With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin Page B

casualties on Guadalcanal. In North Africa the French had capitulated after three days of battle, and now the Army could drive east and fight the Germans, who were pouring into Tunisia.
    Had the engineer gone to North Africa? His battalion was stationed in England, and he said he’d head to combat soon. In her reply she’d nicknamed him Ernest. He seemed like an earnest man, and she liked the allusion to the play The Importance of Being Earnest , with its mistaken identities and name mix-ups.
    She’d added Ernest to her daily prayers.
    The corporal held the door open for Mellie.
    “Thank you.” She went down the hallway to the chief nurse’s office.
    “Please have a seat, Philomela.” Lieutenant Lambert pointed to a chair across from her desk. Captain Maxwell stood by the window.
    “Thank you, ma’am.”
    The chief fingered a pen on her desk. “As you know, we’re on shaky ground. On Wednesday we activated three squadrons, but on Thursday General Arnold declared there would be no light air evacuation. So today I have to make some decisions.”
    “Oh dear.” The commanding general of the Army Air Forces had restricted them? Would he allow any air evacuation at all?
    Lieutenant Lambert raised her head, a hesitant look in her brown eyes. “They doubt us. They believe women are prone to cattiness and gossip and can’t be trusted with important matters. Many men would love to see us fail.”

    “I understand, ma’am.” But why was she only talking to Mellie?
    “Each squadron must run as a team. In the field, we’ll need to rely on each other. If you girls don’t get along, the brass will see it as a sign of feminine weakness and undependability.”
    Mellie’s lips tingled.
    Lieutenant Lambert frowned at her pen. “I don’t know how to say this, Philomela. You’ve been here two weeks. Your flight of six nurses is the least cohesive here at Bowman. And every time I look, you’re alone.”
    A band of pain constricted around Mellie’s chest. “I tend to keep to myself.”
    Captain Maxwell crossed his arms and huffed. “That’s the problem.”
    Lambert tapped her pen on the desk. “I indulged in a phone call to Edna Newman at Walter Reed. Now, she wanted me to know what a competent and caring nurse you are. The patients sing your praises. But the girls—well, she said you didn’t have a single friend there.”
    Mellie blinked hard. “It’s never interfered with my work, ma’am.”
    The chief grimaced. “I understand, but this isn’t a ward. We have to work together, and we can’t let one person drag us down. This is too important for the future of nursing, for all the wounded men who need our care. We cannot fail.”
    “I won’t drag you down. I’ll make an excellent flight nurse.”
    “I’m sure you would—if you could work independently. When I looked at your application, I was impressed by your time in the wilderness. You have skills that would be useful to us in the field, but only if you share them. This must be a team effort or we’ll fail. You need to get along with the other nurses.”
    Captain Maxwell paced to the other side of the room.“No room for hermits here. Plenty of other nurses—friendly, pretty girls—would love to take your place.”
    Mellie gripped her hands together hard in her lap. She mustn’t succumb to tears. “I want to be a flight nurse. More than anything. What do I need to do?”
    Lieutenant Lambert shot the surgeon a quick glance, then back to Mellie. “You need to show improvement. You need to make some effort. I’ll give you one more week, but no longer.”
    Mellie had failed to make a friend in twenty-three years of life, and now she had one week. Impossible. “One week?”
    The chief leaned over the desk, her eyes filled with compassion. “I do want you to succeed, Philomela.”
    “Thank you, ma’am.” She tried to smile but couldn’t.
    The chief dismissed her, and Mellie escaped out into the hallway. Her vision blurred over, and she