Free The Face of Heaven by Murray Pura Page B

sorry, Lyndel. This is not much of a day.”
    She didn’t greet her brother but merely asked, “What does your newspaper friend from Elizabethtown tell you?”
    “He was in Virginia only a few days ago. The 19th Indiana is camped on a creek called Cedar Run at Catlett’s Station. The men are relaxed and in good spirits.”
    “Did he see Nathaniel?”
    “No.”
    “Where is Catlett’s Station?”
    “Not far from Manassas Junction.”
    “Isn’t Manassas where the great battle was fought last summer?”
    “ Ja .”
    “Is there going to be another fight there?”
    Levi shrugged. “Who can say? For now the Rebels have fled, leaving a trail of knapsacks and food and dead horses. Nathaniel’s regiment is less than a mile from the Hargrove Plantation.”
    Lyndel’s eyes became a dark blue. “Are they going to march on the plantation?”
    “They have no reason to do so.”
    “Thank you, brother. Are you still with me as far as our plans go?”
    He nodded. “I am. But…it does not feel right slipping away without a word to mother and father.”
    She smiled in a halfhearted way. “I know. Every time I pray, the Lord touches on that very thing. I will tell them, brother. Just before we leave. It would be wrong to act as if we were abandoning them.”
    “I would like to be there when you speak with them.”
    “Of course.”
    He played with the brim of his hat. “It can’t be until after spring planting.”
    She gave a short laugh. “Every April it is the same. Nothing can happen until after spring planting. Perhaps the war will end at spring planting.”
    “I pray to God it would.”
    “So are you thinking of June?”
    “I am. The seventh. A Saturday.”
    “Nathaniel’s regiment will no longer be encamped near Manassas, will it?”
    “I think it’s unlikely. They move them around like knights and rooks on a chessboard. But my friend will find the regiment. The Philadelphia paper has assigned him to the Virginia theater of operations permanently.”
    Lyndel put her arm through her brother’s. “See me home, would you? One day I should like to meet this newspaperman of yours and thank him. Now that I can’t send Nathaniel mail or receive his letters, your friend’s information will be more important than ever.”
    “Once we’re in Virginia I will introduce you.”
    “Has he gone ahead and tried to make the arrangements I—we—requested?”
    “He has. He has spoken with a Mrs. McKean, who is a matron at the Armory Square Hospital in Washington. She seems inclined to take you on as a nurse.”
    “Without ever meeting me? Why?”
    “Oh, I suppose I have talked you up to my friend. And being a writer, he has embellished everything I have said.”
    “Levi! How will I live up to whatever nonsense you have told her? She probably thinks I am ten feet tall!”
    “To tell you the truth, my friend mentioned Mrs. McKean was impressed by the fact you were a farm girl. I guess she expects that means you are strong and hardworking. And that is so. I believe you will have no trouble being hired as a nurse.”
    “If God wills, then may it come to be.”
    Lyndel had scarcely entered her bedroom and washed her face,pouring fresh rainwater from a pitcher into a basin on the washstand, than her little sister Becky tapped on the door and called to her.
    “What is it?” asked Lyndel. “I’m cleaning up.”
    “Papa wants to see you in the kitchen.”
    “Do you know what it’s about?”
    “Well, I see he has a letter on the table by his cup of coffee.”
    Lyndel quickly dried her face and went down the staircase with Becky. When they reached the kitchen, their father smiled, caught Becky’s eye, and nodded his head in the direction of the door to the porch.
    “Your sisters need someone to hold the other end of the big skipping rope.”
    “All right, Papa.”
    When she had gone out the door he looked at Lyndel. “Sit with me, please. Would you like something to drink?”
    “Not right now, Papa, thank