Read The Promise for Free Online Page B

the pale blue wall behind the nurse.
    “Mrs. Hillyard? The woman gently touched her arm, and Marion started. “You ought to get some rest. Dr. Wickfield set aside a room for you on the third floor.”
    “There's no need.” She smiled blankly at the nurse and walked away toward the far end of the hall. The sun was still bright in the window there, and she sat carefully on the ledge, to smoke her first cigarette in hours and watch the sun set over a white church in the pretty New England town. Thank God the town only looked remote, and was actually less than an hour from Boston. They had had no trouble bringing in the best doctors to consult, and as soon as he could stand it, Michael would be moved to a hospital in New York. But at least she knew that in the meantime he was in good hands. Medically, Michael had taken the worst of it. The Avery boy was pretty badly broken up, but he was awake and alive, and his father had had him taken to Boston by ambulance that afternoon. He had broken an arm, a thigh, a foot, and a collar-bone, but he'd be all right And the girl … well, it was her fault, there was no reason why she should … Marion stubbed out the cigarette with a quick crushing motion of her foot The girl would be all right too. She'd live anyway. The only thing she had lost was her face. And maybe that was just as well. For a fraction of a second Marion wanted to fight the anger, wanted to make herself sorry for the girl—just in case all that crap about Christian charity was true, just in case her feelings made some difference for Michael… just in case there was a God who would punish her by taking him. But she couldn't do it. She hated the girl with every ounce of her being.
    “I thought I left orders for you to get some rest.” Marion turned toward the voice with a start, and then smiled tiredly when she saw her own Dr. Wickfield. Wicky. “Don't you ever listen to anyone, Marion?”
    “Not if I can help it. How's Michael?” Her brow furrowed and she reached for another cigarette.
    “I just looked in on him. He's stable. I told you, he'll come out of it. Give him time. His entire system received one hell of a shock.”
    “So did mine when I got the news.” He nodded sympathetically. “You're sure there won't be permanent damage from this?” She paused for a moment and then said the dread words. “Brain damage?”
    Wickfield patted her arm and sat next to her on the window ledge. Behind them the little town made a scene pretty enough for a postcard. “I told you, Marion. As best we can tell, he'll be fine. A lot depends of course on how long he stays under. But I'm not frightened yet.”
    “I am.” They were two tiny words in the mouth of a very strong woman, and they surprised her doctor, as he looked at her closely. There were sides to Marion Hillyard that no one even guessed at. “What about the girl?” she went on. Now she was the Marion he knew again, eyes narrowed behind the smoke from her cigarette, face hardened, fear gone.
    “Not much is going to change for her. Not for the time being anyway. She's been in stable condition all day, but there's not a damn thing we can do for her. For one thing, It's much too soon, and for another, there are only one or two men in the country who can cope with that kind of total reconstruction. There is simply nothing left of her face, not a single bone intact, not a nerve, not a muscle. The only thing not totally wiped out are her eyes.”
    “The better to see herself with.” Dr. Wickfield jumped at the tone of Marion's voice.
    “Michael was driving, Marion. She wasn't” But Marion only nodded in answer. There was no point in going over it with him. She knew whose fault it was. It was the girl's.
    “What happens to someone like that if there's no repair work done? Will she live?”
    “Unfortunately, yes. But she'll lead a tragic life. You can't take a twenty-two-year-old girl and turn her into a horror like that and expect her to adjust. No one