Just as she stepped away from the bed, Dr. Mackay made his way across the ward. He must have seen the look on her face and recognized something was wrong.
“Are you ill?” he asked.
Ill didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Men from my state are shooting at their neighbors, their own relatives! And Sally...her brother has been killed! Now I must tell her the terrible news!
But Emily swallowed back her emotions. It would do no good to tell Dr. Mackay such things. He would offer her no sympathy. He’d probably say her friends deserved what had become of them.
“A nurse in danger of swooning is of no use to me in this ward.”
Her backbone stiffened. “You need not worry,” she assured him. “I am not given to such tendencies.”
His left eyebrow arched as if he doubted that, but before he could speak, a soldier’s cry commanded his attention.
“Doc! Doc! Come quick!”
Emily turned, as well. A young Kentucky man was bent over the bed, holding his brother—a soldier who had been wounded in the neck and jaw.
“He’s turnin’ blue!” the man cried.
Dr. Mackay raced to the Confederate man’s side. Taking one look at him, he ordered Emily to fetch water and lint packing. She hurried to obey while he ran for the locked cabinet at the end of the ward. She gathered her items, he a surgical tray.
“Hold on there, Billy,” the brother encouraged. “Doc’s comin’.”
“Step back!” the Scotsman commanded. To Emily, he said, “Remove those bandages so his wound is exposed.”
She deposited the basin and packing on the table beside them and quickly carried out his instructions. Her heart was pounding, for Billy was staring wide-eyed at her, silently begging for help.
Then he closed his eyes.
Oh! Oh! “Dr. Mackay!”
The instant Emily had seen to the last bandage, the doctor moved in with his scalpel. She watched as he made an incision in Billy’s neck just below his maze of black battle scars and inserted a small tube. Dr. Mackay then blew his own breath into the man’s throat.
Emily had never seen such a thing before. The blue in Billy’s face faded to gray, then finally a more natural shade.
After several more breaths, Dr. Mackay straightened up. Still holding the tube in place, he asked for the packing.
“Do you wish for it to be cut into smaller strips?” she asked.
“Aye.”
She did so, handing them over one at a time. While he secured the tube, Emily couldn’t help but wonder, on what was this soldier choking? He was one of the men who had been prescribed a low diet, only beef tea and a little milk. She had followed Dr. Mackay’s orders precisely concerning that. One of the man’s comrades must have given him something else to eat.
“Were you able to dislodge what he swallowed?” she asked.
“He isn’t choking on food.”
“He isn’t?”
“’Twas the swelling from the wound which constricted his airway.” Dr. Mackay spoke with confidence, as if he performed this sort of thing daily and in doing so had saved countless lives. Emily prayed that was indeed the case. Much to her relief, after a few moments Billy’s eyes fluttered open. She dared breathed a sigh, knowing the immediate crisis had passed.
Emily touched his shoulder. “Just lay still,” she encouraged. “You’ll be all right.”
She hoped Dr. Mackay would confirm her words, but he did not. Plugging his ears with his stethoscope, he listened to Billy’s chest. Thankfully, he looked pleased with what he heard.
Emily’s heart slowed somewhat. The Northern physician would not spend his breath comforting a Southern man but he had preserved his life. For that, she was thankful.
* * *
Evan watched her exhale. The sight of such procedures had sent many of his past assistants to the floor, but she’d managed to keep on her feet and follow his instructions. For that, he commended her. With so many prisoners to tend to however, he could not be concerned with her health. She had clearly been troubled before this case, and even now she was still a ghostly shade of pale.
Removing his stethoscope, he told her, “Take a moment to yourself and get some air.”
Still too overcome to respond, she could only blink.
“Go on, now,” he said.
Slowly, she turned. The Johnny in the bed beside them thanked her for her help. She patted his arm silently, then walked away.
The reb then turned to him.
“Thank you, Doc. I’m real grateful to you for savin’ my brother’s life.”
With those words Evan wasn’t certain what he should feel—gratification or anger. If it wasn’t for brothers such as these, ones willing to make war on their own nation, his brother would not have died. Not knowing how to respond, he ignored the comment altogether.
He signaled for the steward. “Fetch me some ice,” he told him.
“Yes, sir.”
He’d see if that would bring the swelling under control. If not the reb’s brother would have to return to the operating room.
* * *
Emily stepped into the corridor. Her heart was still pounding. Try as she might, the breath she repeatedly drew just didn’t seem to be enough to fill her lungs. Heading straight for the small window, she pushed it open. The air drifting in from the harbor was not fresh by any means but at least it was a little cooler.
Contrary to what Dr. Mackay may think, the sight of blood had not caused her distress. It was thinking of how the poor wounded man had come upon his injury. She did not know where Billy and his brother had been during the recent Pennsylvania battle, but she knew by looking at them that their experience had been just as horrific as Edward’s and Stephen’s.
Oh, Lord, I beg you. End this war...please...
“Em, are you all right?”
She turned to find Julia standing in the hall.
“What troubles you? Is it that poor soldier? He looks much improved now.”
Emily sighed. Julia was the last person she wished to burden with such distressing news, but she realized she needed to know. “I have received some information concerning Stephen.”
Her friend’s shoulders dropped with a long sigh of her own. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“I suspected such. Especially when Edward wouldn’t speak. Poor Sally...but why would Stephen have been reported as ‘missing’?”
“A misidentification, I suppose.”
“Then it’s likely he is buried somewhere on the battlefield?”
“I would imagine.”
Sorrow fell over them both like a shroud. The sound of wounded soldiers groaning echoed through the halls. An armed sentinel passed by on his way to duty, and they could hear an officer shouting orders on the floor below.
“Private Stone saw him fall,” Emily said. “He told me the entire story.”
“What did he say?”
She explained what she had learned. When Emily got to the part about Maryland men fighting their own neighbors, in some cases their own flesh and blood, all color drained from Julia’s face.
“Gracious,” she breathed.