Alex and Eliza: A Love Story(32)

But Eliza was a quick study and by the second day was every bit as capable of handling the entire procedure as Aunt Gertrude. Working in studied tandem, they performed the repetitive task twice as fast.

Each administration took no more than five minutes, but there were upward of four hundred men to treat. It took four full days, and a good part of the fifth, to get through them all.

Early in the afternoon of the fifth day, just as they were finishing up, a ginger-haired soldier poked his head inside the tent.

“Is it too late for one last soldier?”

Busy as they were, the women didn’t bother to look up. “Come in, come in,” Eliza said, sighing. Four hundred and one, she thought, but she would treat this soldier exactly like the hundreds of others she’d assisted over the last five days. “Take a seat if you will, sir. Remove your jacket and roll up your . . .” Eliza caught her breath as she turned.

“Happy to oblige, miss.” Colonel Hamilton shucked off his jacket and was making quite a show of busily rolling up his sleeve, showing off a well-muscled forearm. “And I must apologize for the lateness of my arrival.”

Aunt Gertrude didn’t hide her amusement. “Colonel, it is never too late to be at your service. We are all quite aware of your extraordinary vigilance as to our family’s protection. As such, we are certainly bound to do all we possibly can for your well-being in return. Isn’t that right, Eliza dear?”

Eliza’s hand flew to her bonnet to tuck in a few stray tendrils of hair. “Yes, Auntie, of course. Quite right.”

She could barely maintain her composure. Without his military jacket on, Colonel Hamilton was so much more real to her than in her daydreams. She had forgotten how square and strong his shoulders were. And wasn’t that a fresh shaving cut on the swale of his jaw? Surely, the timing of this mission must’ve been carefully planned.

She avoided his gaze and it appeared he was doing the same, looking resolutely at the wall in front of him as Aunt Gertrude prepared the treatment. And the wily matron seemed to be taking her sweet time. When she’d mixed the paste and readied the spatula, she handed the application to Eliza and smiled. “Here we are, Eliza, will you do the honors?”

“I would be glad to, Auntie.”

“B-but . . . ,” Alex stammered, “I had assumed the good doctor’s wife would be doing this.” He showed his teeth in a nervous smile. “Are we quite sure Miss Schuyler, ah, well, that she knows what she’s doing?”

“Quite certain indeed, sir,” said Aunt Gertrude. “And I’m confident the two hundred troops who have already sat in this same chair for her would attest to it as well.”

“Well, if it’s good enough for my men, then I suppose it’s good enough for me, too.” Alex swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple playing along with his doubt.

“Ah, Colonel. Shall we say, ahem, this is not my first time in the . . . saddle. Now, if you’ll just give me your forearm and relax, it will all be done in no time at all.”

Unconvinced but steeling himself like the dutiful soldier he was, Alex extended his arm with a face full of misgiving.

“Are you ready for me, sir?”

“I am that,” said Alex, with a raise of his eyebrow.

Eliza blushed, and when she hesitated, he took the opportunity to address her again. “Will it hurt?”

“Only if you let it,” she said sternly.

“You wound me, mademoiselle,” he said.

“Colonel, really. It is a mere scratch in comparison to the dangers of the battlefield.”

“Ah, but I am exposed mostly to the dangers of the inkwell, if you remember.” He was teasing, and the twinkle in his eye was hard to ignore.

“I do,” she said, now blushing even more furiously. “It was unkind of me and my sisters. Especially as I have heard you have survived several battles since then.”

“I was lucky,” said the colonel, his face suddenly grave. “The others, not so much.”

She looked up at him then, met his eyes, and tried to stop her hands from shaking. It was truly frustrating how his presence affected her. She was right to keep him from visiting her. Her uncle kept teasing her that there was no safer place than their home with Colonel Hamilton guarding the post road.

“Please,” he said, and she looked down once more at his tensely corded arm.

She felt his gaze upon her, but quickly set her face straight to get to the work at hand. She took firm hold of his arm and drew the rake across his wrist, scoring sharp red welts in the skin, drawing blood. Then she folded the poultice over the little wound and wrapped it expertly in place, finishing it off with a soft squeeze. Only this time, she held the squeeze a fraction longer than she had for the hundreds of other soldiers who’d come before him.

Alex must have felt it, too, because the doubt dropped from his face and a tenderness crept into his eyes. He put his free hand over hers and left it there.

“I am glad to see you well, Miss Schuyler. I was worried about you,” he said.

Eliza gave a brisk nod. “Thank you for your concern, I am fully recovered.”

“I see, and yet you have not graced us with your presence at the town’s social delights.”

“Are you keeping track of my whereabouts, Colonel?”

It was Alex’s turn to blush. “I admit I was disappointed not to see you at Marquis de Chastellux’s ball the other day. Or the dinner hosted by Baron von Steuben.”