Emmie touched what she thought was his shoulder. “Will?” she whispered.
“Emmie?” His voice was hoarse, but it was his. “Emmie? I can’t—I can’t see.”
She felt like laughing, which was an entirely inappropriate reaction, but she couldn’t help it; she was such a mix of joy and fear. “It’s the lights,” she said. “The Germans have shot the power out.”
She heard him draw a shaky breath. “Thank God. I thought I’d gone blind. I thought I was never—going to see—your face again.”
“Where have you been?” As soon as she said it, Emmie realized it was really a rather ridiculous thing to ask. He’d been fighting. She groped for his hand, clutching his cold fingers. She didn’t like that they were so cold. “I couldn’t get any word—I only heard that most of your battalion—”
“Slaughtered.” His voice was very weak. “I had pneumonia. Out of my head with it. I’d been knocked into a trench hole and apparently lay there for three days before some Frenchies found me. That’s what they told me. I don’t remember any of it. When I came to—they declared me fit for service and sent me out again. It’s all been a bit of a blur.”
Emmie clung to his hand. It was so strange, to be able to hold him but not see him, to feel the shape of his palm, the calluses on his fingers, as if she were learning the geography of him one small isthmus at a time.
“I left your letters in Grécourt. They were all I had of you and I left them.”
“They were only paper and ink. The words—the thoughts—whatever was in them of any value—you have already. It all amounted to just one thing, anyway.”
“Yes?” The bombs were still falling outside; there were roughly forty other wounded men packed around them, nurses navigating as best they could in the dark; but right now there was nothing in the world but Will, here, with her, the rasp of his breath, the feel of his fingers around hers.
“I love you,” he said in his beautiful voice, scratchy now, faint, but still his. “Whatever happens, wherever we go. In this world or the next.”
“You’re not going to any other world but this,” said Emmie fiercely, swiping away tears with her free hand and giving an entirely inelegant sniff. “Julia said it was a perfectly incompetent shell and missed anything that mattered. So you’re not allowed to go all elegiac on me.”
“‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’？” he managed.
“Yes, Kate gave me your message about the compass.” Emmie’s throat was so thick with emotion she could hardly get the words out. “It’s all very romantic, but you’ve got it all wrong. I’m not forbidding mourning. I’m forbidding dying. I simply won’t have it. You’re not allowed.”
He gave a shaky laugh that turned into a gasp of pain. “I’ll do my best.”
The sirens were wailing for all they were worth. Some of the men were crying, others praying. Another bomb crashed down, closer now. Emmie could hear glass shattering and someone screaming, screaming and screaming, alarmingly close.
Will pressed something into her hand, something hard and round and cool. “This is my signet. If I promise to try not to die, will you promise to wear it? I’d go down on one knee, but since I’m already prone . . .”
Emmie leaned over and kissed him. She didn’t quite get the right part of his mouth, but they got that sorted out rather quickly. She couldn’t embrace him because she didn’t want to tear his stitches, and they both reeked rather strongly of sweat and blood, but she found that didn’t matter in the slightest.
“Emmie.” Kate squeezed her shoulder. “Emmie, I’m so sorry, but we have to go.”
“We’re engaged,” Emmie said, the words feeling very small in the darkness. Will’s ring was loose on her finger. “For real this time.”
“Congratulations.” Emmie couldn’t see Kate, but she could feel the hem of her uniform skirt swishing back and forth, a clear sign of anxiety. “I mean it, I do. I’m very happy for you both. But we’re all being evacuated. Now.”
“I don’t understand.” Emmie sat back on her knees, clenching her hand around Will’s ring to keep it from falling off. It was too loose. She would have to wrap string under it to keep it on, or maybe hang it on a chain around her neck. “What happened?”
“Part of the hospital is gone.” Kate was trying to sound calm and businesslike, but Emmie could hear the panic under it. “They want us to get our things from the hotel. It’s not safe in Beauvais anymore. You’re being evacuated too, Captain DeWitt, but I’m not sure where.”