The Nurse

Chapter 10: Magic Plants

The motor car traveled down the bumpy road, scattered with holes made from heavy blasts. She looked out across the barren land that had seen drastic scenes of war. The desolate horizon offered no kindness only sadness and remorse. She could see the remnants of small cottages and farmhouses all along the distance. Where trees were once located was now an entangled sight of carnage. She assumed that the passing village was once a peaceful town, but it had been drastically wrung by the hands of war.

The light puttering of the car muffled the sound of Bartram who was sleeping beside her. Her eyes locked onto his resting form and began to study his poised appearance. She was tired as well, but she could not force herself to sleep. The nerves that coursed through her entire body made doing any task difficult. Her mind was not there with her, it was elsewhere with Albert.

The vehicle hit a large hole in the dirt road, jostling Bartram awake. "Beautiful land we're travelling, isn't it?" He remarked sarcastically, readjusting his seated position.

"I would say it was once beautiful but," Eloise paused and glanced back out of the window. "There is nothing left of it."

"The war swept through here several months ago, mangling up what used to be a lovely place." Bartram informed, pulling out his pocket watch. "As long as this war is going on, rebuilding the village would be in vain. I can't blame the remaining people for leaving." He clicked open the flap and observed the numbers. "We should be arriving at any minute now." He tucked it back into his pocket and stared out of the window.

The continued riding in silence. Neither had anything to say that the silence didn't speak for them. Eloise wondered what was going through his mind, just as she assumed he done the same. She placed her eyes back onto him, never fully noticing how poised he was. She had only saw him wearing white apron clothing, usually stained red with blood. He was decked in a sharp gray uniform tailored to his large frame. The hat that rested upon his head covered his graying hair. His bushy black mustache met peppery whiskers that poked from his face.

"Sir?" Eloise asked in the silence.

He looked over at her with concern. "What is it?"

"You and I have been working together for quite some time now." She spoke slowly, turning to face him better. "You have shown me everything you know and most graciously taught me your ways, but I know nothing about you."

His stare exited back to the window. "What is there to tell?"

"How old are you?" She forwardly questioned. "What about your family? How long have you been a medical general? There are so many things to tell."

"I am a forty-nine-year-old bachelor, with no family and no interests." He answered, locking eyes with her. "I married my military career at eighteen. I began my training as a doctor on my twenty-forth year and ever since then I have never known anything else." He shook his head sorrowfully. "There are times I wish I would have married and named children for me, but it wasn't meant for me."

"You still have time, sir." Eloise reassured him, patting him on the knee. "If you want that in your life, go and get it."

He forced a smile onto his thin lips. "Maybe I will, Eloise." He placed his glove-covered hand over hers securely. "What about you? I know you were the one who found the captain the first time. How did you manage to save him?"

"You will laugh at me when I tell you." She began humorously, biting her bottom lip.

"I won't laugh," He crossed his hand over his chest. "I promise."

"I lived with a witch-woman who taught me the ways of the woods." She answered honestly, wondering how she must sound to him. "I used what I knew about the herbs and tried them. I didn't know if they would work. I had never done anything like that before, only when Delphine wasn't well."