The Edge of Misery: The Mitchel Brothers Series Book Two

17

Sitting on the edge of the bed that night, Wren struggled to push Wolstan's words from her mind as she watched Declan undress.

"You're awful quiet," he murmured, catching her eye.

"Just thinkin'."

"Anything particular?"

She gnawed on the inside of her right cheek, then turned and settled into bed. "I didn't know Mae fought in the war.

Declan grunted and crawled in beside her. "How'd you hear about that?"

"Eldon was askin' why Wooly only ever holds her left hand—"

"'Cause the feeling in Mae's right isn't so good," Declan murmured, leaning on his right elbow. "You can see it in how she holds things—doesn't have much strength, hardly any sensation."

"She still uses it for drawin'."

Declan nodded, "And cleaning and most other things... but she uses her left when carrying anything heavier than a lantern or for prolonged periods."

Twisting the curled end of her braid around her left index finger while she allowed that bit of information to sink in, Wren glanced at her husband from the corner of her eye and bit her tongue to keep from asking, "D'you know how she got injured?"

Declan's eyes twinkled with a playful warmth as though he'd sensed her inner struggle not to be nosey and was delighted her curiosity overcame politeness. "During the Battle of Lovejoy's Station—"

"Where's that?"

His lips tipped in a half smile, though it didn't reach his eyes. "A train station in Georgia."

"What were they doin' there?"

"Being a general nuisance to the Confederacy," Declan grumbled as he rolled onto his back. "Ripping up rail lines to disrupt food and supply transports...."

Wren turned onto her side to face him, curling her left arm under her pillow as she quietly asked, "And what of Mae? Wooly said her scar runs from her shoulder to her elbow—somethin' that severe would have required medical attention."

Declan turned his head to look at her and nodded.

"She couldn't have gone to a field surgeon; they would have discovered she was a woman."

"Yup."

Wren frowned, "So, what happened?"

"Wooly sewed her up real quick in a field and took her to Uncle Em in Jonesborough—about two and a half hours walk in good conditions, a little longer when you're sneaking through enemy lines."

"Jonesborough," Wren whispered, her frown intensifying, "isn't that where you were wounded?"

Declan looked at her in surprise, "Eldon tell you about that?"

Wren nodded.

Declan snorted a laugh, "And here I thought he couldn't care less 'cause I didn't nearly get my leg blown off in Gettysburg."

"He cared," She giggled. "Once Dorsey explained how important the Battle of Atlanta was in the Union's resoundin' triumph over the Confederacy."

"He said it that way?" Declan grumbled.

Wren nodded.

Declan rolled his eyes and returned to staring at the ceiling, "Of course he did."

Sensing a gloomy cloud settling over her husband and cringing at the knowledge she'd been the one to drag it from the proverbial heavens and place it there, Wren wracked her brain for a safer, alternate topic that might dispel it.