Angel of the Somme: The Great War, Book 1 by Terri Meeker Read Free Book Online Page A

view. The hospital ward disappeared in a flood of agony. Jolts of pain spilled out, radiating down from his head to his limbs as he began to twitch and jerk against his cotton sheets.
    And Sam fell.
    Down and down and down.
    He landed with a thud. Even before he opened his eyes, he knew immediately where he was. The stench of earth and rot and the burning smell of cordite was unmistakable.
    No, it can’t be. No, no, no. I can’t be back in the trenches. The world doesn’t work like that. I’m in a hospital bed, miles behind the lines.
    Sam opened his eyes and his headache gave a shout. He’d landed on the side of a crater, near a tangle of blasted earth and barbed wire.
    “Angel?” a voice asked.
    Sam turned toward the sound of the speaker and saw a young infantryman just a few feet away. He lay halfway out of a shell hole. If the lad was a day past seventeen, Sam would have been surprised. His skin shone pale white and it was easy to see why. He had a huge wound running up his left thigh. Though makeshift bandages had been wrapped around his leg, he’d bled through. As Sam stepped toward him, he noticed the fellow was missing most of his left hand, which he cradled close to his chest.
    “You an angel?” the pale lad asked.
    Sam glanced down to see he was still dressed in his hospital blues. Relief surged through him.
    I’m not back at the front. They don’t let soldiers into battle wearing hospital garb. It’s a dream, you fool.
    “Not as lofty as that, I’m afraid. Just a captain.” Even though he had to be dreaming, he couldn’t simply ignore the boy. “A captain who can, at least in dreams, speak in complete sentences.”
    The soldier gave him a disoriented look. “Can you help me, sir? Don’t think I can get to an aid station myself.”
    “Of course, Private.” Even though fate seemed set on taking Sam out of action, he could at least make a difference in his dreams. A pathetic consolation, but a pleasant diversion from lying in a hospital bed, barking out single word sentences.
    The boy extended his good hand and Sam leaned down to clasp it.
    The moment their fingers touched, it was as though Sam had grasped a live electrical wire. Pain roared through his head like an engine and a strange electric heat danced down his arm, toward the boy. Sam jerked as his arm buzzed and he nearly released his grip.
    The private’s eyes widened in astonishment. He looked at the place where their hands connected, and his mouth dropped. Just at the exact point of connection, a white light had appeared. It was merely a spark at first, but growing larger and brighter by the second.
    Sam could no longer even see their hands. He tried to release his grip, to stop this unearthly frisson. He could not.
    “The pain, sir!” The lad stared down at the light, which had swallowed their hands whole.
    “What?” Could Sam’s excruciating headache be affecting the soldier somehow? Again, Sam wrenched his hand, trying again to let go of the private’s hand. The lad was having none of it and gripped tighter. A strange pulsing sensation began to beat and flutter at their point of contact.
    “The pain is gone. You are a bloody angel!”
    The light was now so bright that Sam could only see the soldier in silhouette. The electric throbbing rose and buzzed around Sam like a swarm of hornets.
    “Thank you, sir.” The boy called, but Sam could barely register the sound through the blinding tide of light. Electric jolts danced down his arm and through the boy’s fingertips—brightening Sam’s vision until all was white, healing light.
    And Sam knew no more.

Chapter Six
    “Help!” Lily placed her arms across the captain’s torso, which jerked and bucked beneath her. She flailed around trying to secure him to his bed frame. “He’s having a seizure. Get a doctor or the matron. Help!”
    Rose dashed around her meal cart and to the other side of the captain’s bed. “Should I hold his head?” Rose shouted. “Oh, no. I