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“When Beth called, she left me with specific instructions. I was not to let Michael leave the city until you arrived, but not to let him know that you were coming. So I arranged for him to spend the day with my son-in-law, David Weisman, at Beth Israel Hospital. He’ll be home about 6:00, but I won’t. Ruth and I are having dinner with my neighbor, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, in Apartment 2B. We won’t be home until, let’s say, 10:00.”

After an enjoyable lunch with Laura, I spent the afternoon resting, bathing, and doing my hair because I had a lot riding on this. I was in the kitchen when I heard Michael come in.

“Hello. Anyone home?”

“I’m in the kitchen,” I hollered.

Michael stuck his head around the corner. “Hello.” He acted  as if he wasn’t surprised that I was in his aunt’s apartment. “I was expecting to see my Aunt Laura, but this is okay,” he said, leaning up against the counter.

“I’m returning your phone call.”

“I like the way you return phone calls.”

“I thought you said that you would stay in England until you heard from me.”

“I didn’t think the strategy was working. Besides, I missed you.”

“In that case, aren’t you going to kiss me?” I asked.

“I would, except I don’t think I could stop at kissing. I used up all of my willpower in England.”

“Who said you had to?”

Looking around, he said, “Where’s Aunt Laura?”

“She’s with Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Apartment 2B, and won’t be home for three hours — she promised.”

Michael came over and kissed me briefly before pulling me into a tight hug. He whispered, “I love you,” and for the first time, I was able to tell him how I felt. “I love you, too. Thank you for waiting for me.”

Michael reached out to take my hand, and when he did, I remembered what Geoff had said about how Michael was favoring his right hand. With everything that I had gone through with Rob, I needed to know what had happened to him in Burma.

“If you are left-handed, then why are you doing so many things with your right hand?” I asked.

“If this is what passes for sexual banter in the States,” he said, completely perplexed, “it’s not very effective.”

“Geoff said when you two were in India, you always bumped elbows because you were left-handed and he was right-handed.”

“Maggie, this is not a question about which hand I favor. What is it you need to know?” Gesturing toward the kitchen table, we both sat down. “If your question is, did I experience some horrendous things during the war, the answer is ‘yes.’ But if you are asking if I am carrying around some terrible burden, the answer is ‘no.’ I have had ample time to deal with these things, and I have. I saw what not dealing with the past did to my father.

“As I told you, when I got to India, I was trained as a pilot and a medic. We were responding to a call for an emergency evacuation when we were hit with small-arms fire. It was enough to damage the wing, and we were forced down. Fortunately, the men who had radioed for the med evac were nearby. They established a perimeter while we tried to fix the plane. During the night, our perimeter was breached, and it ended in hand-tohand fighting. My left shoulder was sliced open by a machete, and it damaged the muscle enough to make certain movements awkward. My range of motion is almost back to normal, but my fine motor skills have been slower to return. Rather than spilling hot coffee on someone, I use my right hand. Now, I do have a magnificent scar on my back.” Pulling me onto his lap, he said, “And I would be happy to show it to you.”

We went into the guest bedroom, and Michael took off his shirt and undershirt. On his left shoulder was a purple scar that cut across his shoulder blade. I ran my fingers along the scar, and then I started to kiss his back and his neck until he turned around and pushed me onto my back. He slid his hands under my slip and removed my underpants, all the while looking into my eyes, and then he lay on top of me and entered me immediately. At that moment, I wasn’t thinking of anything else; I just wanted him to love me forever.

❋❋❋

When Ruth and Laura came in, we were sitting innocently on the couch. We had been talking about Angela and James’s wedding night, and Michael said it was a good thing his brother had pulled the covers off the bed because his aim was terrible, and the chances of his hitting the modesty hole dead-on weren’t very good.

“I can see that you two have been having a nice talk while we were playing canasta with Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who won every game but the last.” Pretending to yawn, she said, “If you don’t mind, I would like to retire, and we can visit in the morning. By the way, I’m a very heavy sleeper. I don’t hear a thing, and Ruth is the same way.”

After I heard the doors close on Laura’s and Ruth’s doors, I asked Michael if he thought she knew. He laughed, and pointing to my legs, he said, ‘You didn’t put your stockings back on.”

I turned beet red and asked Michael why he hadn’t said something.

“About what?” he said, laughing. “Why do you think she left us alone?”

We waited for about ten minutes before returning to the guest bedroom. This time Michael was not in a hurry, and it was different from anything I had ever experienced with Rob. I got to the point where I wanted him more than I had ever wanted anything before, and I wrapped my legs around his and pulled him into me. And, afterwards, I wouldn’t release him because I needed to be reassured that someone could love me so much, and it was only with great reluctance that I finally let him go.

After making love, he pulled me onto his chest and asked when I had first known I was in love with him. “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “I know that as soon as I met you that I liked you a lot. When you came home from Malta, your mother asked you why you had cut your hair so short, and you said, ‘So I can do this,’ and you combed your hair with your fingers. Then at the Grist Mill, you started flirting with me, and that night I had impure thoughts about you.” After I refused to go into more detail, I said, “I knew I was in trouble at the ball, because I had hardly seen Rob all night, and yet it didn’t bother me all that much. Shame on me.”

“What happened with Rob?”

I told Michael everything about Rob’s visit and his comment that he knew Michael was in love with me when he saw us dancing together at Montclair.

“Now, it’s your turn,” I said.

“I suspected it on the day you fell into my lap at Thor’s Cave. I was absolutely sure the night of the ball. By the time we had the last dance, I was in over my head. So Rob was right, when we danced to ‘Always,’ I was in love with you.” Holding me tightly, he asked, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

“It’s too late to get married today. What about tomorrow?”

I pointed out that we needed a marriage license, and we had to get married in the Church. It was at that point I realized we weren’t going to get married anytime soon. There would have to be three weeks of announced banns, and Michael would have to agree to raise any children in the Catholic faith, or a marriage could not take place in the Church. I asked him if this was a problem.

“I was baptized in the Anglican church. However, I grew up in India amid Hindus, Moslems, and Sikhs. I want to have children who are moral and compassionate.”

There was also the matter of a courtship. It was wonderful to think that Michael was so in love with me that he wanted us to marry immediately. However, I had to slow the process down. It was true we had known each other for four months, but in those months, we had spent very little time together. Michael suggested the best way to accomplish that was to say good-bye to Aunt Laura and Ruth Johnson and to check into a hotel for a few days.

We chose the Algonquin, and when we weren’t making love, I was in the bathroom taking long, hot baths. There was even a shower, and I sat in the tub with the hot water pouring over my head. Michael kept checking on me to make sure I hadn’t gone down the drain. But after living overseas for two years, with restrictions on everything because of fuel shortages, I was going to make the most of an unlimited supply of hot water. Finally, Michael climbed into the tub with me saying that it was the only way he was going to get to see me. The experience of having someone who was head over heels in love with me and willing to show it was so wonderful that it had almost a fairy-tale feel to it. But even fairy tales have to come to an end, and after three days, Michael and I boarded a train in Penn Station for our trip to Scranton. The closer we got to Scranton, the higher my anxiety level. How was I ever going to explain what had happened between Michael and me? I didn’t think it was going to go well.