Regency Christmas Wishes by Edith Layton EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Edith Layton
- Language: English
- Genre: Holiday Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
British Hospital at Salamanca, Spain—
September 1, 1812
“I’ ll not be going, Harlowe, and that’s the end of it,” Alexander Napier
declared. He ignored the English lieutenant and concentrated on the
exercises he performed almost hourly. “Ouch! Damn!” Again, he stretched,
teeth gritted, eyes clenched.
“Will you cease that self-torture for a moment and listen to me?” Michael
Harlowe demanded.
Alex stopped what he was doing, glanced up at the lad and frowned a
warning. “You’re a trifle loud at the mouth for such a banty-rooster. I’d
advise you to grow another foot before you take on someone my size.”
Michael shifted on his narrow cot as if giving up. Alex knew better.
Nothing intimidated the lieutenant, even a captain almost twice his size and
weight and with six years more experience. Now would come reason since
barking demands hadn’t worked. The wee fellow was nothing if not
predictable. They had been round and round on this topic for days now as
time drew near for them to ship home from the primitive hospital at
Salamanca. He never let up. He’d find a new argument.
“If you refuse to go to Balmsley with me to recuperate, then what will
you do? No point in returning to Kilama-hew, is there?”
Alex stretched out and pressed back against the pillow-less bed, willing
the pain in his leg to subside. “I hadn’t planned to go there.” He had thought
to secure a place in London and see if he could manage on his own.
His friend smirked. “Edinburgh then? And live with your uncle? You’re
coming up on thirty, y’know. At least I can offer you employment.”
Suddenly he turned earnest. “Please let me do this for you, Alex. You saved
my life!”
Alex snorted. “If I had lain here and let you bleed out lying right next to
me, how would I face myself in a mirror to shave?”
Michael waved that off with a flick of one hand. “You are coming with
me, see if you don’t. If I have to pour laudanum down that tree-trunk neck
of yours and have you hauled there unconscious!”
Alex wondered if the lad actually would go that far to have his way in
this. What could it hurt to relent? It obviously troubled Michael to owe such
a debt, though Alex had never considered it such. Michael had prevented
the amputation of Alex’s leg. As far as he was concerned, they were square.
Saving a life or a leg or anything else here in this misbegotten place where
there were dead and dying all around them seemed a damned miracle.
There was another consideration in Alex’s decision to acquiesce.
Maidstone would not be that distant, closer actually than London, and he
did have fences to mend there if he could. “If you’ll leave off badgering me,
I’ll come for a short visit. Until I’m back on my feet again.”
He hated the way Michael’s gaze slid away from his, the way his lips
tightened.
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