“Well, if you have any problems replenishing the medical supplies”—he nodded to the table—“please let me know.” He made a short bow then turned on his heel and left.

Later that night as José and I sat down to dinner alone, I told José about my exchange with Rossetti. He laughed, a deep laugh like a cork being let out of a bottle. “You, my love, have done the one thing that no one, myself included, has been able to do.”

“What is that?” I asked in confusion.

He kissed my forehead. “You, tesoro mio, have made Rossetti apologize.”

* * *

Six days later we received fresh reinforcements led by General David Canabarro. A squat man, he walked around the dock with a perpetual scowl, as if he had just tasted something foul. Nothing went unnoticed under his beady black eyes. Gray hairs peppered the thin beard that ran along his jawline. According to José, he was an unapologetic opportunist. He had spent the first few months watching the winds of war before he decided to jump into the fight. Once he did, he quickly rose in the ranks, becoming General Gonçalves’s counterpart.

We were sitting in the new general’s tent debriefing him on the mission when Griggs burst in, his eyes wild and his face flushed scarlet. José stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over. “You’re not dead!”

Griggs stopped, looking confused. “Of course I’m not. I was distracting them. Where the hell were you? I thought we were supposed to rendezvous to the south. I’ve been waiting there worried out of my mind!”

“No, we were always supposed to come back here,” Rossetti responded, looking up from the paper in front of him. “There is no logical reason for us to leave Laguna.”

As the men began to argue about the actual meeting location, a sailor snuck into the tent. “Dona Anita, you have a visitor.”

As I followed the sailor, I wondered who would want to see me. I was a social pariah. No one in town wanted to know me. For a brief moment I hoped it was my mother or sister. That they had come to check in on me. The sailor led me to the edge of the encampment, where a woman stood wringing her hands and looking around nervously. As we grew closer I recognized the small nose, the bowed lips turned down into a frown. “Manuela!” I exclaimed, running to my friend, embracing her. It was the first time I had seen her since I left home to be with José.

She hugged me as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Can we speak somewhere more private?”

“Certainly,” I said, as she grasped my forearm. She was pale, her fingers cold to the touch.

“I heard you went with the Farrapos. I searched the hospital for you.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you went out there with them.” She shook her head. “I thought you died.”

I laughed. “Well, clearly I haven’t. I’m all right, Manuela.” I took her hands in mine. “In fact, I am better than all right. I am happy. For the first time in my life I am happy.”