Together they stared out at the water, listening to the rhythmic lap of waves against the waterfront pilings and the cry of gulls.
Suddenly, Finn turned to her, a pensive look in his eyes. “Delia, are you still hung up on the old guy?”
She glanced away. Two months ago, the mere thought of Wesley awakened hurt and anger over Mrs. Beekman, but at present she felt nothing. Every scrap of her heart was full to overflowing with Finn.
“No,” she replied, a smile beginning to tug at her lips because it was true. She’d been freed of her captivity to Wesley. “No, I’m not still hung up on the old guy.”
“Good,” he said, smiling tenderly at her. “Do you think you could ever forgive me for taking the kite money?”
They were less than a foot apart on the bench, and yet the wad of money in her purse was an old wound that had never healed. But it washerold wound. All these years it had been easier to cling to her resentment rather than forgive Finn and let herself be caught up in his risky, idealistic dreams.
Finn wasn’t perfect. The dashing boy who had befriended her at the orphanage could charm the birds out of a tree and do just about anything he set his mind to, but it wasn’t fair to assume he was perfect.
“I was wrong to nurse that grudge the way I did,” she said. “Finn, I loved you then, and I love you now.”
His eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. “Do you really mean that?”
Loving Finn was terrifying. His heart and soul contained a daring, impulsive streak woven into his very being, and he’d probably never change. Trying to mold him into someone careful and cautious would be like asking the wind to stop blowing. It simply wasn’t in his nature. Expecting him to become anyone other than who God designed him to be wasn’t fair. Perhaps their differences were a gift. She was a better, braver person when she was with Finn.
“Yes, I mean it,” she said, starting to shiver. Her fingers were freezing, and her nose was so cold it felt as if it were about to fall off. Despite it all, letting Finn back into her life would be the biggest risk she’d ever taken.
He wrapped his warm hands around her icy fingers. “Dee, I’ve loved you since I was sixteen.”
She tilted her face to meet his kiss. Once again the years fell away, and she was back in his arms, kissing the love of her life.
Gambling her heart on Finn was scary, but then she wasn’t ameek, frightened orphan anymore. Both she and Finn had matured a lot since those early days. If she was to fully participate in the wondrous world God had created, she needed to risk getting hurt. She was strong enough to survive whatever lay ahead. With Finn beside her, that world was about to bloom into a wonderful and terrifying adventure.
19
Finn began the following morning on his knees in the Camp Mills chapel, giving thanks for the miracles that had been happening in his life.
Dear God,thank you for bringing Delia back to me and for helping soften her heart. I don’t deserve her forgiveness, or yours, but I thank you for it.
The gift of forgiveness had transformed his world, had washed his slate clean. He was the same man, with the same gimpy leg, but everything was different after last night. Delia had forgiven him!She was the Delia of old who looked at him with warmth and admiration, who believed in him, and they shared a heartfelt mission to save the CRB.
As for this morning, he had a few spare hours to continue working with the new pilots to get a little green off them. Memories of combat felt like another lifetime, and hopefully revisiting the past wouldn’t trigger another bout of the strange weepiness that clobbered him yesterday in front of President Taft.
He bowed his head again.Lord,I need your help as I work to prepare these pilots for what they will experience once they’rein France. They’re getting good training on how to fly, but I need toteach them how to keep theirheads when in combat,when the Krauts ... pardon me,when the Germans come after them and attack them. And whateverhappened to me yesterday,please don’t let it happen again in front of the new guys.
Their instructor bawling like a baby wasn’t what pilots-in-training needed to see. He still didn’t understand why he’d melted down like that, but he couldn’t afford for such a thing to happen again.
He got off his knees, grasped his cane, and stepped out into the morning sunlight. His shin was finally mending, and the fact that he could get on and off his knees was a big improvement. He nodded and traded salutes as he headed toward the classroom building. Confidence and a sense of purpose filled him. Delia believed in him, and his leg was healing. God was good. This morning he would share some insights with the new pilots, which might just save their lives someday, and then this afternoon he and Delia would set off to seek out more donations for the CRB.
He strolled past a number of hastily constructed wooden buildings toward the spartan shack that served as a classroom for pilot training. His boots thudded on the wood floors as he entered to face two dozen young men, chatting among the rows of plain tables. Their uniforms consisted of olive-drab shirts and trousers, and each man’s hair was closely cropped.
They snapped to attention the moment Finn entered the classroom. This was partly due to his rank, but mostly because he walked with a limp and had seen active duty. The deep respect they showed him was still new to Finn, and he hid a smile as he moved to the front of the room.
“At ease,” he said, and the airmen shuffled to their seats behind the tables that doubled as desks. Though there was no electricity in the shack, the sunlight streaming in from the plate-glass windows was enough to illuminate the space, including the blackboard at the front.
Instead of technical drawings or rate-of-climb calculations, theblackboard displayed a series of cartoons. One showed the kaiser wearing a diaper and sucking his thumb. Another showed a German zeppelin with the captionRetreat Airshipbelow it.
“Who’s the artist?” Finn asked.
Silence hung over the classroom. They probably thought a reprimand was coming, yet Finn knew the importance of humor for letting airmen blow off steam by cutting the enemy down to size.
Finn waited, and still no answer came. That was good. The men before him were forming bonds of loyalty between them, and they didn’t care to snitch on each other.
He wrapped a knuckle against the drawing of the kaiser. “This is wrong. When I saw the kaiser, he wasn’t sucking his thumb. He had a pacifier in his mouth and was hiding behind his wife’s skirts.”
