Angel of the Cove

by Sandra Robbins

  She pressed her hands to her face and shook her head. “I can’t think about this right now. I need to get back to Martha.”

  He nodded. “All right, but this is not the end. We’ll talk later.”

  “Later.” She whirled and ran toward the house.

  Once inside they entered the bedroom where John still sat beside Martha. John looked up and grinned. “We wondered where you two been.”

  Anna tucked the stray locks of hair that had come loose from their pins back into place. “We had to get a breath of air. Sorry to be gone so long.”

  Martha motioned for them to step closer. “We’ve decided on a name.”

  Simon smiled down at her. “And what am I to call my niece?”

  John and Martha smiled at each other before Martha spoke. “Anna.”

  Surprise shot through Anna. “You want to name her after me?”

  Martha reached out to grasp Anna’s hand. “If it hadn’t been for you, me and little Anna might both be dead now. We cain’t ever thank you enough for what you done today.”

  Tears blinded her. “Thank you. I consider it an honor to have your child share my name.”

  She glanced at Simon, and her heart quaked at the love she saw shining there. How could she ever deny that she loved him?

  Her head hurt and her body screamed for sleep. Maybe when she’d rested the answer would come to her.

  In the week since the baby’s birth Anna had washed more clothes than she thought possible. Since John and Martha had no family members other than Simon in the Cove, she had stayed on to take care of the new mother and baby. Her days spent cooking, cleaning, and watching Martha and the baby had helped her develop a new understanding of what her mother’s life had been on the farm.

  The work never seemed to let up. She straightened from bending over the washtub in the backyard, stretched her back, and squinted at the sun. She wiped her sleeve across the strands of hair plastered to her forehead and heaved a big sigh. But she really didn’t mind all she’d done in the past few days, because John and Martha now seemed more like family.

  When she began her work with Granny she hadn’t thought she would become attached to those she worked with, but now she knew that wasn’t true. There were new babies in the Cove who were alive partly because of her help. They would always be special to her because she’d been there at their births…but none would ever compare with little Anna Martin.

  Every time she looked at that baby girl she was reminded of what a miracle she was. Anna also knew she would never be the same again after witnessing Martha’s long ordeal. She would never again take for granted the birth of any child. But most of all she would always remember Simon’s calming presence throughout the time.

  In the days since the birth Simon had been a constant visitor. He was there for every meal, his eyes never wavering from Anna’s. A bond had been established that night at Martha’s bedside, and their souls had merged into one as together they faced the shadows of death. He told her he loved her, and those spoken words had changed everything between them. Up to then she could pretend they were friends, but that wasn’t possible anymore. A line had been crossed, and she had to decide what to do. Maybe she could decide when she got back to Granny’s.

  Granny, now able to walk with a cane, had come to visit three days after the birth. Her face beamed her pleasure at Anna’s care of Martha and the baby. She’d hugged Anna and announced for everyone to hear, “I don’t ’spect I could’ve done a bit better if’n I’d been here myself. Anna, you got the gift in your hands.”

  Those words of praise coming from the legendary granny woman of the mountains thrilled Anna’s heart. She smiled and wrung the water from the gown she had scrubbed. As she spread it on the line to dry, she heard a shout and turned toward the field. She shaded her eyes with her hands and glimpsed Simon and John coming back from hunting.

  “Any luck?” she called out.

  John held up two rabbits. “There’s gonna be good eatin’ today.”

  She propped her hands on her hips. “Well, you know the rules. You skin it and clean it, and I’ll cook it.”

  Simon was grinning at her. “Sounds good to me.”

  John headed toward the smokehouse where he kept his tools, but Simon stopped beside her. “Want me to pour the water out of your washtub?”

  She smiled up at him. “That would be a real help, kind sir.”

  He moved closer to her. “Anything for you.”

  His words thrilled her, and she turned her face away to keep him from seeing how red her cheeks had grown. “I’ll go check on Martha and the baby, and then I’ll get dinner started. Tell John to bring me the rabbits when he gets them cleaned.”

  Simon hefted the washtub and headed across the yard. “I’ll do it.”

  Anna stepped back into the house and peeked into the bedroom. Martha and little Anna both seemed to be sleeping, and she tiptoed back to the kitchen. For several minutes she busied herself with chopping vegetables and dunking them into a big pot of water to cook. The addition of the rabbit was going to make this a meal fit for a king…or the best chef in Knoxville.

  The sound of a horse stopping in the front yard caught her attention, and she frowned. Who could be dropping by? She wiped her hands on her apron and stepped to the front door. Her face broke into a big smile at the sight of her uncle climbing from his buggy.

  She ran to meet him. “Uncle Charles, what are you doing here?”

  He grabbed her in a hug. “I came by Granny’s, and she told me about Martha. Just thought I’d stop and check on you.” He held her at arm’s length. “I hear you had quite a time with the birth.”

  She nodded. “I did, but everything’s all right now.”

  He smiled. “That’s what Granny said. I’m right proud of you, Anna. You showed what you were made of.”

  Anna waved her hand in dismissal. “I think God did all the work. I was just there to assist Him.”

  Her uncle’s eyes held hers in a steady gaze. “Always remember that, darling. There’s only so much we humans can do. It’s all in God’s hands.”

  She swallowed back the tears she felt stinging her eyes and grabbed his hand. “Come on into the house. John and Simon have just gotten back from hunting, and we’re having rabbit for dinner. You have to eat with us.”

  Anna started toward the house, but he pulled her back. “Anna, wait.”

  She turned questioning eyes toward him. “What?”

  He reached in his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “This came to Granny’s yesterday. She asked if I would bring it to you.”

  Her name was written on the envelope in a hand she knew all too well. She licked her lips and glanced up at him. “It’s from Robert.”

  He nodded and pressed the letter into her hand. “I’ve had one from him too, and I want to talk to you about it.”

  Her hand shook as she reached for the envelope. If Robert had finally agreed for her to go to New York, it would mean the first step in fulfilling her dream. On the other hand, if he was determined to stand by his original decision she could stay in the Cove with Simon. Anna’s fingers curled around the letter.

  New York. Cades Cove. Bellevue Hospital. Simon. Which did she want? At the moment she had no idea. This was one letter she didn’t want to read.

  Chapter 24

  Anna?”

  Anna spun around at the sound of Simon’s voice. “I’m in the front yard!” she called back. She stuffed the letter in the pocket of her apron and grabbed Uncle Charles’s hand. “Don’t say anything to Simon. I’ll read it later.”

  He nodded as Simon came out the front door. Simon’s eyes lit up in welcome when he saw Doc Prentiss standing beside Anna. “Didn’t expect to see you today, Doc.”

  Uncle Charles put his arm around Anna. “Just wanted to check on my girl. I hear she did a mighty good job with Martha.”

  Simon smiled at her. “I don’t expect a doctor in the best hospital in the country could have done any better. I don’t kn
ow what would have happened if she hadn’t been here.”

  Anna took her uncle’s hand and smiled up at him. “He’s exaggerating, Uncle Charles. He was right beside me the whole time and was a big help with the delivery.”

  Uncle Charles nodded. “That’s what Granny said. I sure would like to see the new baby. Is she awake?”

  A cry rang out from inside the house, and Simon jerked his thumb in the direction of the sound. “Just follow the wails. I never would have thought anyone as tiny as little Anna could have such a set of lungs.”

  Her uncle’s eyebrows arched. “Little Anna?”

  “Yeah.” Simon’s eyes softened. “John and Martha named her after the woman who brought her into the world.”

  Anna followed the two onto the porch and into the house. With each step she took the letter in her pocket grew heavier. Apprehension at its contents made her legs tremble and her stomach roil with sudden nausea. She wiped at the perspiration that had popped out on her head and slipped past Simon and her uncle as they entered the parlor. “Simon, take Uncle Charles in to see Martha. I have to get something from my room.”

  Her uncle cast a quick glance in her direction. “Anna, are you…”

  She shook her head quickly to cut off his words, and he nodded. Simon didn’t appear to notice the brief exchange as he headed toward Martha’s bedroom. He knocked on the door. “Martha, Doc Prentiss is here to see the baby.”

  “Come in,” Martha called out.

  Anna waited until they’d entered the bedroom before she hurried to the room where she’d been sleeping. She closed the door and leaned with her back against it for a few moments. Her shaking fingers drew the letter from her pocket as she sank down on the patchwork quilt that covered the bed. Her heart pounded in her chest and her fingers shook. Slowly she ran her finger under the seal and pulled the sheets from within. Her eyes glistened with tears, and she blinked them away to focus on the words.

  My Dearest Anna,

  When we arranged for you to spend the summer working with Matilda Lawson, Uncle Charles assured me she would be honest in whatever she told me about you. I have received a letter with a report of your work with her, and I must say I am very pleased with what she says.

  She writes that your work as her assistant since arriving in the Cove has been outstanding, and she states you have the gift of healing in your hands like few she’s ever seen. She also mentions she would like for you to stay in Cades Cove and take over her work, but you have your mind set on going to Bellevue School of Nursing.

  I have always tried to be a man of my word like our father taught me to be, and I will keep the promise I made to you when you left home. I will arrive in Cades Cove on August 10 to bring you home. That will give you and Mother time to get all your needs taken care of before you depart for New York on September 1.

  I hope you know it was never my intent to cause you any pain. I saw the uncertainty you had about what you might encounter in New York, and I wanted you to be sure you could stand up to the pressures you would face as a student in a big hospital. Mrs. Lawson assures me you have the grit to face whatever comes your way. I am very proud of you, Anna.

  Your loving brother,

  Robert

  Proud of her? She had never thought she would hear those words from him. And he was sending her to New York with his blessings.

  She crushed the letter into a ball, wrapped her fingers around it, and walked to the window. In the distance the mountains she’d come to love rose toward the sky, their peaks shrouded in thick, smoky mists. She didn’t want to live in New York. She wanted Cades Cove and the people she’d come to know and love. But most of all she wanted Simon.

  But you’ve won. The thought niggled at the back of her mind. Wanting to beat Robert was what had gotten her through everything she’d experienced this summer. Could she just throw away the opportunity that had fallen in her lap?

  The paper crackled in her hand and she began to unroll the ball, smoothing out the page with her fingers. Something tugged at her mind, and with a frown she reread the message, her eyes growing wider at the date Robert said he would arrive. August 10.

  Tomorrow.

  She rushed from the room in search of her uncle. He and Simon were still admiring the new baby. He turned as she entered the room, and the look on his face told Anna the letter he’d received from Robert said the same thing as hers. He stepped away from Martha’s bed and walked toward her. “Anna, Granny sent some things over. Want to help me get them from the buggy?”

  Simon glanced over his shoulder. “No need for you to do that, Doc. I’ll get them.”

  Simon started toward the door, but her uncle’s hand on his arm restrained him. “You stay with Martha. Granny had some special instructions for Anna I need to give her.”

  Simon nodded and turned back to the baby. “Martha, you think she might want her uncle to rock her awhile?”

  Martha chuckled and handed the baby to him. “I ’spect she would.”

  Uncle Charles took Anna’s arm and steered her out the front door toward the buggy. When they were well out of earshot, he turned to her. “Well, what do you think?”

  Anna shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know yet. I don’t know what to think.”

  Her uncle stepped in front of her. His big hands wrapped around her smaller ones. “But isn’t this what you wanted?”

  “Yes. Yes. But it’s happened so quickly. I need time to think about it.”

  Uncle Charles cocked his head to one side. “Think about what?”

  Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and she wiped at them with the hem of her apron. “I don’t know. It’s just that I didn’t expect Robert to give in, and I’ve had such a wonderful summer with Granny.”

  “And with Simon?”

  She took a deep breath. “How did you know?”

  “It’s not hard to see what’s going on between the two of you. Granny told me how you and Simon hit it off the first day you arrived, and Simon told me how he felt about you the day Naomi moved to Pigeon Forge.”

  “He did?”

  Uncle Charles reached out, grasped her shoulders, and stared into her eyes. “He loves you a great deal, Anna. Do you love him?”

  She shook free of him. “It doesn’t matter. I’m supposed to go to Bellevue. I can help people there.”

  Uncle Charles leaned against his buggy and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. Wiping his forehead, he gazed at the mountains in the distance. After a moment he straightened. “People need help no matter where they live. What about the people of the Cove? Don’t they deserve a good nurse too? Granny’s getting older, and she needs somebody she trusts to turn her work over to. She believes you’re the person for the job, and she thinks God sent you here for that purpose.”

  “I’ve suspected that’s what she wanted.”

  Anna let her gaze drift to the mountains that ringed the valley she’d come to love. In her heart she knew she would never find another place that could compare with the Cove, and she would never feel the kinship she’d come to share with the folks who struggled to survive here. But most of all she knew she would never love another man the way she loved Simon.

  She shook her head and gritted her teeth. No, she wouldn’t be distracted from what she’d planned for years. She had thought it impossible to gain Robert’s approval, but she had. If she could do that, nothing was impossible. It might be difficult at first at Bellevue, but in time she would come to think of this summer as a pleasant interval in her life. And Simon…well, she would always cherish his memory.

  Anna took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “I’m going to New York. That’s where I belong.”

  “You’re sure this is what you want?”

  She nodded. “I’ve always wanted this, and I can’t give it up now.”

  Her uncle’s weathered face revealed his disappointment. “What will you tell Simon?”

  Simon. Her mind flashed with images of the man she had come to love. Simon s
miling at her from his pulpit. Simon fighting a barn fire, his skin stained with soot. Simon in agony after Luke Jackson’s death. Simon with his arms around her at Abram’s Creek. Simon’s lips on hers after little Anna’s birth.

  But she had already made her decision.

  Anna looked up at her uncle. “I need to cook dinner. Then I want you to take me back to Granny’s. I have to get ready to leave.”

  “Anna darling, please don’t rush into this decision. Talk to Simon first.”

  She shook her head. “I vowed years ago I would make it to New York, and I can’t give it up now.”

  He reached for her. “Anna, please.”

  She pulled away from him. “No, Uncle Charles. My mind is made up.”

  She began to cry then, her shoulders shaking. Uncle Charles wrapped his arms around her, and she cried for the empty years that stretched before her.

  Something was wrong. Simon knew it. Anna had been quiet ever since her uncle arrived an hour ago. He had to find out what was troubling her, but she refused to meet his gaze across the dinner table. Doc Prentiss and John carried on a lively conversation all through the meal, but Anna remained quiet.

  Anna looked up from concentrating on her plate and caught him watching her. With a scrape she slid her chair back from the table and stood up. “I’ll check on Martha while all of you are having pie.”

  “What? No pie? I’ve never seen you pass up a dessert.” Simon smiled at her, but she glanced away.

  “I don’t want any,” she said, and disappeared into the bedroom.

  John and Doc Prentiss plowed through the pie, but Simon couldn’t muster the appetite. Soon the other men went out to the barn, and Simon got up and went to Martha’s door. She and Anna were deep in conversation.

  “But, Anna, you cain’t leave this soon. I’ll miss you so much.” Martha’s voice brought a frown to his face.

  “I have to go, Martha. You’re doing well now, and John and Simon can take care of you. If you have any problems, send John for Granny, and she’ll find someone to come help out.”