With this Pledge by Tamera Alexander

Author:Tamera Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

“Sister, I can’t tell you how good this feels. Almost makes me forget about my legs. Who needs morphine when they could be freshly shaved and shorn?”

Sister Catherine Margaret smiled down at him as she poured warm water over his head. “I believe I’ll hang a shingle out in front of the convent.”

Roland laughed, relishing the warm water and the opportunity to clean up, even if having a porcelain basin under his neck was beginning to cause an ache.

“I’m just sorry it took me so long to get to it, Captain. The sisters and I are helping at other places in town in recent days. So many are hurting still.”

“I’m just grateful to you for doing it. And it’s certainly been worth the wait.”

He never imagined he would so enjoy being freshly shaven. He ran a hand over his smooth jawline and thought of Susan. Last time he’d seen her and Lena, he’d looked much as he had moments earlier. Hair nearly down to his shoulders and beard all wild and woolly. Susan had insisted on shaving off his beard before they’d gone to bed together that night. The memory brought a smile, and a pang of regret. This was his first shave since.

Sister Catherine Margaret helped him to a sitting position and handed him a fresh towel to dry his hair, then made a show of studying him. “I was right, Captain. There were marks of handsomeness beneath all that dark hair and beard. But only a wee bit.” She chuckled.

Roland laughed too, then lowered his voice. “Don’t you go and start being tempted over me now, Sister. You’ll have to do more than a few Hail Marys to get out of that one.”

He’d never heard a nun laugh so heartily or so long. The other men in the room just looked at her.

A moment passed, and she gave Roland a motherly pat on the shoulder. “Oh, Captain . . . If ever I’d had a son, I’d like to think he would’ve been like you.”

Roland swiftly sobered, and for a beat words escaped him. He watched her gather the dirty linens and basin of sudsy water. “Sister,” he finally managed, “that’s most kind of you. And more than a little generous. The fact that you would even think such a thing gives me something to aspire to.”

She shook her head and made a tsking sound. “There you go again, Captain. Handsome and good-hearted. Rest assured, we’ll be sending no young nuns to help at Carnton while you’re here!”

She walked out the door, still chuckling to herself, and Roland had to smile. He ran a hand over his smooth jaw, the sensation unfamiliar, to say the least. But a good kind of unfamiliar.

Someone passed in the hallway outside, and he looked back in time to see it was Lizzie. She didn’t even look inside Winder’s bedroom. The few times she’d come into the room over the past couple of days, she’d been cordial. But he didn’t have to guess why she’d made herself scarce.

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