“I need two bowls of stew,” she said, entering the kitchen. Miss Hampton nodded and grabbed two clean bowls from the stack. While she waited, Jeanette picked up a basket of freshly sliced bread and a plate with a pat of butter, and was then ready to deliver the whole lot. Maybe Dr. Wayment would have given up and gone by now, but no, he was still there when she came back into the dining room.
A few minutes later, Olivia set a plate of beans and cornbread in front of him, not that Jeanette was paying the slightest attention to him or the food he had ordered whatsoever. She simply didn’t care.
As the meal came to a close and the girls were gathering up the dirty linens, the doctor finally slipped out of the room, and Jeanette felt as though she could breathe for the first time in an hour.
“How was Tom’s checkup?” she asked Harriet as they took off their aprons, even though the doctor had already given her a brief report.
“It went very well. Dr. Wayment’s still pleased with how Tom’s healing up.” Harriet tossed her apron into the dirty linen basket, then turned to face Jeanette. “What’s going on between you two?”
Jeanette’s cheeks instantly flushed—they were as warm as they’d be if she’d just taken fresh bread from the oven. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“He spent the entire meal studying you like you were a specimen under his microscope. Did you have a falling out?”
Jeanette glanced around to make sure Abigail wasn’t within earshot. She hadn’t spoken to her sister yet, but now, maybe there was no reason to. If Dr. Wayment wouldn’t be budged, there was no need to go into it.
“I asked him about becoming a nurse, just like I told you I would, and he said I could come work for him and become trained. This was just last night, right after the wedding.” She paused. “Speaking of that, why are you down here? You’re supposed to be spending time with your new husband.”
“I’m filling in for Elizabeth. Rose is sick today.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Jeanette took this as a sign of how truly distracted she’d been—she hadn’t even noticed that Elizabeth was missing from the meal service.
“I asked Elizabeth if she’d like Dr. Wayment to take a look at Rose while he was here, but she said she didn’t feel it was that serious. Rose just needs some time with her mama.” Harriet then fixed Jeanette with a look. “Now, back to you. What happened with the doctor?”
“He told me he changed his mind. Just like that. No discussion whatsoever—he just pronounced it, like some kind of decree that couldn’t possibly be altered.”
“Well, it is his choice to make, if he hires someone or not,” Harriet pointed out.
“That’s true, but his way of telling me—he was . . . well, he confuses me. I can’t decide if he’s a well-educated gentleman or a bear from the backwoods.”
Harriet laughed. “I’ve noticed that he does seem a bit lacking in the social graces. But he’s an excellent doctor, and I think you’d do well to keep trying to work with him.”
“If I can’t change his mind, I’ll go speak to the other doctors in town. I understand there are two. Surely one or the other would be willing to work with me. I’m not going to give up on this.”
“Good for you,” Harriet said, looking at her appraisingly. “This is the most fire and spunk I’ve seen in you since you came here. I think it’s very becoming.”
Jeanette blushed again. “I don’t know about that.”
“Well, I do, and it makes for a lovely change. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on my husband.” Harriet grinned and then trotted up the stairs. Jeanette watched her go, a slight smile on her face. Tom and Harriet were as perfect together as two people could be—much like Elizabeth and Mr. Brody. It warmed her heart to see her friends finding such happiness. As for her, she wanted to be a nurse. That was where her greatest happiness would come from, and if Dr. Wayment refused to be reasonable, she’d find someone who would.
***
The afternoon train had brought in a higher-than-usual number of passengers, and it seemed they were all rowdy after their long journey. Jeanette could hardly hear herself think as she moved between tables.
She approached the last diners under her care, a group of four men who were dusty from their travels, and probably tired, too. “What can I get for you?” she asked, ready to take their orders.
“Well, now,” one of the men said, turning to appraise her. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing? I noticed that all the gals here are right nice, but I think you’re the best of the lot.”
Jeanette ignored his comment. “What would you like to eat?”
“How about if you just sit here with us and let us feast on you?” He laughed, and his friends joined in.
Panic rose in Jeanette’s throat. “I’ll come back in a minute after you’ve had a chance to decide.” She took a step away, but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
“I wasn’t done talking to you,” he said, his voice low. “And since I’m the customer, you have to do whatever I say.”
Jeanette couldn’t breathe. She glanced around the dining room, looking for help, but all the other girls were busy. Then she saw Mr. Brody pushing his way toward them, and relief filled her.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said affably, coming up behind them. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve got one of my waitresses in a rather compromising position.”
The man dropped Jeanette’s wrist as though it had burned him. “You Brody?”
“I am.”
“Well, I was just telling this little miss that the customer is always right. Ain’t that so? Don’t you want to keep your customers happy?”
Mr. Brody raised an eyebrow. Jeanette wanted to turn and run, but she found herself frozen to the spot. “Sir, my first responsibility is to the young ladies under my care, and I don’t enjoy seeing them getting pulled around as though they have no free will of their own. I invite you to stay and have some dinner, but I’ll bring your plates myself. What would you like?”
The man stood up and stepped nose to nose with Mr. Brody. For whatever reason, his friends remained seated. “I don’t think I like your style of hospitality.”
“I believe you’re about to like it a lot less.” Mr. Brody opened the side of his suitcoat, where his Colt remained holstered at all times. “I invited you to stay, and now I’m inviting you to leave. How much encouragement will you need?” He opened his coat a little wider, making his meaning all the more clear.
The man glowered at him for a moment, then stomped off. His friends slowly rose and trailed after, one casting an apologetic look at Jeanette.
She sagged against one of the chairs, all the strength gone from her. Mr. Brody took her by the elbow and marched her out onto the porch, where she took deep breaths of fresh air.
“Are you all right, Miss Peterson?” he asked.
She didn’t know how to answer that question. All she could think about was that grip on her wrist, the horrible feeling of not being able to get away.
“I’ll be all right,” she said after a long moment. “I appreciate your help, Mr. Brody.”
“I keep an eye on the dining room for several reasons, not just to make sure the meals are paid for,” he explained. “No one will ever do a harm to any of my girls as long as I have power to stop it. That’s a promise I make to you.”
“Thank you.” No one had ever made her such a promise before. It felt like a warm blanket being wrapped around her shoulders.
“If you’ll recall, I taught Elizabeth how to shoot a gun,” he went on. “I made the same offer to every member of my staff, and that offer is still good today. If you like, we can begin this very evening.”
Jeanette was shaking her head before he’d even finished his sentence. “I don’t think so. I could never shoot someone,” she said. “Elizabeth is much braver than I am.”
“She didn’t think she was brave either, but in the moment, she found the courage she needed.” Mr. Brody peered into
her eyes. “If you change your mind, just let me know.”
“Thank you, Mr. Brody. I will.”
He nodded once and took a step away. “Are you ready to go back in? I’d invite you to stay out here and recover for a moment, but I’m not sure those men are really gone, and I don’t want you out here alone.”
“I agree.” Jeanette squared her shoulders. “I’m all right. Let’s go back in.”
He held the door open and she went inside, determined not to let this ruin her work day. She had an honest wage to earn.
***
The hand shot out and grabbed Jeanette’s wrist, making her cry in pain. He jerked her backwards and brought his face into hers. “Not a word,” he hissed, spittle from his mouth flying into her eyes. “Not a word of this to anyone, do you hear?”
She nodded, forcing her head to move.
He let go and she ran, her knees like jelly, stumbling up the steps, falling onto her bed.
“Jeanette!” A hand shook her shoulder.
She swung at it, trying to get away, but then she recognized her sister’s voice.
“Shhhh. You’re just having your nightmare. It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
Jeanette sat up and rubbed her eyes. The ladies’ dormitory room in the attic of the hotel was still dark, so it might be the middle of the night. “Did I wake anyone else?” she asked.
“Olivia. She went downstairs to get you a glass of water. Harriet moved in with Tom, remember, so there’s just the three of us.”
Jeanette took a long, shuddering breath. “Did I say anything?”
“No. You just cried out.”
That was a blessing. Jeanette didn’t want to have to explain anything to Olivia.
A moment later, Olivia returned and pressed a cool glass in Jeanette’s hand. “Thank you,” Jeanette said after taking a long sip. “Please go back to sleep. I’m all right now—I’ve just had nightmares off and on since I was a child.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t a stomachache from the pie I made for dinner,” Olivia said as she turned back to her bed, and Jeanette recognized that the girl was offering a priceless gift—she wasn’t going to ask any questions.
“I actually thought the pie was quite good.” Jeanette finished her water and set the cup on her nightstand, then lay back down and pulled the covers up under her chin. Abigail patted her on the shoulder before returning to her own bed. Jeanette stared into the darkness for a long time, wondering when these dreams would stop, wondering when the morning would come.
Chapter Four
“There you are, Miss Peterson.” Mr. Brody handed her a newspaper opened to the advertisement page. There in black and white was the call for young ladies of good breeding who were in search of work. Jeanette opened her mouth to speak, to apologize that he’d gone through the trouble when she was staying after all, but she couldn’t make her voice function. He was no longer standing there anyway—he’d moved on down the hall after handing her the paper. She took a deep breath. He’d wanted to hire two more girls—this advertisement wasn’t just to replace her. He’d still benefit from it, and it wasn’t a waste of time after all.
She placed the newspaper on the stand in the hallway and went outside to join the other girls who were doing the laundry. There was a slight cloud cover this afternoon, so the sun wasn’t quite as relentless as usual. She took a deep breath and welcomed the break from the sweltering heat. She had no idea what a Kansas winter was like, but she’d best ask if she wanted to be prepared. This state didn’t seem to do anything by halves.
“Dr. Wayment.” Abigail straightened from her spot over the washboard as the doctor rounded the corner of the hotel. Jeanette shot to attention. What could he possibly want now? Hadn’t he already interrupted her work enough?
“May I speak with you, Miss Peterson?” he asked, coming to her elbow.
She turned and placed a hand on her waist. “It’s the strangest thing, Doctor. You said you feared I’d be underfoot, and yet, that’s exactly where you seem to be—first in the dining room, and now, out here. If anyone were to be in the way, I believe that would be you.”
“You’re right, and I apologize. In fact, I have a lot of apologizing to do. Can you walk with me?”
Jeanette glanced over to where Abigail, Olivia, and Harriet stood, their mouths open with shock. She dared say she had surprised them with her newfound assertiveness. She was rather surprised herself. “Do you mind if I step away for a moment?”
The three girls shook their heads without speaking.
“Yes, I can speak with you. But I don’t have long—we need to have this all up on the line before the next train.”
He nodded his understanding. “What if I make you a bargain? You spend ten minutes with me, and then I’ll help you with the laundry.”
Jeanette stared up at him. “Surely you’re joking.”
“No, not at all. I’m rather handy with a washtub.”
She hardly knew what to make of this. “All right, then. It’s a deal.”
They strolled out past the new construction of Tom and Harriet’s house and entered the small grove of trees that lined the back border of the hotel property. Dr. Wayment didn’t say a thing until they’d reached the edge of it and were staring out across the acres and acres of nothingness beyond.
“Miss Peterson, I made a mistake earlier, and I’ve come to beg your forgiveness,” he said, turning to face her. He took off his hat, and the breeze ruffled his hair. It looked like black licorice in the sun. “I never meant to make you feel like an inconvenience or something that would be in the way. I was speaking out of fear, and that wasn’t fair to you. If you’re still agreeable, I’d like to reinstate my offer for you to work with me.”
She took a step back, afraid to hope. “You were speaking out of fear? What do you mean?”
He looked down at the ground and scuffed the toe of his shoe in the dirt. Jeanette had never seen him look even the slightest bit insecure before—this was a new development. “I’m not sure I’m the teacher you need, or that I could effectively teach anyone, for that matter. Aside from that, I’ve always worked on my own. I don’t know if I could take on an assistant—I might be too selfish with my assignments.”
“What if we were to try it and see?” she suggested, more than happy to take this small branch he was offering. “We don’t need to think of this as a permanent arrangement. We’d both know within a few weeks if it was going to work, and we could choose at that time to go our separate ways. If that were to happen, I might ask you to introduce me to the other doctors in town so I could continue.”
He pulled a face. “I’d just as soon not send you to them. Johnson is a twit, and Henderson is a womanizer. They’re both decent physicians, but they’d make terrible employers. No, Miss Peterson, I fear I’m your best bet, as clumsy and ineffective as I am.”
“Let’s strive to make this work, then,” she said lightly, her voice belying the fact that her heart was pounding a million miles an hour. Had she really talked him into it, or had his own guilty conscience done the trick? Whatever it was, she was immensely grateful. “There’s just one thing. My replacement.”
“That’s right. Well, let’s hope she arrives soon. If we’re to give this an honest try, we should start soon, don’t you think?”
“The sooner the better,” she agreed. There was nothing in the world she wanted more.
They turned and made their way back across the yard to the laundry area, where the other girls were hard at work. “All right now, I promised to help you out, didn’t I?” Dr. Wayment took off his suitcoat and draped it across the railing of the porch, set his hat on top of it, then rolled up his sleeves. “My mother took in laundry when I was small, and I often have an abundance of dirty linens at my clinic. I’m an old hand at this.”
Abigail motioned toward the washtub. “We’re very curious to see your talents in this area, Doctor.” She flicked a curious look at Jeanette, and Jeanette knew it would soon be time to tell her
sister everything.
Dr. Wayment grinned. “Very well. Stand back—I do tend to splash.” He grabbed a tablecloth from the top of the stack, brought it up against the bar of soap, and then moved it to the washboard, giving it a vigorous scrub. Then he rinsed it, wrung it out, and handed it off to Olivia, who had been hanging the wet things on the line.
“If you ever find that being a doctor doesn’t suit you anymore, you could always come work here,” Harriet said. “Our linens are a never-ending task.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Jeanette expected that one tablecloth would be enough for the doctor to prove his point, but he picked up the next, and the next, and she realized that he did mean to keep his promise. She fell into place beside him and went to work on the napkins. It was fun, chatting with a man while they did their work, and the girls asked him to share stories about some of his more fascinating cases. The laundry was done before Jeanette even knew it, and then it was time to prepare for the next train.
“I’ll be on my way and leave you ladies to it,” Dr. Wayment said, gathering up his hat and coat. “I must thank you for a very pleasant afternoon.”
“Pleasant? This is what you call pleasant, Doctor?” Olivia laughed. “I would certainly hate to see your idea of something unpleasant.”
“We’ll just say, it brought back a great many happy childhood memories. Good day, ladies. Miss Peterson.” He tipped his hat, and then he was gone.
“What on earth was that about?” Olivia asked, watching him go.
“I’ll have to tell you later. It’s almost time for the train.” Jeanette glanced over at her sister. She had to talk to Abigail before she said anything to anyone else.
The Dark and the Dawn (Kansas Crossroads Book 3) Page 3
