Pride's Prejudice by Misty Dawn Pulsipher Page A

minutes.  They were in Les's truck, vacant land
whizzing past outside the windows, when William felt her stir in his
arms.  By the faint illumination from the dashboard lights, he saw Beth's
eyes rest on the bloody heap in her lap, which was cocooned in his own
hands.  She tried to pull free, but William held on.
    "Don't
do that.  If I let go it'll start bleeding again."
    Instead
she backed out of his arms and turned her face to the opposite window. 
William vaguely recalled a statistic about body language making up over ninety
percent of communication, and he flushed with fresh chagrin.  Beth
obviously wanted to be as far from him as possible.
    He
wanted to punch the window; relish the satisfying crack that would sound and
the inevitable pain that would follow.  Instead he said, "We're
almost to the hospital.  I had no idea it was twenty minutes away. 
Stupid small towns..." to which Beth replied with a sigh.
    Five
minutes later they pulled up to the Emergency Room doors.  Jenna and Les
hurried around to help Beth out, and William trailed behind, feeling out of
place.  Beth would probably freak if he touched her - even to help. 
It was probably best to stay on the sidelines.
    ~:~
    After
a twenty minute wait in an empty admitting room, Beth was finally called back
to a semi-private room.  For an instant she found herself echoing
William's diatribe about small towns.  Why had they waited twenty minutes
when there wasn't another injured person to be seen?  After another unnecessarily
lengthy wait the nurse tromped in.  To call her robust would really have
been an understatement.  She resembled a full-grown bison, and as she
checked the injury with a reproachful expression, Beth imagined her with
curling horns and a frothing mouth.  Her severe black hair was coiled on
top of her head in a sloppy beehive.  She was precisely the sort of nurse
you might find at elderly care centers where residents were routinely abused.
    "Whad'ya
go and do a thing like this for?"
    "…..It
was an accident," Beth said weakly.
    "That's
no excuse!" she chided, roughly cleaning the blood from Beth's finger and
causing her to cry out.
    "Quiet!"
she barked.  "Whad'ya expect?  Sure it's gonna hurt.  Maybe
you'll be careful next time."
    Beth
turned her head away, biting her cheek to distract herself with a different
pain and catching sight of William as she did so.  He looked livid -
angrier than Beth had ever seen him - lounging against the wall with eyes the
color of black thunderheads.  No doubt he agreed with the nurse - probably
thought she deserved the lecture and lack of gentility.  His chiseled
features emitted nothing like guilt or empathy.  Beth closed her eyes,
shutting out the sight of him, and let her head fall onto Jenna's shoulder as
the nurse bellowed for the doctor.
    ~:~
    William
watched Beth's face in the dim lighting of the truck's console.  Her
lashes were sweeping up and down like a tired butterfly.  Why did she
fight it?  After Nurse Beast had finished lecturing her, the doctor came
in and stitched Beth's finger.  He'd shot her up with a handsome dose of
morphine and discharged her with a prescription for pain killers - ignoring
Nurse Beast's protestations and muttering about "life lessons." 
William still felt like spitting nails at the thought of her, with her Marge
Simpson hair and linebacker build.  Why exactly was she in the medical
field?  She had about enough compassion to fill one nostril.
    William
let his eyes fall on Beth, who leaned against her door with her hands in her
lap, obviously distancing herself from him.  Upon leaving the hospital
Beth had tried to hand his jacket back, but he flatly refused.  It was the
least he could do, after causing the whole catastrophe in the first
place.  Beth must think he was such a jerk.  His intentions back at
Longbourn hadn't been vicious; he only wanted to watch her eyes light up with
indignation as he provoked her.  Then she went and chopped her