by Faye Sonja
"But you work plenty hard. Ten, twelve hours a day you are out there in the woods, providing for me and the town. Everybody knows that, Kit." She reached her hand out and stroked his arm.
"Do they? They likely assume that Jedediah does all the hard labor, and I only supervise him," Kit said, swallowing. "Which, to be fair to them, is how it is."
"It is not," Isabella admonished. "I’ve seen how hard you work Kit, twice as hard as a man with both arms. What you've got to realize is that me having my own job doesn't take away from that. We each work hard, in different ways, and if other people can't see that, or they want to make up stories to fill their time with, let them. We are too busy to take any notice."
"I know I shouldn't pay any mind to what other people think," Kit agreed. "No man's words should impact me this way. I should only listen to God's words."
"And mine," Isabella teased, giving her husband a friendly nudge.
Kit chuckled, "Of course. You are the boss around here, after all."
"Kit..." Isabella said, worried that he wasn't teasing.
"Oh, I don't mean it. I know that you're only looking for me when you fuss. You only want me to be healthy."
"I only want the best for you," she reassured him. "If I come across like I'm being bossy, I am sorry. I know I can speak in such a straight manner that it takes some getting used to."
"You always speak with good intentions," Kit said, wrapping his arm around her. "Which is more than I can say for myself. I've got a temper, Isabella, I know that..."
"It's nothing I can't handle."
"You're a strong woman, Isabella. But that doesn't mean that you should have to put up with me coming home in such a rotten mood as I was tonight." He sighed. "You were right, you know, I was letting Jedediah get inside my head."
"I knew it," Isabella thought, but she knew better than to say it and to gloat. She did wish that Kit would keep his distance from the younger man though, or at least pay less notice to his words. If there was anyone in the town more backwards, or more superstitious than Kit, then it was Jedediah, and Isabella didn't like his influence on her husband. She understood the bond they shared as soldiers, but as far as she was concerned, back in White Elk they ought to think as individuals.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Kit said. "I want you to know that I'm not embarrassed of you, Isabella. I'm proud. Proud to call you my wife."
"And proud that I'm a doctor?" she asked, wondering if that was pushing her luck too far, but unable to restrain herself.
"Very proud," he replied quickly, reaching over to lay a peck on her cheek.
But Isabella wasn't so sure.
* * *
7
A Late Night Emergency
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“ How could I start over again,
here, even if I wanted to? "
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Two Weeks Later
"What on Earth is that?" Isabella asked, jolted awake by a commotion going on outside the front door of the house. She fumbled around for her slippers, her eyes foggy from sleep, feeling as though she was still half in a dream.
"It sounds like some creature or other outside the front door," Kit said, rising as well. "I think I ought to get the shot gun."
"Nonsense," Isabella said. "What do you think it is, for crying out loud? A bear? You do have a wild imagination." But she sat still for a second, her heart beating a little faster, as she waited for the sound again, praying that it wouldn't be a roaring sound, or the noise of claws grappling against the front door.
There was a loud knocking sound, and a desperate voice calling out. "Isabella! I need you! Please, come quick!"
"Mollie," Isabella gasped, leaping out of the bed, running towards the front entrance. She pulled the latch open and pulled the door back, to find Molly shivering there in nothing but a white night gown.
"Why, child, you're going to freeze to death out there!" Isabella reached an arm around Mollie and pulled her inside. "Quickly, come in." She raised her voice to call out to Kit. "Kit, hurry up and get some firewood on the fire!"
Kit stumbled into the door, rubbing his eyes. When he saw Mollie, and caught the state of her, he nodded and went outside to grab the wood.
"There there," Isabella said, rubbing Mollie's shoulders. "It's going to be warm in here soon. Just sit and wait tight." She looked down and saw that Mollie was shaking, and Isabella could tell it was from more than just the cold. She knelt down. "Mollie, what's wrong? Why aren't you at home? Where's Thomas?"
Kit came back in, carrying as much fire wood as he could manage in the basket, and began stoking the fire.
"I don't know," Mollie said, shaking, tears running down her cheeks. "He never came home last night."
Isabella and Kit glanced at each other, exchanging a concerned look.
"Isabella, something is wrong, I've still got that awful pain from the other day."
Isabella straightened her face up before she moved around in front of Mollie, not wanting to frighten the girl. "Where is the pain, Mollie?"
"In my stomach. Oh, Isabella, do you think it's the baby? I'm worried I'm already going into labor...it's too soon..." Mollie began to cry and Isabella reached out a hand to soothe her.
"Come on, you must remain calm. Panicking will only make things worse for you and the baby. Try to calm your breathing okay - in and out, in and out."
Mollie looked frightened, but she tried to take a few deep breaths.
"Now," Isabella said. "Can you show me exactly where the pain is coming from?"
"It's here," Mollie said, placing a hand at the top of her abdomen, in the middle of her chest.
Isabella smiled at her. "Now, that's not where the baby is, is it?"
Mollie thought for a second. "No, I suppose not. The baby is lower down."
"I think the baby is causing some discomfort, but he or she isn't in any danger. I think you're suffering from indigestion."
"Indigestion?" Mollie asked.
Isabella nodded. "A glass of warm milk ought to settle it down." She glanced at Kit who nodded, and headed into the kitchen to prepare the drink. "Now, let's move you over to the fire, while Kit makes the milk for you. You're still shaking."
"I was so frightened...I thought something was wrong..."
"It's okay," Isabella comforted her, helping her to a seat in front of the fire. "It's normal to be worried at this stage in a pregnancy."
"I was frightened that I might go into labor, and with Thomas not there, I panicked."
"I understand." Isabella reached out and patted her hand. "Do you have any idea where Thomas might be?"
Mollie shook her head, turning it as Kit brought in the glass of milk and placed it in Mollie's hands.
"Here you go dear. This ought to make you feel better. At least, according to the good doctor here, it will. She's the expert."
Mollie smiled. "Thank you." Then she turned back to Isabella. "You really are so good to me, Isabella. I don't know what I would do without you."
"Come now, you should get some sleep. You must stay the night here, rest up, and in the morning we will look for Thomas. Meanwhile, let's all pray that he returns home safely."
* * *
Isabella and Kit were up bright and early the next morning, as they watched Mollie sleeping peacefully on the small mattress by the fire.
"You sure knew what was ailing her last night," Kit said with admiration. "I thought you were real good, calming her like that. For a moment there, I was scared she was gonna go into labor right here, and have the baby on our floor!"
Isabella laughed. "No, it's still too early for that. Indigestion is common during pregnancy; it wasn't too difficult to diagnose."
"There you go, being all humble again."
Isabella took a sip of her tea. "You know, you did a good job last night as well, helping out."
He waved his hand. "Ah, I didn't do anyth
ing."
"Yes you did. You remained calm, and helpful, and made her feel comfortable and at ease. Those things are important when a patient is under stress. Now look at her sleeping so peacefully. She'll wake up sound and rested."
Kit raised an eyebrow. "At least until she realises that husband of hers is still missing."
Isabella sighed. "Yes, I am worried about that as well. Where on Earth do you think he might have got to, Kit? Come on now, you know him better than anyone; you must have some clue?"
Kit shrugged. "Probably went out hunting and got lost. The kid is an arrogant little one, I can tell you that."
Isabella looked horrified. "In the cold of last night? Oh Kit, if he got lost he could be half freezing to death by now." She raced over to the wardrobe and got Kit's jacket for him. "You need to go out and look for him at once. And don't you come back until you find him."
* * *
Kit came bustling back in through the door three hours later, with a freezing Thomas in tow. Mollie leapt up and ran to her husband, wrapping her arms around him, as Kit shook his head at Isabella. "I tell you what, a man with brains as dense as that has no right trying to take over this town," Kit grumbled, pulling his jacket off. "Who gets lost in the place they grew up in? No sense of direction, that kid. No common sense either, if you ask me."
"Kit, you shouldn't speak about him like that. You served together; you've been through so much together."
"That's what gives me the right," Kit commented. "Anyone who didn't know the kid spoke like that about him, I'd clip the fella over the ears. But I've earned the right. I was in charge of him while we were fighting, you know that? He used to have to obey my every command. Now he has the attitude like he runs the place. No respect for his elders."
"You're not that much older than him," Isabella pointed out, folding a sheet.
"Ten years. That's old enough."
Isabella put the sheet down and stood up on her tiptoes to give her husband a kiss on the cheek. "You're still looking after him, even after all this time, even back in civilian life. You had to rescue him this morning! He'll be properly humbled, don't you worry about that! You did good by him, Kit, and he will be grateful."
* * *
"Hello there Susan," Isabella beamed. "Why, I've hardly seen you at all recently."
Susan nodded, walking behind Isabella as they entered the practise. "I've been busy. Trekking around, taking my journal up into the mountains so I could record details, and writing them down for posterity. I'm trying to record a journal of this place, to capture it before it gets totally taken over by civilization."
Isabella looked around in shock. "You've been up in the mountains?"
Susan nodded. "The woods really aren't that scary once you get up there."
"Well, you're a braver woman than I am," Isabella stated, sitting down behind her desk.
Susan took a seat across from her. "I thought you didn't believe any of that stuff," she said teasingly.
"I don't, Susan. I'm a good, god-fearing woman, and I don't believe there's monsters in the woods. But that doesn't mean I'd go trekking through them all on my own."
Susan shrugged. "I don't mind."
"What does Jedediah make of it all, having you go off for long walks in the wilderness all on your own?"
Susan laughed. "I don't take that much mind. If I want to do something, I'll do it."
Isabella smiled. "I admire your spirit, Susan. So independent.”
"Well you're the same," Susan said. "You've got a mind of your own. You've got a job, and a profession all of your own. That's something to be admired."
Isabella rested her elbows on her desk, with her palms crossed and her head balanced against her hands for a moment, pondering this statement. "Yes, I suppose so."
"You suppose."
"Sometimes I wonder if I am actually needed out here. And if having this practise is such a good thing..."
"Kit?" Susan asked. "Is he still giving you a hard time about it?"
"He's settled down," Isabella started. "And he's being more supportive. But I still can't help but feel he'd rather I was at home. He still seems to think medicine is unnecessary, that practising it is some kind of conceit on my behalf. He thinks the town worked just fine before I got here."
Susan reached a hand out for Isabella's. "Don't feel like that. What you do is absolutely necessary, and you can't let Kit make you feel otherwise."
Isabella nodded. "So what have you come in to see me about today?"
Susan pulled her hand back and rolled down the sleeve of her other arm. She reached out and showed it to Isabella, revealing a swollen, red wrist.
"Oh dear," Isabella said, reaching a hand out to examine the swollen joint. "What on earth happened?"
"Took a tumble on one of my walks," Susan said. "I reached my arms out to break my fall, and ended up with a rather nasty sprain I'm afraid."
Isabella turned the wrist over in her hands, asking Susan to describe how the pain was, and whether she could move her fingers.
"A little," Susan said, wiggling them weakly, wincing as she did so.
"Now, it's a rather bad sprain, but not a break," Isabella said, reaching in her cupboard for a bandage and a splint. "You are a brave woman, Susan!" she had to admit with a little laugh. "Sitting and talking to me all this time, without any sign of pain showing on your face!"
Susan laughed as well as Isabella began to wrap the wrist. "We're both brave women, Isabella - we have to be to survive out here!"
* * *
8
Disaster Strikes
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“ How could I start over again,
here, even if I wanted to? "
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One Week Later
"I've told you before not to drink that," Isabella scolded, taking the mug from Kit's hands. It was a particularly cold frosty day, and Isabella wasn't looking forward to leaving the warm house to work in a cold office. She was already running late for work, and Kit was making her even later.
"This is water from the lake, Isabella, it's as pure as they come."
Isabella shook her head. "All water directly from the lake needs to be boiled before humans can drink it. I've told you this before, Kit...I thought you knew better than this by now."
"Ah, it's all pollycock," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "I've been drinking it since I was a boy, and it never did me no harm!"
"It's not fit for small children or pregnant women, Kit," Isabella said, trying to keep her voice calm, but she was rapidly losing patience. "Now, let me boil and cool this water before I send it down to Mollie."
Kit was huffing and puffing as he slammed the pot down on the stove, sending water spilling over the edge, onto the open flame.
"What's the matter now, Kit?" Isabella asked. "I can see you've gone and got yourself in a right mood now. Boiling water can't be that difficult, can it?"
"What are you trying to say?" Kit snapped, turning his head round over his shoulder. "Do you mean with just one arm?"
"No, of course not. That's not what I mean. Not physically difficult. I mean why do you have to make it so emotionally difficult, making a big fuss of simply boiling some water?"
"It's because you speak to me as though I'm a child again, like I don't know anything about sterilizing water."
"Well it seems like you don't know anything..."
"I had to take care of all my men while I was out in the battlefield," he snarled, cutting her off. "I know about clean drinking water. About how dirty water can cause disease, and great distress in men when they drink it." He looked down for a moment, as though he was recalling some terrible memory, before he turned back to the stove.
"Well then why do you argue with me about it? You know that little boy who came to see me down at the practice was sick from drinking bad water. Yet you're still against sterilization."
"B
ecause I never got sick from drinking outta that lake, that's why. All this fussing is doing no good. You're too over cautious, Isabella, doing things that don't matter, that don't make no difference."
"Yes, I suppose I am just a total waste of space in this town, aren't I?" Isabella said, flinging her tea towel down before she stomped out of the room. "Thanks for making me feel so wanted and needed, Kit!"
"Isabella!" he tried to call, but she was already gone, and he wouldn't see her again till nightfall.
* * *
"Come in and sit down," Kit said, ushering Isabella in out of the cold. "I wish you wouldn't stay out so late."
"I had a lot of patients to see," she said wearily. "It seems like there's an illness going around, half the town seems to be struck down with it."
"Well you won't do no good getting so exhausted that you can't function," Kit said, placing his hand on her back as he guided her to the table. "Are you hungry, my love?"
"Starving," she said. It had been hours since she'd eaten. In fact, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd had a bite of food, it had been such a busy day.
Kit was quiet for a few minutes while he prepared some bread for their supper. "I'm awful sorry about that fight we had this morning, Isabella. I didn't mean any of those words I said."
"About how I'm useless, and a busy-body who makes life harder for everyone?" she asked, glancing up.
"I never said those words." He placed a plate piled high with bread and butter in front of her.
"I know, I know. Perhaps I over-reacted. I just don't like to feel as though I'm not needed here. When you say things like you did, I wonder what use I am here. Why I ever came here."
"Hey," Kit said, sitting down beside her and grasping her hand in his. "Don't speak like that. You do a great service in this town, and you're more than needed." His eyes turned sad. "Besides, I don't like to think that the only reason you came here was to practice medicine." He looked almost hurt. "You don't regret coming here, do you? Marrying me?"
