare at the ceiling. “I hear her getting out of bed again. Go before she hears you.”

Tom strained to hear whatever Mrs. Babcock had detected. A heaviness cloaked him. Things sounded more serious than he’d anticipated. He’d expected to find Lainie sitting downstairs, reading or playing a game with others. “Should I tell them she won’t be at work for a few days?”

“Mary knows.” Mrs. Babcock grabbed his arm and walked him to the door. “Good day, Tom.”

Before he could say good-bye, he found himself staring at the door. He stood for a moment, hunting for a reason to go back in, but he couldn’t. Not if her health was as fragile as Mrs. Babcock said. As he got in his car, he turned and looked up at the second story. Somewhere Lainie rested up there. The curtain of the window over the door fluttered, and a hand waved at him to stop. He paused.

The window opened, and Lainie ducked her head out. “Tom, watch Mason till I get back, okay?” Her voice rasped, and he struggled to catch her words.

“Sure, Lainie.”

She disappeared from the window, and in a moment, it closed. Mrs. Babcock’s disapproving figure replaced Lainie’s thin frame. Tom turned on the car and hurried back to base before she could shake a finger at him. He liked her pie too much to get her riled.

That night he lay on his bunk in the barracks, arms crossed behind his head. It smelled nothing like the floral air at Mrs. Babcock’s. Instead, the aroma of too many sweaty boots and men in one place never quite cleared the building. He’d pop the window near his bed, but another storm brewed.

Tom stared at the ceiling and tried to imagine a way to help Lainie. Once a family donated a dog through Dogs for Defense, it belonged to the military. If the Army no longer needed the dog or if it didn’t meet the training requirements, the animal could be returned to the family if they’d requested. He’d examined Mason’s paperwork, and Lainie’s family wanted nothing more to do with the dog.

Dogs simply weren’t returned without a military discharge.

Lainie would never accept that. She must be an only child or baby in the family. She expected the world to bend to her whims.

Only problem was the Army didn’t work that way.

A million fire ants burrowed into Lainie, and she bit back a scream. She drew in a ragged breath and released it slowly, counting against the pain. She tried to think of an ice cream sundae at Wahl’s, an extra cherry decorating the whipped cream. Jumping into the Platte River on a hot day, the cool water splashing her fevered skin. Nothing worked. She was miserable, engulfed by heat burning from the inside out. She smashed her lips together as her muscles tightened, and a moan slipped from her mouth.

If she called for Esther, the doctor would be back with his negative diagnosis. Lainie would endure this attack. She had to. If Mama and Daddy found out how bad things were, they’d have her back home before Lainie could protest.

She couldn’t let that happen. Not when she finally had a role, albeit a small one. Her legs jerked beneath the sheet, and a vise clamped around her chest. She struggled to catch a breath and groaned.

The door swung open. Lainie fought to cloak the pain as Dorothy slipped into the room with a glass and bottle of medicine. “Oh, Lainie.” Dorothy hurried to the side of the bed, concern clouding her green eyes. “What can I do to help?”

Lainie couldn’t answer as she felt like she inhaled through a straw.

Dorothy set the cup and bottle on the bedside table. She felt Lainie’s forehead, and a frown marred her expression. “Your fever’s spiked again. I’m going to get Esther.”

Lainie shook her head , but Dorothy had already scooted from the room. So much for convincing Esther she was better.

The sound of a band—probably Tommy Dorsey’s—floated up the stairs from the parlor radio. Normally, music like that would set her toes tapping and her thoughts swirling. She’d imagine dancing at the USO with a soldier, maybe Tom Hamilton. Not tonight. Even the thought of all he’d done for her couldn’t distract her. She tried to remember his face, his compelling eyes. His image wavered in her mind’s eye and then vanished.

God, help me.

The wardrobe started to move across the room in time to the beat of the song. She shut her eyes and burrowed into the pillow. She sank into the darkness.

Tom bolted out of bed.

“Where you going, Hamilton?” Henry Brighton rolled over to look at him.

“Checking something out for a friend.”

“Keep it down next time you jump like that.” Sid shook his head. “You’ll have to hurry to return by lights out.”

Tom pulled his boots on and nodded. “Thanks for the concern, guys. I’ll be back.”

He rushed out the door, ducking items pelted at him by the guys as he clumped across the concrete floor. He raced up the street, past the office building and war dog hospital, before veering left and up the hill. He paused at the rows of kennels.

The lines fanned in front of him. They had about thirteen hundred dogs right now, even though capacity was eighteen hundred. As many as four hundred fifty men could be on-site, most of those being matched with dogs for training. So how could he be so concerned about one animal? Especially when it was a dog?

Those kinds of questions had no answers other than one girl. Only a girl like Lainie could make him do something that could jeopardize his career if not his life.

He wasn’t a doctor. He had no idea how to protect her until her body could heal. However, as he’d prayed tonight, he knew with a certainty that he could do something by caring for Mason. If only he could do that away from a thousand dogs who were unknown risks.

“Thought I’d find you here.” Sid sidled up next to Tom. “You are over the moon for her, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You never voluntarily come here. Only a woman could motivate you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tom blustered against the knowing in his heart that every word Sid spoke was true. He scanned for Mason’s kennel. He eased down the aisle until he saw her, laying in front of it, ignoring the rest of the dogs. He pulled a treat from his pocket, and her ears perked. “Here you go, girl.”

Mason leapt to her feet and accepted the rawhide. She took it to her kennel and sat down in the doorway, chewing on it.

Seeing Mason reminded Tom that he couldn’t lose Lainie.

Not when he’d just found her.