Chapter 7

At nine o'clock, Matthew got up from his chair and said, "Time to go."

Amanda put down the delicate bit of embroidery she'd been working on, a row of leaves and flowers that she intended to embellish Lucy Blair's wedding petticoat, and stood up as well.

"These evenings are never long enough, are they?" Matthew said as he drew her hand through the crook of his arm and held it. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he bent to kiss the top of her head.

"No," she agreed, "but at least we have them, short as they are, and I'm grateful for that."

They walked to the door, he took his hat off the rack in the hallway, put it back on, and opened the door, sending a beam of light from the lamp on the hallway table out into the darkness of the night.

Recalling the incident later, Amanda remembered that everything seemed to happen at once. She heard the crack of a gunshot, Matthew pushed her to the floor and covered her body with his own, and then she heard the sound of a horse being ridden away at speed.

The sound brought Thomas McGuire in from the kitchen, revolver in hand. "Major! Miss Amanda! Are you hurt?" he asked.

"Close the door, McGuire. I think he's gone, but I'm not taking any chances," Matthew said. "Amanda?"

"I'm fine… Matthew! You're hurt!"

"He winged me, that's all. I'll be fine."

"Thomas, warm water, bandages, and iodine. Molly knows where they are, but help Matthew up first."

"Go get the bandages, McGuire. I can get up by myself."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, ma'am, but he outranks you."

"That is questionable, but in this case, I'll take it," Matthew said. He used both hands to raise her to her feet, clasped her to him, and said, "Thank God you're all right."

"I'll be all right as soon as I know you are. Now come upstairs with me so I can clean and bandage that wound."

With his right hand holding the wounded left arm, he climbed the stairs beside her and followed her into the room that had been his. " I might be able to repair this sleeve temporarily, but you're going to need to order a new uniform," she said, as she worked on the double row of brass buttons; when he would have objected, she leveled a look at him that quelled any protest he might have made. She unfastened the last of the buttons and eased the coat off, revealing his white shirt and the suspenders that held up his trousers.

The left sleeve was already soaked in blood; since the shirt was ruined anyway, she chose to cut it and the undershirt sleeve beneath it off away rather than making him take them off. She reached for the linen towel he'd used earlier that evening to wash up before supper and made a pad of it, pressing it to his arm. "Hold that on while I go to my room and get the scissors to cut those sleeves off."

She came out her room with the scissors just as Molly and Tom arrived with the hot water, bandages, iodine, and the brandy bottle.

"Good thinking, Molly; he'll appreciate the brandy more than anything else, I think."

While Tom poured Matthew a shot of brandy, Amanda cut off the sleeves of his shirt and undershirt, saw that the bullet had wounded Matthew's arm but had not lodged anywhere on his body, and set to work to clean and disinfect the wound. The basin of warm water she was using quickly turned pink as she worked; when she was sure the wound was clean, she used a clean linen pad to apply the iodine, warning, "This is going to sting, Matthew."

"Just do it and get it over with, Woman!" he growled.

"Give him more brandy, Tom," Amanda said. "It might sweeten his temper."

McGuire hid a smile, but he poured another shot of brandy, which Matthew bolted down immediately; by the time he finished it, the iodine had been applied and Amanda was bandaging the arm with the deft motions of someone who had performed this same action many times before. When she was finished, she said, "You're staying the night. Tom, I need you to go to Colonel Thornton's and tell him what happened, tell him that I don't think Matthew needs a surgeon tonight, but he should probably see one tomorrow, and then do whatever he tells you to do."

"I don't need a surgeon. It's just a scratch," Matthew grumbled.

"That's not your decision; we'll leave that up to Colonel Thornton."

"You don't fight fair."

"So you say. Go, Corporal."

"Yes, ma'am."

Tom left; Amanda turned to Molly and said, "Help me get him out of what's left of this uniform; he can sleep in his long underwear."

"I do not need to be undressed like a baby."

"If you persist in acting like a baby you will be undressed like one," she said severely. "Your foot, Major."

"Oh, all right."

By the time Tom came back with Colonel and Mrs. Thornton, Matthew, now stripped down to the drawers of his long underwear and what was left of the shirt, was starting to fall asleep. They came into the room, Colonel Thornton spoke a few words to Matthew, who mumbled a reply, and then he and his wife drew Amanda aside and said, "What happened?"

"He'd just opened the door leave when there was a shot, from across the street, most likely. Whoever it was rode away."

"Then if he was waiting for some time for Matthew to come out, there will be horse droppings where he tied the animal. I'll have some men out to search the place at first light tomorrow. Molly will stay with you tonight, and in the morning, we'll move both of you to more secure locations, since we don't know if you were the target or he was. Is there someplace you could go for a week or so, perhaps up to Newport where your mother is visiting?"

"She's going to Boston to visit some distant cousins; she met one of them in Newport and he invited her to Boston to meet more of the family. I'm sure if I said I wanted to come and visit they'd be more than happy to have me."

"Harry, we could send both of them to our house in Philadelphia," Molly suggested. "They'd be safe, and with Cousin Araminta there, no one could suggest any impropriety. If Amanda is with him, he might actually rest as he needs to do."

"An excellent plan, my love. Cousin Araminta is an elderly relation of Molly's who serves as our housekeeper. She was left penniless when her husband, who had no money sense at all, died unexpectedly, so we offered her a home and a job. She's a bit flighty, but she's a good soul."

"I think most families have an elderly female relative like that; I know we do. Matthew will try to argue."

"He can try. I'm still his commanding officer."

"What will you tell your Mother, Amanda?" Molly asked.

"Mother, yes… I have to come up with some reason for taking a sudden trip to Philadelphia when I've said nothing about it in any of my previous letters. Hmmm…. I know, I'll tell her that the Sanitary Commission has offered me a chance to go to Philadelphia to observe modern treatment methods in the hospitals there."

"Excellent."