RUTHERFORD AERODROME, NEW JERSEY, 1919
Ned Duffy stood beside Mary, watching her husband and the two other pilots inspect their airplane. Lovett had assured him that the craft, a German Junkers, was the best plane in the world for their purposes. Looking at it though, with its corrugated metal fuselage, it reminded him of the siding on the hangar.
Mary gripped his hand. Her touch made his heart ache. Lovett was a fool for leaving such a woman to go prospecting for gold, and in Alaska for God’s sake. Just to get there, they’d have to fly across the entire country before heading north. The thought of it started Duffy’s head shaking.
“What’s wrong?” Mary asked quietly.
“I was just thinking.”
“I know. But Sam’s mind is made up.”
Duffy said nothing. He’d heard all Lovett’s arguments. Mary deserved better than he could give her, working as a salesman. A gold mine would change all that.
“The war changed him,” Mary said.
Lovett should have been happy just to be alive and with a woman like Mary, Duffy thought, but kept it to himself.
Out on the runway—that’s what Lovett called it, though it wasn’t much more than a dirt road—they were topping off the tanks with gasoline.
Lovett waved. He, like his two companions, wore a leather coat and leather aviator’s helmet, with goggles attached.
Mary waved back and tried to smile bravely, though Duffy could see her lips trembling.
“Sam told me the summer is very short where they’re going. If they’re lucky and strike gold right away, he told me they’d be back in six months. Do you think it’s true?”
“Your husband’s a lucky man.”
She squeezed his hand. “You always say that.”
“He survived the war, didn’t he? And he’s got you.”
“They may have to stay over another year if they don’t find gold right away. It would be too hard to fly back and forth, he says.”
“I’m sure it won’t come to that.”
She stared up at Duffy with tears in her eyes. “He wouldn’t be here to see his baby born.”
Duffy opened his mouth to say, your husband’s a fool, but stifled the impulse.
“Don’t look like that,” Mary said. “He’s a good man.”
“Ask him not to go. Beg him if you have to.”
“If I did, he might stay behind.”
“That’s the point,” he said.
She shook her head. “He’d regret it the rest of his life. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“His place is here with you.”
“Promise me, Ned, you won’t tell him what I said about him being here when the baby’s born. I’d never forgive you.”
“In that case, I won’t.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear.”
“Thank you, Ned. Here he comes. Remember, not a word.”
A moment later, Lovett snapped to attention in front of them and saluted. “We’re ready to go.”
Duffy nodded. “I’ll leave you two alone to say good-bye.”
“Don’t go far, Ned,” Lovett said, “there’s something I want to say.”
“I’ll take a closer look at your airplane, if you don’t mind.”
“Help yourself.”
As Duffy walked away, he could hear Mary sobbing quietly. Lovett’s partners, Duffy couldn’t remember their names, showed him around the airplane, explaining its finer points. But he didn’t hear a word. All he could think about was Mary and her baby.
He nodded at something one of the pilots said, then glanced back at Mary to see her and Lovett embracing. When they broke apart the look on her face was radiant, but the moment Lovett headed toward Duffy, her radiance gave way to anguish.
Lovett grabbed his hand. “Ned, I owe you everything for saving Mary. So you’re in this, too. We’ll all be rich together. Now take care of her for me, won’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Good man.”
“The Alaskan gold rush has been over for years,” Duffy reminded him.
Lovett grinned sheepishly. “It’s a big country. That’s why this is the chance of a lifetime. Hellfire, it would have passed me by if I didn’t know you were here to look after her.”
Duffy swallowed hard and longed for a drink, though he’d given it up weeks ago at Mary’s urging.
“Besides,” Lovett added, “I know how you feel about her. I know you’ll look after her if something happens to me.”
“I—”
Lovett clapped him on the back. “Don’t worry. Nothing will.”
“Good God, man, haven’t you been reading the papers?”
“You told me not to trust them.”
“There’s an outbreak of flu in Alaska.”
“I survived Germans shooting at me, didn’t I? I’m indestructible.”
“You’re a fool.”
“Maybe you’re right, Ned Duffy, but tell me that again when I get back.”