“Nothing’s changed,” he said, then looked at Jess. “You’re allowed back to Italy. I think your PRO is coming to tell you. But I know from Gellhorn that you ladies don’t get a jeep, so I thought I’d pick you up here at 0700 on Tuesday. We’ll be back in Purple Heart Valley by the end of the week.” Dan turned to leave.

“Purple Heart Valley?” Jess asked, stopping him.

“They’ve given out more Purple Hearts in Italy than ever before.”

“It’s a beautiful name for a terrible place.”

Before Dan could reply, Jess saw Warren Stone striding down the hallway toward her room.

“I might leave you to it,” Dan said.

“Thank you,” Jess called to his departing back.

“Officer Stone,” Martha drawled, hardly bothering to blow her cigarette smoke away from Warren. “Always such a pleasure.”

“Cut the shit, Martha,” he said.

“I bet if I was in a nurse’s uniform you’d be a lot friendlier,” Martha replied, raising an eyebrow.

Jess drew strength from Martha’s lack of fear. “So I’m off to Italy again?”

Warren grimaced. “Apparently you are. And I’ve been given the job of keeping you in line. So if you do as you’re told this time, then I won’t have to take the blame for your mistakes again.”

Something in his tone, a mortification when he said the words—take the blame—made her wonder if Marty had been right. If there was some link between him not getting his promotion and her victory. She tried for appeasement; perhaps they could start again. “It was never my intention to go to a battlefield.”

“But then you photographed it and sent those photos to the censors for everyone to see.” This time his voice was hard and Jess sensed there was definitely something more going on—that he had decided she was the one at fault and that whatever had made him angry, he was channeling it into resentment toward her.

It would be best to end the conversation before things deteriorated any further. “I will avoid all battlefields from now on,” she said before she shut the door. “What a jerk,” she said to Marty after she’d heard his footsteps fade away.

Martha shrugged. “That’s being kind. Like I said, he’s been after a promotion. When you met him, did he spin you a line about being able to get you whatever assignments you wanted? And did he ask you out for dinner?”

Jess nodded.

“He did the same to me and I, like you, was canny enough to be wary. He can’t action press assignments; he can only administer them. With a promotion, he’d be able to do more. But thankfully he hasn’t got it and I suspect it might be because Dan Hallworth—a CO who’s seen more than enough battles and actually knows what’s what, as opposed to Warren who hasn’t ever seen a battle—has come here and told them that they were wrong and you were right. The powers that be would have seen your photos and been irate that you were so close to combat and told Warren to deal with it. He hasn’t. And it sounds as if his punishment is to look after you.” Martha ended with a smirk, as if she relished the chance to see fireworks erupt between Jess and Warren. “He, like many others, hates the idea of women doing this job—apparently it goes against nature, unless the women also agree to dine with him.”