“Adelaide, the French people are going to have to get used to German soldiers living in France. Soon, your country will be controlled by Germany. We’re here to stay,” he said. “But here, right now, I am just a man taking a beautiful woman on a picnic. There are no sides here, and I don’t want to talk about war. With you, I just want to be a man.”

Adelaide stared into his eyes, looking for any hint that he might be lying, that he could be using her for information as she was about to use him, but found nothing.

“Thank you,” she said, because she couldn’t come up with anything else.

“Now come on, I don’t have long and I want to spend as much time with you as possible.”

Addy let herself be drawn into his web, knowing that she needed to tread lightly, but still taken with the fact that a man, any man, had gone to such lengths to steal a couple of hours with her in the middle of a war.

“You were very brave coming to our quarters that day,” Wolfgang said as he stretched his long legs out on the grass. Despite all the rain they’d had earlier in the week, the ground was dry now, and Adelaide sat beside him, her legs curled to one side. She found herself staring at the dark fabric of his trousers, wondering how he could look so immaculate despite the months he must have been away from home.

“Brave or stupid?” she finally replied.

He chuckled. “Perhaps a little of both. I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing it again, though, unless you’re coming to visit me of course. No one would touch you now, but the other day . . .” His gaze was steady. “Let’s say I’m happy I was there to intervene.”

“I don’t know a lot about rank,” she admitted, plucking at the grass and watching her own fingers instead of looking up at him. Perhaps he was waiting for a thank you, but she didn’t give him one. “But I saw the way the other soldiers looked at you when you walked out that day. They were frightened of you, weren’t they?” Maybe that alone should have been a sign that she should have been frightened, too.

“Not frightened,” he corrected. “I’m their superior and they respect my rank. It’s the way it has to be in any army.”

He opened his bag, and her stomach gave a growl of approval. She’d never known hunger before the war had begun, not true, gnawing hunger.

“Next time I’ll bring wine. The chateau we’ve commandeered has an impressive cellar,” he said, grinning as he produced cheese wrapped in a soft cloth. “But this, well, this promises to be just as good.”