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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781603819510 |
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Publisher: | Camel Press |
Publication date: | 01/01/2015 |
Edition description: | Reprint |
Pages: | 306 |
Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.69(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
She was about to leave. Her courage was draining away as fast as the blood from that poor unfortunate soldier eight rows over. She decided to try one more time. "Major, I …."
"I heard you. It just takes me a moment to turn around. Don't leave, please."
She came closer. Taking great care of himself, the officer shifted his whole body on the cot, rather than just his head. "Well, miss?" he asked, his words clipped, his lips tight.
She thought for a moment that she had angered him, and then she realized that he was in pain. It showed in the tightness around his mouth and the way he squinted at her, even though the room was fairly well lit. Oh, dear, she thought as she slowly untied her bonnet and set it aside. I do not know which of you is worse off.
She took a deep breath, which was a mistake in that foul room, and gestured toward the surgeon. "He said I was to relieve you here, so you could go lie down."
The officer said nothing, but she knew he was regarding her intently, measuring her. Oh, this is nothing new, she thought, with a sudden burst of confidence. People have been measuring me all my life. "The surgeon said that I could probably hold his hand as well as you can. Sir. Or Lord Laren, or whatever you choose. You are supposed to lie down now."
Again a long pause. "Make me," he said at last.
Lydia sighed. "You are going to be difficult," she observed, more to herself than to him.
"I usually am. Make me."
If I even stop to think about this, I will never act, she thought. So I will not think about it. "Very well, sir. Since you are so stubborn," she said as she sat on his lap, took the soldier's hand from his, and held it in her own.
She did not know what to expect, but she did not anticipate the laughter that rose up from the nearby cots. "Got you, Major!" one of the men said. "She's out-thought you, sir!" said another with an arm missing, who sat up to watch.
"Oh, very well," the major said, and he did not try to hide the amusement in his voice. "Lads, such an opportunity, but I will remember that I am an officer and a gentleman." The men laughed again as the major patted her hip. When she rose up in indignation, he moved out from under her. "Very well, madam, since you are so persistent." She blushed as he sniffed her hair close to her ear, his breath warm on her cheek. "And, by God, you smell better than my stinking soldiers. Sit, madam, by all means. Hold his hand tight. And then when he's dead, you can hold mine."