Three American soldiers were standing inside the entrance to their tent hospital, talking to a doctor. He looked uptight and they appeared relaxed, one of them casually standing there with his hands in his pockets looking around. Lucy smiled, nervous but excited, too. She had been waiting for them to arrive, had known for days to expect them, which meant that today was the day she might find out exactly who her Patient X was.
She wiped her hands on her apron and glanced at the man in question. He was sitting up, laughing about something to another nurse, but when he noticed her standing there he gave her a slow wink that made her heart fall to her toes and leap back up again. She had no idea how he managed to do it, but every glance or touch or smile from him sent her spiralling. She laughed to herself and turned her attention back to the soldiers. Gosh, her mother would be in fits if she could see the effect he had on her, after years of trying to convince her that one day, mark her words, a man would come along and knock her socks off. Well, one finally had, and her mother would love it. Only this one belonged to another, and the ache in her heart was only going to get worse.
The doctor beckoned her and Lucy crossed over to them. The relaxed soldier who’d caught her eye originally was staring at her, smiling. He raised an eyebrow and let out a low whistle.
‘Why hello, lovely nurse,’ he said, making the other two turn to face her.
Lucy’s cheeks flushed hot but she tried to appear unrattled. She wasn’t used to that type of attention. ‘Gentlemen,’ she said, addressing them in what she hoped was a strong voice when they all turned to look at her. ‘Sorry to interrupt. Are you here to see our American patients?’
They nodded, and it was the same soldier who was still staring at her, his smile fixed in place, who responded. ‘We sure are.’
‘This is the nurse who has been caring for one of your men who’s been suffering memory lapses,’ the doctor said.
‘That’s right,’ confirmed Lucy. ‘Or more accurately, he can’t recall all that much from his past, his long-term memory I should say.’
The soldier laughed. ‘I’ll bet he’s liking you taking care of him.’
She gave a tight smile and motioned for him to follow her. ‘Would you like to come and see him?’ She made an attempt to bat her eyelashes, trying not to laugh at herself. ‘Please?’
He shrugged and followed her, and she walked quickly. What she wanted was to have a moment alone with this soldier, to see if he knew anything, to find out everything she could about the man she had become so fond of, before the doctors came over and she was ushered out of the way. Or more likely ignored altogether. Real life was about to step in, and the flutter in her chest was telling her exactly how badly the truth was going to hurt.
‘How long’s he been here?’
‘A couple of weeks,’ she said. ‘The ambulance coming in was hit and I was part of the, er, well, rescue team I suppose you’d call us.’
‘You helped rescue one of our boys?’ he asked, incredulous.
She thought about that day constantly, second-guessed what she’d done and wondered how differently things could have turned out. ‘It was one of those moments,’ she said, not wanting to explain it all to him. ‘I only wish he could have told me more about who he was.’
‘Jack!’
Lucy was interrupted by the soldier pushing past her, running to the patient she was taking him to.
‘Jack! We thought you were dead!’
The soldier was shaking hands with her patient, then grabbed him by the shoulders and hugged him. She quickly intervened, touching his arm.
‘He’s still in recovery,’ she said, watching her patient’s face, wanting to see any recognition.
‘This, this . . . Oh wow,’ the soldier gasped. ‘This is Jack! Captain John Colton.’
‘Jack,’ she repeated, smiling down at him. His face was crumpled, half frown, half smile, and she watched as he silently mouthed the name. ‘At least we have a name.’
‘He’s been missing so long, we thought he was dead or taken.’ The soldier slapped him on the shoulder again and Lucy cringed. ‘Instead he’s been here in the lap of luxury with a beautiful nurse tending to him.’
She didn’t mind the beautiful part, but she did want Jack to stop being manhandled. Men were like that, she knew, but still. It seemed that American men were a lot more physical than she was used to.
‘Jack,’ she started, feeling peculiar addressing him by an actual name after days of trying out every male name she could think of to see if it seemed to fit him or not, ‘had a photo in his pocket, something that was obviously important to him. We were certain it was a wife or sweetheart from back home, and we kept it safe for him.’
She reached for it and tentatively passed it over. A smile broke out instantly on the soldier’s face, and she held her breath, waiting, hoping it wasn’t a wife.
‘This is Susie,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘We always hassle him about having a photo of his damn sister on him, but he didn’t have a sweetheart back home and he liked having her near. They’re twins.’ He paused. ‘Well, we don’t all make fun. Anyone lower than an officer would have been whipped for teasing him about her.’
Lucy let out a swoosh of air so loud she had to plant her hand over her mouth. His sister? She couldn’t believe it hadn’t crossed her mind that it could be his sister! His wife, his fiancée, his sweetheart, someone he loved . . . but never his sister.
‘You’re certain?’ she asked.
The soldier laughed. ‘Believe me, it’s his sister. I know that as surely as I know his name.’
She stared down at Jack, smiling so hard she was almost ready to burst out laughing; a hysterical, ridiculous kind of laughter.
‘Well, now you have a name and a sister,’ she said, patting his hand.
‘We’d better figure out how to get you out of here,’ the soldier said, shaking his head and turning back in the direction they’d come from.
Lucy hoped the soldier would disappear, that he’d go back to the others and have to talk it all out, because she needed more time with Jack. She couldn’t stand the thought of finally finding out who he was only to have him disappear straight away.
‘Does it make you remember anything?’ she asked in a hushed tone once they were alone, reaching for his hand, needing to make a connection with him.
His eyes were fixed on hers. ‘The name made me smile, I guess. Things are hazy, but I think I’m starting to make some sense of my jumble of thoughts. Memories hit me like flashes, jigsaw puzzle pieces I have to piece back together.’
Lucy was happy for him, she truly was. She only hoped that he wouldn’t forget her, which was silly since they were never likely to see one another again.
‘What about your sister? You’re a twin!’ she said, still excited about the fact that the man she’d been holding hands with and whispering to late each night as she told him stories from home and fed him his meals didn’t already belong to another woman. Her greatest fear had been that he was married with a family.
‘Can you pass me the photo please?’ Jack asked.
Lucy reached for where she’d tucked it into his jacket, folded beneath the bed. ‘Here you go.’
She stared at the woman as she passed it over, looking at her differently now, wanting to know more about her instead of pretending she didn’t exist. His face didn’t change, his expression the same as before.