a sound deep in his throat, almost as though he were laughing. “Because they’re supposed to take the bandages off my eyes tomorrow. The cast comes off my shoulder, too. I knew it was you because I heard you make the same sound when we were gassed. What are you doing here, Reuben? I figured once they’d patched up that leg of yours, you’d be long gone, back to the front, or to the States. I never expected to see you again.”
“You aren’t exactly seeing me,” Reuben said wryly. “And why in hell would you think you’d never see me again? Do you think I saved your blasted life so I could take a powder? We’re friends, we’ve been to hell and back. That means something, doesn’t it? Besides, you’re just a dumb kid and someone has to look out for you. I have a plan.” Reuben dropped to his knees to whisper. “Or should I say Marchioness Michelene Fonsard has a plan?” He waited to see if Daniel’s excitement would rise to the level of his own.
“Madame Mickey? The lady who brought me flowers from her own greenhouse?”
“The same. She’s come up with a way for both of us to go to her château for some R and R. What that means is that we’re out of this fucking war. We’re going to get fresh eggs, good red meat, and lots of strong red wine. What d’you think?”
Daniel didn’t answer for a long time, and when he did, Reuben had to bend over to hear him. “What if I’m blind, Reuben? We both came to Soissons at the same time, and you were as blind as me from the gas. You’ve been out for two weeks, but I’m still…here. And what is it we have to give to get all this good country living?”
“You, my friend, don’t have to give anything. I’ll be doing the giving, or the taking, however the case may be.” Reuben’s grin broadened at Daniel’s expression of awe.
“You mean…she wants…you’ll do that? Jesus! One of the nurses told me about Madame Mickey. They say she’s old, around forty. That’s twice as old as you!” Daniel flushed a brilliant scarlet, which only added to Reuben’s amusement.
Reuben changed positions to ease his injured leg. “I look at it this way. Madame Mickey has everything any other woman has, plus a heart as big as all outdoors. If she wants to be our benefactor, why not? We certainly have nothing to lose. You don’t want to go back to the front, do you? I sure as hell don’t. This war can’t go on forever, and I intend to outlast it. I want the same for you. Madame Mickey has some influential friends in the War Office. Did you know that Captain Eddie Rickenbacker stayed at her house in Paris when he had leave?” Reuben watched Daniel’s face at the mention of Rickenbacker, hoping the name would lend credibility to Madame Mickey’s reputation. “And,” he added for emphasis, “guess who’s a personal friend of hers, one so famous he autographed a picture of himself for her, taken while he was in full uniform? ‘My love for you endures,’ it says. Signed J. J. ‘Blackjack’ Pershing himself!”
“That’s all very fine, Reuben…for you. But where do I fit in?”
“You’ll be right beside me. Daniel, you have to learn how to be gracious when someone offers you something. Always accept. I’m accepting this for both of us. We’ll mend, get our health back, have a little fun, and then head back to the States. I told you I’d take care of you, and I will. I made a promise to you and to myself. You’re going to be ‘the finest lawyer in the country,’ to use your own words, and I’m going to be…I don’t know yet, but I do know I’ll be wearing silk jackets, walking on thick carpets, serving the best caviar with chilled champagne. I’m going to have a mansion with a whole battalion of servants and money to burn. And if I get in trouble along the way, you’ll be the hotshot lawyer who’ll get me out of it. We made a deal, Daniel.”
“What if I can’t see when they take the bandages off? Then what? What if I’m blind? B-l-i-n-d! How will I go to law school then? Are you going to lead me around on a string?”
“Damn you, Daniel, shut up,” Reuben growled. “You aren’t going to be blind. I’m not. I couldn’t see very well for a few days, but my eyesight is almost restored. I still have to have the treatments, so will you. And just for the record, yes, I would lead you around on a string. I’d find a way for you to get to law school if I had to go with you. You got that?”
The eighteen-year-old soldier sighed. There wasn’t a whole lot left to believe in, but he did believe in Reuben. Reuben was the brother he never had, the uncle he’d always wished for, the father he would have died for. Reuben was his friend. Reuben had saved his life and was willing to believe in his dream of finishing his education and becoming a good lawyer. Reuben believed in him. And if it took the rest of his miserable life, he would repay the debt.
Reuben’s gray eyes sparkled mischievously. “Madame Mickey tells me her cousin’s daughter by marriage is expected shortly after Thanksgiving. Her name is Bebe and her father is a famous moviemaker in California. You’ll have a pretty girl to pal around with. We’ll never have to smell carbolic and dead sweat again. We’ll be civilized, Daniel. Do you know what that means? This…this hell we’ve lived through…we’ve earned this!”
Daniel was silent, but his head dipped ever so slightly in agreement. Reuben always managed to make sense out of chaos. “I think I’ll be out of here in another couple of days. I’m with you, pal. Tell Madame Mickey I’d be honored to accept her invitation. Did I tell you she brought me flowers from her greenhouse again yesterday?”
Reuben guffawed. “She calls it her hothouse. I can tell you—”
“Never mind,” Daniel said hastily.
Reuben didn’t know why he felt the need to stake out the boundaries of his commitment to Daniel. To take care of Daniel, to watch over him, somehow enabled him to make sense of his own life. Daniel was good, he was honest, and he was honorable, and if Reuben had anything to do with it, he would stay that way. He reached down to tousle Daniel’s pale blond hair.
“When you’re discharged, Madame Mickey will pick us up in her motorcar. She’s promised to teach me to drive.”
“How old is this Bebe?” Daniel asked. It grated on him at times that he’d never had a girlfriend, while he knew that Reuben had had scores and had been intimate with all of them. After all, Reuben was a virile man. Bebe was probably ten years old. Reuben still thought of Daniel as a boy. Christ, he’d gone through the war the same as Reuben had; that should qualify him as a man. He waited, holding his breath, for Reuben’s reply. Think of me as a man, he pleaded silently, so I can think of myself the same way.
“Fifteen going on sixteen. Same way you’re seventeen going on eighteen. I understand she’s a beauty. If you can’t think of anything else to do, you can talk her to death.”
Daniel flushed again and changed the subject. “Does this country estate have a library?”
“Don’t they all?” Reuben answered blithely. “I haven’t been to the château yet, but Madame Mickey’s told me a lot about it. When she’d make her rounds at the hospital we talked, sometimes for hours. The château has everything. We’re going there to live again.” Reuben’s heavy voice conveyed the somberness of his memories. “The trenches are something we’ll never have to see again. Shrapnel-seeded meadows, the jagged rubble heap of La Boiselle, the frostbite, the chilblains, jaundice—it’s all behind us. No more cold nights with just each other for warmth. We won’t have to carry a rifle and we won’t ever have to kill anyone again. We can bury our savagery here, outside the doors of this hospital, the day you’re discharged. We’ll be Daniel and Reuben again, starting fresh.”
Daniel felt Reuben’s embarrassment at his outburst. He couldn’t remember Reuben ever showing so much emotion, even when
