She grabbed the book out of her satchel and turned to the bookmarked page. Despite her twenty-twenty vision, she squinted at the words to help her focus. She blinked, and then blinked again, but the letters still jumbled together. That familiar feeling of helplessness washed over her. How was she going to bluff her way out of this one?

Nora virtually floated on air as she let herself into her parents’ well-appointed Greenwich, Connecticut, home. “Mor? Far? The prodigal daughter has returned.” She could hear voices in the living room, so she headed in that direction.

“Dr. Tompkins. I didn’t know you made house calls.” Nora glanced from the family doctor to her parents on the sofa and her brother, Bill, sitting in the Queen Anne chair. Which one of them was ill?

“In this case, I was happy to stop by, young lady.” The doctor winked. “Oskar, Elsa, William,” he said, ruffling Bill’s hair. “I know you’re going to do great things. I’ll be seeing you.” On his way out, he patted Nora on the shoulder. “Nice to see you, Nora.”

Nora frowned. “What was that about? She addressed her parents. Are you sick? Mor? Far?” Neither of her parents appeared ill.

“We’re fine.” It was her mother who answered. “Dr. Tompkins stopped by as a favor to your father.”

“He wrote me a ‘Get out of service’ letter,” Bill said.

Nora bristled at his smug expression. “What are you talking about?”

“Far had Doc write a letter saying I have a chronic condition that prevents me from serving in the military.”

“You’re perfectly able-bodied. You had him concoct something false just so that you don’t have to go fight for our country?” Nora glared at Bill and then at her father. “You encouraged that?”

“You watch your tone, young lady,” Elsa Lindstrom warned.

“I’m proud of it. Now I’ll never have to go to those God-forsaken places and get my head shot off.”

Nora barely restrained herself from cold-cocking her brother. “No. You’ll leave that for the courageous boys and men who aren’t busy frittering their lives away.”

“That’s enough, Nora.” Oskar Lindstrom finally spoke.

“Far, you can’t be serious about this. You’re perpetrating a fraud.” Nora pointed at her brother. “He’s nineteen and fully capable of going to war. Boys much younger than him are willingly lining up outside recruiting stations all over the country for the honor of representing our country.”

“Your brother is destined for big things, Nora. You should be grateful that he’ll be spared.”

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, Mor. That boy,” she said the word derisively, “isn’t anything more than a sniveling coward, and you’re enabling him. I should think you’d want him to serve his nation with pride and dignity. Maybe he would come back a real man.”