But Amelia didn’t say anything; she was sleeping. It was impossible to see how badly hurt she was but, judging by the size of the bandages swathed over her face, it was perhaps worse than they could imagine.

Jess stayed with Dan that night in his room in Hitler’s apartment. If they were caught, there’d be trouble, but Jennings helped as usual; one look at Dan’s face told him that Jess needed to be there for his CO.

Before dawn, she woke to find that Dan was already up and dressed and about to go back to the hospital to see Amelia.

“I’ll come with you,” she said.

But he shook his head. “I need to do this on my own. I need to make it right.”

So she let him go and, later, when Jennings asked her, “Is he all right?” she shook her head too and said, “I don’t know.”

* * *

It was late afternoon when Dan came to find Jess in the clack and buzz of the press camp.

“She said I had to marry her,” Dan said faintly.

“What?” The word exploded from Jess’s mouth.

“I’ve made her unmarriageable. The doctors say her face will be scarred for life. Horribly scarred. Impossible to hide. She only has one arm. Nobody will want her now, she says. It’s the only way I can make amends.”

“What did you say?” Jess asked, incredulous that Amelia would propose something so preposterous.

“I told her I was engaged to you,” he said simply. “That I’d do anything I could for her but I was marrying you and nobody else.”

“Dan…” Jess reached across the table and took his hand and the oafs at the other end whistled as if they’d never seen a man and a woman hold hands before. “Let’s go outside,” she said.

And there, beneath an optimistic blue sky, with Warren Stone—goddamn it, why was he always there?—watching on, Dan kissed her.

“I’ll go and see Amelia tomorrow,” Jess said. “I’m sure I can change her mind.”

* * *

But Amelia wasn’t to be talked around.

“I have one arm, Jessica,” she spat. “And scars where I once had a face. Part of my nose is gone.”

Jess flinched.

“If you’re wincing at the mere thought of it, the sight of it will be a million times worse,” Amelia continued relentlessly. “If I know one thing it’s that there aren’t enough men to go around, not now half of them are dead. Nobody will choose me over a smooth-skinned debutante with full use of her limbs. I came over here to find a husband—because God knows there are no men left in England—and Dan has made that impossible.”

“Love isn’t about what you look like,” Jess said.

“Isn’t it? So you weren’t attracted to Dan’s face? Or his body?”

“I was his friend for a long time before I was his lover, Amelia. I didn’t think about his body or his face when I was his friend.”