Shifted By The Winds

by Ginny Dye

  Alice Humphries, her blue eyes looking almost haggard beneath her blond curls, appeared in the door. “It’s ten o’clock.” She yawned as she looked at the watch she had pulled from her pocket.

  Carrie’s eyes widened. “Ten o’clock?” she echoed, amazed at how swiftly the day had flown by. “What time is our driver due to arrive?”

  Florence Robinson, her other housemate, walked in and fell on one of the beds with a dramatic sigh. “He should have been here,” she admitted. She stretched her long legs as she gazed up at her friends, her usually vivacious blue eyes glazed with fatigue. She pushed back stray strands of red waves. “Perhaps we should just stay here tonight. I’m so tired I could sleep anywhere.”

  Carrie pushed aside the appealing image of falling into one of the beds. “How late is the driver?” She was acutely aware she was responsible for sending the watchmen home. She was also quite certain it wasn’t a good idea for five women to be alone in the hospital all night. She cast Janie an apologetic look.

  “He should have been here thirty minutes ago,” Elizabeth said as she walked in. “I decided to come wait up here on the second floor with the rest of you.”

  Carrie’s heart sank. “Because you don’t feel safe down there?”

  “Let’s just say I like being further away from the street,” Elizabeth replied, trying to hide her worry with a tired smile.

  Carrie frowned and moved over to look out one of the windows. Once the sun had gone down she had stopped keeping track of what was happening in the neighborhood. She and the rest had simply worked to get everything done. Her heart sank even further when she poked her head out. Every muscle tensed with sudden fright as she tried to interpret what she was seeing.

  “What is it?” Janie murmured as she came to stand beside her.

  Carrie stared at the clusters of people congregated on the hill beside the hospital. She could see blankets and buckets of food. Small children huddled sleepily against their mothers, while the older ones played in dim lantern light. “They seem to be preparing for a show of some kind,” she muttered as she peered down at the crowd.

  A sudden movement to the right caught her eye. It took her several moments to sort out the moving shadows from the darkness of the night. “Oh dear God…”

  “Carrie?” Alice asked sharply. “You’re scaring me.”

  Carrie took a deep breath and turned back to her housemates. “There are men carrying buckets of water to the rooftops of the homes surrounding the hospital.”

  Alice looked confused. “Why would they—?”

  Florence leapt up from the bed. “Because they will use the water to extinguish any sparks from the flames,” she snapped as all signs of fatigue swept from her face. “They’re going to burn the hospital,” she announced. “We have to get out of here.”

  “But our driver isn’t here,” Alice stammered. “Where will we go?”

  Carrie berated herself for sending the watchmen home, though she was dimly aware she might have also saved their lives. Surely the men preparing to torch the building would have more compassion for five women. She also knew she had no time to regret her decision. They must act. “Florence is right,” she said, looking out the window one final time before she headed to the stairs. “We must leave.”

  “Leave?” Alice echoed. “Surely our being here will keep them from setting fire to the building. Perhaps staying could save the hospital,” she said bravely, even as her voice wavered with panic.

  Carrie gazed at her with compassion, wishing she believed the same thing. The tension she had felt building through the day told her differently. “We must leave,” she repeated, knowing it was too late to spend time berating the choice she had made.

  “And go where?” Janie tried to control the fear on her face, but failed dismally.

  Carrie said the first thing that popped in her mind. “Home.”

  Janie stared at her. “Home? How? We can’t walk there. It’s not safe.”

  “Safer than we are here,” Florence said grimly. She fell in line with Carrie. “Let’s go, my friends.” She flashed them a confident smile. “It’s time for an adventure.”

  Carrie gave her a look of gratitude as she ran down the stairs and unlocked the door. The night was still muggy and warm, but the searing heat had disappeared with the sun. She took a deep breath of dank air that somehow felt better than the cloying air that had embraced her all during the day. She pushed away the instant yearning for the plantation that swamped her as she waited for the other women to join her on the landing. They all looked hopefully down the road, but there was no evidence of a horse and carriage. The road, bustling all through the day, now seemed ominously empty. Something had happened to keep their driver from returning. She hoped he had not come to any harm, but she couldn’t worry about that right now.

  “Which way?” Alice asked, her eyes wide with fear, but her face set with determination.

  Carrie was glad she had watched the sunset so she had a feel for the direction they must go. “We’ll go right,” she said. It was an unspoken agreement that kept everyone from mentioning they would have to walk over six miles on unknown roads through the dark night to get home. Linking arms with Janie and Florence, Carrie set off. She kept her head high and her step confident. Showing the fear she felt would only make them more vulnerable.

  They were barely two blocks from the new hospital when they heard a triumphant yell and the sound of breaking glass.

  Chapter Two

  They whirled around just in time to see the first flames shoot from the windows.

  Carrie ran straight back toward the hospital. She heard people laughing as children danced with glee on the hill, their tiny shadows flickering in the light of the growing inferno. They reminded her of little ghouls. “No!” she screamed. Her only thoughts were of the patients who so desperately needed a place to recover from cholera. It didn’t matter that most of them would die — they needed a place to live out the remainder of their lives in dignity, and they needed a place where they might have a chance to survive.

  A large group of men must have been hiding when Carrie and her friends left the building. As soon as the girls were out of range, the men had tossed in their homemade firebombs of rags, sticks, and kerosene. Carrie groaned as she envisioned all the new beds and supplies burning up in the blaze. She ran faster. There was no plan in her mind — she simply knew she had to do something.

  She gasped when a strong hand grabbed her arm and stopped her dead in her tracks. Frightened, she struggled to free herself. “Let me go!”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t do that.”

  In spite of her fear, Carrie was intrigued by the polite, firm voice. She turned her head to stare at her captor. The man gazing back was not much older than her. His face was tight with tension, but his eyes held nothing but concern. “I have to stop them,” Carrie gasped, starting to struggle again. “You have to let me go.”

  “You can’t stop it,” the man said tersely.

  Carrie felt a surge of hope when she saw a group of firemen rushing toward the blaze, their wagon clattering loudly as it swayed around the last corner. She sagged with relief. “The firemen will save the hospital!”

  The man scowled, but didn’t refute her words. He just held her firmly in place as her housemates ran up to join her.

  “Carrie! What are you doing?” Janie scolded. “You can’t possibly think you could put that fire out.” She shot an anxious look at Carrie’s captor, but seemed simply grateful someone had stopped her headlong dash.

  Carrie watched as growing flames leapt from the windows and marveled at the heat she could feel reaching out to her from a block away. She hoped the hospital wasn’t too far gone to save, but she had a growing awareness of the danger other homes were in. In spite of the buckets of water hauled to rooftops, it would still be easy for other buildings to ignite.

  She felt a spark of hope when the firemen hurried to attach hoses to the closest hydrants, but then frowned
as she watched them. “What are they doing?” she asked tightly. “That hose is far too short to reach the hospital.”

  “That it is,” the man muttered. His face was set in angry lines, but his eyes were filled with a bitter futility and his grasp didn’t loosen.

  Carrie stared at him for a moment and then swung back around to watch the fire. She groaned as a section of the roof exploded into flame. The roar of the inferno made it seem alive. Mixed in with the roar was the sound of cracking timbers and popping glass. “They’re just going to let it burn, aren’t they?” she asked numbly.

  “I’m afraid so,” the man managed. He turned away and beckoned to the other women. “I have to get you out of here,” he muttered. “You have to come with me.”

  “And why should we do that?” Florence asked in a crisp voice. Only her eyes showed the devastation she was feeling.

  The man shrugged. “My granny told me to come get you. I never tell her no.”

  Carrie looked at him more closely. She liked the calm compassion she saw in his eyes, and she somewhat understood the urgency on his face, but she wasn’t going to leave. She might not be able to stop the fire, but she was determined to see what happened. The fact that her obstinacy made no common sense was not registering in her mind. And, in spite of the fact that she liked what she saw in his eyes, it would be sheer lunacy to go into the darkness with a strange man. Perhaps no more ridiculous than thinking they could walk home alone through Philadelphia for six miles, but at least that was a choice they had made on their own. She was not going to allow herself and her friends to be hauled into a stranger’s house in the middle of Moyamensing. She exchanged a long look with Janie.

  “Then I suggest you go back and tell your granny that we said no,” Janie said wryly.

  “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” the man replied, pulling his hand through his hair as he eyed the angry expressions on the firemen’s faces. “I’m afraid things are going to get ugly around here.”

  “They’re already ugly,” Carrie shot back as she twisted her arm free. She felt another surge of hope when two more fire wagons rounded the corner and barreled down the street. “Here comes more help!” She held her breath and watched as the horses plunged to a stop. Men jumped from the wagons and deliberated briefly over the useless, short hoses.

  “Get new hoses over here!” one of them yelled. Several of the firemen rushed forward with longer hoses that could reach the hospital from a block away.

  Carrie knew it was too late for the entire building to be saved, but perhaps some of the supplies would be salvaged. Several of the firemen grabbed the long hose once it had been attached to the hydrant and began to run toward the burning building. Her alarm and anger exploded when several men from the first fire company emerged from the shadows with hatchets and immediately cut the hoses. Water gushed out onto the road, glowing from the light of the growing blaze.

  “Stop!” Carrie ordered, rushing forward as fury propelled her into action. “You can’t do that! You must stop that immediately!”

  Her indignation became fear when several of the men turned toward her with their hatchets raised and menacing looks on their faces. Carrie jolted to a stop, her mind racing as she realized she could be in grave danger.

  “That’s one of the women who was turning our hall into a hospital,” one of the men called angrily.

  “We let them leave before we torched the place, but if she wants to pick a fight, we’ll show her what we think about women who want to bring cholera to our children,” another man shouted through the noise and confusion, his voice harsh with fury.

  “The rest of them women are right behind her,” another called in a taunting voice. “Let’s teach them all a lesson.”

  Carrie shuddered at the cold, deliberate rage in their voices and eyes. She tensed her body and prepared to run. She was relieved this time when she felt a firm hand grab her arm again. She knew without looking that it was the same man who had stopped her before. In just a few moments, he had transformed from a strange man into their savior.

  “I told you we had to get out of here,” her rescuer growled.

  “Lead the way,” Carrie managed to say steadily.

  The man pulled hard on her arm and waved to her housemates to follow him. They melted back into shadows that had suddenly lost their menacing look and become a sanctuary. They had only run a half-block when the man pulled her to the left, up some stairs, and through a door that was flung open from inside. She had no time to think before she and the rest were standing in a large parlor, breathing hard to regain some degree of composure as they stared around. Heavy furniture and rich, brocade fabrics barely registered in her mind.

  “What took you so long, Ardan?”

  Carrie swung her head around and saw a tiny, wrinkled woman sitting in the corner. She was instantly mesmerized by the musical Irish brogue and compassionate blue eyes glittering up at them.

  “They wouldn’t come with me, Granny,” Ardan replied. His face was set in a scowl, but his voice was respectful as he tilted his head toward Carrie. “I had to stop this one from running back to the hospital.”

  “Is that right?” The old lady studied Carrie for a long moment.

  Carrie knew she was being examined and evaluated. It was suddenly important to her that this tiny woman approved of her. “Thank you for sending Ardan out to rescue us,” she murmured.

  “Are you always so stubborn?”

  Carrie managed a smile. “So I’m told,” she admitted, suddenly relaxing. This woman had nothing but kindness in her eyes. In spite of the woman’s silvery hair, blue eyes, and creamy, white skin, she reminded her of Sarah.

  “Who are you, girl?”

  “My name is Carrie Borden.”

  “You’re from the South.”

  Carrie nodded. “Virginia. My friends and I are students at the Female College of Medicine.”

  The woman’s eyes sharpened as her gaze swept over all of them. “You’re all going to be doctors?”

  “That’s the plan,” Carrie replied as fatigue pressed down on her. Now that the danger seemed to be over, the weariness from a long day gripped her. She tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. “And who do we have to thank for saving us?”

  “The name would be Biddy Flannagan,” the woman replied with a soft smile. “Welcome to my home.”

  Elizabeth gasped. “You’re Biddy Flannagan?”

  “Ever since I woke up this morning,” the old woman responded, latching her eyes onto Elizabeth. “Who is asking?”

  Elizabeth grinned and stepped forward. “Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m—”

  A broad smile broke out on Biddy’s face. “You would be Matilda Gilbert’s oldest girl,” she finished, her voice ripe with disbelief. “Girl, what are you doing down here in this sorry excuse of a neighborhood?”

  “Granny!” Ardan protested.

  Biddy raised her hand. “You know it’s true, boy. It’s me home, but there’s no reason in making it seem better than it is.” Her gaze swung back to Elizabeth. “You’re every bit as lovely as your mother.”

  Elizabeth sank down on one knee in front of her and grasped her hands. “Thank you for saving us. I was frightened half to death out there.”

  “As well you should have been. Your mama would be beside herself with worry if she knew what you were doing,” Biddy snapped. She softened her voice as she shook her head sadly. “They’re not all bad lads, but life seems to have sucked the goodness out of too many of them.” She latched her eyes on Ardan. “Who did this?”

  Ardan frowned but didn’t look away. “I’m figuring Boss McMullin’s men set the fire. They were the first on the scene. They set up short hoses so the water couldn’t reach the fire, and then his men cut the hoses when the other fire companies arrived.”

  “We’ll talk about all that later,” Biddy replied, still grasping Elizabeth’s hands. She managed to sound calm in spite of the anger flashing in her eyes. “Right now we have some guests to take care
of.” She fastened her eyes on Elizabeth. “I bet we have about the same amount of questions for each other, but there is nothing that can’t wait until the morning. You girls all look done in. You need some rest.” She glanced up the stairs. “I won’t be having much to offer you, but three of you can sleep in a bed. The other two will have to sleep on the floor. I’m real sorry about that.”

  “I’ll sleep on the floor,” Carrie answered quickly. She realized they could he halfway home by now if she hadn’t turned around to run back to the fire. As she followed Biddy up the stairs her mind was racing with questions, but she knew they would have to wait until the morning. Her brain was too fogged with fatigue to think any further than the appeal of sleep.

  Robert was up early the next morning, drawn downstairs by the smell of frying bacon and fluffy biscuits. His mouth was watering when he entered the kitchen.

  Annie looked up at him and smiled. “I figured you would be the first down.”

  Robert smiled back at Moses’ mama. “Aren’t I always?”

  “You got a real good appetite,” Annie agreed as she handed him a steaming cup of coffee.

  “I don’t normally wake up to tantalizing odors in the summertime. They pulled me out of bed.” Robert took the cup and settled down into a chair next to the cavernous fireplace that was mercifully empty. Annie usually prepared meals in the cookhouse during the hot summer months, but an unusually cool night, combined with a strong breeze blowing through all the windows and open doors, had convinced her to fire up the woodstove in the kitchen.

  “Looks like a storm is on the way,” Annie commented as she pulled the biscuits from the oven, their golden tops confirming they were perfectly done.

  “I hope so,” Robert replied, his eyes locked on the biscuits. “We need the rain, and it will cool things off even more.”

  Annie nodded, handed him a hot biscuit wrapped in a napkin, and then fixed him with her gaze. “I heard what you did for Amber yesterday, Robert. That was a right wonderful thing to do.”