Audrey and Sigmund, Chetham Convalescent Home

When he'd awoken, bleary-eyed and with a banging head, it wasn't to high ceilings, wrought iron beds, bedpans, a fireplace and the overpowering stench of disinfectant he'd expected to wake to; he'd assumed he'd wake to Hell, not the indisputable sense of civility that cocooned him. 

They told him he'd broken an arm and that his surgeons had just about managed to salvage his shattered collar bones, fractured radius and ruptured spleen. In truth, it was a miracle he'd survived. Front-line triage and treatment had saved his life, but his nurse was nowhere to be found then and there. 

When she finally did resurface, he'd done a double take at the young woman standing before him, years younger than the battle-hardened WRNS lieutenant he'd come to know. 

They were both strapped with orders to stay and recuperate in England for the foreseeable future… nothing either had compunction with. His doctors ordered him up and on his feet into his second week to be walked around the grounds of the Home on the arm of his guardian angel. In the meantime, Albie wrote to express his relief at their survival and at Xanthos' safe return into their company's care. 

His parents caught the first train to Chetham upon word of his return to England… and while he adored the old fuddy-duddies to no end, he dreaded making introductions. "Mumma, Pa… this is Audrey, the young woman who has saved my life countless times and whom I wish to make my wife… once I peck up the bloody courage to ask her, of course."

Part of The Sharpshooter & The Vet series.