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"Maybe," she agreed "But I’ive a dao That son of a bitch," she mumbled, and then she said it louder "That son of a bitch! All this tioing to be And all that time, we sat at hoht up!"

"He ht’ve had his reasons," Paul said, aard as he stood there, uneven on his one real foot and one false one, and unsure exactly who he was defending

Glaring down at the paper, she said, "Oh, I’m real sure he had his reasons There are about a irl behind and start a new life souess he just picked one"

He said quickly, "Don’t you want to hear it?"

"Why would I want to hear it?" She wasn’t quite shouting, but she ar its coals The heat spread up from her belly to her chest, and flushed up her throat to her cheeks "A oddamn him, and I don’t need to hear even one of theht, because I don’t care!" Except that she was shouting now, and nearly on fire with anger, or sorrow, or some other consequence of her tumultuous week "Let him die out there, if that’s where he wanted to be all this ti to halt her, or just defend hiht, and he wasn’t the man hom she was so furious "Maybe he’s where he wants to be, or maybe he’s just where he ended up Either way, he wants to see his little girl"

Mercy gave him a look like she’d kill him if he blinked, but he blinked anyway And he continued: "Soone If you don’t do it now, like as not, you’ll never get another chance--and then you really will spend the rest of your life wondering When you could’ve justasked"

She clenched the telegra the paper "It won’t be as si when this was sent, he’s probably dead by now"

He fidgeted "You don’t know that for sure"

"It’d take weeks to make the trip A month or more, I bet You knoell as I do what the train lines are like these days Everyone talks about transcontinental dirigible paths, but nobody’sit happen Maybe I could hop, skip, and ju by train Forget it," she said, stuffing the wad of paper into her apron pocket

Paul Forks stepped out of the stairwell and shook his head, "Yes et it And I’m sorry, it wasn’t my place to bother you It’s only"

"It’s only what?"

"It’s onlywhen I took that hit on the field, and when they brought me hereI sent for ot was a e that my boy had died of consumption six months after I went to war, and my ent a feeeks behind him"

She said, "IPaul I’m real sorry"

He shifted uncomfortably in his clothes "Anyway, that’s why I stayed on here Nothing to go hoet-​out when you think you’reyour Maker, and there’s no one there to send you off"

With his left hand, the whole one, he touched her shoulder in a friendly way And he left her alone there, in the stairith the ain, and no idea how she was going to answer it

Still pondering, she went back up to her bunk, and opened her cases to retrieve the stationery she’d taken from Captain Sally’s stash down in the hospital office Not knohat else to do, or what else to think about, she sat on the edge of the bed and started writing

Mercy’s handwriting wasn’t any good, because she’d never been schooled long enough to ible And it said:

Dear Mrs Henry,

My name is Vinita Lynch and I ainia I am very sorry to tell you that your son, Gilbert Henry, died this afternoon of February 13, 1879 He was a good soldier and a nice man, and he made jokes while we tried to save him He had been wounded bad but he died peaceful I stayed with hione He spoke fondly of you and his brother His last thoughts were of home

When she was finished, she sealed it up and set it on the nightstand beside her bed, to be mailed on Monday, when the post came

Three

Mercy Lynch told Sally, "Thank you For everything"

She’d already said the rest of her good-​byes, though they’d been few: to the other nurses, a couple of the doctors, and to Paul Forks, who’d worked beside her for six ardless

No one had mentioned her departure to any of the patients It was better not to, she’d decided She’d seen other wo impassioned pleas, proe proposal; and she wasn’t interested in any of it She’d learned, by watching other eo, that it was best to simply leave at the ordinary tile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>