He paused, then he said the first thing that came into his head. “Maybe we could meet again, when this war is over and we’re back home.”
A sweet smile lit her face. “I would like that very much.”
“As long as I can still walk by that point, I’ll take you dancing. How would that be?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
When she’d gone, he closed his eyes, feeling strange. He’d been sheltered here, and now he had been reminded of the greater world awaiting him outside this hospital. How long had he been here?
“What day is it today?” he asked the room.
“Wednesday?” came an uncertain response. “June something.”
So Tuesday night had been the bombing of the hospital. Slowly the days began to click back into place, earmarked by one or two things out of the ordinary. It had been two weeks since John had carried him from the tunnel. His face still had a way to go before the swelling was gone, but he was walking now. Adele was right. They’d send him back soon. Apprehension rumbled to the surface from the depths of his memory, where he’d buried it in the dirt, drawing him back. War, with its endless array of perils, was reaching for him. This time, he told himself, he would be extra careful. He had to at least keep his legs while he was out there. After all, he had a dance with a Bluebird, and he wasn’t about to miss out on that.
fiveADELE
Just put that box over there,” Adele said as Hazel entered the storage building, dripping wet from yet another rainstorm. Honestly, she couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen the sun. “Wherever you can find space. Are we getting near the end?”
“This is the last one,” Hazel reported, setting the salvaged supplies down and peeling off her wet cape.
After the bombing, the entire camp—including any wounded men strong enough to help—had gotten to work rebuilding the clearing station. Large sections of the hospital tent would be replaced when new shipments arrived, but for now they did what they could using all the resources they had in their little village. It had fallen to Adele and the other nurses to do an inventory of the supplies that hadn’t been destroyed. With Adele’s concussion, she’d been assigned the lighter work of cataloguing and filing everything into the correct cabinets while the others collected and carried.
“Where shall I start? Where does it all go?” Hazel asked, opening the box.
Adele pointed to a table on her left. “Metal instruments on that sidefor now. I haven’t gotten around to all those, but I’ll have to separate them eventually. Bandages here, but we have to divide them up. This whole section over here is for medicines, and—”
“What a job! Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.” Hazel shook her head and started unpacking her box. “Just Minnie’s luck to miss out on all this, isn’t it?”
“I hope she’s having more fun than we are, that’s for sure,” Adele said. “We’ll have to find something equally as tiresome for her to do when she’s back.”
Minnie had left on the hospital ship headed to Halifax on the day after the attack. She’d been reluctant to leave them in such a state, but her help was also required on the ship, and she’d made a commitment to go. In true Minnie fashion, she’d winked at Adele as she stepped onto the transport truck. “Don’t you run away with Corporal Bailey while I’m gone,” she had said, making Adele burn with embarrassment. After they’d waved farewell, Adele had felt a stab of regret. She’d loved to have left this place, if just for a little while. Then again, if she’d gone, she’d have missed Jerry Bailey’s return to the Front, which would happen any day now. She couldn’t have gone without seeing him off.
She’d been so careful not to make these kinds of connections with the men. She thought she had, anyway. When he’d suggested they might see each other again after the war, she had entertained the thought against her better judgement, imagining dancing with him, holding his hand, and making him laugh. What would he look like with a full smile? She’d never seen it, and oh, she wanted to. She wanted to finish the book she was reading to him then start another and another, just so she could be with him.
She wound up a length of mostly clean white gauze and set it in its proper place, telling herself to concentrate on the task. It was easier on her heart to keep working and not think about him.
About a half hour later, Lillian poked her head into the room. “Nurse Johnson has called us all to the meal hall for an announcement.”
“What about?” Hazel asked, looking up from an array of scalpels and scissors.
“How should I know?”
“Come on, then,” Adele said, pulling on her rain cape. “Time for a break anyway.”
“Maybe she’s planning a surprise party for Minnie when she gets back,” Lillian said with a smirk. Everyone knew Minnie’s favourite thing to do was get on the matron’s last nerve.
Adele dodged a puddle. “You know, she’d never admit it, but I think she misses Minnie as much as we do.”
In the meal hall, Nurse Johnson stood at the head of the room, hands locked in front, her expression even more pinched than usual. She was pale, except for the red skin around her eyes and nose.
“Has she been crying?” Lillian whispered, astonished.
“Ladies, please take your seats.”
Nurse Johnson watched them all sit, then she dropped her gaze, her fingers busy on her cuffs, fussing with the stiff white material. No one spoke.
At last she lifted her chin. “There has been a tragedy. One which affects us all,” she announced, her imperious voice wobbling. “A U-boat attacked theLlandovery Castle, the hospital ship upon which Nurse Minnie Donnelly was traveling, along with thirteen other nurses and over two hundred soldiers. Their ship went down off the coast of Ireland.”
