Blessed are the Merciful (5 page)

“Isn’t there someone here who might know?”

“Well, he may have told his nurses or someone like that, but it would take some doing to find out who might’ve been taking care of him the last day or so before he was released. I’m not sure I can help you there.”

Elizabeth’s lips quivered as she said, “Mr. Hines, this is my husband we’re talking about. He has disappeared, and I have three children anxiously waiting for their father to come home. I can’t just go home and tell them nobody knows where he’s gone.”

Hines shrugged. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but—”

“I want to talk to the head of this institution,” Sidney said. “Who might that be?”

“Well, sir, that would be Mr. Glover, the hospital director.”

“Fine. Where do I find him?”

“Sir, I really don’t think Mr. Glover can do any more than I’ve already done.”

Sidney rose to his feet. “I want him to tell me that. Take us to him.”

Moments later, Sidney, Elizabeth, and Darlene were seated before the desk of the hospital director, Vernon Glover, a gray-headed man in his mid-fifties.

“How may I help you?” Glover said with a smile.

Sidney told the entire story again. When he had finished, Glover eased back in his chair and sighed. “Joel is a bit green around the gills yet, folks. I think I can help you. Let me begin by inquiring among my office staff to see who checked Captain Burke out the day he was discharged. I’ll be back shortly.”

When Glover left the room, Elizabeth put a shaky hand to her cheek and looked at Sidney. “What am I going to do if they don’t come up with an explanation?”

Darlene took hold of Elizabeth’s other hand and squeezed it tight. “Let’s cross that bridge if and when we come to it. I have a feeling Mr. Glover’s going to come up with the information we need.”

Elizabeth tried to smile. Tears filmed her eyes as she said, “I’m sure glad you two came with me.”

“We wouldn’t have let you come alone,” Sidney assured her.

Soon Vernon Glover returned. “I talked to the office worker who completed the papers and had them signed by Captain Burke when
he was released. She said he gave no indication where he might be going when he left us. I’m sorry. I was hoping she would be able to help us.”

“What about the nurse assigned to him his last day or so?” Sidney asked. “Maybe he told her something.”

“Good point. If she’s on duty right now I’ll bring her in here and let you ask her yourself.”

Less than five minutes had passed when Glover returned, shaking his head. “Wouldn’t you know it? The nurse who was assigned to that ward and was attending Captain Burke is no longer with us.”

“Mr. Glover,” Sidney said, “we’re grasping at straws here. Is it possible there might be some patients still in the hospital who were in the same ward with my brother?”

Glover’s eyes lit up. “Of course! There are some soldiers in Ward B who have been with us for quite some time. Let me look into this.”

With that, Glover was gone again.

Elizabeth drew a shuddering breath and struggled to control her shaking hands. “Something’s wrong, Sidney. I just know it.”

“Honey, don’t borrow trouble,” Darlene said. “Let’s wait and see if there’s someone who can tell us something that will lead us to him.”

When Glover reappeared, he had a nurse with him. He introduced them to nurse Twila Duncan, and said, “Mrs. Duncan came on our nursing staff just after Captain Burke was released, but she tells me there are two soldiers in Ward B who were brought in three days before Captain Burke came here. Perhaps they will have something to tell you.”

“Good,” Sidney said. “Could we talk to them now?”

“Yes. Mrs. Duncan will take you there.”

The trio followed Twila Duncan to a pair of double doors marked Ward B. She led them to a bed where a young man in his late twenties lay.

“Sergeant,” Twila said, “these people would like to talk to you,
but first I need to bring Corporal Byars over here so they can talk to both of you together.”

The sergeant looked at the visitors and nodded. The Burkes stood in silence while the nurse went to a young man in a wheelchair. She said a few words to him, then pushed his chair up beside the bed.

“Folks,” Twila said, “this man in the wheelchair is Corporal Art Byars. The man in the bed is Sergeant Neil Westbrook. I have to get back to my duties now, so I’ll let you explain who you are and what you need to know.”

Sidney thanked her, then turned to the men. “Gentlemen, I understand you are acquainted with Captain Gordon Burke, who was here for almost a month.”

“Yes, sir,” Westbrook said. “The captain was in this bed right next to me for the entire time he was here.” He gestured to an unoccupied cot. “I got to know him quite well.”

“And I did too,” Byars said.

“Good. I’m his brother, Sidney Burke.”

Both men smiled and shook his hand.

Sidney gestured toward Darlene. “And this is my wife, Darlene.”

“Ma’am,” they said in unison, nodding at her.

“And this lady is Gordon’s wife, Elizabeth.”

There was an awkward silence as the two soldiers looked at each other. Then Westbrook said, “Ma’am, I’m—we’re sorry, but this comes to us as a complete surprise.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well … ah …” Westbrook looked at Sidney. “Mr. Burke, what we have to tell her is … well, is going to be a shock. Maybe we should tell you out of her presence and—”

“Tell me!” Elizabeth demanded, her eyes flashing.

The sergeant took a deep breath and said, “Ma’am, we had a nurse in this ward who was assigned to Captain Burke. Name was Lila Murray. Well … we watched a romance develop between them. Neither made any attempt to hide their feelings for each other.
Everyone who knew him here in the hospital thought the captain was unmarried … as did Miss Murray.”

A moan escaped Elizabeth’s lips, and she crossed her arms and gripped them tightly, trying to press the pain from her chest.

“I’ll get a nurse,” Sidney said.

“Ma’am,” Byars said, “we’re sorry to be the ones to tell you this.”

Elizabeth stared at the floor, gasping for breath, as Darlene held her.

Sidney returned with nurse Twila Duncan, who said to him, “Grab that chair over there by the other bed.”

When Elizabeth was seated, Twila checked her pulse, then bent down and looked in Elizabeth’s eyes. Twila asked Sidney to help her get Elizabeth on the adjacent bed. Then she pulled the privacy curtains around the bed and hurried away. She returned with a tin cup and disappeared behind the curtain.

Twila managed to force a little of the sedative from the cup between Elizabeth’s tightly drawn lips. Elizabeth choked and gasped, but after several minutes, the contents of the cup had been drained.

Two orderlies came to place Elizabeth on a cart, and Sidney and Darlene followed alongside the nurse to a small, sparsely furnished room outside the ward where they placed Elizabeth on a cot. Elizabeth began trembling all over, and Twila covered her with blankets, tucking them up under her quivering chin.

Finally the trembling began to subside, and Elizabeth’s eyelids started to droop. Sidney excused himself, saying he wanted to talk to Westbrook and Byars some more.

Sidney asked the two soldiers if Lila Murray had left her job at the hospital the same day his brother had been released, and they said yes. He thanked them for their help and returned to the small room to find that Elizabeth was asleep. Twila Duncan told them Elizabeth would sleep for a while; if they wanted to get away for a while, she would keep an eye on her.

Sidney and Darlene left the hospital hand in hand and walked to
the café they had noticed upon their arrival. They sat down at a table and ordered coffee, strong and black, then Sidney told Darlene what he had just learned from the two soldiers.

For a few minutes they simply sat and stared into space, then spoke at the same time.

“You go first,” Darlene said.

“I can’t believe Gordon would do something so stupid,” Sidney said. “How could he just walk out on Elizabeth and those children?”

“I know, I can’t believe it either. But Elizabeth and her children are going to need all the help and support we can give them. Just being angry won’t help.”

After his third cup of coffee, Sidney released a deep sigh and gave Darlene a sheepish grin as he admitted she was right.

When they returned to the small room in the hospital, they found a droopy-eyed Elizabeth sitting on the edge of the cot, holding her head in her hands. Nurse Duncan was not in the room. Darlene knelt in front of Elizabeth, gathered her in her arms, and held her close for a long time.

When she released her, Elizabeth looked up at Sidney and said, “Thank you both for being here. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.” She drew a shaky breath. “Now I need to get home to my children.”

When Elizabeth was able to walk, the three returned to Vernon Glover’s office and thanked him for his help. Glover told them he had no idea where Lila Murray went after she quit her job, but he gave them the name of the apartment building where she had lived.

When they arrived at the apartment, the landlord could only tell them that Lila had left quite suddenly. She was with a man in uniform. There was a captain’s insignia on his coat, and he had a bandage on his head.

On the train ride back to Boston, Elizabeth leaned on Darlene’s shoulder and wept.

Elizabeth walked into the house with Sidney and Darlene at her side, and the children came running to her. All three looked beyond their mother as they hugged her, and asked if their father was with her.

“No, he isn’t,” she said.

“Why not?” Evelyn asked.

Elizabeth looked at the maid, and said, “Cleora, would you heat up some tea and bring it into the parlor, please?”

“Yes, ma’am. I have some in the kitchen already hot. I’ll be right back with it.”

Elizabeth guided the children to a brocade couch in the parlor, where the girls sat down with Adam between them. Sidney and Darlene took seats nearby, and Elizabeth pulled up a straight-backed wooden chair in front of the children.

Cleora came in bearing a tray with a steaming teapot and three cups. When she had poured for Elizabeth, Sidney, and Darlene, she left the room.

Elizabeth took a few sips, then ran her gaze over the faces of her children, her mind at a loss as to how to tell them. Noting the fear in their eyes, she took a steadying breath and said, “Adam, Laura, Evelyn, your papa will not be coming home. Ever.” Haltingly, she told them what she had learned at the Potomac Hospital in Bethesda, pausing at times to compose herself and to carefully choose her words. “So you see, children, Papa has chosen to go away with this woman rather than to come home to us.”

Laura left the couch and rushed into her mother’s arms, tears blurring her vision. Evelyn joined them.

Adam sat staring at his mother and sisters, then suddenly sprang from the couch. Elizabeth reached out and grabbed his arm, but he jerked free and bolted for the door.

“Adam!” Elizabeth cried.

They heard the rapid pounding of his feet as he ascended the winding staircase.

“I’ll see to him, Liz,” Sidney said, rising from his chair.

Before he reached the parlor door, a sound of breaking glass came from upstairs. Sidney saw Elizabeth start to get up and said, “I’ll take care of him, Liz. You stay with the girls.”

Darlene joined mother and daughters as Elizabeth held the girls against her, trying to comfort them with the gentle murmur of her familiar voice.

Sidney bounded up the stairs and ran down the hall toward the master bedroom where he heard more glass shattering. When he reached the open door, he saw three windows broken out and Adam throwing his father’s bust of Napoleon Bonaparte through a fourth window.

“What are you doing, Adam!”

“I’m throwing away everything my father owned! I don’t want to see anything of his ever, ever, ever again!”

Sidney took hold of Adam’s shoulders, but he pulled loose from his uncle’s grasp, screaming, “I hate him! I don’t want anything of his left in this house!”

Sidney reached for him again, and Adam jumped back. “Leave me alone, Uncle Sidney!” He took another backward step, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the gold watch his father had given him. He threw it to the floor and smashed it with his heel. “I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!”

Sidney went to Adam, and this time the boy did not move away. Just as Sidney was wrapping his arms around Adam, Elizabeth, Darlene, and the girls came into the room.

“I hate Papa, Mama!” Adam wailed. “I hate him! I wish he had been killed in the war!”