My Favorite Scenes: A Time to Heal

Image: A view from the Lincoln bedroom inside the Wills house, NPS photo; National Park Service, Gettysburg; https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/news/wills-house-november-2021.htm

What does the Lincoln bedroom at the Willis House in Gettysburg have to do with one of my favorite scenes in A Time to Heal (the third book in the Saint Maggie series)? Read on!
 
First, the scene involves some impulsiveness on the part of Maggie’s daughter, Frankie. Of all the characters, she is probably the on most likely to leap into action without thinking things through.
 
Here Frankie is 17 years old and has just learned that her beau, Patrick, has been injured from friendly fire and has been sent to Philadelphia to recover at Mower U.S. General Hospital. Anxious to see him and, hoping to bring him back to Gettysburg with her, Frankie packs up, sneaks off, and takes a train to Philadelphia, but leaves a note on the kitchen table to everyone know where she has gone.
 
Frankie makes it safely to her destination and to Patrick’s side, where she learns that he has been able to get a four-week furlough while he recovers. The two then begin their journey back to Gettysburg.
 
But they hit a snag when the train stops for the night in York. Patrick’s wound makes it impossible for him to find rest on the station’s wood benches, but the couple does not have enough money for a hotel. Fortunately, the night telegrapher tells them that his mother’s guest house is affordable and offers to take them there.
 
They are delighted to be able to get some rest. But when they arrive at the guest house, they find that there’s one other, awkward snag.