“I had three brothers and a father. All dead in the Resistance. My mother died when I was a child. I have no one now. I have you, if you wish it to be so. You are going home soon, I believe.” He had made discreet inquiries to find her. “I must deal with my house, and get the men started working on it. Then I would like to visit you and your family in . . . Carolina?”

“North Carolina.”

“Yes. And then I would like you and your family to visit me, and then you will decide what you wish. Is that right for you?”

“Very right.” She would have a lot to explain to her parents, about how they met and why she thought this was the right path for her, with a French count she had met in the Resistance. It was a big leap from Raleigh.

“Will they be unhappy?”

“Surprised.”

“Yes, so was I when I met you. You are a very surprising woman.” She smiled.

“I’m not the one with surprises here, Gonzague.” He was no ordinary man. He was unusual in a thousand different ways, and she was sure there was a part of him and his war history that she would never know, but maybe it was just as well.

“Do we have a good plan? I will visit you, and then you and your parents will come to visit me, and then we will make our plans.”

“I think that’s a very good plan.” She smiled at him.

“Good.” He stood up then and pulled her to her feet, and they walked to her barracks. He was courteous and gentlemanly, but beneath that, she sensed the force of a hurricane. Life with him would never be predictable or boring, but it was the life and the man she wanted. They had much to discover about each other, but they knew enough. She was sure. And so was he. He had done exactly what he said. He had found her, and he had come back. It was all she needed to know for now.

“There’s an award ceremony,” she explained to him. “Will you stay?”

“If you wish.”

“I do.” She didn’t want him to be her secret lover or mystery man. If they loved each other, she wanted their relationship to be in the open, with her proud to be at his side, and he at hers.

The award ceremony would be in two days, and he said he would be there. He had business in London and promised to come back. She wanted to introduce him to her friends. He had been her dream for nearly a year, now he had stepped out into the light, and she wanted to share her life with him. The award ceremony would be part of the world she was leaving behind, the life she had lived for four years, and the people she had lived with at Down Ampney.