An Unexpected Wife & Into the Wilderness by Cheryl Reavis

Author:Cheryl Reavis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-03-29T15:51:20+00:00

Chapter Two

Sunlight filtering through the windows of the post hospital the next morning brought an illusion of cheer to the convalescing patients. Lily moved among the beds, changing a bandage here and wiping a fevered brow there. Only after she had checked all the patients did she pause at the bedside of a young man who had been kicked by a horse, suffering painful bruises and a concussion. Taking his hand, she gently called his name.

The man stirred, then groaned. Lily spoke louder. “Benjamin, tell me where you are.”

His eyes fluttered before focusing on her. “In heaven?”

“Try again. Where are you?”

The hint of a smile teased his lips. “Just joshin,’ Miss Lily. Hospital. I’m in the hospital.” Then just before he fell back to sleep, he mumbled, “Clumsy nag of a horse.”

Across the room lay a cook, scalded by a pot of boiling soup, his hands mittened in gauze. She made her way to him. “I have time now, Timothy, to write that letter for you.”

She retrieved paper, pen and the lap board and listened as he dictated his message. “Tell me mum I am dandy. Say I had a bit of an accident, but that I’ll be cooking again before she even gets this letter. Ask her to write.”

Lily had seen the burns on his hands and doubted he’d be cooking anytime soon. She prayed he would be spared infection, so common with burns. “I will post your letter this afternoon.”

“Thank you, miss,” he whispered, tears flooding his eyes. She turned away to spare him embarrassment.

When she had finished her duties, she stepped into the small surgeon’s office where her father was working on his weekly medical report. “Do you need me further, Papa?”

Ezra Kellogg looked up, his blue eyes gentle behind his spectacles. “You’re a godsend, daughter, but we’ll manage for the rest of the day.”

Lily studied his pale face and stooped shoulders. There was an air of resignation or...a lack of vigor...something that had diminished him. It was as if when his wife’s life drained away, his spirit had ebbed, as well. She and Rose did what they could to lighten his heart, but, in truth, all of them sorely missed Mathilda. Only after her death had Lily realized the extent to which her mother had been the family’s anchor.

Not quite six years before, a similar shadow had passed over the family and forever changed them. During the war she, Rose and her mother had prayed unceasingly for the safety of her father and brother, David. Lily’s chest tightened, as if a claw gripped her heart. David. So amiable and strong. It had been natural to idolize the big brother whose hearty laugh had charmed them all. In her innocence, she had thought him invincible. Until that awful news. The telegram from the War Department had stated in cold, impersonal terms that their beloved David had been killed in the Battle of Lookout Mountain.

She remembered the sickening feeling she’d experienced with the realization that he had been dead for many days before they received word.

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