Page 4 of Healing Hazel

Nella speared a bit of fish with her fork. “Your family must have changed since you saw them last.”

He nodded, taking a drink. “My sister’s children will hardly recognize me. They were all wee ones when I left. My brother manages the farm now. It will be different, I suppose, but we’re still family.”

Hazel blinked at the stinging in her eyes, angry at herself for feeling an emotion as petty as jealousy. She was happy for this man, pleased that he had something wonderful to look forward to. She only wished she did too but said nothing as she wiped her napkin over her lips and set it back on her lap.

“I believe we’ll have some time in Paris between trains,” Captain Bryant said, lifting his glass. “Thought I might do a bit of Christmas shopping. Maybe you ladies could help me find some fancy perfume for m—”

A crash threw Hazel forward. She fell hard onto the table, hitting her forearms, then was thrown back against the wall, sending a spike of pain through her shoulder. The bags from the upper rack spilled down, falling around her. Captain Bryant moved to shield her as the car tipped, but he was knocked back against the compartment wall. Dishes, bags, and people slid, crashing to the floor and flying against the walls and windows. Hazel fell to the side, landing hard on an uneven surface that seemed to be swaying. The noise was so loud that it left a ringing in her ears that was matched in intensity only by the sound of her heart pounding. Dust filled the compartment, obscuring her sight, and she lay dazed, trying to piece together what had happened.

When she was able to make sense of her surroundings, Hazel was lying against the compartment door. All around her was the detritus of what had a moment earlier been their luncheon. She pushed Nella’s travel bag off her face and moved carefully, testing her body for pain. Aside from the aching in her shoulder, she hadn’t been injured. She sat up, looking around, still confused as to what she was seeing.

The train car tilted at an angle, creaking as it settled. It must have come off the track. One of the windows was shattered, and a long crack stretched over the other. The luggage rack had broken away on one side and hung there, bumping against the wall with the swaying of the carriage. Her ears rang, making everything seem unnaturally silent. A bench pressed her against the door, and she struggled to right herself in the small space. Sounds reached her ears—a scream, a child’s cry—and without warning, Hazel was back there, in the cold room beneath the fort, huddled behind her mother as cannons and guns were fired outside. She was trapped.

A spike of energy surged through her, spreading cold fire as it shot to her fingertips and toes. In her panic, she was blind. Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t draw breath into her lungs.

“Hazel!” Nella’s voice broke through the panic. “Hazel, listen to me.”

Hazel pressed her fingertips against her eyelids. “I’m... trying.”

Nella was one of the only nurses who’d understood the intensity of Hazel’s spells, and she could typically help calm them. “Hazel.” She spoke in a commanding voice. “You must breathe.”

“Nella.” Hazel whispered her friend’s name. “I—”

“Breathe, Hazel.” Nella’s voice tightened, growing softer. “You are needed.”

Hazel’s panic did not fully abate, but she heard something in Nella’s voice that shook her out of the depths of her fear and gave her a purpose. Nella was in pain. And Hazel had heard nothing from Captain Bryant, which was even more worrying. She gathered herself together and moved, dislodging a mess of dishes and food, and brought herself into a kneeling position to feel around through the settling dust. What she’d assumed to be part of the bench was, in fact, Captain Bryant’s torso. Carefully, she brushed bits of glass off him with the wadded tablecloth and rolled him onto his back. “Captain Bryant, can you hear me?”

He was terribly still. Blood from a gash on his head covered one side of his face. She used a napkin to wipe it away, but it welled up again.

On the other side of the cabin, Nella groaned.

Hazel crawled through the wreckage, climbing over a bench that was dislodged from the wall. Pain shot through her hand as she pressed down on a bit of glass. She removed it, wincing at the blood that welled up in her palm. She was impeded by her layers of skirts but grateful that they protected her knees from the shards of glass that littered the floor. Scrambling to her feet, she lifted the folding table off her friend and saw that Nella’s leg was crushed between the broken bench and the compartment wall.

Nella’s face was white, a small cut slashing across her cheek. She grabbed on to Hazel’s hand.

“You’re hurt,” Hazel said. She found another napkin and wiped blood from Nella’s face with trembling hands.

Nella nodded, closing her eyes. “And you?

“I’m unharmed.”

“The captain?” Nella’s voice was raspy and quiet. Her earlier admonishment must have expended her strength.

“He suffered an injury to his forehead. I can’t wake him,” Hazel responded, falling naturally into her role as student.

“Does he have a pulse?”

Hazel moved toward Nella’s trapped leg, meaning to pull away the bench, but Nella stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Check his pulse.”

Hazel pushed back through the debris and knelt at the captain’s side. She touched her fingers to his neck, wishing she’d thought to check before. She felt a soft beating. “He has a pulse.” She wiped at his forehead. “And the wound is still bleeding.”

“Bleeding is good,” Nella said. Hazel could just see her over the bench and the broken table. “It means his heart still beats.” She drew in a shaky breath. “But you must stop it before too much blood is lost.”

“Apply pressure,” Hazel muttered, remembering what she’d learned in nurse training. She pulled open Nella’s travel bag, taking out the scarf Nella had been knitting. She pressed folded napkins against the captain’s wound and tied the scarf around his head to hold them in place. The captain still did not move.

Hazel patted his face gently. “Captain...” She looked across the compartment to Nella. “I still can’t wake him.”

“He needs a hospital,” Nella said. Her voice was quiet, and in it Hazel could hear pain. She moved back to the bench that trapped Nella’s leg to the wall, grabbing on to it and pulling.

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