He didn’t speak for a long time. Then he said, “Amelia’s father is Lieutenant General Miles Gordon-Dempsey of the British Second Army.”

The words were enunciated slowly and clearly as if he was trying to understand them even as he spoke.

Jess shook her head, confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“He was at the hospital when I went to see Amelia this morning. He’s furious about what’s happened to his daughter. He wants someone hung out to dry and he more than outranks me.”

“But Amelia shouldn’t even have been there,” Jess began. “She—”

Dan kept talking. “Her father can make anything happen that he chooses.”

It was a bit late for parental concern now, Jess thought. Where had Amelia’s father been all through boarding school? But amputation and severe facial scarring were probably traumatic enough to warm anyone’s relationship.

“They’ll court-martial me tomorrow unless I agree to what Amelia wants,” Dan said. “A new CO will step in now, right at the end, not giving a shit about any of the men in my battalion. I’ve been with these men for two years and right now is the hardest time to keep them focused and motivated and unafraid because we all know the end is so goddamn near and nobody wants to be the one to die the day the Germans surrender like those unlucky bastards in the Great War. And even if it’s over in Europe, they’re still fighting in the Pacific. Right now, they’re working out which divisions to send over there. It could easily be mine. And…” He clenched his fists and the look on his face was one of disbelief, as if he couldn’t comprehend he was even saying these words.

“Major Thompson would be their new CO,” he finished.

“Oh no.” Jess’s words were a moan. There was no way Dan would, or should, let a man like Major Thompson lead his men.

“I’m in charge of seven hundred and fifty men. I know almost all their names. I know that you can’t put Grayson in the rear because he freezes if he sees what happens to everyone in front. I know that I have to let Kohn say all his prayers right before I give the order to move in otherwise Kohn won’t shift until he’s done and he’ll be out in the open for anyone to shoot. Major Thompson won’t know. He won’t know that Jennings’ mother still writes to me and asks me to keep her son safe. He won’t know that, tomorrow, I’m supposed to get one of my platoons to clear the woods where there’s a rogue Panzer and that nobody wants to go and I’m the only person who can get them to do it without force. As if all of that isn’t bad enough, you and I both know what kind of man Thompson is.”

“So you told Amelia you’d marry her?” Jess’s voice wobbled.

“No.” Dan shook his head hard. “I told Amelia that the only woman I’d marry was you.”