"She started six months ago, at two and a half, surprised us all. You're doin' real good, aren't you, munch-kin?" Becky tied a bib around her daughter and put a slice of buttered bread in front of her. "Bread, Emily. You want some bread, sweetie?"
"We talk to her all the time, naming everything so that she'll match up sounds and objects," Sadie explained, passing Alex a plate of homemade bread and another of thinly sliced tomatoes. "She's not talking much yet, but she's trying hard."
"I'm so lucky with her," Becky said with patent pride. "She doesn't have a heart defect, which so many Down's kids have, and she's been fairly healthy ever since she was born, apart from some nasty respiratory infections. At first, feeding her was a problem, but she's gotten much better—except that she much prefers chocolate cake to broccoli. All in all, she's learning at a pretty fair pace."
As tea was poured and the delicious array of food devoured, they spoke sadly of Winifred, still in the hospital and showing little improvement. But Becky and her mother also related affectionate, humorous anecdotes about Emily, and Alex reflected on how lucky this small girl was, being raised in the midst of such unconditional love. With a pang, she wondered what would have happened to such a child in her parents' home, where love seemed to be meted out only in return for accomplishments.
Becky and Sadie asked questions about where Alex had worked before she came to Korbin Lake, and she explained about St. Joe's, adding that her father was a surgeon before his retirement. Both Sadie and Becky were wonderful listeners, and somehow, Alex found herself talking about Wade again, about his injury and the emotional effect it was having on him and on the rest of the family.
Becky said, "Mom, remember the story Gram always tells about your uncle Tom?"
"Heavens, yes." Sadie related it while Becky poured more tea. "Years ago, when Becky was just a baby, my uncle Tom, my father's brother, was hurt in the mine. He had to have both of his legs amputated, one below the knee, one above."
Sadie shuddered at the memory. "Doc King hadn't been here long at the time. He did the operation. Tom was married, with two little girls. The youngest, Carrie, was just the age you were at the time, Becky, not even six months old."
Sadie shook her head as she reminisced. "At first Tom was glad to be alive, but then apparently he got it in his head he wasn't good for anything, kept on about how he should have died, felt real sorry for himself and developed a terrible temper. He wouldn't get out of bed or even try to use his wheelchair, didn't want to see anybody."
"Just like Wade," Alex said.
Sadie nodded and blew out a breath. "He nearly drove my poor aunt crazy, he was so miserable after that accident. She's a nice woman, Aunt Isabelle, and she tried everything. She tried being patient, she tried to reason with him, she tried to ignore him, but one day she just couldn't take it anymore, and she walked out and left him high and dry."
"The best part is, she left him with the kids," Becky added.
"She did at that," Sadie confirmed with a mischievous grin. "She left him on his own with those two little babies. She knew they were their daddy's darlings, and if anything was going to snap him out of it, it would be his babies. She went to Vancouver and stayed with her sister. When Tom realized she'd really left him, he sent a neighbor to get my mother and I to come and take over."
Becky laughed. "But Gram was too smart to go. She says she knew what had gone on, how miserable Tom had been, so she said no, and she and Mom warned all the neighbor women to leave him on his own, let him find out he could manage if he tried. Right, Mom?"
Sadie nodded. "It was tough to do, but we figured it was the only way, sort of throw him on his own resources. Mind you, we kept a close eye out to make sure the kids didn't come to any harm." She chuckled. "He had a terrible time for a week or so, I guess. Mom and I worried sick about those babies, but next thing I knew, I saw him in the grocery store in his wheelchair. He had Carrie tied across his chest in a sling, and he'd rigged up a thing at the back of the chair for Roberta to stand in, and he was doing just fine. The girls were dressed quite peculiar—Tom was always color-blind—but apart from that, they seemed well fed and happy. He was so put out with Mother and I, he wouldn't speak to us for the longest time, but he was up and around, and that's all that mattered."
Alex was fascinated by the story. "Did his wife ever comeback?"
"Yes, after a time," Sadie confirmed. "They're still together. They moved to Edmonton a few years ago to be near Roberta and her husband. Mind you, Isabelle let him stew for a good long time before she gave in. It was at least six weeks before she came back. By the time she came home, he'd learned to cook and do laundry and care for those girls as good as Isabelle could herself, so she marched up to the mine office and got herself a job as a clerk and left him to it."
Becky shook her head and giggled. "I never would have guessed Aunt Isabelle had it in her. She's so unassuming."
Sadie nodded. "At first glance, she seems the quiet type, real shy, but she taught me a few things, I'll tell you. Whenever we had a real bad fight, I used to threaten your daddy that I was gonna ask Aunt Isabelle for her advice." They all laughed. "Scared him so bad he'd usually say he was sorry, even when it was my fault." Her face softened, and her eyes looked past them, and it was obvious she was peering into another time and place.
Becky was the one who answered Alex's unspoken question. "My dad was killed in an explosion in the mine when I was nine. Grandpa died in the same accident. He only had another six days to work before he was going to retire."
Becky's tone was matter-of-fact, but Alex was shocked at the thought of such tragedy being heaped upon one family. How had these women borne it all? Becky, Sadie, Winifred—all of them had been touched by tragedy, not once, but many times. All of them had struggled with heartbreak in one form or another.
For the first time in weeks, the ever-present worry in Alex's heart about herself and Cameron eased slightly, and even her concerns about Wade lightened. The story about Uncle Tom had helped in a way that nothing else could have done. She was going to tell Thea the story, too, Alex decided.
"Lots of men died in that accident, twenty-six in all," Sadie added. "We sure weren't the only ones to lose our men that day. Back then, we used to call the mine the widow maker."
The casual way deaths and accidents at the mine were discussed among these women gave Alex a startling glimpse into what it really meant to be a coal miner's family.
"My brother-in-law just applied for a job at the mine," she said. She'd never even stopped to consider that if he was hired, David's job might be dangerous. "He'd be operating heavy equipment."
"Well, don't let all this talk about accidents scare you, Alex. The mines are a lot safer now than they were years ago," Becky reassured her.
"And the compensation settlements are better now, too," Sadie said, adding without a trace of malice, "Back then, the mine owned most of the housing. A week after my husband was killed, I was given three months to move. They wanted the house for another miner and his family. Widows with kids didn't qualify for company housing in those days."
"That's how we all ended up living here with Gram," Becky told Alex. "Grandpa had bought this house years before, and Mom and I moved in and just never left. Oh, I was gone while I did my training and for the first year after I got married, but when Emily was born and Ryan walked out on us, we came back here, too." She laughed. "We joke about it being Gram's haven for homeless women."
Alex had wondered about the all-female household and how it came to be. She was touched by the women's blatant honesty, their willingness to share intimate details of their lives with her.
Sadie got to her feet. "This poor wee girl's falling asleep sitting up. I'll go put her down for a nap. C'mon, princess." She lifted Emily, whose head was nodding, and kissed her. "Why don't you girls go on out in the backyard and sit where it's cooler? I'll clean up here and join you when I'm done."
Becky caught Alex's eye and rolled her eyes and grinned.
"C'mon, girl," she teased. "Seems we're getting out of dishes. Let's disappear before Mom changes her mind." She led the way out the kitchen door and along a wooden walkway to where several lawn chairs sat in the shade of a huge weeping willow.
"To your mother, you're a girl no matter how old you get," she commented. "I never understood that until I had Emily."
It had been years since Alex thought of herself as a girl, and under different circumstances, she might even have taken offense at the moniker. But here, in this modest house, with these incredibly strong and loving generations of women, the label touched and deeply comforted her, as though she'd been initiated into a small, exclusive fraternity of females, accepted as one of them, supported by them, even loved just because she was a woman, with a woman's special problems.
And at this particular time in her life, she'd never needed anything so much.
"When I was a little girl," Becky was saying, "I used to pretend this tree was my castle and I was the queen." She flopped into one of the chairs as Alex sank into the other. The trailing willow branches reached almost to the lawn, forming a sort of green cave that at least gave the illusion of coolness.
"I'd play dress up and have tea parties under here. Gram and Mom would play right along and call me Your Majesty and let me wear their good shoes. They spoiled me something awful, the same way they spoil Emily.''
Becky shook her head and laughed, but her hazel eyes were sad, her voice filled with fathomless pain. "I wonder sometimes if Emily'll ever be able to even pretend. As you know, there's absolutely no way of even guessing how profound her retardation will be until she's older." She turned to Alex, and tears shimmered in her hazel eyes. "It's not the big things that bother me. I don't give a hoot that she'll never be a rocket scientist. What hurts so much are the little things, the stupid remarks people make, the things that Emily will never be able to do, like have a baby herself." A wistful smile flickered across her face and disappeared. "When I found out I was pregnant, I wanted a little girl so much, Alex. I never thought for a moment I'd have a boy, and before she was born, I used to dream we were having long conversations, you know, talking about clothes and hairdos, silly things, and also the intimate stuff you don't talk about with anybody but your mother."
Alex shrugged and shook her head. "I guess I don't really know what mothers and daughters talk about, Becky. I envy you the relationship you have with Sadie and Winifred. I've never had anything like that with my mother." She explained about Eleanor, about the intellectual analysis that always took the place of intimacy and warmth. "The only person I've ever really been able to talk with is Cam."
But not anymore. Even that's gone now—
"He's gorgeous, your husband. I can tell you, he caused quite a stir when he first came to town," Becky remarked. "There were lots of broken hearts when he told everyone he was married to a beautiful woman."
"He said that?" It was gratifying to hear.
"Absolutely." Becky giggled. "You probably haven't noticed, but we've got a couple of bimbos on staff at the hospital, and they came on pretty strong to him the first time he turned up there with an accident victim. He let them know that his wife was arriving from Vancouver, that she was not only beautiful but a hot shot big-time doctor, as well, and he did it so tactfully they didn't even realize for a while that they'd been put down."
Alex smiled. This was a side of Cam she'd never heard about before, and today it comforted the sore place in her heart.
"Mind you, hearing that the sergeant's beautiful wife was the new doctor in town didn't exactly make Doc King jump for joy." Becky shook her head. "He's such an old chauvinist."
"I've noticed." Alex kept her tone carefully neutral.
Becky was silent for a moment, her forehead creased in a frown. She seemed to be pondering something. Her voice was sober when she said, "You've probably heard that we've had a lot of doctors come and go here over the past five years, Alex."
Alex nodded. "I asked Ruthie how many, and she said four, which seems a pretty high turnover."
"Doc King drives them away," Becky said flatly. "I know it's not news to you that he isn't the easiest guy to get along with. You're the first woman doctor we've had, and very selfishly, I'd like to see you stay here." She looked straight at Alex. "I hate to sound like a gossip, but I'm going to anyway. I think there's some stuff you ought to know if you're going to survive around here.''
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BECKY PAUSED for a moment, obviously pondering where to begin. "You understand what a hospital's like. Everybody knows everything, Alex. Or they think they do. Anyway, the word is King's giving you an exceptionally bad time."
Pride made Alex want to deny it, but there wasn't much point—just as Becky said, there were few secrets around a hospital. "This week's been pretty rough, all right," she conceded. "I'd really appreciate anything you could tell me that might help."
Becky nodded and heaved a sigh. "Well, it's all pretty tacky, but here goes. Shirley Boyd, our illustrious director of nursing, has been involved with King for years and years."
"Sexually involved?" The concept of straitlaced Shirley in any sort of passionate scene was difficult for Alex to imagine.
"At first it was definitely a sexual affair. Apparently they were spotted more than once coming out of a motel in Cranbrook. It might not be hot and heavy anymore, but there's still a strong bond between them. It started a long time ago, and they now wield a lot of power, not just at the hospital, but in the politics of the town generally. You see, King is on the town council, and she's on the school board. They both chair various committees. Anyhow, she has a nephew, Rodney Boyd, who just recently finished an internship in Toronto. It was no secret that she and King both wanted him to take over here when Dr. Lee left so suddenly."
"I see." Suddenly, the open animosity Alex had endured from both King and Boyd made sense.
"All of us nurses figured it was a done deal," Becky went on. "We were absolutely stunned when we found out you got the job instead of Rodney."
Alex's mind was working furiously. She was thinking about how and why she had gotten the position at Kor-bin Lake. With a sick feeling in her stomach, she remembered the connection between her father and Harry Perkins. Could Bruce have pulled strings, drawn in some old debt Perkins felt he owed, to make sure Alex got the job instead of Shirley Boyd's nephew? It was all too possible, considering her father's ambitions for her.
She suddenly felt nauseous at the idea that it hadn't been her qualifications at all that got her hired on at the clinic. Chances were good that she was on staff solely because of her father's influence. If King knew that—and he undoubtedly did—no damned wonder he had no respect for her.
"You look upset." Becky's forehead puckered in a frown. "I'm sorry. I'm probably way out of line, telling you all this stuff. I shouldn't have said anything."
Alex mustered a reassuring smile and shook her head. "It's not what you said, it's—it's something else, something that just occurred to me. Believe me, Becky, I very much appreciate knowing where I stand and what's going on under the surface."
Becky gave her a troubled look. "It's just that Doc King's going to do everything he can to get you to leave, and I'd hate to see that happen. And I'm afraid I have no loyalty at all to Shirley. She's a proper witch to work with."
Alex thought over the situation. "King's married. What does his wife think about this thing with Shirley Boyd?"
Becky grinned. "The hospital grapevine's speculated about that often enough. You haven't met Olinda?"
Alex shook her head.
"Well, she's petite, still very pretty, vivacious, and unfortunately not very bright. The consensus is that she was put on this earth to shop and party, and as long as Hollister keeps bringing in the bucks, she couldn't care less what he does. He's made a lot of money over the years. They have a condo in Hawaii and another in Mexico, and Olinda spends about half the year in one or the other. Even when she's here, she flies to Vancouver or Edmonton
most weekends to shop."
"What about Shirley? Doesn't she want King to marry her eventually?"
Becky shrugged. "Who knows about Shirley? She doesn't confide in anyone. My guess is she likes things just the way they are. She's got lots of clout around town and a good job, and her independence, as well." She shot a worried glance at Alex. "Damn, I was afraid of this. I sound like the worst kind of gossipmonger."
Alex shook her head and gripped Becky's hand for a moment in reassurance. "I'm grateful for what you've told me. It makes everything a lot clearer." She managed a crooked smile. "See, I sort of thought Hollister and Shirley disliked me because of the way I dressed or something. At least now I know it's not only my jeans they take offense to."
Their laughter was interrupted by Sadie. "You two want some lemonade?" She came across the lawn bearing a tray with three icy glasses, and the conversation became general. The women chatted until at last Alex reluctantly got to her feet.
"I hate to go—this has been such fun—but I have to go grocery shopping. Cam's working today and there's not a thing in the house for dinner." She did hate to go. The afternoon had been an oasis in an otherwise barren day, and she suddenly wanted to see Becky and Sadie again soon.
"Listen, why don't you both come out to the lake tomorrow afternoon? We'll go for a swim and have a barbecue. Emily'll love the water—it's really gotten warm this past week."
Sadie shook her head uncertainly. "We have to go visit Mom in the hospital, and besides, what would your husband say, all of us females descending on him that way?"
"Cam will love it." Alex was sure he would—he loved informal get-togethers. Besides, he'd made it plain enough that he didn't particularly want to be alone with her, she thought dismally. "My brother-in-law, David's, staying with us, so Cam's got all the male support he needs, and I'd enjoy not being outnumbered by men for a few hours."
"We could go see Gram early, and Aunt Lily will gladly stay with her the rest of the afternoon, Mom," Becky said.
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