Read Online Edge of Time (Langston Brothers Series) by Melissa Lynne Blue - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Melissa Lynne Blue
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a plan of action, Marissa donned an apron and took mental note of the meager supplies available to her. Basins, scrubbing brushes, rags, big bars of what had to be lye soap. Lye soap! She looked at her hands, which she knew were going to be burned raw by the stuff. When had rubber gloves been invented, anyway?
“Captain Rowe,” she said impulsively, as he was about to mount the stai rs on his was to the third ward. “ W ho was Billy Cole?”
The man sighed heavily and shook his head. “A friend of the Langston family. Up until a couple weeks ago Doc Langston was attached to an artillery unit with General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. A few months back Billy Cole was injured on a scouting mission; injured bad, hopelessly bad,” he emphasized. “But what you have to understand is that Billy was like another brother to Craig and when he stumbled across him dying in a field hospital, Langston refused to listen to rea son and worked on him for hours. In the end he did it. H e saved him.” Dr. Rowe shift ed as he told the story, propping a shoulder against the wall .
“Craig was transferred back to Charleston and personally saw to transporting Billy with him. But Billy’s been in a bad way ever since and we’ve all been telling Langston it was only a matter of time before...” The doctor’s voice faltered and Marissa nodded in understanding. “This morning it finally happened, his abdo minal wounds opened back up and… ” James’s green eyes looked upward as he raised his hands in a gesture of hopelessness. “Craig tried, but Billy died anyway. Eighteen year old kid was all.”
Oh, God!
Tears burned as she turned a blurred, compassionate gaze to Craig who stood with shoulders slumped over an empty cot in the first ward. How dare she think her lot unfair when he was faced with the suffering of these young soldiers and their families? These people had lost friends and brothers, entire homes; every man who died meant at least one broken heart. The tragedy, like ripples on a pond, would eventually touch everyone . Whatever hand she’d been dealt never had she suffered an army invading her homeland or lost anyone truly close to her. Even her grandparents were all still living —at least they had been in 2012— and right now, in this moment, she had no real cause to fear for the safety of her family.
All those callous comments she’d made about the unsatisfactory state of the hospital and he’d been fighting to save the life of his friend, his brother …
And now she felt like a royal ass.
What was the worst that had ever happened to her? She’d been jilted by her fiancé? Well, boo hoo … It sucked to be dumped, more than that it royally hurt to have someone look you in the eye and say, “You’re not worth wasting my love on,” but in the face of true suffering, in the face of needless death and destruction— not that she was a stranger to death, the ER had hardened her — she was forced to recategorize her priorities and reclassify what it meant to be hurt. Well, Brian Whitely was barely a swell on the Richter scale. And Richter scale there was another phrase she’d have to avoid using … This is going to impossible!
It was early afternoon when Marissa finished scrubbing and organizing the first ward and dragged her aching body up to the second. A plus to following through with the fool plan to have a job was that her duties primarily consisted of cleaning. Cleaning had always been an outlet for her, a means of subduing nervous energy and after today she should be feeling sufficiently numb to sleep. On the second ward, she spotted Genie sitting beside a man whose face was almost totally obscured by bandages and meandered over ready for a quick break.
The man smelled like death.
Suppressing a shudder, she sought a moment of privacy with her friend, quickly relaying what she’d learned about young Billy Cole.
Genie’s expression was sober as she patted Marissa’s hand. “Just be there
“Captain Rowe,” she said impulsively, as he was about to mount the stai rs on his was to the third ward. “ W ho was Billy Cole?”
The man sighed heavily and shook his head. “A friend of the Langston family. Up until a couple weeks ago Doc Langston was attached to an artillery unit with General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. A few months back Billy Cole was injured on a scouting mission; injured bad, hopelessly bad,” he emphasized. “But what you have to understand is that Billy was like another brother to Craig and when he stumbled across him dying in a field hospital, Langston refused to listen to rea son and worked on him for hours. In the end he did it. H e saved him.” Dr. Rowe shift ed as he told the story, propping a shoulder against the wall .
“Craig was transferred back to Charleston and personally saw to transporting Billy with him. But Billy’s been in a bad way ever since and we’ve all been telling Langston it was only a matter of time before...” The doctor’s voice faltered and Marissa nodded in understanding. “This morning it finally happened, his abdo minal wounds opened back up and… ” James’s green eyes looked upward as he raised his hands in a gesture of hopelessness. “Craig tried, but Billy died anyway. Eighteen year old kid was all.”
Oh, God!
Tears burned as she turned a blurred, compassionate gaze to Craig who stood with shoulders slumped over an empty cot in the first ward. How dare she think her lot unfair when he was faced with the suffering of these young soldiers and their families? These people had lost friends and brothers, entire homes; every man who died meant at least one broken heart. The tragedy, like ripples on a pond, would eventually touch everyone . Whatever hand she’d been dealt never had she suffered an army invading her homeland or lost anyone truly close to her. Even her grandparents were all still living —at least they had been in 2012— and right now, in this moment, she had no real cause to fear for the safety of her family.
All those callous comments she’d made about the unsatisfactory state of the hospital and he’d been fighting to save the life of his friend, his brother …
And now she felt like a royal ass.
What was the worst that had ever happened to her? She’d been jilted by her fiancé? Well, boo hoo … It sucked to be dumped, more than that it royally hurt to have someone look you in the eye and say, “You’re not worth wasting my love on,” but in the face of true suffering, in the face of needless death and destruction— not that she was a stranger to death, the ER had hardened her — she was forced to recategorize her priorities and reclassify what it meant to be hurt. Well, Brian Whitely was barely a swell on the Richter scale. And Richter scale there was another phrase she’d have to avoid using … This is going to impossible!
It was early afternoon when Marissa finished scrubbing and organizing the first ward and dragged her aching body up to the second. A plus to following through with the fool plan to have a job was that her duties primarily consisted of cleaning. Cleaning had always been an outlet for her, a means of subduing nervous energy and after today she should be feeling sufficiently numb to sleep. On the second ward, she spotted Genie sitting beside a man whose face was almost totally obscured by bandages and meandered over ready for a quick break.
The man smelled like death.
Suppressing a shudder, she sought a moment of privacy with her friend, quickly relaying what she’d learned about young Billy Cole.
Genie’s expression was sober as she patted Marissa’s hand. “Just be there
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