Tangled Webs: A Brand New Spellbinding Historical Fiction Novel by Maria McDonald

Author:Maria McDonald [McDonald, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books - Historical Fiction
Published: 2023-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

James

What a day, James thought as he helped carry the next injured soldier into the makeshift hospital. The battle was raging, and the list of dead and wounded was multiplying at an alarming rate. He wondered aloud why he ever got involved in the military. For the first time, he compared his day with his father’s practice on that wild peninsula, and longed to see it one more time, something he never thought would happen. It would be nightfall soon, and his shift would end, like the others, with a bed if he was lucky and a snatched couple of hours before tending to the injured to the best of his ability. The lucky ones were sent to the field hospitals. He had been in one in Ladysmith a few weeks ago. The Nightingale nurses were doing an excellent job even though most of the men didn’t agree with them being there. They argued that war was no place for a woman, which amused James, for he had always believed women were the stronger sex, but who was he to argue.

Perhaps it was those thoughts roaming around his head that made him careless, but his shoulder exploded with pain as the bullet passed through it. He stumbled and fell on top of the body, the blood warm on its red coat. He slithered as he tried to find his footing and his hands slipped as he pushed himself away. The pain in his shoulder burnt, and he recoiled then stopped, stunned as he recognised the jawline. The world around him felt like it had gone into slow motion and the noise of the battlefield disappeared into the distance. He felt for a pulse and found a weak one. He turned him over and gasped as he saw the gaping wound in his side. Charles gave James a weak smile, his eyes half-closed and raised his hand to James’s face.

“I knew you would come for me. Look after Amanda for me.”

“I will not. You are going to do that for yourself.”

James called for help, and another two medics came running with a stretcher before James blacked out from the pain in his shoulder. He woke as they entered the field hospital and called out for Charles, who lay silent on the stretcher beside him. A nurse arranged for Charles to be placed in an alcove on the side of the hospital while James was sent directly to a doctor to treat the gunshot wound in his shoulder. James protested, but blood loss left him weak, and he blacked out again. When he gained consciousness, his wound had been treated, and the pain had lessened. He felt groggy and weak, but then the memory of Charles’s face hit him like a flash of lightning. He struggled to sit up, staring frantically around him.

“Charles.” He didn’t recognise his own voice as he called for his friend.

The nurse looked across from where she was treating another soldier and smiled at him.

“Welcome back, Sergeant. Your friend is in a different room.

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