“I think he’s been very impressed by your exemplary behavior.”

“Well, he wouldn’t be for long,” William groaned privately. “I think I’ve about reached my limit.” She grinned and they held hands as they followed her parents into his Bentley. He had volunteered to drive them to Southampton, and their luggage was going on ahead. But the two-hour drive went much too quickly. Sarah saw the familiar shape of the Queen Mary again, remembering how different things had been when they sailed from New York only two months before.

“You never know what life has in store for you.” Edward smiled benevolently at them, and offered to show William around the ship. But William was far more interested in staying close to Sarah, and he politely declined the invitation. Instead, he went to their staterooms with them, and then they went out on the deck. He stood there with an arm around her and a woebegone face until the last gong sounded and the last smokestack had roared to life, and he suddenly found himself terrified that they would meet some disaster. A cousin of his had been on the Titanic twenty-six years before, and he couldn’t bear thinking of anything happening to Sarah.

“Please God … take care of yourself. … I couldn’t live without you …” He clung to her like a life raft for their last moments.

“I’ll be fine, I promise. Just come to New York as soon as you can.”

“I will. Possibly by next Tuesday,” he said sadly, and she smiled again, and tears filled her eyes as he kissed her again.

“I’m going to miss you so awfully,” she said softly.

“Me too.” He clung to her, and at last one of the officers approached them with awe.

“Your Grace, I apologize for the intrusion, but I’m afraid … we will be sailing very shortly. You must go ashore now.”

“Right. Sorry.” He smiled apologetically. “Please take good care of my wife and her family, won’t you? My future wife, that is …” He beamed down at her, and the large, round diamond on her left hand glinted powerfully in the September sunshine.

“Of course, sir.” The officer looked impressed, and made a mental note to mention it to the captain. The future Duchess of Whitfield was travelling with them to New York, and there was no doubt that she would get every possible courtesy and, service.

“Take care, darling.” He kissed her one last time, shook hands with his future father-in-law, kissed Victoria warmly on the cheek and gave her a hug, and then he was down the gangplank. Sarah was crying in spite of herself, and even Victoria dabbed at her eyes with her hankie, it was so sweet to see them. He waved frantically from the shore until they could see him no more, and Sarah stood on the deck for two hours after they sailed, staring out to sea, as though if she tried hard enough she could still see him.

“Come downstairs now, Sarah,” her mother said gently. But there was nothing to mourn now. Only cause for celebration. And by the time Sarah got downstairs, there was a cable from William, and a bouquet of roses so large it barely fit through the door of her stateroom. “I can’t bear waiting another moment. I love you, William.” The card said, and her mother smiled, glancing at the beautiful engagement ring again. It was amazing to think what had happened to them in two short months. She could hardly believe it.

“You’re a very lucky girl, Sarah Thompson,” her mother said, and Sarah could only agree with her, while mentally trying out her new name … Sarah Whitfield…. She liked the way it sounded … it had a wonderful ring to it…. The Duchess of Whitfield, she whispered grandly, and then laughed to herself as she went to smell the huge bouquet of red roses on the table beside her bed.

The crossing on the Queen Mary seemed to drag by this time. All she wanted to do was get home and start planning for her wedding. She was pampered by everyone on the ship, once they realized that she was the future Duchess of Whitfield. They were invited to the captain’s table several times, and this time Sarah felt an obligation to be more obliging. Now she had a responsibility to William to be more outgoing, and her parents were pleased to see the change in her. William had done wonderful things for their daughter.

And when they arrived in New York, Peter and Jane were waiting for them, and this time they hadn’t brought the children. Jane was beside herself at all the news, and squealed with delight, unable to believe how beautiful Sarah’s ring was. They showed photographs of William to her in the car, and Peter and Edward chatted endlessly about the news from Europe.

In fact, it was a week to the day after their return that normal radio broadcasts were interrupted to bring Americans Hitler’s speech to his Nazi Congress at Nuremberg. It was an awesome, frightening speech, and his threats to Czechoslovakia were clear to all who heard them. He declared that Germany would no longer tolerate the oppression of the Sudeten Germans by the Czechs, and he revealed that close to three hundred thousand Germans were working to reinforce the German border along the Siegfried Line. The dangers were obvious, but the question remained as to what Hitler would actually do about it, and how the world would react when he did it. The venom and fury and hatred that had emanated from him as he spoke had shaken Americans to the core, as they listened to him, broadcast live to them over the airwaves, and for the first time the threat of war in Europe seemed real, It was obvious that, if nothing else, the Czechs were going to be devoured by the Germans. And no one who listened thought that was good news.

For the next week people spoke of nothing else. The newspapers announced that the armies of Europe were being mobilized, the fleets were at the ready, and Europe was waiting for Hitler’s next move.

And on September twenty-first, at eight-fifteen New York time, events in Prague finally reached a climax. The French and British ministers there announced that they would not mobilize on behalf of the Czechs, and risk Hitler’s fury. They offered Czechoslovakia no choice but to capitulate, and give itself over to the Nazi forces of Adolf Hitler. By 11 A.M. in New York, 5 P.M. in Prague, the government had come to the conclusion that it had no choice. Prague capitulated to the German forces, as their supporters around the world heard the news and cried.

And by then it was raining in New York, as though God were crying for the Czechs, as Sarah did as she listened to the broadcast. The broadcast had come to New York in an oddly roundabout way, due to “difficult” weather on the Atlantic, and in order to circumvent the problem, the broadcast had gone from Prague to Cape Town to Buenos Aires to New York. And could then be clearly heard. But by noon there was nothing left to hear. It was six o’clock in Czechoslovakia by then, and for them the fight was over. Sarah snapped off her radio, as did everyone else, and never heard the storm warnings that were issued at 1 P.M., announcing that a storm that had been hovering over the Atlantic might hit Long Island. The wind had picked up by then, and Sarah had been talking to her mother about going out to Southampton to start getting organized for the wedding She had a thousand things to plan and do, and the house on Long Island was a peaceful place to do them.

“You don’t really want to go out there in this awful weather, dear,” her mother replied. But the truth was, she really didn’t mind. She liked the beach in the rain. There was always something peaceful and soothing about it. But she knew her mother worried about her driving in bad weather, so she stayed home to help her mother in town. Her father had already called the man who owned the farm she had put the deposit on, and had explained to him that his daughter was getting married and moving to England instead. He had been extremely nice, and given Sarah her money back, although her father had still scolded her for doing something so foolish, and he assured her that he would never have let her live alone in a fallen-down farmhouse on Long Island She had taken the money back from him apologetically, and put it in the bank. It was the thousand dollars she had gotten for selling the wedding ring she had gotten from Freddie, a useless item she had never missed.

But she wasn’t thinking of the farm, or even the wedding, that afternoon, as the rain grew worse in New York. She was thinking about Prague and the terrifying situation there, when she suddenly heard a ferocious rattling of her bedroom windows. It was two o’clock by then, and when she looked at the window it was so dark it almost looked like midnight. The trees outside her parents’ apartment were bent low in the wind, and she thought she’d never seen such a fierce storm in New York, and at that exact moment her father came home early.

“Is something wrong?” Victoria asked him worriedly.

“Have you seen that storm?” he asked her. “I could barely make it out of the car and into the building. I had to hold on to the awning poles and two men on the street had to help me.” He turned to his daughter then with a worried frown. “Have you been listening to the news?” He knew how well-informed she was, and that she often listened to the news bulletins in the afternoon, if she was at home with her mother.

“Only about Czechoslovakia.” She told him the latest about that then, and he shook his head.

“This is no ordinary storm,” he said ominously, and went to his bedroom to change. He came back out in rough gear five minutes later.

“What are you doing?” Victoria asked nervously. He had a habit of doing things beyond his skills or his years, as though to prove that he could still do them, even if he never had before. He was a strong, able man, but he was clearly no longer as young as he had been.