“Your patients need you,” she said, wanting to set his mind at ease so he’d be comfortable leaving them and able to concentrate on his work. “This is why you went to the university. You can help them.”
He nodded, a less than confident gesture.
Ellie surprised herself by placing her hand on his shirtsleeve and feeling the strength of his upper arm through the warm fabric. “You’re a good doctor. You have the knowledge and the ability to heal people.”
“God does the healing, Ellie. I just administer the treatments.”
“Then go do your job. We’ll be waiting for you.”
He looked into her eyes, and she knew there must have been something more she could have said or done, but she was at a loss to know what.
“Thank you, Ellie,” he said softly.
She smiled, thinking how silly it was for him to thank her when she owed him everything.
He leaned down then, taking her chin on his forefinger and raising her face to his, and touched his lips to hers in a sweet, warm melding of damp flesh and unspoken feelings.
Ellie was so surprised, she didn’t move, didn’t breathe, didn’t do anything but register the feel of his mouth on hers, the scent of his hair and his damp shirt, and the subtle movement of his biceps beneath the fingers she still rested on his arm.
Slowly he moved back, breaking the contact, his gaze touching her lips and her hair, and she realized she’d wrapped her fingers around his arm.
She released him immediately.
He smiled.
She blushed in confusion.
He descended the stairs, placed his supplies in the buggy and climbed up to take the reins.
Ellie’s stomach quivered with a new and not unpleasant sensation of longing and anticipation, tempered by wariness. She placed her hand on her belly, then raised it to wave.
He drove the team down the street and away.
Long after he’d gone she remembered the gentle touch of his lips against hers and pondered the implication of that brief contact. The kiss was outside her realm of experience and understanding. It had been sweet and tender, but not comfortable like kissing one of her brothers.
If he’d meant to comfort her, he’d failed. If he’d meant to distract her, he’d succeeded. Her thoughts took a whole new direction.
She fed the three boys, read to them and allowed Benjamin and Flynn to sit on the back stairs and play with the cat who’d made himself at home under the porch.
It grew late. The boys went to bed. Ellie put away a few wedding gifts and hung the exquisitely embroidered cardinal sampler that Miss Shaw had sent. She sat at Caleb’s desk and wrote a few notes of thanks, then tried to concentrate on one of Caleb’s books.
Finally, looking weary, he arrived home late.
“Are you hungry?”
He shook his head. “Just tired.”
She carried the water she’d kept warm for him to his room and poured it into the basin on his washstand. He’d already lit a lamp. “Is there anything I can get you?”
He shook his head and sat on the edge of the bed.
She hurried to help him remove his boots. Setting them aside, she looked up to find him studying her.
She thought of the kiss earlier that day and grew uncomfortable with his gaze. “I’ve taken Nate’s cradle to my room for now. I hope that’s all right.”
“It’s thoughtful of you. Is he all right? Are all of them all right?”
“They’re fine.” She stood and walked to the door. “Good night.”
“’Night, Ellie.”
She closed the door behind her and walked to her room. She gazed down at the sleeping baby, then turned and changed into her nightgown.
She slept fitfully, hearing Caleb in the hall while it was still dark outside. She dressed and hurried down the stairs.
“You’re going to eat breakfast before you leave,” she said. “I’ll have some coffee ready in a few minutes.”
He opened the back door and stepped out onto the porch, standing and peering into the early-morning darkness. Crickets chanted.
The coffee perked and Ellie poured him a cup and placed it on the table. He sat and spooned a little sugar in, stirring. “It’s been touch and go with one of J.J.’s nieces,” he said. “She seemed better yesterday, but then she took a turn for the worse. Doc Thornton stayed with her last night.”
“I’m glad you came home to sleep,” she said. “You have to take care of yourself in order to be of help to others.”
“I know. But it’s hard to leave them when they’re so frightened.”
A knock sounded on the front door. Caleb got up and entered the hall. Ellie followed.
He opened the door a crack. “It’s Luke Swensen, the grocer,” he said to Ellie, dread lacing his tone. He spoke through the opening between the door and the jamb. “Move back into the yard.”
“I need to tell you—” the man called.
“Move back, then tell me.”
Boots sounded on the wooden stairs. “My wife is sick.”
“Stay in the house with her,” Caleb ordered. “Don’t open your store today. I should have had you close it yesterday when I knew Kate Jenkins had been there.”
“I have to open my store. All my customers will go over to—”
“You’ve been exposed, Luke. Everyone who comes in contact with you now could catch the fever your wife has.”
“I’m not sick. Are you going to come see her or not?”
“I’m coming. And you’re not opening your store. Go straight home and I’ll be right there.”
The man moved away with a curse.
“I have to run over to my office for fresh supplies. I need to make an order at the druggist’s, too.”
She untied her apron. “I’m going to help.”
“No, Ellie—”
“I am. I’ve already been around J.J.—and you.”
She read the regret in his eyes. He was trying so hard. With all the people he had to help, he wanted to protect her at the same time. The knowledge did her heart good.
“You can’t do everything,” she went on. “J.J. normally takes care of your horses, so that’s added work. You need help, and I’m the logical one to do it.”
His shoulders slumped with resignation, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to reach over and touch his arm.
“Cut this cast from my arm and then give me a list for the druggist.”
“I…”
“I’ve worn it the length of time you ordered. My arm is fine and the cast is a nuisance.”
He nodded.
“And tell me how to get to the Swensens’. I’ll get the boys up and tell them they’re staying with Nate today. They’ll do fine.”
“I’ll take a horse and leave the buggy for you at the livery,” he said, and covered her hand on his arm with his own. “Thank you, Ellie.”
The touches were natural for him. He touched people every day. But the episodes were foreign and disturbing for her. She wasn’t used to being touched in a wholesome or pleasant manner, and she didn’t know how to respond.
“Well,” she said, “how do we do this?”
They went back to the kitchen, where he unwrapped a saw from his bag and cut the cast from her arm with care. A sharp pain stabbed through the limb as he pulled the pieces of the cast away. She winced.
“It’s normal for it to hurt a minute when the bone loses that familiar support,” he said.
She stared at the flaking white skin with distaste. It didn’t even look like her own arm.
“It’ll peel and grow new skin,” he assured her. “Just use good judgment and don’t lift heavy things or try to do too much too soon.” He wrote a list, then gave her directions and hurried out into the humid early-morning air.
She watched him walk in the direction of the livery, and finally pulled herself back inside to start her day. By the time she fixed her hair and gave the boys instructions for the day, the sun was up. She hurried to the liv
ery, where Caleb had left the horse and buggy at the ready. She placed Caleb’s order at the druggist, carried the supplies and packed them in the waiting vehicle.
She found the Swensen home and drew the horse to a halt in the side yard.
Mrs. Swensen was a plump young woman, and her reddish complexion looked so natural, Ellie had to wonder whether or not the fever had caused it. The woman accepted Caleb’s treatment and advice pleasantly, however, and even calmed down her husband, who still wanted to open his store.
Caleb informed Luke how to care for his wife, admonished him to wash his hands often and he and Ellie washed and left the house.
“If only we could get more people to understand the importance of avoiding contact,” he said with a shake of his head.
“What if we print flyers and distribute them?” she said, thinking aloud.
“Or buy an ad in the newspaper,” Caleb replied. “You’re a genius!” He tied one horse to the back of the buggy and prodded the other to pull them toward the newspaper office.
Caleb conducted his business from the doorway and asked to be billed.
He headed for the Jenkins house. “They all think I’m a quack.”
She looked over at his troubled expression. “I don’t.”
His weary dark eyes displayed appreciation, and he gave her a smile that was worth more than words could say. “Thanks.”
She tucked this tenuous new affinity away in her heart and concentrated on helping him.
Kate Jenkins showed considerable improvement and was able to sip some broth that Ellie had made while Kate’s exhausted sister slept. Doc Thornton went home to grab his turn at sleep. Caleb sponged the little girl with cool water, listened to her heart and sat at her side.
She was about Lucy’s age, thinner, with two brown braids that lay against the sheet. She cried in her delirium, sometimes calling for her mother, but Caleb spoke softly to her, changing the cloth on her perspiring forehead and calming her.
The child’s feeble grasp on life frightened both of them, but Caleb behaved like a professional. Ellie tried to follow his example and stay calm and confident, but inside she was quaking. “What’s her name?” she asked, perching on a chair beside him.
“They call her Suzanne.” He lifted the girl’s tiny wrist and felt her pulse.
How did he do it? Ellie wondered. He cared about these people. He’d known Kate, maybe most of them, since his childhood. But then Caleb cared as much about strangers as he did about friends. He’d used the same compassion and tenderness with her when she’d broken her arm. He was even kind to Benjamin, who’d been nothing but hostile since their first encounter.
Caleb gave so much of himself.
Ellie admired Caleb Chaney with a reverence that went beyond appreciation or respect. Watching him in this profession he’d been called to affected her deeply. Knowing she was married to him astounded her.
If only, she thought, composing her feelings and moving to heat more water.
If only she deserved to be his wife.
Or his friend.
By the time Doc Thornton returned late that afternoon, J.J. had a cough and a sore throat. Ellie put him to bed on a pile of blankets and Caleb gave him the antitoxin.
They stayed as late as they dared, but Caleb needed to rest. They arrived home late, spoke with Benjamin and Flynn and checked on Nate. They ate a cold supper, then went to their separate bedrooms. Ellie smoothed glycerin into the skin of her itching, aching arm and climbed into bed.
Some time later she awoke to the ominous sound of coughing. She leaped from her bed and paused in the hallway. The sound came again—from the boys’ room. Ellie’s heart filled with terror and she turned and ran down the hall. She burst into Caleb’s room, the worst possible thoughts tumbling through her sleep-drugged head. Caleb sat up, his hair tousled in the moonlight shining through the window. “What’s wrong?”
“One of the boys is sick!”
He stood and grabbed his trousers, tugging them on and hurrying after Ellie. She lit a lamp with trembling fingers.
It was Flynn. He lay with his covers tossed off, his head and chest burning with fever.
“Oh, God,” Ellie said on a sob, helplessly wringing her hands as she stared at his flushed face.
“Go get water,” Caleb instructed calmly. “You know what to do.”
Benjamin sat and rubbed his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s going to be all right,” Caleb said to him. “Do you have a sore throat or a cough, Ben?”
“No.”
“I’m going to give you the antitoxin anyway, just to be safe. You too, Ellie.” A concerned expression came over his sleep-lined face. “Nate will have to take it, too, but I’m not sure about the dosage. Go get the water, Ellie.”
Her chest constricted with this new and urgent fear for her own family, and she bolted away to do his bidding. She would fly into a million pieces if Caleb weren’t so calm and efficient. He knew what to do. He would take care of them. She had to stay calm and assist him. He was as tired as she—probably more.
After filling a basin and a kettle, she carried a bucketful of water and some cloths to Caleb.
“I don’t feel good, Ellie,” Flynn said. The skin around his mouth was pale compared to the rest of his flushed face and she recognized it as the way Kate and her niece had looked.
Swallowing the panic that threatened to consume her, she brushed his hair from his forehead. “I know you don’t, sweetheart. Caleb is going to take care of you and you’re going to be fine.”
She believed it. She did.
A wail carried down the hall. Torn between staying with Flynn and responding to the baby’s cries, she assured Flynn she’d be right back and hurried to tend to Nate. “Hush now, little one. Did we wake you?”
She reached to change his wet flannel and her hand met the scorching skin of his belly. She touched his chest, placed her fingers on his head. He was burning up with fever.
A little sob escaped her throat. Not him, too!
Picking him up, she ran down the hallway and carried him into the boys’ bedroom. “Caleb. Nate has the fever, too.”
She couldn’t hide the desperation in her voice.
He turned to her, masking his feelings behind his efficient manner. “Benjamin,” he said softly, “will you please bring Nate’s cradle in here? You can go sleep on my bed.”
Dressed in his knee-length union suit, Ben got up and carried back the wooden cradle. “I can’t sleep now. I’d rather help.”
Touched, Ellie exchanged a look with Caleb. Benjamin had been exposed as directly as the rest of them. Either he’d get the disease or he wouldn’t. He wanted to help and they certainly needed the extra hands. He seemed so grownup all of a sudden. “All right,” Caleb said. “You can help with the water. It’s not good for Ellie to overuse that arm.”
“I’ll pump and carry it from now on, Ellie.”
Throat tight, she nodded and placed Nate in the cradle, tearfully stripping his clothing away. His small plump body was covered in patches of a red angry rash. His hoarse cry broke her heart. The very real threat of losing one of her loved ones to this dreadful sickness tied her insides in knots.
Fevers and sicknesses like this could leave all kinds of disabilities behind, even when the patients survived. She’d heard of survivors who were deaf. Caleb certainly knew all this, too, but he worked without adding fear to her growing anxiety.
For two days they fought the fever. Caleb left only to check on Mrs. Swensen and the Jenkins family, bringing back the encouraging news that Kate had fully recovered. Suzanne had improved, but J.J. was still down with the fever.
Flynn’s difficulty breathing frightened Ellie. He struggled for breath and his eyes widened with the terror of getting no air into his lungs. She could only hold him, wash his scorching hot body and pray. His rash went away, as did Nate’s, but the fever and difficulty breathing remained.
Exhausted, frightened, she sat at Flynn’s side. Nate
had fallen asleep and seemed to be resting comfortably for the first time in days. Ellie picked up Flynn’s hot, dry hand and willed healing into him with every fiber of her being.
She couldn’t lose this dear, loving boy who’d never known comfort or stability, but who deserved them as much as anyone. It was unthinkable to be faced with the devastating possibility of his death, especially now when the promise of all those things was within his grasp.
She remembered then what Caleb had said about God doing the healing. She’d never had much confidence in a God doing anything to help her out, but Caleb seemed sure. Flynn was young and innocent and deserved a chance. Surely his life wouldn’t end like this when he’d only begun to see the better side of life.
“My feet are cold,” Flynn said.
Ellie glanced to where his feet lay beneath the sheet.
“Gonna get some boots,” he said. “A pair like was in the store window on Fifth Street. Ellie’s selling lots o’ cigars tonight though. She’s gonna sell enough to buy me a pair o’ boots.”
He was delirious. Ellie glanced at Caleb where he lay dozing on Benjamin’s bed. And then she offered up a silent prayer to the God Caleb set such store by. Maybe some of Caleb’s favor had rubbed off on her.
She’d lived through things no one should have to. She’d survived any way she could. But she didn’t think she could live through losing one of her brothers.
Dread and exhaustion clawed at Ellie’s dry throat. She needed a drink of water. She filled the cup Caleb had used for coffee and drank water from the pitcher Ben kept full.
She was so tired, and the night was so hot. If she could only sleep a little, she’d feel better, but Caleb needed his rest and she had to keep Flynn and Nate cool.
She rinsed out a cloth and wet her brother’s skin once again. It was possible he felt a little cooler this time.
Her head hurt terribly and she placed the rag against her own forehead for a moment, closing her eyes.
“Ellie?” Caleb spoke to her as though through a closed door. She had no idea how much time had passed or where she was. She opened her eyes and the dim light of the lantern made her head hurt. She squinted and tried to swallow, but her throat was on fire.
The Doctor's Wife Page 16
