After cleaning him up, Lily knew not to ask too many questions of the injured man in her bed. She figured he would tell what he wanted in what he felt would be the right time. However a bit of information was needed about his deepest wounds so she could give the correct treatment. Lily treaded very lightly.
Leonard informed her that the bullet that lay in his hip had been there about seven months since late September when he had began his journey west. The skin had already healed over while the infection was full blown deep down inside. “Sugar, you’re gonna just have to trust me, now you just go on and take a big swig while I get started, and just you relax and let Lil take good care of you.” So he did just that and handed the bottle back so she could sterilize the tools and the skin before cutting into his hip. Leonard promptly passed out.
Lily had seen quite a number of injured men at this point but none of the surgeries she had performed were comparable to this. First she tended to his lesser wounds like a burn with a hole in the middle of it in the palm of his hand, among many other similar injuries. Then to the hard job, the one that looked as if it was well on the way to killing him or at least, crippling him.
As soon as she cut him open, the stench of the infection about knocked her over, she cut and drained the wound searching for the path of the bullet until she reached all the way to the hip bone. She tried to pry it out but it was just too deep. Like in a stubborn, hard, old oak tree the lead had embedded itself, it wasn’t going anywhere, no matter what, she worked harder to get it out than anything she had ever put her mind to. It made her feel terrible not being able to give Leonard good news when he woke up.
Lily pulled the stitches tightly which woke her patient in extreme pain. Softly, with that beautiful Georgian drawl, she said to Leonard “ It’s alright darling, if you need to yell, I’ll hand you my pillow to muffle the sound so as no one will hear you.” He took one look at his angel and remembered where he was and realized that the hard part was over. “you’ll just have to lie still for quite a while but rest assured I’ll make sure you are comfortable and very well taken care of. until you are well enough to do for yourself. I figure it will be least five days or up to a week, we’ll just have to see how quickly you heal.”
At that moment Leonard might have been in pain but it didn’t matter, after all he hadn’t felt a decent bed, enjoyed a hot meal or spoken to a pretty lady since before the war began so this time he would enjoy no matter what. As long as he remained a secret stranger to anyone else in town but Lily, he had to trust her, his life depended upon it. For the next few days Leonard and Lily spent every minute together getting to know each other in every way, intimately, as they were falling in love. They told each other stories of their lives and travels as well as details about themselves that they had never shared with anyone before.
Every time he would sleep she would be by his side, night or day. The only time she left the room was to visit the privy or gather food, water or supplies. She slept once she new everything would be safe for him but until that moment she would lay with him just looking at him. Everything she had dreamed about in a man she saw in him. He was tall with a strong muscular build, dark hair, with green sultry eyes. But this young man had had a rough time of it, you could tell that his body had aged quickly in the last few years. As she noticed every scar, bullet wound, and burn she wondered about each and every story of each and every wound and hoped she had many years to spend hearing all of these stories from him.
Eventually Lily told him about the man who tried to come into her room the night before Leonard had showed up and how disrespectful and mean he was, that he had tried to hurt her and she had to forcibly make him leave. Leonard quietly became very angry when he heard this and knew the man was still around. He didn’t let on to her what he was planning to do but he had to make sure the crude man got what he deserved for hurting his sweet southern angel. He kept his plan to himself and enjoyed the rest of the evening with his new love.