Arms of Mercy by Ruth Reid

Author:Ruth Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

What, may I ask, are you doing in your street clothes?”

Candice stood in the doorway of Elijah’s hospital room with her stethoscope draped around her neck and her hands planted on her hips. “I didn’t see any discharge instructions in the doctor’s progress notes.”

“I haven’t been released technically, but I can’t stay here and do nothing.” Elijah fumbled with the hook and eye on the front of his tattered shirt. With his arm immobilized in a sling and the thick bandages holding his ribs in place, even simple things were difficult to do.

“Let me help you.” Candice fastened the hooks, then adjusted the arm sling. “How’s your pain?”

“Manageable.”

Candice smiled. “I have to advise you that you shouldn’t leave until the doctor discharges you. Your lungs are still weak, and your ribs haven’t healed. Your head and leg have stitches that need to be removed. And your shoulder needs physical therapy. Plus, there’s a good chance of infection.”

“Advice taken.” He touched his temple where it had been sewn back together. The stiff thread was knotted at the ends, and the stitches along his inner thigh had already started to itch. But stitches weren’t difficult to remove. He’d done it before when one of the mares he was training sliced open her leg. Couldn’t be that much different to remove his own.

But he’d forgotten about the emergency workers cutting his pant leg up to his thigh until he put on his pants. He made a spectacle of himself with the flopping open pant leg that left him exposed. Too bad his duffel bag with his extra clothes was lost somewhere in the wreckage.

“Does that mean you’ll stay?”

“Nope.” He found his socks balled up in the bottom of the bag that held his pants, shirt, boots, and suspenders.

Candice sighed. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please don’t leave while I’m gone.”

“It’ll take me that long to put on mei socks and boots,” he said as Candice left the room.

Elijah sat on the chair next to the wall and readied the first sock. Hopefully she wasn’t planning to rally reinforcements to convince him to stay. It wouldn’t work. If he stayed it would only prolong reuniting with Catherine, and that wasn’t something he was willing to put off any longer. Too much time had already lapsed between them.

Candice returned with a clipboard and pen. “Any chance you changed your mind?”

“Nope.”

She handed him the clipboard. “In that case, I need you to sign some forms stating you are choosing to leave against medical advice.”

“Where do you want me to sign?”

Candice pointed to the line. “I wish you would wait until you’re stronger.”

“I can’t. I have to go nau.” He signed where she indicated and handed her back the forms. “Thank you for your wunderbaar care.”

“I was just doing my job.”

“If I’m ever in the hospital again, I hope you’re mei nurse.”

“And you might end up readmitted if you don’t take it easy.” She tore off a copy of the signed document and handed it to him along with a packet of other papers.

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