Patricia Potter by Island of Dreams Read Free Book Online

was sent for some additional surgery. The hospitals in London were becoming too crowded.”
    “And your family? Did you not want to spend this time with them?”
    Michael’s eyes clouded. “There is no family. My mother and father died in an accident. There is no one else.”
    Probably nothing he could have said would have disarmed Cal Connor more, for Cal had grown up alone and now valued family above all else. But he wasn’t quite ready to admit this stranger to his own family yet. He had seen Meara’s face on the club cruiser as she had looked up at the Canadian, and Meara was dear to both him and Elizabeth, almost as dear as their own children.
    “When do you expect to return to duty?”
    “Another month, I hope.”
    The conversation was interrupted by a maid announcing dinner.
    Connor lifted the remnants of his glass. “To a quick victory.”
    Michael followed suit. “To victory.”
    Catered by the clubhouse, the dinner was excellent. The menu included broiled oysters, fresh trout in an exquisite sauce, beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, asparagus and tomatoes, and sherbet, each course accompanied by a different wine, and the meal followed by a superior port. Elizabeth had steered the conversation away from the war and had asked some questions of her own. She referred to Meara several times in very affectionate terms. Michael knew he was tactfully being put on notice.
    He’d rehearsed all the answers. Many of them came easily. He’d visited Manitoba, the real Fielding’s hometown, and he could speak of it without hesitation. He had roamed all over Canada one summer, trying to feel some kind of connection, a sense of belonging, but it had never come to him. He’d discovered in that unfulfilling journey that he was indeed German, that despite his father and the unhappy childhood memories he loved his own native land with a depth he had not expected.
    So now he spoke easily of the multiple lakes and rivers and heavy forests of Manitoba with knowledge and even a touch of affection.
    “It sounds beautiful.” Elizabeth sighed.
    “If you are part Eskimo,” Michael said with a slight smile.
    “It must be very different from this island.”
    “Yes. But they both have a wild beauty of their own.”
    “You must have seen many unusual places,” Cal Connor interceded.
    Michael grimaced. “I was first officer, which means I seldom left the ship. There are usually a hundred chores while in port. I’m afraid I did most of my sightseeing through books.” He smiled a little self-consciously. Not only sightseeing but education, he thought privately. Unlike the real Michael Fielding, Eric von Steimen had finished his formal schooling at fourteen, although he’d had an excellent start in Latin and math and language at the private schools he’d attended before leaving home.
    Elizabeth steered the conversation to activities on the island. “We usually eat dinner at the clubhouse,” she said, “but Cal wasn’t up to the formality tonight.”
    “Do you always come down for Easter?”
    “The children and I usually come here before Thanksgiving and stay through Easter,” she said, “and Cal would join us when he could. There’s even a school here for the children. But Cal was so busy this fall, and then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I’ve been helping with war bonds and the canteens for our soldiers. Very few of the other families have been here all season. It seems…somehow disloyal to enjoy ourselves when so many of our young men are dying.” The words came wistfully, unexpectedly tugging painfully at Michael’s conscience.
    He had not expected to like those destined to become Germany’s hostages. In all the briefings, he had been told these men, these members of the Jekyll Island Club, were ruthless, cold individuals who cared little about anything but making money and securing power. He had told himself they were not civilians but soldiers because of their participation in the war effort; they were