The Way Back Home

Chapter Seventeen: If I Can't Love Her

CHAPTER SONG: "If I Can't Love Her" by Terrence Mann (From Broadway's 'Beauty and the Beast')

"How did you find us, Captain?" Emmanuelle sat in the front of Capt. Jonathan Smith's cavalry truck, much to the dismay both the superior officer and her semi-assigned protector Lt. Joseph Blake, who sat beside her in the passenger seat while Smith drove, flanking her other side so she would be shielded should another sniper incident occur.

The young woman had a feeling it was intentional for both men to be on either side of her, although she had convinced herself that the enemy would not perceive her as an immediate threat being someone with no military training.

"We heard the shot and the honking horn from Lt. Blake's vehicle. Then, the headlights were used as a signal for us to follow to see if anyone survived." The kindly man glanced at her from the side only briefly to keep his eyes on the dawn-lit path in front of them. "It's a great relief to you alive Miss Hunterson."

A small smile graced his face before fading away into stoicism, but she could still view the shine of gladness.

Emmy couldn't help smiling herself.

"Emmanuelle is my name, Captain Smith. Miss Hunterson makes me feel old." She nudged his shoulder in a good-natured manner, hoping he wouldn't perceive the gesture as something offensive, forgetting for just a moment that she was in a different time where such behavior could be considered demeaning and especially unladylike.

She could feel Lt. Blake's eyes on her, spheres of blue vigilance glancing around from her to the grassy landscape painted with the darkened morning camouflage of sunlight. His hands shook upon his lap as he clasped them together, struggling to keep his breath leveled so as not to alarm the two other occupants of the cab beside him.

"Very well, if that pleases you, I'll refer to you as Emmanuelle." Smith chuckled deeply, looking to the side at Emmy again. "How does your Lance Corporal fare? The two of you seemed to be especially attached."

Emmy looked ahead through the truck's windshield, her eyes focusing on the horizon illuminating the indigo sky above them. The faint singing of some soldiers floated through her ears from the rear of the convoy, a sing she recognized from hearing in the museum back in modern day London...when she first held the book in her hands and had looked upon the images of Schofield and Lt. Blake for the first time.

"There is a lady sweet and kind,

Was never face so pleas'd my mind;

I did but see her passing by,

And yet I love her till I die"

Before she knew it, a tear made its journey down her cheek. Those lyrics made her think of Will, his arms around her as he sang another song in her ear, but they were just as resonant with romance and serenity.

And the poem he had recited in the basement beneath Ecoust. They had formed their own temporary paradise in that apocalyptic town, however delusional it may have appeared to behave in such a situation.

"We both barely made it alive to the second Devons. If it hadn't been for me, Will probably would've made it in time to save every one of those men, but there were still casualties that morning." She looked away from Capt. Smith to Joseph, seeing that the younger soldier's hands were trembling. Slowly, she reached over with her hands and held his shaking fingers in her grip. "He's risked a lot to keep me safe. He had to return to his battalion, but he'll find me again once he's granted leave."

"For the Corporal, it was more than a promise he made to protect you. He's infatuated with you, isn't he? I could sense it in the way he wouldn't leave your side back on that farm." Smith glanced once again at her, a wily glint in his eye as he spoke his deduction. "And I don't say that to mock you, my dear. He's a good man and I could sense a strength in you that compliments him."