Lizzie saw a few of her old friends, but all the boys she knew were in the army, many were in the Pacific, and some had been killed. She took Audrey with her when they visited. Dr. Hatton opened a bottle of champagne for them on New Year’s Eve.

“Let’s hope that 1944 is the year this terrible war ends,” he said solemnly, and they toasted Greg and Henry, and “absent friends,” which had new meaning now. Lizzie and Audrey added, “And Will.”

The next morning, the two young nurses left the Hatton home, with Lizzie in uniform. Audrey didn’t have hers yet. They were on their way to join their unit in Kentucky and begin their air evacuation classes the next day. They had much to learn.

Lizzie’s parents stood on the platform waving at them, as the train pulled away. There was no stopping them now, or changing the world from the dangerous place it had become. But neither of the two young women, standing tall and straight, were afraid of what they were about to face. And they had each other, which made them both feel brave.

Alex’s visit to her family in New York was no easier than Lizzie’s in Boston. Her parents were in shock that she had joined a Medical Air Evacuation Transport unit, and would be shipping out afterwards. Charlotte had had her fourth daughter by then, and still thought her younger sister was insane.

“Can’t you change your mind, and refuse to go?” Astrid White said plaintively. “I’m sure we can find a doctor to say you’re not well enough,” she said, glancing imploringly at her husband, expecting him to change their daughter’s mind, or forbid her to go.

“I’m in the army, Mother. This isn’t a volunteer job at the Red Cross. I’ll be a deserter if I don’t show up. And I want to go. They need nurses to bring the wounded back from the front lines.”

“But you enlisted, didn’t you?” her mother insisted. “You should never have done it. But that’s like volunteering. Surely, you can quit.”

“I can be released if I’m unfit for duty, for some valid reason,” Alex said quietly. Her news had not been well received, and as usual, she felt like she was facing a firing squad at home.

“Does insanity count as valid?” Charlotte said snidely, sipping a glass of champagne at Christmas Eve dinner. As always, their parents had invited a wide circle of friends. They were twenty-four at their dining room table, with the women in evening gowns and the men in black tie. Her parents didn’t hesitate to challenge Alex in front of all of them. Only her brother-in-law, Eustace Bosworth, whispered his support after dinner, but would never have dared say it out loud.