by Merry Farmer
“Nathan, don’t listen to her. She’s a woman!” Dr. Greene plowed on.
Whether Mr. Sobel heard Dr. Greene or not, to Rebecca he said, “Hasn’t gone bad, you say?”
“No!” Rebecca’s pulse sped up with hope. “There’s another doctor, a Dr. Thomas Smith. He’s a wonderful man, Mr. Sobel.”
“He’s a red Indian, you mean,” Dr. Greene interrupted, sending a knowing look to Mr. Summerall. Mr. Summerall had the good sense not to play along or look Dr. Greene in the eye.
“Dr. Smith has discovered that it was not the pond that was making children sick but tainted candy,” Rebecca finished.
“You!” Dr. Greene pointed at Rebecca. “Shut up and go home!”
“Simmer down, Peter, simmer down.” Mr. Sobel may have been slowed down by age, but he still knew how to hold his ground. “I remember your Dr. Smith. Came to me last week and asked about the pond. He also brought a salve for my arthritis. It worked, too.”
“This is all irrelevant!” Dr. Greene snapped. “Take your filthy children and go home! We have work to do.”
The flare of indignation that poured through Rebecca at the insult to her children almost set her over the edge. She swallowed it long enough to ask, “What kind of work?”
“Perhaps we should save this for another day?” Mr. Summerall said.
“This is none of your business, Mrs. Turner.” Dr. Greene ignored him and spoke to Rebecca, flushed with defensiveness.
“Dr. Greene here is interested in buying my property,” Mr. Sobel said, brow sinking as though he wasn’t happy about it. “And if my guess is right, this is the young man who says he can make it into a park for him, build booths and the like.”
“Really, Nathan, this is not something I’d like to discuss with a woman.” The color rose so fast on Dr. Greene’s face that Rebecca was amazed he didn’t pass out from the rush of blood.
“You want to make the pond into a park?” she asked, incredulous.
Mr. Sobel nodded, running a hand through his thinning, white hair. “Says he’ll send me a percentage of the admission fee so that I can have a comfortable retirement. Although Agnes’s husband does quite well, so it’s bound to be comfortable anyhow.”
Mr. Summerall shifted uncomfortably. “I was under the impression the whole town was looking forward to this.”
Rebecca hardly heard him. “You plan to charge admission to the pond?” she demanded of Dr. Greene.
“Yes!” he answered her, all smugness and triumph.
“How dare you! How dare you claim to own a piece of the childhood of everyone who has grown up in Cold Springs?”
“It’s called business, Mrs. Turner.”
“But you’re not a businessman,” Rebecca persisted. “You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to help people!”
Dr. Greene scowled. “Get out of my way. I have better things to do. Gentlemen, if you will come this way.”
He pushed past Rebecca—nearly knocking her over when she didn’t move fast enough—and headed around the pond to the dock. Mr. Summerall sent her an apologetic smile and followed.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t just let Dr. Greene walk away and take a piece of Cold Springs with him.
“Please don’t sell to Dr. Greene,” she said to Mr. Sobel. “He will ruin this place. You know he will.”
“Well,” Mr. Sobel began, scratching the back of his neck and wincing as though he was stuck between two big decisions.
Rebecca didn’t wait for him to reason things out. It was high time that someone took a stand against Dr. Greene and all men who thought they could bully and profit off of those they saw as weaker. She clenched her fists, turned and stormed after Dr. Greene.
Chapter Nine
The McGee’s house was strangely quiet by the time Thomas returned. He strode up the front path with all the giddy expectation of a much younger man about to ask a girl to walk out. That shot of energy melted into anxious curiosity when no one answered his knock on the front door. He took a chance and let himself in.
“Hello?” he called into the silent house. He craned his neck to see into the front parlor and down the hall when no one answered. “Rebecca?”
He mounted the stairs to the second floor, intending to see if the girls were still in bed. Footfalls from the stairs leading up to the third floor raced him to the hall.
“I told you to get out!” Grover shouted when they met.
Thomas took a breath and let his shoulders drop. “I promised your mother I would come back.”
“So? She doesn’t need you, you filthy….” Grover struggled, chewing over several words without saying any of them.
Thomas resisted the urge to grin. Apparently no insult was bad enough for him.
“We need to talk, you and I,” he addressed the boy, crossing his arms. “Might as well be now.”
“I don’t have to talk to you about anything!” Grover snapped. “This is my family and my mother, and I won’t let you barge in and hurt any of us!”
“What makes you think I want to hurt anyone?”
“You do,” Grover insisted. “I know you do.”
“Why? Have I given any indication that I’m a violent or sinister man?” It would take all the patience he had to put this determined young man at ease.
“Why can’t you just let her be?” Grover switched to a different tack, his fury still bubbling. “She’s happy now. She smiles when she never smiled before. Laughs too. She’s been through too much at the hands of the likes of you to go back!”
“You mean at the hands of your father.” He made the statement with quiet certainty.
For a moment Grover’s face contorted with a deep pain. It only added fuel to the fire of Thomas’s hatred of Bo Turner. It also deepened his patience with the boy.
“My father….” Whatever defense Grover had planned for his father crumbled. He tried something else. “You spent the night here last night, didn’t you?” he spat.
“I did.” Thomas nodded. At this point it wouldn’t have been fair to deny it. “That should prove to you that I have nothing but the best intentions toward your mother.”
“My mama is no whore!” he shouted, voice twisted with emotion.
Thomas frowned. Someone somewhere must have suggested to Grover that she was for him to come out swinging like that. His own fury doubled.
“No, she is not,” he agreed. “She is the woman my heart has been seeking for my entire life. I intend to marry her and make things right as soon as she’ll have me.”
If anything, his declaration pushed Grover over the edge.
“You will not marry her! Why would she want you? She doesn’t need anyone beating on her and pushing her down ever again!”
“I would never raise a hand against your mother or any other woman.” Thomas met Grover’s anger with quiet indignation of his own. “Not all men are abusive cowards, Grover. I can see in your eyes that you are not one yourself. If you think for one second that I would do anything other than treat your mother with respect and honor, provide a good life full of peace and happiness for her, then you’re mistaken!”
Grover balked, taking a step back. He blinked as if reconsidering everything.
A moment later, he shook his head and said, “How can you say you’ll treat her with respect when you spent the night here? I know what it means when a man spends the night with a woman!”
Thomas shifted his weight from one leg to another. He wasn’t about to explain to Rebecca’s son how she approached him, how she had needed him in her bed like the parched earth needed the rain.
“All I can tell you is that I have every intention of marrying your mother. Whether she agrees to marry me is not for you to say,” he said.
“We’re doing just fine without you!” Grover fired his last defense.
“Are you?” Thomas let his arms fall to his sides. “Do you really think she’s happy on her own?”
“She’s not on her own,” Grover argued. “She has me and the girls.�
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“Don’t you think she might want something more?”
“No! We’re happy together! We always have been, even when Pa—” He snapped his lips shut and looked away.
Grover didn’t go on and Thomas had nothing to add. They stood together in the hall, silent and unmoving, the tragedy that had been this family’s life seeping around them. Grover’s expression flashed through a dozen changes as he took the argument inside of himself.
At last Thomas said, “I was just down at the stationhouse. I called the hospital in Butte. Your grandfather is well on his way to recovery and should be returning home the day after tomorrow.”
A split-second of relief loosened the tight muscles of Grover’s face and arms. He scrambled to get his fight back, shifting his weight and balling his fists. “Good. Then we really won’t need you here anymore. So why don’t you save us all some time and get out now like I told you to?”
Thomas sighed. He felt a wave of sympathy for all of the teachers at the school where he was raised who had had to deal with him at that age. In Grover’s bull-headedness, he recognized his own youthful rage.
“Your anger will do you good someday,” he said. “If you can learn to harness it.”
“I’m not harnessing anything until you get out of here and never come back!”
There was no point in taking the conversation further. “Where has your mother gone?” he asked instead. “I’d like to tell her about her father.”
“She’s—” Grover hesitated, narrowing his eyes. He glanced down the stairs to the front hall. “That’s none of your business.”
“It is very much my business.” Thomas crossed his arms again. He would win this war not by force, but with patience. “If you don’t want me to tell her your grandfather is coming home, then you tell her.”
“Fine! I will!”
Grover charged down the stairs. Thomas followed him.
Grover made it out the front door and into the street before turning and shouting, “What are you doing?”
“I’m walking,” Thomas explained.
Grover stopped, twitching with indecision. He looked up the road to where it met Silver Avenue then back at the house.
“If you’re going to follow me, then I’m not going!” he said.
“Then you will delay her hearing good news,” Thomas answered. “Is that what you want?”
Grover growled deep in his throat, a sound somewhere between a man’s anger and a dog’s warning. Rebecca’s son was like a powerful, faithful dog who would protect what he loved to the bitter end. Thomas couldn’t help but admire him.
At length, Grover gave up his inner struggle and marched off to find his mother.
“Fine,” he spat. “Follow me then. Follow me and I’ll tell my ma just what I think of you.”
“I’m sure you will,” Thomas added to himself.
Grover turned onto Silver Avenue and headed away from the center of town. Within a few yards Thomas had a clear idea of where he was going, to Sobel’s Pond. On any other day, Thomas would have found that obvious, even endearing, but as far as he knew, the pond was closed. The itch of trouble clung to the back of his neck.
It proved to be right when he and Grover reached the turn-off and saw the new barbed wire fence surrounding the area of the pond.
“What’s that?” Grover asked.
“I don’t know.”
Thomas strode on ahead of him, but Grover kept close behind. They passed through a gap in the fence and into the sloping grass skirting the pond. Rachel, Lorraine, and Helen sat in the shade not far off. Rachel jumped up when she saw them and ran to Thomas.
“Mama is arguing with Dr. Greene!” she reported breathlessly.
Thomas snapped his attention to the pond. Rachel was right. Rebecca was charging out to where Dr. Greene had just come to a stop at the end of the dock. Nathan Sobel was doing his best to follow them, the stranger he had seen at the West’s store the other day helping him.
“What’s she doing?” Grover asked.
“Fighting,” Rachel answered.
“Stay here,” Thomas told the children.
He knew Grover wouldn’t listen to him and was unsurprised as he followed him down to the dock. They passed Nathan as he hobbled onto the base of the dock with the stranger. Thomas would check to be sure he was well and find out who the man was later.
Rebecca’s footsteps knocked on the dock as she chased after Dr. Greene. She glanced over her shoulder long enough to see Thomas and Grover, but didn’t stop to greet them. Alarm ran through Thomas’s chest and his body tensed, preparing for battle.
“I will not let you do this!” Rebecca shouted at Dr. Greene.
Dr. Greene twisted to face her as he neared the end of the dock, his lips curled in a sneer. “You won’t let me do this?” He laughed. “I’d like to see you stop me!” He barely acknowledged Thomas and Grover with a scowl.
“I can stop you and I will!”
Rebecca marched all the way to the end of the dock until she stood toe-to toe with him.
“Do you think I’m the only one who loves this pond?” she demanded. “This isn’t just a hole in the ground with water in it! This pond is happiness. It’s friendship and solace. I’m not the only one who came here for comfort when their soul was too agitated to rest.”
“What kind of feminine nonsense is this?”
“It’s not nonsense,” she argued. “You may not understand it, but I dare say there are a world of things you don’t understand.”
He snorted a laugh. “I have a degree from the Yale School of Medicine.”
“That doesn’t make you understanding,” she fired back.
He huffed and turned away from her. “I don’t have time for this.”
“You will make time for this!”
The force in her voice shocked Thomas and filed him with pride. He strode as close to her as he could while still letting her stand on her own.
Dr. Greene turned back to her with incredulous fury in his eyes.
“I will not be talked to by a two-bit strumpet who divorces one man to go chasing after an Indian.” He said the word as if she was chasing after a rat, gesturing to Thomas with pure hatred in his eyes. “You are an ignorant chit standing in the way of progress! You should mind your betters.”
“I would if any of my betters were here,” she fired back, meeting his eyes without shame.
“Why you—”
He raised his hand. Rebecca hardly flinched.
Thomas shot forward, ready to kill Dr. Greene. Grover was right behind him.
They stopped cold as Rebecca shouted, “Go ahead! Go ahead and hit me. Prove that you’re no better than an ignorant, failed farmer who is rotting in jail right now! If you try to turn this pond into money in your pocket, then you are nothing more than a thief, just like Bo is!”
“This is business, not theft! I’m buying this property fair and square, and I will profit off of it!”
“Now just a moment,” Nathan called from yards away.
Rebecca didn’t wait for him. “You won’t profit because you won’t see a single person stoop to pay a thief who has put a price on their childhood memories! This has always been a place of community, not a place of selfishness.” Her eyes flickered to Thomas. He nodded, sharing his support but letting her fight the war.
“So what?” Dr. Greene sniffed. “What are you planning to do about it?”
“I will tell everyone just what you are,” Rebecca persisted. She seemed to draw strength from Thomas’s approval and smiled. “I will go door to door urging people to stay away from this place, to stay away from you!”
“After all,” Thomas added his bit at last, “you have been going around telling everyone the water is contaminated. It might be hard to stop that rumor.”
“Not after it’s tested and declared clean.” It had been part of his plan all along. The truth of it was written clear as day across the doctor’s face.
“Rumors are hard to silence, Dr.
Greene,” Rebecca fought back. “The word of science rarely reaches as far as the word of friends.”
Dr. Greene’s smugness dropped. He saw the flaw in his plot. “You wouldn’t dare,” he seethed. “Who would listen to you anyhow?”
“I would!” Grover spoke up. “And my friends would listen to me, and their parents would listen to them!”
Silence hung over the dock as the impact of the stalemate sunk in. Yes, Grover was a young man to be admired, Thomas thought. And his mother was a woman to be adored. He would give her the rest of his life that moment if she would take it.
“I won’t let you do this!” Dr. Greene finally erupted. “I won’t!”
He started walking away, leaning toward Rebecca. As he passed her, his elbow shot out. Rebecca pitched to the side and lost her balance. She yelped as her heel caught on the edge of the dock, then fell into the water with a splash. It only took a moment of flailing before the bulk of her clothes pulled her down.
“You bastard!” Grover shouted and launched at Dr. Greene.
Thomas had no time to stop the fight. Rebecca struggled just under the water, but she didn’t break the surface. His heart thundered in his chest as he kicked his shoes off. He pushed the panic of losing her to the back of his mind and moved to dive into the pond.
The tussle that was Grover and Dr. Greene slammed into his back before he could balance himself, and he fell into the water with a smack that took the wind out of him. The hollow rush of sudden silence and disorientation hit him as he went under. He had to fight to get his bearings. He’d fallen on top of something, on top of Rebecca. She grabbed at him in a panic, dragging him down as well.
He had to break away from her, to push up in order to take a breath. In the moment that he broke the surface of the water and filled his lungs, he noted Grover and Dr. Greene had stopped fighting and Rebecca’s girls were screaming.
He dove down again, searching for Rebecca. She was only feet below him, but when he reached her there was no reaching or grabbing. His panic soared. He scooped her around the waist—pleading silently with her to hold on—and kicked up to the surface for all he was worth. Her weight made it ten times harder. He felt the cold fingers of his old friend Death reaching out. No, he told him, you will not take her!
