“Of course.” I turned to Saphira. “Can you please have Joseph bring up fresh water for Mr. Cooper?”
Saphira nodded and left the room—which meant I had already broken my promise to Papa, though there was nothing to be done about it. I owed a debt of gratitude to Gray for all his help last night.
He put on his suit coat and ran his hands through his hair a few times. With a day’s growth of beard, he looked dangerously handsome.
“May I come back later?” he asked. “To check on our patient ... and talk?”
The room was dark, since the shades were still drawn, and even with the patient asleep on the bed, it was a little too intimate. I wanted Gray to come back, but what could I say about what had happened? I was still trying to process it all and wondering how it was possible that I had changed history and not forfeited my path here.
“Of course,” I told him. “I’d love to see you again.”
He smiled and came around the bed. The door was wide open, allowing in natural light from the hallway windows—and making his beautiful brown eyes seem more bottomless than usual.
“What you did last night was nothing short of a miracle, Maggie.” He paused, frowning slightly. “I’m a very perceptive person and can read most people within minutes of meeting them, and I’m usually never wrong. It’s been a blessing and a curse. But you?” He shook his head. “As soon as I think I’ve figured you out, you surprise me again. You’ve left me completely undone, and it’s driving me—” His frown softened, and he looked at me with something akin to wonder. “The war has complicated everything, and nothing is as it should be.” He paused, as if he couldn’t articulate what he meant. “I’d like to come back—but not just to check on the soldier. I’d like to come back and see you again—call on you—if I may.”
It was one of the most inelegant soliloquys I’d ever heard, but it was sweet and candid and earnest.
Yet spending more time with Gray—if his intentions were romantic—presented the same problem I had with Seth. Along with the added predicament of the surgery he had helped me perform. It was a procedure that no one else in 1861 could haveperformed, especially a young society lady. He would have questions and would need some answers. Whether I let him call on me or not, he’d be looking for the truth.
If I was honest with myself, I wanted him to call on me. I wanted to get some answers of my own, like why he intrigued me the way he did and made my heart skip a beat when he looked at me the way he was right now.
“I would like that,” I said quietly.
“So would I.”
A moan came from the bed, startling me out of my reverie.
We both looked at the soldier, who was starting to move.
“Lie still,” I instructed as I approached the bed and gently laid my hand on his arm. He was so thin and young. “You were injured at Centreville yesterday, and you’ve lost a lot of blood. But you’re safe now.”
The young man blinked his eyes open. “Are you an angel, ma’am?”
Gray came up behind me, standing closer than necessary. “Yes, she is.”
“That’s what I thought.” The boy smiled and closed his eyes again.
My cheeks warmed as I felt the heat from Gray’s body. “What’s your name?” I asked the soldier.
“My name’s Virgil Earp, ma’am, of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry.”
I took a surprised step back, bumping into Gray, who put his hand on the small of my back to steady me.
Virgil Earp? “Do you have a brother named Wyatt?”
Virgil frowned and nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I do. He’s a mite younger than me. How do you know him?”
I felt Gray’s eyes on me as well, and I realized, too late, that I had no way to explain this knowledge. But I was still reeling from the information. Virgil Earp wasn’t supposed to die on the battlefield—he was supposed to end up at the O.K. Corralin the 1880s. I’d watchedTombstoneas a teenager in my 2001 path and knew at least that much about him and his famous brothers.
I racked my memory. Moments before he had been shot, I had collided with him. He had stepped aside, and that was when he had been hit by the stray bullet. Was I the reason he had stepped out of place in history? Was that why God had allowed me to save him?
Both men were staring at me, waiting. How did I explain my knowledge?
“I was born in Illinois,” I said quickly, which was true. “I’m familiar with your family name, though I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting you, Private Earp, until now.”
My explanation seemed to appease Virgil’s curiosity, but Gray didn’t seem so easily mollified. He lowered his hand from my back and shifted away from me.
“You’ve been through an ordeal,” I said to Virgil. “I want you to lie as still as possible while your leg heals. If you need anything, please let me know.”
