Far From Broken Read Free Page A

recovered.”
    “Will she be able to dance?” Jasper knew how important that would be to her.
    “For that, you would be better to ask the doctor.” The woman pressed her lips together and frowned. “Lady Carlisle may experience some restrictions of movement, but in many ways the new limbs should perform even better—” She paused at Jasper’s look and sighed. “I don’t know to what extent she might be able to dance again, but I think the likelihood would be low. In any case, although her recovery has been very quick…this is only my own untrained opinion, you understand…but there is still much healing for her to do.”
    Yes, there was likely to be quite a bit of healing for the both of them to do. But he swore that from this moment forward, they would at least do it together. He wouldn’t leave her again.
    Jasper bowed politely before he took his leave and returned to the large entrance hall.
    At the top of the stairs, he automatically turned left. One of the things he liked about Mrs. Campbell’s clinic was that it was her home. As forbidding as it looked from the outside, inside ancestral portraits graced the walls, threadbare rugs covered highly polished oak floors that released the comforting smell of lemon oils into the air, and tea was served in the salon. Granted, specific areas had been stripped of such things and equipped with the doctor’s necessary surgical instruments, but otherwise it felt much like his own home. Formal, but lived-in. Intimate, and welcoming. Distinctly un-hospital-like in decoration.
    He hadn’t wanted to leave Callie in one of those monstrosities with echoing caverns for hallways and hopeless, impersonal rooms that made a person want to bleed just to get some color on the walls. He shivered at the thought.
    He walked slowly down the hall. It was easy enough to remember where everything was even though he’d stayed at Callie’s side almost exclusively until the moment they had forced him to leave. It still hurt to think of. The pain and desolation in her eyes had almost broken him. They’d had to drug her to get her settled down again, and then the doctor had come out and explained what needed to be done. Jasper’s horror had escalated with every new procedure proposed, but then he’d pictured Callie’s still, white face, her broken body hovering on the edge of death, and he’d said yes.
    He’d said yes to everything.

Chapter Three
     
    A uniformed man stood at attention in front of the door to Callie’s room. He lifted a hand in formal salute at Jasper’s approach. “Colonel, I’m glad to see that you made it through the storm without undue delay.”
    Malcolm and Murphy were his most trusted men. He’d taken bullets meant for each of them, and they’d done the same for him in the line of duty. Things like that forged bonds that were about more than duty, and over the years the three of them had become very good friends.
    He approached and clapped Malcolm on the shoulder, giving his other hand up for a firm shake. “How has she been?”
    Just as Jasper would have expected, the captain got right to business and didn’t reveal his true feelings either by expression or deed. “All the physical components of Lady Carlisle’s rehabilitation are complete. The doctor has cleared her to leave the clinic whenever you’re ready to return home.”
    Jasper’s gaze strayed to the door. It was the only thing that remained between him and his wife. “And what of her…psychological recovery?”
    Malcolm paused. When he spoke, his tone hadn’t changed, was still completely professional, but Jasper knew the man well enough to be able to tell when something was bothering him. “Since my arrival two weeks ago, I don’t believe she’s spoken to anyone, and certainly not to me. I can’t be sure she even knows who I am.”
    It was through Malcolm that Jasper and Callie had been introduced. They were childhood friends who had kept in touch after Callie started her dancing