“How did it happen?”
“He cut himself, trying to fix the wheel on the wagon. It was just a little cut, but all of a sudden it got big and red, and he was taken with fever, and then he just died.”
Bethany’s heart sank. It would be a miracle if this woman could keep her wits together long enough to help with the birth.
“Now I don’t know what to do, or where to go. I just want to die.”
“Shh, now. You’re going to have a little baby to live for.”
“He wanted a son. I swear to God if it’s a little boy, I don’t know how I can stand it.”
“A little boy will need lots of love. You’re warm now. You’re safe now. Your husband is safe now. Safe in the arms of Jesus.” Bethany kept her voice low and rhythmic. “Safe in the arms of Jesus.” It was both a song and a chant, meant to soothe.
Suzanne Mercer relaxed her death grip on Bethany’s hands. Her eyelids fluttered. Her breaths were deep and easy. Exhausted, she dozed.
Bethany wiped her hands, then opened the door and called to Jim Black. “You can come in now. She’s sleeping. Gathering strength.”
He sprang to his feet from where he had been crouched down against the side of the dugout. His mouth looked grim and tense.
“You’ve done well, Mr. Black,” she said softly. “Don’t know how anyone could have done better by this woman.”
He didn’t speak, but his eyes reflected his profound gratitude. He ducked and entered the dugout.
“Now, let’s take care of you,” Bethany said. “We need to warm you up. Stand over here by the stove. I have some stew. I imagine you’re hungry.”
“Yes, ma’am, I am at that. But first, you said there was something you wanted me to do?”
“Yes,” she said. “I want you to fill this dishpan with snow, and I’ll set it on the stove. I need a lot of hot water.”
He took the large tub, went outside, filled it with snow, carried it back inside the dugout, and set it on the stove. Bethany ladled a bowl of rabbit stew, making sure he got plenty of the rich meat.
“I didn’t make bread,” she said. “I wish I had something to go with it. As soon as I’m done tending her, I’ll fix us all a decent meal.”
His hands trembled as he finished off the bowl in huge swallows, scarcely bothering to chew the meat. Silently, she refilled it four times. He glanced at the pot, then thanked her. He easily could have eaten the whole thing.
He sat on the floor, his great legs extended.
“Were you heading for Denver also, Mr. Black?”
He nodded. “I’m a blacksmith. I heard they were in short supply there. I knowed the Mercers were going west, so I decided to hook up with them. Knowed them from before the war.”
He shuddered. The muscles in his jaw jumped. “They’re good people. Her husband died so fast I couldn’t believe it. One minute he fine, the next he dead. All over a little cut. You is a healing woman. Could you have done for him?”
“I could have tried. But sometimes, there’s just no help for it.” Her voice faltered.
“The cut was dirty,” Jim said. His voice was heavy, as though he felt responsible for the man’s death.
“Can’t always save someone from a dirty cut.”
“We was trying to fix that wheel,” he continued, looking at her with guilty eyes. “He slipped. Just cut his hand a little. Next thing I knowed, he took terrible sick. Next thing I knowed after that, he dead. Miss Suzanne and I had to keep on. No smart place to quit.”
“You did just fine. It’s a miracle that you found my place. Please rest now. You look like you need to rest as badly as she does.”
They edged toward opposite sides of the wall, and he sat on the packed earth and again stretched out his long legs. Bethany took the only chair. She quietly studied his wide, high cheeks, his broad nose with a scar across the bridge.
Any black man traveling with a white woman was just asking for trouble, let alone one of his enormous size. What would they do? Where could they go? For that matter, what would she do with the woman after she gave birth? Suzanne Mercer wouldn’t want to stay in a colony of black people.
“We’re in desperate need of a blacksmith, Mr. Black. Would you consider staying here?”
“Don’t rightly think I could make a living.” He glanced toward the bed. “I want to do right by her. Don’t know what I’d do about her.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking as soon as she can travel, there’s a town about twelve miles from here called Wade City. I don’t much like the man who founded it. But we can buy there.”
“No laws against black folks being in stores out here?”
“No, not out here. Teddy Sommers has been there, and he didn’t have a lick of trouble. Teddy says we can buy whatever we have the money for. He got the impression that not all the folks there think that much of Wade, either. We can take Mrs. Mercer there as soon as she and the baby can travel.”
“Good,” Jim said. “That woman is worrying me half to death for more than one reason.”
“Taking her to Wade City will give us a chance to see how folks out here feel about us as a group. Can’t really judge that from just having Teddy go. No one feels threatened by Teddy. I know you haven’t met him, but as soon as you do, you’ll see what I mean. He helped start this place; I don’t know what we would do without him.”
Jim gazed at the white woman on the bed. “It would ease my mind plenty if she takes to the idea. Up to her, though.”
“Why don’t you sleep on throwing in with us? Staying right here in Nicodemus. I know we don’t look like much now, but we’re going to make something of this town.”
He nodded. “Thank you. I’ll think about it.” She handed him a blanket, and he quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bethany jerked awake at Suzanne Mercer’s cry. She leaped to her feet. Dazed, Jim Black, who had been sleeping soundly, raised up from the floor.
“Perhaps you’d better step outside for a while,” Bethany said. Her voice was calm, belying her anxiety. She hated birthings where she didn’t know her patient at all. When Jim pushed open the door and edged out, he let in a blast of cold air.
Bethany bowed her head and centered her thoughts. Praying constantly, she went to Suzanne Mercer’s side. She drew deep calming breaths and checked her patient. Suzanne was fully dilated. In a short time, she would begin the last stages. Bethany went over to the stove and stoked the fire. She turned at a sharp cry and went to tend to the woman.
She could see the baby’s head, and as long as there was no trouble afterwards, it would be a normal birth with no complications. Praise God, she thought.
Minutes later, Suzanne Mercer began to push. Her guttural cries filled the room. The birth was surprisingly easy for a first. Bethany praised God when the infant let loose its healthy cry. “It’s a girl,” she said softly to the new mother as she laid the baby on Suzanne’s stomach. Now if there were no complications with the afterbirth, she could rest easy.
With a long fork, she lifted string from the hot water and eased her hot knife onto a cloth. Then she turned back to the bed, neatly tied the cord twice about an inch apart, and sliced through the middle. The afterbirth followed only minutes later. She cleaned up Mrs. Mercer and the baby and then called for Jim Black to come back inside.
He grinned broadly. “Guess you might know how happy I am, for more reasons than one.” He blew on his gigantic hands to warm them.
“If something had gone wrong, it would be terrible for all of us.”
“How long will she be down?”
“Ten days. She and the baby can stay right here, and I have friends who will be glad to put you up. In fact, I’ll speak to the Browns about you spending the winter with them if you decide to stay.”
“Been thinking about it.”
“Why take a chance on what you’ll find in Denver?”
“Depends on what we can get done with Miss Suzanne. She can’t stay here with a bunch
of blacks. You know that. If we find a place for her, I done been thinking favorably about staying here in Nicodemus.”
“I’m so glad.” She couldn’t find the words to tell this strong, good man how much she admired his actions during the last twenty-four hours. He was just the kind of person Nicodemus needed.
He looked at her hard. “Want you to know I is just a blacksmith. Ain’t got no tricks. No fancy magic.”
“Didn’t figure you did. That’s not why I asked you to stay.” Blood surged to her cheeks. Some of the old folks who had come to the St. James plantation from Africa believed blacksmiths were favored with a special knowing. They kept the fire. Molded the people. Talked with their anvils.
“Just so you know what you is getting.”
“Understood.”
He nodded. “Now tell me where y’all keep your oats. I’ll round up some help and go fetch that poor team before they freeze to death.”
Two weeks later, Bethany, Teddy, Jim Black, and Suzanne Mercer—holding Baby Abigail—set off for Wade City. That morning they had hitched up her fine team, which was the envy of all the men. The snow from the early blizzard had melted. Although the grass had died with the onset of late fall, the ground was firm and easy to navigate.
Suzanne’s bright-blond hair was concealed by her sunbonnet. She was a small, talkative woman who naturally expected to fit in wherever she went. After her baby was born, she had been seized by crying fits for her dead husband. Then her natural resilience bubbled up. Now that she was on her way to an established town, she was mulling over ways she could make a living.
“I could sew, of course, I like to do that; but I’m a better cook, and good cooks get to meet a lot of people. ’Course, if Danny had lived I wouldn’t need to think about any of this. He was going to start building for folks, and I was going to cook for all the help he was going to hire. But I’ve got a little dab of money to get started. I’ll have even more income from the sale of his tools and supplies. There’s sure to be town lots in Wade City.”
“You can count on that,” said Bethany. “And I think an eating place is a fine idea. Have you thought about combining it with a boarding house? As more people come out here looking for land, they will be short on places to stay. You have a wonderful advantage in that you have some money.”
“I know. Can’t think of anything unluckier than losing my Danny, but thank the Lord, I’m not broke, too.” Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I’ll spend more time crying later. Right now, I have this wee one to think of.”
She smiled down at the tiny baby in her arms. “There’s no way to repay you and your people for all you’ve done, Miss Bethany. If I start my café and boarding house, all of you will be welcome anytime. Want you to know that. Is there any other way I can repay you? Anything at all?”
Bethany started to say “no,” just her thanks was enough. Then one of the horses tossed his head, and a thought crossed her mind as though she had been struck by a bolt of lightning.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “The people who came out here in September had their horses stolen.” She quickly decided not to go into details damning Wade. “Would you please loan us your team for a week? That would speed up making proper dugouts and soddies, and allow us to break a little land.”
“Well, of course,” said Suzanne. She beamed at Bethany. “Of course I’ll do that. Longer, too, if you need them.”
“Thank you,” Bethany said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” Her throat tightened with tears, and Suzanne squeezed her hand.
They both were silent as they looked across the prairie. There were no roads, no signs, no indentations in the grass to guide them. They depended on Teddy’s unerring sense of direction. Bethany studied the countryside, hoping to identify some of the plants as they traveled. But all that was visible were dried stalks poking above some of the dried grass, and it didn’t do her a bit of good.
By the time they got to Wade City, she realized the vast distances in Kansas were so different from Kentucky that she would have to learn to ride. For the sake of her patients, she certainly couldn’t just walk as she had always done.
Wade City was sparsely populated. There were a few scattered sod houses and businesses, and several tents and half-dugouts sticking up where there was an incline. There were no frame houses, but there were mounds of cut rock lying around as though the people intended to build something more substantial in spring. There was a limestone combination hotel and saloon.
“We’re laying these people in shade already, Teddy,” said Bethany. “Just look! I’ll bet we’ve got four times as many people.”
Tears filled Suzanne’s eyes as they pulled up in front of the cobbled together half-sod, half-limestone mercantile store with a rickety board sign hanging down from the roof. “I guess I was expecting more.” She drew a deep breath as Bethany reached for her hand. “It’ll get better,” she said.
“That’s what they keep saying. Yes.”
Teddy jumped down and tied the reins to the rail. His face was sober. Apprehensive. They had come from a state where white people killed their kind for just looking at them the wrong way. The men of Nicodemus had come close to hanging the man who started this town. They’d taken his team to boot. Be just their luck if Wade was there inside.
Jim Black helped Suzanne Mercer get down from the wagon, then Bethany handed her Baby Abigail.
“Jim, just put my things right here,” Suzanne ordered. “I’ll have someone inside this store tote them to where I’ll be staying. You folks will be taking this rigging back, so I don’t want to overlook anything I might need this week. Would you like to borrow Danny’s tools for a while?”
Jim drew a deep breath, scarcely believing his good luck. “Yes, ma’am. That’s mighty generous of you.”
“Nonsense. Just consider them on loan for now like the team and wagon. Bring them back later. There’s no need to sell them until you’re through.”
Jim glanced over at Teddy. They would never be through using good tools. “Much obliged, Miss Suzanne.”
He handed down all her belongings and stood awkwardly beside the wagon, waiting for her to say goodbye.
“No sense just standing here. Let’s go inside where it’s warm.”
Bethany gave Jim a look and cleared her throat. “Perhaps it would be better if you went in by yourself, ma’am.” Her delicate eyebrows arched with pride.
“Absolutely not. You’re my friends, and I plan to introduce you just like I would any other friends. You’ve saved my life. And my baby’s life. If people give you a speck of trouble, they’ll have to answer to me.”
There were several men sitting around an old stove at the back. Wade was not among them. They stopped talking as soon as the door opened.
Bethany blinked, letting her eyes adjust from the bright sunlight to the dark interior. There was an odor of coffee and dried apples. On the shelves were bolts of cloth and tinware and a king’s array of goods she yearned to touch and hold and smell.
“Gentlemen. I’m Suzanne Mercer, and this is my little baby, Abigail, and these are my friends from Nicodemus, Kansas: Mr. Teddy Sommers and Mr. Jim Black and Miss Bethany Herbert. These people saved my life, and I’ve come to inquire if there is a place in this town where I can stay until I can start a boarding house.”
Well there, now, thought Bethany, covering her mouth with her hand to hide the trace of a smile. Couldn’t be more direct than that.
Behind the counter was a tall, thin man, clean-shaven with neat, brown hair and sideburns. He spoke. Bethany felt a little lurch of apprehension at the Southern accent. A Georgia man. She would bet on it.
“We’re pleased to meet you all.” He nodded politely in the direction of the blacks. “I’m Josiah Sinclair. And will your husband be coming along later, ma’am?”
“No. I’m a widow.” Her eyes brightened with tears as she told of Danny’s tragic death. “And if it hadn’t been for these fine people here, I’d have died, too.” She praised Jim
Black for his steadfastness and then Bethany for her medical skills. “And of course you all know the esteemed Mr. Sommers,” she added. “Cabinetmaker and the prominent landsman from Kentucky.”
Again, Sinclair simply nodded politely and stood ramrod straight. “I’ll get my wife, Mrs. Mercer. I’m sure you and the baby must be exhausted from the long trip.” He looked at the cheeky trio of Negroes as though he could not figure out his next move.
Bethany smiled. She was used to confusing white folks. She had learned from Queen Bess to stand straight, look people in the eye, and state her business plainly and in decent English.
A man who had been sitting by the stove rose to his feet. “I’m Stanley Bradley. We would be glad to help you, ma’am. Proud to have you stay with us ’til you get started. No point in paying anyone. My wife and I just started a livery stable and feed store. We have two young ’uns. Our oldest girl just got married and moved out.”
“That’s very kind of you.” Suzanne’s face brightened.
“You helped her with that baby, ma’am?” Stanley asked, turning to Bethany.
“Yes. I deliver babies and do other kinds of doctoring.”
She yearned to tell them what the people back in Kentucky thought about the Herbert women. Wanted them all to know that her training was special. That she knew many things that some of the country-trained white doctors didn’t know, because the St. James people had always called on physicians with the most advanced methods.
She wanted them to know that she put her supplies in boiling water, because it cut down on infections. And she hadn’t learned that from any white doctor, either. Queen Bess made her do it. Told her folks were more likely to live. She didn’t know why. But Queen Bess was a watching woman, and she knew it was so. She’d seen.
But it would all sound like empty bragging, so Bethany kept her mouth shut.
“We’ve tried to get a doctor to come here, but it’s a little hard to talk anyone into it. This here’s Fred Phillips and Zed Wooster,” Stanley said easily, as though colored folks strolled into the store every day.
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