Lost Cause Read Free

green eyes. And
a longer chin.” Campbell stopped walking and cupped a hand to his
eyes.
    “Maybe she could be my nurse.”
    “Well, you do have a wound on your wrist.
Trivial though it may be.”
    Another nurse appeared and together with the
surgeon and the apron clad nurse pulled on the sergeant’s leg until
his screams echoed off the bluffs across the river. Campbell tugged
up his sleeve and said, “Look, two little birds in the nest. Shall
we?”
    They cut through the trees and walked toward
the medical tent Campbell virtually skipping and Jack moving more
moderately.
    “How do you do?” Campbell said to the apron
clad nurse. The surgeon was not impressed with the intrusion.
    “You have business here?” he asked. Campbell
displayed his bullet scratch and doffed his cap to the nurses.
“Wait over by the flap,” the surgeon said. “Miss Mason, please hold
the splint in place.”
    Campbell moved to the front of the tent and
Jack moved into the shadows of the nearby trees and Campbell began
talking to the other nurse asking her if she liked to ride on
trains. They were laughing within seconds and whispering within
minutes and the surgeon was becoming increasingly angry. Finally he
ordered Campbell out of the area and his nurse to a wagon for more
cotton cloth.
    “What a tight ass,” Campbell said referring
to the surgeon.”
    “That’s a major you’re talking about,”
cautioned Jack.
    “Major tight ass maybe. Did you see the way
she looked at me?”
    “I saw the way the major looked at you.”
    “Her name’s Marie Hayes. She’s from Travis
County. And she loves ridin’ on trains.”
    “Do we have to go on talking this way?” asked
Jack.
    “No. Look, she’s comin’ this way.”
    ‘Marie Hayes was quite tall. She wore what
served as a nurse’s uniform overlain with the same type of apron
her fellow nurse wore. She was blonde and had pale smooth skin and
hazel eyes that shone with a subtle curiosity. Jack thought she was
very beautiful as did Campbell and both men applied liberal charm
and smiled so much their lips began to ache. She wore a Saint
Christopher medallion around her neck on a velvet ribbon.
    “Nice,” Campbell said. “It matches your
eyes.”
    “It belonged to a boy who was killed last
year.”
    “I’m sorry to hear it,” Campbell said.
“Someone you knew?”
    “He was going to be my husband. He died
during the first battle of Galveston.”
    “It was a bloody affair.”
    “Were you there?” she asked.
    “No. But my brother was.”
    “Where is he now?”
    “In a grave somewhere in Tennesse.”
    She touched the medallion tenderly. “His
mother sent it to me. They returned it with his personal
effects.”
    “Had you known him long?” asked Jack.
    “Eighteen years. We grew up together.”
    “Why didn’t you marry him before the
war?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I was foolish not
to I suppose. I thought our union would distract him. But it seems
our unconsummated love may have been a greater distraction. Haven’t
you ever loved anyone?”
    “No,” Campbell said.
    “And you?” she asked Jack.
    “No ma’am.”
    “So polite. And so handsome.”
    “You have beautiful eyes,” Campbell said.
    “Do you like them?”
    “I do, very much so.”
    “And you, shy one?”
    “Yes ma’am.”
    “So why nursing?” Campbell asked.
    “I wanted to do something for the Cause. You
see I didn’t care about myself anymore after Charles died. If I
would have married him perhaps he would be alive today. I didn’t
want him to go to war. But he wanted to go and I didn’t know how to
stop him.”
    “You could have married him,” Jack
suggested.
    “But I didn’t. He was killed and that was the
end of it.”
    “What’s the other nurse’s name?” Campbell
asked.
    “Charlotte Mason. She hails from Bexar
County.”
    “Husband? Beaux? Fiancé?”
    “No to all three. Why do you ask?”
    “Because young Saylor here is dying to meet
her.”
    “Is that true mister