Carla Kelly by The Wedding Journey Read Free Book Online Page B

surprised himself. “Well, loaves and fishes,” he said out loud as he lifted out his one remaining good shirt—“good” defined a shirt with all its buttons and no obvious bloodstains—and dress uniform to reveal a leather pouch he had entirely forgotten. Eagerly he dumped the contents onto his cot and counted out fifteen pounds. True son of glen and loch, he had never been a wasteful man, but as he lay back on his cot, he felt only discouragement. Thirty pounds! Sixty-five more loomed as huge a treasure as all of Cortez’s Aztec gold and Balboa’s pearls thrown in for good measure.
    “Sir?”
    He sat up, on edge immediately. “What is it, Dan?” he asked, wondering if there would ever be a time in his life when he would not be on alert, nerves straining toward whatever it was that waited in the marching hospital.
    His steward held out two pounds. Jess took it. “We’re up to thirty-two pounds now,” he said. “Dan, thirty-two pounds or three hundred! It’s all the same, isn’t it?”
    Seeing the look on his steward’s face, Jess regretted his words the moment he had said them. “I’m sorry,” he said simply. “You are all trying so hard for Nell, and I am whining about it. I wish I knew what to do.”
    Jess indicated the camp stool by his cot, and Dan sat down. “You have something else to say, don’t you?” he asked when a minute passed in silence.
    Dan nodded. “It’s really simple, sir. I’m amazed you haven’t thought of it.” He blushed and looked down at his hands. “Maybe it’s because you’re so polite and all.”
    “What, call out Bones and duel with him, scalpels at ten paces?” Jess asked, amused in spite of himself.
    The hospital steward allowed himself a smile. “No, I mean really.”
    Jess sighed. “You’d better enlighten me, Dan. I’m fresh out of clever ideas.”
    Dan leaned forward. “We could collect ninety-five pounds from somewhere, but who’s to say that Major Bones wouldn’t offer Captain Mason another twenty or thirty pounds to be Nell’s protector?” he spit out the word as though it tasted bad. “I mean, we have no idea what kind of resources Bones has, and you know Captain Mason’s weakness.”
    “All too well. I still don’t know where you’re venturing, Dan, so hurry up. I know we should both be in hospital.”
    “If you married Nell, there is not a thing the major could do, is there?”
    Jess stared at the hospital steward, who had spoken as calmly as though he were stating that gauge .05 gut was better than gauge 1.0 for suturing a leg wound. I never would have thought of that, he told himself, but what a simple thing! “I…I doubt you could get Miss Mason to agree,” he managed to say.
    Dan shrugged. “Do you at least think it is a good idea?”
    “Well, yes! Of course! It would certainly solve the problem, wouldn’t it?” And make me the happiest man on all six continents, significant islands, and major peninsulas, he thought. He couldn’t help but smile, until he began to doubt. “There is probably no possible way that Miss Mason would agree to such a harebrained scheme, O’Leary.”
    The other man shrugged again. “If you’ll excuse me saying so, Captain, other than the fact that you are a little shy, there’s really nothing about you that would disgust her. I mean, you don’t have any particular noxious habits that I’m aware of, and I’ve been sharing a tent with you and the Chief for three years now. I’m not even sure you snore.”
    He knew O’Leary had thrown that in to lighten his mood, and he smiled obligingly, even as reason prevailed. “She will never agree to such a thing.”
    “I say she will, Captain, begging your pardon,” O’Leary insisted. “There’s nobody around to help her but us in the marching hospital, sir, especially now, with a retreat on.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “And if that damned Bones takes her and ruins her, what choice does she have then?”
    Such plain speaking called