Hope - Lesley Pearse [205]
Taking the scissors from her apron pocket, she cut away the sleeve of his jacket and the leg of his breeches, then bathed both the wounds. Once cleaned, she could see they were deep, but she was sure stitching would be sufficient.
She called Bennett over for his opinion. He’d just finished one leg amputation and was about to start on another man’s arm.
‘You can do this, nurse,’ he said, glancing sideways at her, perhaps guessing she was nervous of stitching up an officer. ‘They are longer wounds than you’ve done before, but good clean ones. I expect the Captain could do with a tot of rum before you start.’
Pettigrew tried to smile but it was more of a grimace. ‘Will her stitching be as good as her sister’s?’
‘It’s better,’ Hope said. ‘And I give bigger tots of rum too. Now, just you lie still.’
It took over an hour to stitch the two wounds, and although he grimaced a great deal, he didn’t cry out. Hope’s knees hurt from kneeling on the stone floor, her eyes felt sore from squinting in the bad light, and she was so tired that there were moments when she thought she wouldn’t be able to finish the job. But finally the last stitch was in and she was able to bandage the wounds.
‘Can you get someone to take me back to camp?’ Pettigrew asked, his voice weak and shaky now.
‘Certainly not,’ she retorted indignantly. ‘Jolting up that rough road will just break the wounds open. You’ll stay here and keep still. You aren’t out of the woods yet.’
She washed his face and hands, then got another blanket and tucked it round him.
His eyes were fixed on her face and the look was so intense it made her blush. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘Your colouring is the same as the rest of your family’s,’ he said. ‘But your features are different.’
‘Have you met them all?’ she asked in some surprise.
‘Of course,’ he replied. ‘Not James recently though, but I remember him from Briargate.’
A warm glow of delight ran through her. ‘There is so much I want to ask you about them,’ she said eagerly. ‘But I can’t now, you need to rest and I’ve got other men to nurse.’
‘Nell will be so proud of you,’ he said, putting one hand on her arm to stress his sincerity. ‘I did write to tell her I found you. I hope you don’t mind?’
‘No, I’m glad, but tomorrowyou must give me the address so I can write too. We have a great deal of catching up to do.’
‘Did Albert force you to write that letter?’ he asked.
Hope nodded.
‘And how did he ensure you’d never come back?’
‘Blackmail,’ she said simply. ‘But that’s enough for one night. Try to sleep.’
Three hours later, Hope was finally leaving the hospital. Although she was close to complete exhaustion, she stopped to look at Captain Pettigrew for a moment. A lantern nearby gave enough light to see him clearly, and in sleep his face looked youthful and handsome.
She could understand why Lady Harvey had fallen for him, not just because he had fine, strong features, or that air of sheer masculinity Sir William lacked, but something more. She couldn’t define it, but she felt it inside her. A strange, warm feeling, not unlike the way she’d felt about Bennett when she first met him.
Chapter Twenty-one
‘And where do you think you are going?’ Hope asked indignantly as she arrived at the hospital early in the morning to find Captain Pettigrew about to dress himself in some new clothes.
It had been two days since he’d been brought to the hospital, and his wounds were already healing, but he wasn’t fit enough to be walking around.
‘I can’t stay here, nurse,’ he said, flashing his brilliant grin at her. ‘I need to see my men and the horses. Besides, you’ve got plenty of really sick patients to fuss over.’
A great many of the wounded from that disastrous day had already died from their injuries, but the hospital was still vastly overcrowded, and more men would need amputations today if gangrene had set into their wounds. Looking around her, Hope thought the place had more in common with a squalid ‘padding ken’ than a hospital. There were men everywhere, shoved up together like sardines in beds, under beds, every