Page 111 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘I’m the one who needs to be saying thank you,’ he whispered back. ‘You saved me, Eva. You managed to make me feel like a man again, and I’ll be thanking you for that for the rest of my life.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
APRIL
‘Grace?’ April whispered, gently shaking her sister’s shoulder. ‘Grace, wake up.’
She watched as Grace stirred, eventually moving and opening her eyes, her slow blink making it obvious just how tired she was.
‘Is it Teddy?’ Grace mumbled. ‘What’s happened?’
April placed her hand on Grace’s shoulder again. ‘Nothing’s happened to Teddy, Grace. Everything’s fine.’
Well, as fine as it could be in the middle of a war zone. April couldn’t imagine everything beingactuallyfine ever again after everything they’d been through.
‘I’m worried about you, Grace. You’ve hardly left Teddy’s side, and I know you feel as if it’s your duty to—’
‘Itismy duty,’ Grace said, shrugging April’s hand away and moving closer to Teddy’s bed.
‘Grace, you’ve barely left his bedside since we were brought back, and there’s only so long you’re going to be allowed to keep behaving like this.’ April lowered her voice. ‘He’s not your husband, and some of the nurses have already been asking questions.’
Grace looked up, and her glare was fierce. ‘Let them ask questions. I don’t care.’
‘Look,’ April said, finding a stool and dragging it closer to sit beside her sister. ‘We all love Teddy, we went through so much with him when he lost Poppy, and he’s always been so good to us, but there’s nothing more you can do for him.’
‘He can’t see, April,’ Grace said. ‘I want to be here for him, to help him.’
‘Like he helped you?’ she asked, pausing before adding, ‘I keep remembering your words, you telling me that he saved you not once but twice.’
Grace was quiet, her gaze still fixed on Teddy’s sleeping form.
‘Grace?’
When Grace turned this time, there were tears sparkling in her eyes. ‘Eva told you, didn’t she?’
April shook her head. ‘Eva hasn’t told me anything. But I know something happened.’
Grace’s shoulders heaved up and then fell. ‘That night, when I went out with the British soldier, Teddy was there.’
‘I know. I remember how funny you were after seeing him.’
‘Eva found him in the tent with me; she walked in on us together.’
‘Oh, Grace, oh no, I—’
‘No! It wasn’t like that. He’d carried me home and put me to bed. He was so kind, so gentle with me, but the soldier, Peter, he, he ...’ Grace’s breath shuddered from her. ‘He tried to rape me, April, and all I could think was that you were right. If I’d only listened to you, if I’d only been more sensible like you, I would never have ended up in that situation.’
April’s heart was thudding as she listened and tried not to overreact. How dare he! How dare any man treat her sister that way, or any woman for that matter!
‘Grace, I’m so sorry. I wish I’d known,’ she said softly. ‘I wish there was something I could have done.’ How could Grace not have told her?
‘I didn’t want your help. I didn’t even want you to know. It was bad enough that Teddy had been witness to it.’
‘You’ve always loved him, haven’t you?’ April asked. ‘I mean, I always knew you had a crush on him, but it’s something more, isn’t it?’
Grace had shuffled even closer to Teddy, her fingers closing over his hand as he slept. ‘I tried so hard, after Poppy died, not to think about him like that. And when he told me that he thought of me like a little sister, I knew it was never going to happen, but that night he saved me, the way he treated me ...’
Grace never finished her sentence, and April bent to hug her, circling her arms around her from behind. ‘We’re in a war, Grace. Nothing is for certain anymore, but it’s been long enough. If you and Teddy love each other, then you have my blessing.’
