And You Will Find Love

"I just kept moving with the army. We were at Anzio for a while."

He made it sound like a weekend in the country. She had heard about the heavy losses of American, British, and Canadian lives in the hard-fought beach landing.

Stephen still masked the unspoken sadness she always sensed he carried inside him. But now she thought she knew the answer to at least some of the mystery. Underneath his calm and assured exterior, his eyes hid another part of him that had seen the hell of war up-close. She knew, too, that men who had gone through battles seldom wanted to talk about them. If they kept them silent and hidden, maybe somehow, some day, they could forget them.

How could he tell her about the horrors he had seen at Anzio? He still fell asleep each night, after long fitful hours, reliving the beachhead landing. All the faces of the dead by then had merged into one, that of the young private, George Czarny, who came from the Polish neighborhoods of Chicago. They had disembarked from the landing craft beside each other, but the boy, just out of high school, never made it to shore.

"I can't really say more than that, even to you. The tea cups might be listening. All I can tell you is, I'm in London for only a few days on R and R. Rest and recreation after all the sand I inhaled chasing behind Rommel's tanks. But I'll be going somewhere else, after the polo matches. I don't know where I'll be assigned... Italy maybe, for more of the push north to Rome. I'd rather stay here and be a part of whatever happens next. It's going to be exciting. And for a while, I'd be here where you are. That could be exciting, too."

Barbara thought fast. If he was only going to be in London a few days, they would have to make the most of them.

What do I mean by that?, she wondered. You're still married, aren't you? It was as if he was reading her mind. "I can hardly believe it. I've been hoping like crazy that we could be together, so I could explain something to you."

About your marriage. "But I have to run now."

Her heart, which had been pounding, almost stopped.

"There's a practice match today at 4, then exhibition games Saturday and Sunday mornings. Can you come to any of them?"

She tried to remember her schedule. "I have an evening flight tonight, and will be gone all day tomorrow. Sunday is the only possibility. Where?"