She was surprised when the major squatted down to help, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. "What's your name?" he asked. Lily flung the last of the silverware onto the tray with a clatter. "It'll be mud if I don't get back to the kitchen and pick up my orders," she snapped. The major took the heavy tray and stood with a sort of rolling grace while Lily scrambled inelegantly back to her feet. Just as she reached out to take the tray back someone pinched her hard on the bottom, and everything cascaded back to the floor again. Lily cried out, spinning around in search of the culprit. "Who did that?" she demanded. The unshaven, unwashed faces around her fairly glowed with innocence. It was obvious that no one was going to admit to the crime. The major cleared his throat, and the troops, so rowdy only an instant before, immediately fell silent. "That'll be enough," he said with quiet authority. "The next man who bedevils this woman will spend his leave time in the stockade. Is that understood?" "Yes, sir," the men answered in rousing unison. One picked up Lily's tray and handed it to her, brimming with shattered plates and cups and dirty silverware. She turned in a whirl of calico and stormed away, remembering the man who'd come into her mother's life years before and persuaded Kathleen to send Lily and her sisters west on the orphan train. Soldiers. They were all alike. In
( Linda Lael Miller )
[ Lily and the Major ]
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