The Unsung Hero

by Suzanne Brockmann

  Charles was alone in there. The cleaning woman, Mrs. Lerner, had pulled out of the driveway about thirty minutes ago. Joe had seen Kelly head into town early this morning and was surprised she wasn’t back yet.

  He should go check on Charles, but he was afraid that doing so would raise the man’s blood pressure, ruffle his feathers.

  It was funny, there was once a time when Joe had believed Charles to be unruffleable and completely unaffected by any of the drama and danger going on around him.

  But that was years ago. That was back during the War, when they both thought they were men, but in truth they were little more than children.

  Yet it seemed like yesterday. He could remember it with a clarity that was often disturbing. The 1950s through 80s were a vague blur of changing seasons, but his memories of the War were sharp and clear. He could close his eyes and live it over again.

  He could still hear the drip of the water in Cybele’s kitchen, smell the fear of the people hiding in the attic. He could see the brilliance of Cybele’s smiles as she greeted the Nazi soldiers who patrolled the neighborhood, as she pretended to befriend the devil in order to give the angels a fighting chance in hell.

  He could remember Charles, not stooped and dying but young and vibrant. He’d been wounded, sure, but the second time Joe met him, he was very, very much alive.

  He was sitting up in Cybele’s bed, his right arm in a sling, his side and leg bandaged. Sitting in Cybele’s bed. Cybele, who worked tirelessly for the Resistance, who never shied from taking in, sheltering, and sharing her last turnip with any man, woman, or child in need regardless of race or religion, who would offer anyone who opposed the Nazis the warmth and relative comfort of a pallet on her kitchen floor, but who never, ever gave up the privacy of her own bedroom for anyone less than a woman in labor or a desperately sick child.

  Yet she’d given up her bed for this man, this golden-haired American Army officer.

  He was playing Hearts with the two Lucs and Dominique, and as Joe stood outside the doorway, watching, he won the hand with a grin. He was pale and slightly peaked-looking with a week’s worth of beard on his chin and dark circles beneath his eyes, but nevertheless he was handsome in a way Joe himself would never be.

  Charles Ashton had a certain magic to him. It infused him, lighting him from within, making his eyes seem even more blue and his hair even more golden. It was charisma. Or maybe it came from the money Joe knew he must have in the bank. Piles of money could give a wealthy man the kind of instant self-confidence that a poorer man would have to work hard to find.

  As Joe watched, the American took a cigarette from a box on the bed. Dominique lit it for him, and he leaned toward her, smiling into her eyes as she blushed.

  Yes, indeed, this one had some kind of magic.

  Maybe Cybele hadn’t given up her bed. Maybe she was sharing it with him.

  The thought was an ugly one, but Joe was exhausted. His overnight information-gathering expedition had turned into a weeklong nightmare. It was very much a miracle he’d made it back at all.

  “Guiseppe?”

  He turned to see Cybele coming up the stairs, her face glowing with relief at the sight of him. She launched herself into his arms, and as always when he held her—which he didn’t do often enough—he was amazed at how small, how slender and fragile she truly was.

  She was one of their staunchest leaders, and her quiet ability to take charge, her intense calm under pressure, and her limitless stamina made her seem so strong and sturdy.

  “Thank God,” she murmured. “We’d heard rumors of your arrest, but I could get no one to tell me where they had taken you.” She pulled back to look at him, her eyes filled with emotion. “Are you really all right?” She ran her hands across his shoulders, down his arms. “All in one piece?”

  “I’m just tired,” he told her, also speaking her native French. “And very glad to be back.”

  “What happened?”

  “I was stopped by the Nazis, and they demanded to see my papers.” His forged papers. If there had been a chance to run, he would have. But there was nowhere to go, no way to escape. Running would have meant death. Of course, being exposed as an American spy would mean death, too. Death—but only after gruesome torture as the SS attempted to extract from him the names of the brave men and women who fought alongside him, who opposed the Nazi occupation. But Cybele had assured him his papers were the best she’d ever seen, so he’d handed them over, praying she was right.

  “I was detained,” he told her, “but not because my papers didn’t pass their scrutiny.”

  He hadn’t known that at first. He’d been led away at gunpoint by guards who’d barked at him in a Swiss-Italian dialect that he didn’t understand. And then he was locked alone in a room, waiting for a deadly interrogation that never came. He didn’t know what was going on until he was loaded onto an already too-crowded railroad car.

  “The Vichies have become upset by the food shortages,” he explained to Cybele. “Because my papers say I’m Italian, I was part of a roundup of nonnationals who were being deported.”

  Cybele laughed in disbelief. “What?”

  “I was being sent back to Italy because the Vichies don’t want me eating their Brie. And they’re just stupid enough to think that as the situation gets worse, the Nazis won’t take every little last bit.”

  He’d been in the railroad car for close to nine hours before he’d had the chance to escape—by jumping from a speeding train. His bruises were nothing compared to the broken neck he might have gotten with a little less luck.

  “After I got free, I had to travel carefully—my papers were still held by the Nazis, on the train. It wasn’t easy.” That was an understatement, but he didn’t have to go into detail. Cybele had traveled to places she wasn’t supposed to be. She knew full well how dangerous and frightening that was. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get back here sooner,” he told her.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” she said. “I’m just so glad you are back.”

  She hadn’t yet pulled out of his arms, and as he held her, gazing down into the bottomless midnight of her beautiful eyes, he couldn’t help himself. He bent his head to kiss her, to actually taste the lips he’d dreamed about so many nights.

  But Cybele turned her face away, pressing her cheek against his shoulder, and he ended up with his nose buried in her hair.

  It had been a stupid move. But when she’d looked at him that way, he’d foolishly dared to hope she’d finally welcome his kisses. He felt doubly foolish as he looked up to find the blond American watching him through the open doorway, amusement dancing in his eyes.

  “Nice try,” the man said dryly, the first American English Joe had heard in months that wasn’t from a BBC radio broadcast or from his own mouth as he tried to teach Cybele the language. “But she’s definitely not interested. I’m not sure what the story is, since my French is sketchy, but I think there’s a husband somewhere.” He looked from Joe to Luc Prieaux and Luc Lambert. “And none of you have the foggiest idea what I’m saying. Not that it really matters—as long as no one’s speaking Deutsch, we’ll all get along just fine.”

  Cybele had gently pulled free from Joe’s arms, and she now looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to translate.

  But the American didn’t give him a chance to speak. He pointed to himself. “Charles Ashton,” he said, enunciating clearly. “You must be the boss—the one who was missing. Things got a little tense around here when your friends thought you’d been taken by the Nazis. You’re a little bit younger than I expected, but c’est la guerre, right?” He lifted his right arm, then winced, and looking down at his sling, he held out his left hand. “Let’s see if you understand my high school French better than these other frogs. Germ appell Charles.”

  Joe stepped into the room. “I know your name is Charles Ashton, Lieutenant.” He folded his arms across his chest, purposely not taking the other man’s hand. “I took your dog tags off you last week
when you were brought in. These frogs saved your life.”

  Charles was completely surprised, but he only let it show for maybe a tenth of a second. He lowered his hand. “Whoops. I guess you do understand me—a little too well.” If he were at all embarrassed, it was short-lived. He shifted painfully so he was sitting up in the bed. Behind his lazy, half-closed eyelids, his gaze was sharp as he looked at Joe with intense interest. “You have a New York accent. Where the hell did you learn to speak English like that?”

  “In Brooklyn,” Joe replied.

  “My God, you’re American.” Charles laughed. “I never would have known from looking at you. No offense.”

  “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about you.” Joe turned to look at Cybele, at Luc Lambert. “Why isn’t he up in the attic? If the Germans were to search the house . . .” He realized he was speaking English and repeated himself in French.

  Luc shrugged expansively, looking to Cybele.

  “The heat,” she told him. “I couldn’t bear to hide him up there. Not with his wounds. Not after what he’s done.”

  Charles followed her French. “I’ve done nothing,” he protested in English. It was obvious to Joe they’d had this discussion before. “Tell her whoever she thinks I am, she’s mistaken.”

  “He’s a hero,” Cybele told Joe.

  “She’s wrong,” Charles told Joe. He turned to Cybele. “You’re wrong. I’ve spent the weeks since Normandy keeping my head down. My goal is to get home to Baldwin’s Bridge, Massachusetts, in one undamaged piece. I’m thinking the sooner you can get me back to my unit, the sooner I’ll be shipped back to the States. I’m more than happy to let the rest of the Fifty-fifth chase Hitler out of Berlin. I just want to get back to my summerhouse, make myself a dry martini, and sit watching the sun go down.”

  Looking at him sitting there, cigarette dangling between his fingers, it was easy to believe he meant every word. Even dressed in ragged clothes, he looked more like a wealthy aristocrat than a common farmer.

  More often than not, it was the common folk, like Cybele and the Lucs and Dominique—and Joe—who were refusing to sit by and let Hitler and his vile SS have free run of Europe.

  As he turned away in disgust, Cybele let loose a stream of French that nearly went too fast even for Joe to understand. But he managed to get most of it, and when she was done, he looked at Charles with new respect. He wouldn’t have believed it coming from anyone but Cybele.

  “She says you saved the lives of twenty-five children and two nuns,” Joe translated. This was not the act of a man interested only in keeping his head down and protecting his own skin. “She said the sisters were hiding with the children in the basement of the Church of the Ascension, up north, believing it was far enough from the fighting. But the Allies—the men in your battalion—pushed through the Germans’ defense, and the battle line moved. Because of that, the church became a target. You and three other American soldiers risked your lives to go to the children’s aid.”

  For a moment, Joe thought Charles was about to deny it all. But then he shook his head, his mouth a thin line. “It was a stupid move. Like walking onto a shooting range.”

  “I am so sorry your friends were killed,” Cybele murmured, her attempt at English solid but atrociously accented.

  Charles understood her nonetheless. “They weren’t my friends. They were just some poor suckers I ordered to come with me. I didn’t even give them a choice.” He looked up at Joe, his eyes hard. “Tell her that. Parlay voo en Fran-sez and make sure she understands that.”

  Joe quietly translated, aware that he was merely an interpreter in this highly charged conversation between Cybele and this American.

  “Tell him all the children lived,” Cybele ordered. “Even that one little boy he went back for.”

  Joe could see her heart in her eyes, and he knew she was thinking of Michel, her own son. No one had gone back for Michel when the two-year-old had been caught in the cross fire during one of the few shows of resistance when the Germans first invaded France. His father, Cybele’s husband, had been killed first. The poor child had surely been alone and terrified before the explosion that had ended his too short, so precious life.

  Joe couldn’t read the look that came into Charles Ashton’s eyes as he repeated Cybele’s words to him in English.

  “Tell her not to look at me that way,” the American said grimly, still gazing at Cybele. “I’m not a goddamned hero. Tell her I don’t know what came over me that morning, that I wouldn’t do it again, not for a million dollars.”

  As Joe translated, Cybele laughed softly. She turned away. “Don’t tell him,” she said to Joe, “but I don’t believe him.”

  “I understood that,” Charles called after her as she left the room. “Je comprende—but you’re wrong. I’m not like you.”

  She called to the others to come downstairs and let the American rest, and as usual, the room seemed much less bright without her in it. The very air seemed hotter and heavier. Silently, Dominique and both Lucs followed her out the door. Joe turned to go, too, but Charles stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “I’m not like you,” he said again. “What are you, anyway? OSS?”

  “The less you know about any of us, the better,” Joe told him. “For you and for us.”

  “Whoops, and I overheard Cybele call you Guiseppe. Hope you don’t have to kill me now, Joe.”

  “As long as this war’s on and I’m here, I’m Italian, not American. Don’t get in the habit of calling me Joe. If you do, that could get me killed.”

  “You’re definitely OSS.” Charles squinted from behind the smoke as he lit another cigarette. “I’ve heard of you guys, living behind enemy lines, sometimes right next door to the Nazis. You’re nuts. You wouldn’t catch me doing that.”

  “And yet here you are.”

  “Not by choice. Maybe I got her wrong, but the girl—Cybele—she seemed to imply that as soon as I’m strong enough, your men’ll help me get back to my unit.”

  “This girl,” Joe said to Charles, “owns this house that we’re both guests in. And these men—and women—look to her for leadership. She’s the ‘boss,’ not me. They work with me, not for me.”

  The American lieutenant gazed out the bedroom door, into the hallway where Cybele had vanished. “That’s incredible. She’s the general of this motley army? She’s so . . .”

  Beautiful. Feminine. Slight of stature. Yet beneath Cybele’s captivatingly dark eyes lay determination that was harder than steel, surrounded by tireless strength.

  “Some of the best saboteurs I know are women,” Joe told him. “Cybele and her friends have helped us fight the Nazis by setting bombs that bend railroad tracks, by providing information about munitions dumps and troop movements. Even just by painting one of Churchill’s Vs for Victory on the wall of the commandant’s house to keep the Germans on edge.”

  “It’s a strange world we find ourselves in,” Charles said. He shook his head. “I can’t begin to imagine my wife, Jenny, blowing up train tracks. I can’t even picture her able to open a can of paint.”

  “You’d be surprised what people can do if they have to,” Joe countered. Charles had a wife. The knowledge relieved him a little too much. As if he really thought he himself had a shot with Cybele, provided Charles was out of the picture. It was ridiculous. She was unattainable, untouchable. She was Joan of Arc, burning with passion but married to her cause. She was an angel to admire from afar, floating high above base human desires, always out of reach.

  “Will you talk to Cybele for me?” Charles asked. “Tell her I don’t want to wait. I want to get back to the Allied side of the line as soon as possible.”

  “It’s not going to be that simple. The line’s way up to the north and west,” Joe informed him. “Miles away. The fighting’s intense—the Germans aren’t letting go easily. Getting you across, at least right now, could be pretty difficult.”

  “Damn.” Charles glanced up at Joe, his elegant lips
twisting into a smile. “If I don’t get back there soon, I’m not going to be considered wounded enough to be sent home.”

  Joe looked down at the other man’s bandaged leg. “Until you can walk on your own—and quickly—moving you would be too much of a risk.”

  Cybele flowed back into the room then, bringing in a tray with Charles’s lunch. Two precious eggs, a slab of dark bread, a bit of cheese, some of the ever-present turnips. “Risk,” she said, having caught the word as she set down the tray on the bed beside Charles. She looked at Joe expectantly. “What are you planning now?” she asked him, switching into her native tongue.

  “Our guest is impatient. He wants to return to his unit as soon as possible.”

  “He’s too weak still,” she said, then spoke in her stilted English directly to Charles. “You are not yet strong enough to go anywhere.”

  The lieutenant grinned at her. “Can’t bear the thought of my leaving, can you? I do seem to have that power over the girls. And you are a pretty one, especially for a four star. Your wish is my command, General.”

  Cybele looked at Joe, but this time he took liberties with the translation. He told Cybele, “He’ll go when you say he’s ready to go.”

  Kelly sat behind her desk, completely overwhelmed. She knew she had to prioritize. She had to set up an administrative triage. But it was hard to get excited about paperwork when she’d just spent over two hours talking to Betsy McKenna’s parents.

  God, what a nightmare. Brenda and Robert McKenna had crumpled at the news that six-year-old Betsy’s tests had come back positive. It was leukemia. And the fact that the survival rate was better than ever before didn’t change the very real possibility that the McKennas could lose their precious child.

  They’d finally left, but the dazed look in their eyes haunted Kelly. Dr. Martin, the head of oncology at Children’s Hospital, wouldn’t be able to meet with them until six. Technically, Kelly didn’t really have to be there, but Brenda had asked her to come.

  That wasn’t going to be fun—getting into the technical details of the treatment and its risks.