1914. - H.S.

Chapter 2.

A sister lead us into a tent, the flimsy material the only thing that could bare shelter over us. Inside lay three beds, one for Mary and I and another girl who had now joined us, Helen I believed her name to be.

I lifted my bag with somewhat of a struggle as I laid it upon the bed that was now mine for however long I was to be here for. As Mary spoke about something, probably irrelevant, I sat taking in the new situation that I was in. I was sure the war wouldn't last long, just as everybody else did and I could only hope for men of the likes of Harry that this was the case.

The sister told us to dress into our uniforms before going to see the matron, so the three of us instantly turned to get changed, hauling the long light blue/grey dress over our bodies, a white apron soon going over the top, followed by our nurses cap headpieces. As I changed I found Harry's letter in my skirt pocket and pulled it out to put it in a safer position, so I placed it in the bottom of my luggage bag but not before I secretly left a lingering kiss on the back of the paper beforehand. The uniform was not as comfortable as the usual dresses and skirts we would wear, the material, despite being fresh and clean being itchy on my skin.

As we entered the Matron's office she was quick to inform us of the rules, particularly those of dressing. This mostly consisted of wearing the uniform and nothing that could be 'provoking to male attention', although this made me chuckle somewhat as this was hardly the place to be hoping to find love.

“Is there something you find amusing Miss Wells?” the matron asked me, scolding me for my previous laugh.

“No matron” I replied.

“Well I am glad because, respect is something you must value” she told me further.

“Yes matron”

“Good, now the three of you come I shall show you what to do”

She took us into one of the ward tents, it was empty; for now. It was bound to be filled with wounded soldiers sooner or later.

“Beds, you need to make the beds, you should aim to make each bed in one minute” she tells us as she hands us the bed linen, indicating we must prove to her that we can indeed change a bed as quick as is required.

I speedily pulled the sheets over the length of the bed tucking them around the edges before shifting the cover on top. Finally, I placed the not so plump pillow over the head area as I turned around, to meet an approving Matron with a smile on her face.

“Good Miss Wells”, she nodded her head before turning to watch Mary and Helen complete the same task, Mary unsurprisingly becoming confused by the matter of changing bed linen. Once they had both finally completed this task we were taught how to bandage wounds, stop bleeding and such, all the basics to treating patients.

“We have a large intake of the wounded arriving shortly, I expect you and the other nurses will wait here until they do so, some of the most wounded soldiers will go straight to the surgeons”.

“Yes, Matron” the three of us replied as we awaited for whatever would happen next. We had only practised wound bandaging and such on the most mediocre and mild of the sort so we stood anxiously as we anticipated what will occur next.

It was a little under half an hour later when a group of soldiers were being carried in on stretchers, some being carried straight into see the few surgeons there were and others being brought in to the tents. An almost unimaginable scene was before me as the atmosphere filled with the whines of agony that came from the men and the shouting of nurses, surgeons and other volunteers and workers. I was forced toward a man, not much more than of my own age, but then again, not many of the soldiers were much beyond their mid twenties.

His leg was bleeding significantly, his clothes ripped where he had been presumably shot, the tunic he had on had been swiftly discarded to the floor. He whined as his eyes drooped and he began to appear lethargic, presumably from the amount of blood loss. Having applied pressure to the wound with a cloth, I tightly wrapped a bandage around it, hoping it would prevent the bleeding eventually; although it was never certain how well it would work.

I picked up his dirty, discarded tunic to take to the linen. The rest of his clothes would need washing too but no one had yet provided him anything else to wear. As it left the floor, into my hand a small bit of paper, fell out of the pocket. The paper was ripped and becoming flimsy due to the amount of mud that had been smeared over it. Turning it over, my breath hitched in my throat as I saw the words “Lillian Wells” written on the front. I recognised the handwriting, yet couldn't quite understand why this man who I did not recognise would have a piece of paper with my name on it, it was folded and I did not feel here was the right place to open it so I placed it into my pocket for later before returning to the job in hand.

The rest of the day was similar, treating soldiers, hoping their wounds wouldn't result in a harmful infection or a too significant amount of blood loss, and for the unlucky ones it would be making up their now empty bed for the next wounded soldier to lay in.

When I finally was able to rest for the evening I sat on my small, uncomfortable bed as I pulled the paper I had retrieved earlier today from my pocket. I opened the paper and inside it read:

“Lily,

Once again I find myself thinking of you. I don't have much to say at this point except that I hope you're well, better than I am anyway. Although, I say this I have been lucky as of yet. Everyday people die, everyday people get dragged away wounded, I am yet to be severely wounded and obviously I am yet to die as I am able to write this letter. It is very rare we can write letters, there isn't much time for that unfortunately, so I do not know when you will hear from me again.

All the best and all my loving regards as always,

Harry. Xx

As my eyes scanned over his words I sighed. I was relieved he sounded well in the letter but I missed him greatly, and I did not know why this letter was not sent himself and how another soldier ended up with it and in my current situation I couldn't help but think of the worst.  

A/N: Thanks for reading :)

Updates on this book will take ages because it's really hard to write the chapters accurately, and I still bet this chapter has some stuff in it that isn't entirely right but oh well. This chapter also took a while cause I've been busy like it was my birthday on Wednesday and stuff so yeah. 

Jw, but would anyone make me a cover for this because the one I made is really bad??

Please go read the first chapter of my new fanfic "Divided" and leave a comment or vote. 

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