Today, you will meet the second character from LINES OF COURAGE. But first, I hope you have pre-registered for the launch party on May 18th at 6 pm Mtn / 8 pm ET. If you haven’t signed up yet, it is FREE, and you can sign up HERE!
Here is an excerpt from LINES OF COURAGE. Kara and a superior officer on board the ambulance trains, Corporal Bryant, have been in the field to rescue injured soldiers. However, an explosion near them has now injured Corporal Bryant. Kara is his only chance to return to the train alive.
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Kara began feeling around for fallen branches. She needed two sticks as long as Corporal Bryant’s injured leg and as straight as possible. When she had what she wanted, she knelt beside him again. “I’m going to brace your leg. It will hurt, but you’ve got to let me do it.”
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Nearly fourteen.”
He lifted his head. “No thirteen-year-old is going to set my leg!”
“I said that I’m nearly fourteen, and I’m not setting your leg, only bracing it. Now, stop whinging and let me work.”
He nodded and she knelt beside his feet to begin working. Kara reached to the bottom of her dress, already torn from where it had snagged on a branch earlier, and ripped off a long piece.
“Captain Stout won’t like that you ruined your dress,” Bryant said.
“Captain Stout will have bigger reasons than this to be angry with me.” Kara slid the fabric beneath his leg and the branch, then began to wind them tightly together. He cried out at first, and she said, “Tell me about the shells. How did you know to tell me to get down?”
He gritted his teeth, breathing heavily until she asked the question again, more forcefully. “If it’s a longer whistle, two or three seconds, then it still has a ways to go before it lands. Very short whistle, directly overhead. It’s about to go off.” He stopped to breathe again. “Enough!” he shouted. “This won’t work.”
“It will work!” Kara said. “Be angry if you want, but I’m going to do this before another shell lands!”
He drew in a sharp breath, then said, “The shrapnel from an exploding shell is dangerous, but what got me is the blast wave of air. You shouldn’t be out here, Kara.”
“If I wasn’t, who’d be saving your life right now?” Kara smiled at him and finished the last knot on his leg. But the question she had intended to ask became lodged in her throat.
Because overheard, she had just heard a very short whistle, followed by a thud as the shell hit the ground.
Kara whispered, “Bryant, what does that mean?”
If you have not already purchased your copy, I hope you will consider doing so now. I’m very proud of this book, and I think it’s one that you are going to love!
As always, if you purchase through The King’s English, before checking out, ask for the book to be signed. I can personalize it to you as well, if you ask. After I sign it, they will send it to you.
9 Comments
With each character i get more and more excited!
eeeek each character makes me more and more excited!!!
I’m so excited for this book! I love your historical novels. I think it is so cool that we get to see different aspects of the war, from different countries & times.
Also, the part that Kara says “Now, stop whinging and let me work”, is “whinging” supposed to be “whining”? I don’t mean to be insulting, I’m just curious.
Whinging is a WW1-era British term for whining.
How interesting!
Cool, I’m learning something new everyday. 🙂 Thanks for responding!
Also, adding on to Jennifer,
whinging
Complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way.
I read your book in a day. I could not put it down! It was amazing. Thank you so much for writing such amazing books!!
The courage Cara holds is amazing, the memory of her will last a life time.