[2016] The Precious Amish Baby

by Faith Crawford

  Emma nodded and numbly walked to the sitting room. Cole was splayed out on the floor, a series of comic books spread out in front of him. She glanced down and saw the familiar face of Jesse James smirking up at her.

  Emma sat down next to Cole and said, “Do you want to know what it says?”

  He nodded.

  “Jesse James and his gang rode out at sunset, heading towards the train tracks.” She read through the comic, her hand moving slowly over the words for Cole’s benefit. As she read, she heard Dr. Barlow enter. His footsteps were light and she could smell his peppery aftershave.

  Dr. Barlow sat down in a chair close to them and reached for the day’s paper.

  “Are you alright down there on the floor?” he asked.

  “I’m very well, thank you,” Emma replied, before turning back to the book.

  She could feel his eyes on her. He was watching her, but the gaze did not feel oppressive. When she glanced up at him she could see just the hint of a smile on his face before he returned to reading the paper.

  “Cole, it’s time for your supper, then,” Marie said, as she set a tray of coffee down next to Dr. Barlow. Cole jumped up and ran to her, leaving his book on the floor and not giving the two adults a second look. Emma picked up the comic book as Aiden poured them each a cup of coffee.

  “Cream and sugar?” he asked her.

  “Yes, if it is no trouble,” she stammered. Cream and sugar were treats back home, but he scooped them out with no regard to the price. He poured her a glass and she sipped it gratefully.

  “Cole is a sweet boy,” Emma said.

  “But rambunctious, I am told,” he replied.

  “Oh, he’s not so bad,” Emma said, with a shake of her head. “He just needs to be able to run and jump around every now and again. It’s very normal for boys.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that.” He paused and glanced out of the window before continuing. “Cole is not my natural son. Are you aware of that?”

  “Yes, although the details were not provided.”

  “I do not like to speak of them. I am the only one who knows. The truth would ruin the boy’s reputation.”

  “You can confide in me,” she said. “I will tell no one.”

  “When I first came to town there was a...house of ill-repute on Main Street. It has since been pushed outside the city lines. One of the first patients I treated was a woman of that house. She had caught a terrible sickness. I did the best I could for her, but it wasn't enough and she passed a few days later. Cole was always with her. He sat by her side and held her hand, and she wept and cried with worry for him. There was no one to take care of the boy if she died. He would be tossed into the street or sent to an orphanage to work. I promised her that I would care for him and watch over him. She was so grateful and so happy. It was not a promise I could break. He’s been with me ever since.”

  “Then you have no idea who his father is?”

  “None whatsoever,” he answered.

  “You’re a good man,” she replied, reaching over to take his hand and squeezing it tightly.

  They ate in silence, not from any awkwardness, but because the doctor was famished from being away from home for so long. He ate with a hearty appetite, but Emma barely picked at her food. She could remember the way she had run away from his shirtless form earlier. There would be no running tonight. She had not come here to be his nanny, but to be his wife.

  Their meal was over and Marie had cleared away all the plates, leaving the two of them alone. As they sipped their wine he reached over and took her hand, and she turned her palm up to meet his.

  “It was a pleasure to come home and see you here,” he said, looking up at her.

  She smiled and replied. “It was a pleasure to be here.”

  “You are happy, then, that you decided to come?”

  “Very happy. It’s all been very exciting,” she replied, and he smiled at her.

  Chapter Five

  She woke up in the morning to see him sitting up in bed reading the papers, coffee set out next to him.

  “Good morning,” he said, as she slowly sat up and stretched.

  “Good morning,” she replied. He held out an arm, and when she took it he pulled her close and she leaned against him. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep and she could not help but let out a loud yawn.

  “You are a very deep sleeper,” he said with a chuckle. “There was a fight outside last night and it didn’t bother you at all.”

  “I missed a fight?” she demanded, sitting up. “Who was it between? What happened?”

  “It was just a couple of drifters arguing over a bar tab,” he said, as he handed her a cup of coffee.

  She shook her head and said, “The dangers of growing up in a large family. Either you sleep heavily or you don’t sleep at all.”

  There was a knock at the door and then Cole peaked in. “Are you awake yet?” he asked in his most plaintive voice. “A caravan came into town. Can we go and see it?”

  They went together. Emma held a thin parasol over her head to block the bright sunlight. The street was crowded with actual cowboys and she happily gawked at them as they passed. There was a man selling oranges and another selling candies and sweets. Aiden bought candy for Cole and a sweet delicious orange for Emma.

  The blacksmith pounded on hot metal as his assistant shoed horses. Garishly dressed girls called out from saloons. They crooned to the doctor, who tipped his head at them but ignored their offers to come in and wet his whistle. The hot sun shone down overhead and a man walked past selling corn on a stick and tortillas. Cole ran ahead when he saw something exciting and then fell behind them when he saw a lizard or some other interesting thing in the street. All the while Aiden and Emma walked slowly, arm in arm, down the dusty road.

  As the days and then the weeks passed, they fell into an easy and relaxed rhythm. Aiden worked in his practice, seeing to his patients during the day, and occasionally making a housecall at night. Emma ran the household and watched Cole, and she still had more time to herself than she ever had before.

  She spent a great deal of time on Cole’s schoolwork, slowly improving his writing and reading. She purchased a chalkboard and showed him how to write his letters. He started with shaky As and unreadable Bs, but slowly he grew more confident and they built up to words, cat, bat, mat.

  Other days she helped Aiden in his practice. She gave out medicines and tinctures and once even helped the doctor to stitch up a bullet wound. A cursing cowboy came late at night, holding tight to his side. His shirt was sticky with blood. He sat down on the table and chugged heavily from an unmarked bottle filled with amber liquid. She watched as the doctor expertly stitched up the wound and sent the cowboy on his way.

  As the weeks passed, Emma became more familiar with the town. She knew the sheriff and his deputies, she knew the postman and the women who worked at the general store. She even got to ride her first horse. This once strange and dusty place was starting to feel like home.

  The dressmaker came and she ordered dresses in all manner of fine fabrics, creating an entire new wardrobe. All of it was new and all of it was hers. There were no hand-me-downs, no sharing. No letting her sister borrow a dress only to have it returned with stains and cigarette burns. It was hers and hers alone. Sometimes she liked to lay the dresses out on the bed and just stare at their finery.

  She had taken a huge gamble coming here. Anything could have happened to her. She could have married someone mean, or gross, or old, but instead she had managed to capture this wonderful, kind, handsome man. Had she stayed in Virginia she would probably be working as a maid or a nanny. Or worse, still at home working as maid and nanny to her family without earning cent.

  It was a cold and windy night when they sat down to dinner of roasted rabbit and blackberries. Emma and Aiden had been laughing and joking at some silly thing Cole had done during the day when they heard a sudden shout from the street below.

  “Open up the door!” c
ame a scream. It was a man’s voice. He sounded large and angry. Emma sat up straight and looked to the doctor, but he remained calm. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and then reached for her hand.

  He whispered, “Don’t worry,” but she could see the concern he was trying to hide. “Stay up here and lock the door. Don’t answer it no matter what you may hear.”

  “What?” Emma demanded. She stood up with him and followed him out of the dining room. “Don’t go down there. You don’t have to go down there. We can send for the sheriff,” she said. The man below was banging on the door, and the house reverberated from his blows.

  “It’s fine,” he said, kissing her hand and then letting her go. “I know how to deal with lawbreakers.”

  “No,” she said grabbing his arm. “Don’t leave us up here. Stay here with us. You don’t have to go to them.”

  The banging on the door increased. It was a thundering sound that echoed through the house. The men below were shouting and screaming for the doctor. It sounded like there were ten thousand men down there. He leaned down and kissed her and then, straightening his jacket, he descended the stairs.

  “Lock the door,” he said to her. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't leave him alone down there to face what was coming. He opened the door and then backed quickly into the room. Emma gasped as she saw a scruffy looking bandit enter the house, a knife pointed at Aiden's chest.

  “Took you long enough,” the bandit growled, and then he looked up. Emma met his cold dark eyes and gave a gasp before closing and locking the door.

  “Do you have a sweet treasure hidden upstairs?” she heard the bandit ask.

  “Leave my wife and child alone,” Aiden said. “I will treat you and then you must go on your way. I will permit no violence here.”

  “You don’t give orders to me,” the man said.

  Emma stumbled back away from the door, pressing her hands to her mouth. What was she supposed to do now? She looked up and down the hallway as if the solution would just magically appear to her. In a panic, she ran to the window in the sitting room. Below her, about four men were hustling into the doctor’s office. She heard the door slam below them and she pulled away from the window.

  “What’s going on?” Cole asked, as he came into the room, rubbing his eyes.

  “There are...” she said, then she shook her head and took the boy by the hand and led him back to his bedroom. “Everything’s fine,” she whispered. Her heart was pounding, and she wondered if Cole could feel her heartbeat through her hand. They walked up the stairs to the third floor and into Cole’s bedroom.

  “No, it isn’t,” he said, as he climbed into bed. “I can hear men shouting.”

  She could hear them too. There were loud shouts and screams, although thankfully none were coming from Aiden. She looked down, as if she could see what was happening through three floors of the house, but there were only the shouts and the sounds of something heavy moving.

  “I know,” she said, shaking her head and glancing behind her. “We need to get the sheriff, but we’d have to go downstairs to get out.” She looked worriedly behind her. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. They were too high up to jump from the windows, and the bandits would surely hear them if they tried to take the stairs to the back or front door.

  “I can climb down the trellis and get the sheriff,” Cole said, excitedly. Emma could see her hand shaking, and she put it down.

  “No,” Emma said, shaking her head, as Marybeth and Marie appeared in the doorway. “It’s too dangerous. You’re just a little boy, Cole. I’ll not send you out into the darkness at night with bandits at our door.

  “I can do it!” he said. Immediately he was up and scrambling at the window.

  “Go, boy,” Marie hissed, as she and Marybeth held onto each other. “Run and get the sheriff.”

  Emma peered down the back of the house, where she could see a thin trellis reaching down to the ground. She would never make it. But Cole might. She couldn’t believe she was letting him do this. She was supposed to protect him

  There was no holding him back. Shoeless, he climbed through the window, and Emma watched aghast as the little boy began scrambling down the trellis. There was no moon. It was so dark out that after a few feet Cole was nothing more than a fuzzy shape below her, and then she couldn’t see him. She heard him land on the ground and she whispered down to him, “Cole?”

  “I’m fine,” he answered. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry, mom,” he said.

  Chapter Six

  “Go to your room and lock the door. Don’t make a sound,” Emma whispered to Marybeth and Marie.

  “What about you, ma’am?” Marybeth asked. “You are going to hide with us, are you not?”

  “I can’t,” Emma replied. “They’ve seen me. They know I’m up here, but they don’t know about you. Stay silent until Cole returns. Go!” With frightened eyes the two servants hurried back into their room and closed the door behind them, while Emma wrung her hands. Their lives and safety now depended on young Cole running to the sheriff and getting help.

  What if something happened to him? What if he got lost, or someone grabbed him? How could she have let him go? Emma walked down the stairs to the second floor. Below her, the house was suspiciously quiet. She wondered if the bandits had left. Maybe all they wanted was some morphine. She hoped Aiden haddone whatever they had asked. She didn’t want him to be a hero. She just wanted him to live to see the morning.

  She pressed her ear against the door that led to the stairs, but heard nothing. She was desperate for some sign of what was happening down there. She was aware that at that very moment Aiden could be lying in a puddle of blood while she waited like a coward on the other side of the door. She wouldn’t manage if something happened to him. She and Aiden had only just met and now they were already threatened with separation. She paced in front of the door, focusing on keeping her feet as quiet as possible. She froze when she heard footsteps on the stairs.

  “Aiden?” she whispered, her face only inches from the door.

  “Open up. Let me in.” The voice on the other side was hoarse and rough and she could barely hear him. Desperately she wrenched the door open, and then her mouth fell open in a scream. It wasn’t Aiden. It was a tall, thin bandit. He had a knife in one hand, and it gleamed in the candlelight.

  He put his finger to his lips as Emma backed away slowly.

  “Don’t scream,” he said, as he reached forward and grabbed her arm. She fought against him, struggling to free her arm. “You fight and I’ll mark that pretty little face of yours,” the bandit hissed, pulling her close and pressing his knife against her throat, but stopping short of drawing blood.

  He smelled terrible. It was the scent of his sweat mingled with the sweat of his horses and the smoky smell of a campfire. His face was speckled with an early beard. When he smiled she could see that his teeth were yellow and green. He held her arm tightly and her skin ached where his fingers dug into her flesh.

  Emma struggled not to trip as the bandit pushed her down the dark stairs. The long, sharp knife was still in his hand, and she could occasionally feel it pressed into her back. Tears swam in her eyes and she cursed herself for opening the door. She hadn’t recognized the voice as Aiden’s. She never should've let him in. It was the one thing Aiden had warned her not to do.

  Aiden’s office was crowded with men. There was one man slumped in the corner, clearly dead, while another lay on the table in the back. Blood covered the floor. Two men stood in one corner cleaning their guns. Another stood, glancing out the window, as he picked his teeth. Aiden was measuring something out when Emma was brought in.

  He froze, looking into her eyes and then at the bandit with the knife. “How dare you touch my wife? She has nothing to do with this. She’s an innocent woman. Leave her be.”

  “Do what we say and no one gets hurt. Keep arguing with me and see what happens to your wife.”

  “I’ve done all I can for your friend,” Aid
en said, gesturing to the man on the table in the back. “You need to take him and leave.”

  “We’ll take all the morphine you have,” one of the bandits said, reaching for a large bottle on the top shelf.

  “No,” Aiden said, his voice firm. They were surrounded by half a dozen armed, dangerous and angry men, and still he did not stutter or stammer in fear. Emma watched him keeping her eyes focused on him as the bandit with the knife tightened his grip on her arm. She wished she was stronger. She wished she was a man and could hit and punch as well as them. But next to these bandits she felt terribly small and weak.

  “Release her,” Aiden ordered.

  Instead, the bandit pulled her close, wrapping one arm around her waist and putting the knife at the hollow of her throat. She could feel the cool metal of the blade against her skin. She gasped as the bandit moved his hand just a little and she felt the slightest trickle of blood fall down her neck.

  “Take everything, boys,” the bandit said. “And somebody grab Mick. We’re leaving.”

  The men began to ransack the practice. They ripped medicine from the cabinets, overturned chairs and broke the glass. Trapped in the bandit’s arms, Emma winced at the sound of destruction all around her. It was Aiden’s practice, his life’s work, and these bandits were ripping it apart.

  She could feel the sweat of the bandit that held her. She could smell his rank breath. She struggled to free herself, but the bandit just held her closer. Then they were done. The practice was destroyed and the bandits had filled their bags with all the drugs they could get their hands on.

  They filed past her, each on sneering as they went, carrying their fallen comrades between them.

  “All done here. Thanks for your help, doc,” the last bandit said, and then he released Emma and pushed her towards Aiden, who caught her in his arms. “And if you ever tell anyone we were here, we’ll come and find your pretty wife. I don’t think you’ll want her again once we’re done with her.”

  Emma clung to Aiden, who wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly as the bandit spat once the floor and then stepped out into the night.