With respect and friendship, Captain Malcolm Ross, Queen’s Air Force.
Malcolm reread his letter with growing dissatisfaction. With great unease, he finally sealed the envelope the letter was in and gave it to the morning duty nurse to mail for him. He asked for a bassinet and a cloth and a razor. With a hot bowl of soapy water, Malcolm washed his face and shaved down the beard that had begun to grow since he’d returned to London. He took care with dressing and helped the on-duty nurse slide his pants over his legs and cinched them in at the waist, astonished by how loose his clothes were now, as he tightened the belt an extra three notches. He wondered if his favourite nurse could ever find him attractive, with the scarring on his left cheek from the shattered cockpit window, his skinny, unused legs, and the ribs he could feel punctuating his slim frame through his shirt.
He was still taking inventory of the changes in his body when Stella arrived, sunny smile in place as always. She watched him frown as he tightened his belt more about his waist and then picked up a small mirror to view himself as he combed his hair. Stella bit her lip and thought again about the letters and her decision not to tell him. She felt disingenuous and deceitful for keeping her secret, and as she watched her heroic friend so much stronger than he was when he arrived, and so determined to regain his legs and his freedom, something stirred in her that she’d been ignoring since he arrived.
That he was handsome was beyond a doubt. Even the slender scars that ran down his cheek like claw marks failed to lessen his rugged good looks, serving only to frame them and lend an air of danger to his serious gaze. She shivered, thinking about the way his gaze tightened things low in her body, and mentally shook herself before moving to his line of sight.
“Morning, Captain!” She called out cheerily as she approached. “I get to wheel you to your physical therapy today, if that’s all right with you.” She added.
“Of course, Nurse Kingsfoot.” Malcolm replied. “I’m always happy to spend time in your company.” He smiled, but it faded away when he felt the left side pull. His frown made Stella’s chest tight over his pain.
“I wish you would smile again.” She coaxed him, blushing. “You look so charming and dangerous when you smile.” She frowned, her eyebrows furrowing as she pursed her lips. He felt the corner of his own mouth twitch just looking at her pretty rosebud mouth and obliged her request. “Does that hurt?” Stella asked belatedly. Malcom shook his head.
“No, it just pulls.” He admitted. “The doctor said the sensation will go away in time.” Stella sighed in relief. He limped over to the wheelchair and obediently sat as she held the chair in place. She wheeled him to a room with mirrors and a barre set up for him to brace himself while he stretched, and hold while he practiced walking.
They chatted about the war and his recovery while he moved around and got used to having his feet under him again. Malcolm nearly tripped over his own feet a couple of times. He merely agreed when Stella attributed it to lack of use, refusing to admit the scent of her skin while she lent him a shoulder to lean on, had distracted him. His one-hour session in the room stretched into almost two, as the two worked together talking and laughing as Malcolm practiced walking until he was physically and mentally exhausted.
When he finally admitted he had to quit, Stella was chagrined and dismayed that she’d been so caught up spending time with him that she’d failed to protect him as her charge. Malcolm laughed it off and declared the afternoon the best time he’d spent in a very long while. Knowing he found her company desirable gave Stella just enough courage to write him one last letter, to tell him who she was and when she’d realized their connection. That way, if he was disappointed, she wouldn’t have to see his face.
She returned him to his bed and noted in his charts how well he was doing. He would be released from care soon, and receive an honourable discharge and Victoria’s Cross for his valour in fighting. She knew she had only a little time to make a full disclosure to him, but couldn’t bring herself to face him and speak of her feelings for him.
She wrote a brief note to him, but couldn’t write the address on the envelope. It was silly to put a stamp on a letter that could be walked to its recipient, and she refused to give in to her fear that far. She placed the note in the small bedside table, to be given to him as soon as she could find the bravery to do so, and went to sleep, dreaming of quarter horses and a house on a hill, with a handsome, scarred man working in the fields.
Her duties took her away from the wing Malcom was in for three agonizing days, and by the end of the third day, she was more than ready to get rid of the tell-tale heart she kept hidden away in the drawer, with her diary and her little romance novel. She made her way to the wing, and headed straight to Malcolm’s partitioned off room. She was surprised to find him away from his bed, but determined to see her task through, she slipped the envelope under the pillow of his cot, so that it couldn’t fall, but was visible to him if he were to climb into bed.
Frustrated that she hadn’t seen him in so long, but satisfied that she’d done her best, she went to her room and readied herself for an early bedtime with a book. When she got back to her room, her roommate handed her a letter, sent by Malcolm over a week before. Excited for the missive, and irritated that it had taken so long to traverse the half-mile from the hospital to the barracks, she tore into the envelope with abandon, and read the letter cross-legged on her military cot.
Her hands began to shake as she read the letter once, then again in disbelief. Panicked, she thought of the letter she’d delivered less than an hour before. Quickly, she slipped back into her uniform and rushed back to retrieve it. She was almost upon Malcolm, when she saw him sitting on the edge of his cot with a nurse, holding the letter in his hand and laughing with her.
The air was forced out of Stella’s chest as she watched her worst fear play out in front of her. Tears blurred her vision and she fought to keep her emotions in check long enough to make it her room. She threw herself onto her bed and sobbed into her pillow, her shoulders heaving as she curled up in a ball and buried her face in the rough cotton pillowcase to muffle the sound of her heart break.
Stella’s roommate, Lucy found Stella still shuddering, her tears spent. She gently rubbed her back until the Yorkshire nurse finally fell asleep, exhausted by the outpouring of emotions. The next morning, Stella begged Lucy to trade rounds with her, even though Lucy had a much more difficult shift to pull that turn. Lucy knew that her friend had been falling for one of her patients, all the nurses had been talking about how the young Captain glowed whenever Stella was near, and the extra care she took with him. She understood that if the romance was over, it would be embarrassing and painful to be forced to be around him, so she told Stella she’d take the rounds until the Captain was released in a few days.
Stella gratefully accepted the offer, and readied herself for the surgical work that Lucy had been assigned. She found the head surgical nurse and told her that she had begged for more surgical duty, and told her that she had a great deal of experience (But didn’t bother to mention it was mostly with pigs and cows). She was told where to report to and immediately began to ready operating rooms for the scheduled and emergency surgeries they’d be expecting that day. By the time she was done her shift, Lucy was asleep in their room.
Stella made up her mind to be out of the room before Lucy awoke, to avoid having to hear about how her embarrassment was entertaining Malcolm and his wing. She was out of the bunk before the first horn sounded in the morning, and again worked through breaks and meals, before dragging her weary body back to her shared bunk after midnight.
While Stella was hiding from him, Malcolm was searching for her. Her plight had reached the ears of the other nurses through Lucy, and out of loyalty, they refused to tell him where she was, only that she’d been reassigned elsewhere. Lucy finally had Malcolm on her rounds and stopped by to check his chart. He glared at her as though she’d personally offended him and refused to speak to her.
“Oi, Captain.” Lucy declared brusquely. “You’re a lot less friendly than I’d been told. What exactly have I done to merit such a face from you?” She teased. Malcolm looked surprised that she was speaking to him at all, or knew who he was.
“Who told you I was friendly?” he demanded. Lucy looked at the grim man and wondered what her friend had seen in him.
“The girl I replaced, actually.” She admitted, too curious about why he hadn’t fallen madly in love with her amazing friend to simply walk away as she’d planned. She was surprised to see his face light up, magically transforming him from an ogre to a prince in an instant.
“You know Stella?” He gasped. “You know where I can find her?” He slid his legs over the side of the cot and swung himself into a standing position. “I need to find her; I need to talk to her right away.” He commanded. “Take me to her! I have to see her before the transport comes to take me to the train station.” Lucy stared at him until he repeated his command. Mouth agape, she handed him the crutches leaning against the end of his bed and led him from the wing.
Halfway across the campus to the surgical arena, Malcolm was so physically spent that he had to stop and rest. While he leaned against a wall and caught his breath, Lucy lit a cigarette and asked him why he was in such a hurry. He told her the story of the prank that had led to him and Stella exchanging letters, though they had never used their first names in the hospital, so they hadn’t known who each other was.
He went on to explain that he’d been so enamoured with her in person that he’d written the pen-pal Stella to honourably break ties with her. From the way she’d disappeared, he figured out that she had gotten his last letter, just after he’d found hers. He had only hours before he was headed back to Leeds, and needed her to know how he felt, before he was gone forever. He was sure she’d never accept another letter from him after the last.
Lucy silently smoked her cigarette to the butt while he spoke. With a nod, she motioned him onward, and they finally limped over to the hospital annex being used for emergency surgeries, where they could see Stella waving off a supper break. Her commanding officer refused her attempt to skip another meal, declaring that she was becoming a hazard, and would likely get someone killed if she didn’t stop for a moment.
“Why Stella, I didn’t let you take my surgical schedule to make surgeries more dangerous!” Exclaimed Lucy as they approached. Stella looked toward her and saw Malcolm limping up to her on his crutches.
“Lucy…How… How could you?” Stella whispered. Lucy saw the colour drain from her face as Malcolm caught up to them.
“Stella.” Malcolm gasped. “I’ve been trying to find you for days!” Stella regarded him coolly and didn’t reply. “I have a letter for you, please just read it.” He asked, handing her a thin folded paper. Unable to find an appropriate scathing reply in front of her C.O. and her roommate, she accepted the paper from him and stepped away as she read.
Malcolm watched as her face crumpled and tears spilled over her eyelids. She looked at Malcolm and sniffed, then waved the paper at him as she chewed on her lip.
“Is this true?” She croaked, her throat tight with emotion. He nodded and she sagged against the wall and stared down at the page in her hands. Lucy looked from Malcolm to Stella in alarm, worried that she’d brought further pain to her friend by helping him find her.
“When are you leaving?” Stella asked Malcolm without looking up at him.
“Whenever you do, I suppose.” Malcolm replied. Stella nodded and thought, still leaning against the wall. Malcolm limped over to where she stood and whispered softly in her ear, making her start and laugh.
“My rotation is done in three weeks.” She told him. “Then its home to Dalby for me. She looked again at the note, now tearstained, the ink just beginning to run,
“My dearest Stella. How foolish of me not to realize that there could not be two such amazing women in the world at the same time, let alone in my minute part of it. Of course it is you that I want and you alone. It always was, and it always will be. Not another moment of my life could be spent living without the one person who walked through the war with me, and gave me my escape from the hell that war held me trapped in. Never have I been so grateful for a mistake I made, as I am upon learning that the woman I fell in love with, is also the woman I call my dearest friend.
Yours, forever or as long as you wish it,
Captain Malcolm G. Ross, Queen’s Airborne.”
Stella finally looked up at the women and managed a half-hearted smile. She was exhausted and her heart felt like it had been squeezed flat through a ringer, then filled up again. It ached and floated at the same time. She bit her lip and looked at Malcolm from under her lashes.
“I need to take a supper break, do you want to come to the café down the street with me and grab something to eat? It’s been a while since you were out on your own, and I hear you got your walking papers.” She offered timidly.
“I’m happy to join you, Lt. Kingsfoot, wherever your plans take you this evening.” He replied, adjusting his crutches under his arms.
“I’ll, um, I’ll tell the head nurse of the wing where you’ve gone.” Lucy chuckled and walked away, waving over her shoulder as Stella called out her thanks. Stella checked her watch and told her supervisor she’d return in an hour.
“You’ll return Lucy to me, that’s what you’ll do.” The head nurse sniffed. “You’d be a great nurse, if we were working on livestock. Damnable farm girls, always think they’re surgery nurses.” She scoffed, though it lost a little effect when she winked at Stella before she strode back into the annex.
Stella and Malcolm ate supper, both quiet and unsure of what to say. Stella walked him back to his ward in that same uncomfortable silence, and relayed the surgical nurse’s command to Lucy, who laughed and agreed she’d be back in surgery on the morrow. Stella left Malcolm at his bedside, and went to her room wondering what would become of them, now that the mystery of the letters was gone, and he was going home. She went to her room and looked at the stack of papers in laying on top of her little bedside table and had an idea.
She jotted a quick note, which she sealed in a milky envelope and snuck down to Malcolm’s bedside, setting it on the seat of the chair next to his cot. She then returned to her bunk and proceeded to write a few more letters. When Malcolm awoke the next day, his eyes lit on the envelope on the chair. With his heart in his throat, he opened the envelope and read the note inside.
“Kingsfoot farm, Dalby, Yorkshire, 5th of September. With all my heart, Love, Stella”
Malcolm chuckled to himself and neatly folded the note to place it in his jacket pocket. September 5th was only a few short weeks away. Besides, he had a lot to do by then, if he was going to convince s pair of Yorkshire farmers to let him marry their daughter. Stella arrived at his side only minutes before his transport. He kissed her softly and promised her he’d see her soon.
“Just think, how close we were to my missing you completely.” Stella marvelled as he leaned in to kiss her neck when they found a moment alone. He mumbled something incoherent into her soft skin and held her tighter. “I’ll miss you for certain tomorrow.” She added tearfully.
Malcolm held her face in his hands and stroked her forehead lovingly. Without paper, he found himself nearly mute in her presence, just as he had been when he first arrived in London. Instead of words, he chose to hold her in his arms and kiss her on the top of her head.
“I’ll write soon.” He murmured to her. She chuckled and nodded.
“I’ll write back.” She replied.
The transport pulled up to the curb and Malcolm climbed in while the driver loaded his bags in the back. He waved to her and watched her wave back until he couldn’t see her any longer. He looked at the train ticket for Leeds in his hand and smiled. Limping up to the ticket window, he made a quick change of destination that cost him a little of his pocket money and a few extra hours on the platform.
One week later, as
promised, Stella received a letter. Excited, she turned the envelope to see the return address. Dalby, Yorkshire, it read. Disappointed, but trying to be cheerful of news for home, she opened the thin letter. Her heart filled to bursting at the short handwritten missive.
“Love of my heart, sweetest Stella,
Dalby, Yorkshire, tiny apartment above the veterinary clinic.
With all my Heart, Love Malcolm.”
Stella smiled through her tears and took out a piece of paper. Slipping her pencil into her mouth, she chewed it as she thought. After a moment, she put pencil to paper.
“Dearest Malcolm, heart of my heart…”
THE END
The Billionaire Jock
Sweat poured into Billie’s eyes as he danced around the ring. One, two, his fists jabbed, testing his opponent for a weakness. He threw a left hook and connected hard. Lightning quick he followed up with a left-right combination to the stomach and then a hard right to the dazed man’s jaw. The mat shook under his feet as his challenger, Thackery Smith, went down hard for a K.O. victory.
The crowd gathered in the gym stomped and crowed in glee. This was Billie’s twenty-fourth circuit victory, second by knock out, and his manager, J.J. Slade, was already counting the millions his young protégé was going to make him. Billie swayed on his feet as the referee held up his arm and announced the victory to the already screaming crowd.
“Payne brings the pain!” The chants were heard echoed over and over by the crowd. “Bring the Payne, bring the noise!” Slade watched hungrily as money surreptitiously exchanged hands. He’d wait until the crowd was gone to collect his cut. Billie had made him an extra couple grand tonight on the side. In the last few weeks alone, Slade had made almost a ten times that off his side bets. Billie loved to fight, and he was going to be a champion. Slade planned on riding the money train all the way to the top.
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