Violets in February by Clare Revell

Author:Clare Revell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian Fiction
Publisher: Pelican Ventures Book Group (White Rose Publishing)
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

7

Lucy looked at the burned remnants of the village in despair. “What happened?”

Jed turned his tortured gaze from the smoking ruins to her. “Bloody rebel army, that’s what happened. We can’t stay here.”

“I can’t go any further tonight. Jed, please, you said we’d stop here.”

“Look around you, Lucy. It isn’t safe here anymore.”

“The rebels won’t be back.”

“How do you know that?” he demanded. “God tell you?”

“Don’t mock me.” She folded her arms tight across her middle.

“I’m not,” he muttered.

“They won’t be back because there is nothing left for them to come back to.”

Jed shook his head and drove slowly through the ruins. The headlights illuminated half a shed still standing. He managed to reverse into it. “This will give us some shelter tonight. We’ll hide here until dawn, but you stay in the Ute.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. There’re blankets in the back. I’ll make you a bed there. If we stay in here, we’re protected from the weather, from being seen and we stand a chance of getting away in a hurry if we need to.” Jed jumped from the truck. “Stay there.”

“Like I have a choice,” she whispered.

Lucy rubbed her knee, wishing she hadn’t been so stubborn over the pain meds. Her knee was agony, the pain off the scale she normally adhered to. If this was one of her patients…

Tim was right, she realized in hindsight. She would have acted differently had this been someone brought into her clinic. Her pride would no doubt be the death of her one of these days. Yet, her stubborn streak was sometimes the only thing outside of her faith that kept her going.

Jed yanked open her door. “Let’s get you settled, and I’ll put the billy on.”

“I could do with finding a bathroom first,” she said, not meeting his gaze. “One with a seat, running water and no livestock.”

He gave a short laugh. “In that case, sit tight a few, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Twenty minutes later, she had to admit his best was pretty good. He’d improvised and not only was it snake free, it was private, dry and she’d been able to sit. Now she half lay on the truck bed, her leg propped up on his rucksack.

Jed sat by a small camp fire he’d built towards the back of the hut. His shirt hung over the flames in an attempt to dry it properly. A blanket lay across his shoulders. The flickering light illuminated the tattoos on his upper torso. She counted four, five including the one she knew of on his back, but there could be more.

He looked at her. “You should sleep.”

“So should you.”

He grunted.

Lucy’s gaze fell on the pot of violets. “Who are the flowers for?”

“You. I never got to deliver them.”

She reached out and picked them up. “For me? Is there a card?”

“No, there wasn’t.”

She held his gaze. “So I won’t know who to thank.”

A strange expression crossed his face. “Why thank them?”

“Because I was brought up to believe that saying thank

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