“I know his name.” Connor hovered over the patient cot and glared at the sleeping man. “Where did he come from?”
Bethany felt guilty, though she had done nothing wrong. “I saw him walking into the village from the shore. He needs a doctor, so I brought him here to wait for Lydia. I found him just like how Lydia found you.”
Justin began to stir. He rubbed a hand over his face and opened his eyes. When he saw Connor, he blinked rapidly and sat straight up. “Bradshaw!”
“Lieutenant Mercer. How did you get here?”
Justin stood and embraced Connor, patting him on the back with hearty thuds. “I knew you made it to land! I knew it all along! I saw your chute carry you here. They declared you dead three years ago, but I knew you were here.”
Connor stepped back from Justin and returned his fists to his hips. “You saw this land? After the crash?”
“I could only see it during the descent. Once I hit the water, it seemed to vanish.” Justin coughed with piercing volume. “Believe me, this place is hard to find,” he said as he sat.
Connor crouched in front of the cot. “Who else knows the Land exists?” Justin held up a finger while he coughed again, but Connor continued questioning him. “Mercer, this is important. Who all knows about this place? Who came with you?”
“Only a few sailors, and they’re still on the ship”
Connor shot to his feet. “What ship?”
“It’s just an icebreaker.”
“Could you see the Land from the ship?”
“No.” Justin leaned back on his elbows and grinned. “Don’t worry about it, Bradshaw. This place is totally off grid—it’s practically invisible. It doesn’t show up on satellite, radar, nothing. No one believed me when I reported seeing land after the crash. They searched awhile then gave up. The navy thought I was crazy—sent me to McMurdo Station in Antarctica to monitor satellite feeds.” He heaved a sigh. “You wouldn’t believe what I went through to get back here.”
Bethany watched the reunion and the flurry of questions between the men. She smiled and took a step closer, hoping to be drawn into the exciting conversation. “How did you get here, Justin?” she asked. Both of the men glanced at Bethany, but they immediately returned their attention to each other without answering her.
Connor and Justin spoke of technical things Bethany did not understand. Justin sat forward as if he was going to tell Connor a secret. He rested his forearms on his thighs and lowered his voice. “Shortly after I was transferred to McMurdo Station, all satellite communications went down. But the crazy thing is: I ended up getting out here with the help of the same guy who was contracted to sabotage the Unified States communications. Turns out, Washington’s number one enemy is actually a pretty cool guy. Anyway, while I was at McMurdo, I saw how the South Atlantic Anomaly played a part in the atmospheric phenomenon I was detecting near the crash coordinates but then the comm links went down. When I finally made it off Antarctica, I met Volt in the Falklands and he had this idea that we—”
“Volt?” Connor interrupted.
“Yeah, Volt. You’ve heard of him.” Justin stopped to cough. “He put a skeleton crew together and we took the icebreaker. We must’ve crossed the crash coordinates a dozen times before our engines lost power. And we never saw any land. I’d almost given up, but when the fever set in yesterday, I knew I had to get off that ship.” Justin chuckled. “I passed out in the dinghy, floated west, and woke up here this morning. Can you believe it? Of all the luck!”
“Fever?” Connor’s voice dropped an octave and rose in decibels. “What fever?”
“T.B.—everybody has it. It’s some mutated strain.”
“Tuberculosis? Are you kidding me?” Connor raked his fingers through his hair. “Mercer, you can’t spread disease to these people. There are no contagious diseases here. The people that settled this place quarantined themselves before they left America in eighteen-sixty. They haven’t been sick in seven generations. Their immune systems couldn’t handle the sniffles. I was immunized against tuberculosis when I was in Arizona, but you’re going to kill everyone else.”
Justin scooted back on the cot and rubbed his palms on his blue pants. “Look, I’m sorry. How was I supposed to know I’d actually make it here? Besides, I’m going to be dead soon. I’ve watched half our crew die of this in the past few months and some of them died within days of the fever.”
Connor paced the floor. A vein bulged in his neck. “I’ve got a family here, Mercer. My wife and I just had a son.”
“I’m sorry.” Justin coughed and put a hand over his chest. “In the Falklands they said this was a virulent strain, so I’ll probably be dead by morning and you won’t have to worry about it. Just hide me somewhere and let me die in peace. No one will catch it.”
Connor turned to Bethany. “How long have you been in here with him?” His expression was a terrifying mix of anger and grief. “Answer me!”
She took a step back. “I, I don’t know… an hour, maybe two.”
Justin took his hand off his chest. “Oh, man, I’m sorry.”
Both men looked at her with pity as if she were a little girl who just fell in the mud. Her desire to be seen as a sophisticated adult vanished, and she only wanted to run to the house and cry. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What? What did I do wrong?”
Connor’s heels thumped the floor as he stepped close to her. She covered her face with her hands. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and gently pulled her hands down. When she looked into his eyes, he inclined his head. “Did you touch him?”
Bethany sniffed. “Only a little.” She dragged a knuckle under her eye to wipe her tears. “Can’t Lydia just give him tea from the gray leaf tree? That will help him, right?”
“It’s not him I’m worried about.” Connor’s nostrils flared as he stepped back. He turned his face toward the house. “Lydia can’t come inside this cottage. And Bethany, you can’t leave.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been exposed to a deadly bacteria. You’re probably already infected. If you leave this cottage, you will spread it to others.”
“I don’t understand. Something deadly is in me?” Her heart began to pound inside her chest. “What does that mean? Connor, what is going on?”
“Lydia is coming. Just go upstairs.”
“Connor—”
“Go!”
Bethany’s breath caught between sobs as she stomped up the stairs to Lydia’s old bedroom. When she heard Connor open the cottage door and speak to Lydia, she stopped and sat on the steps to listen. She wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to suppress her crying so she could hear what Connor was saying.
The afternoon sun flooded through the crack in the door as Connor spoke to Lydia outside. Bethany could see a sliver of Lydia’s figure. She was holding Andrew in one arm and pressed the other palm against her abdomen. Bethany heard the tension in Connor’s voice as he explained the situation. Lydia murmured a worried response. Andrew started to cry and Bethany wondered if the baby felt his parent’s angst. She wanted to run down the stairs and comfort Andrew and tell him everything would be fine, but Connor said she had something deadly in her—whatever that meant—and she did not want to expose the baby.
Connor opened the door a little wider but postured himself at the threshold. Bethany looked past him and saw Lydia’s face. When Lydia’s eyes met hers, she started to cry.
“Bethany?” Connor raised his voice. “Did you hear me?”
Bethany shook her head, unable to utter a word through her sobs.
“I’m going to get the dinghy off the beach so no one touches it. Lydia is going to make gray leaf tea for Mercer, then she’s going to the library to see what she can find out about treating consumption from the founders’ journals. Do not come down those stairs, you understand me?”
Bethany nodded. Connor turned to the patient cot and pointed sharply in Justin’s direction. “My wife is making gray leaf tea for you.
It’s the only medicine here. When it’s ready, she will knock on the door and leave it on the doorstep. Drink it all and get back to that cot to lie down before it kicks in. The gray leaf is powerful and like nothing you’ve ever had. Whatever you do, Lieutenant Mercer, don’t leave this cottage. Got it?”
Bethany could not see Justin from where she sat on the top step, but she heard him chuckle. “Yeah, is that an order Lieutenant Bradshaw?”
Connor ignored Justin’s remark and looked up at Bethany. His voice softened. “Beth, Lydia needs to tell you something before you go in the room.”
Lydia drew her lips into her mouth and nodded. She shifted Andrew in her arms and patted his back to calm him. Then she tilted her head up toward Bethany. “Samuel died.”
Bethany’s thoughts turned from fear for herself to grief over Samuel. Struck by the loss of a man who was like a second father to her and the depth of pain she knew was suffocating Everett and Mandy and Roseanna, she rushed into Lydia’s old bedroom and threw herself on the bed, weeping.
* * *
Bethany stared out the upstairs window of the medical cottage. Her unfocused vision blurred the image of the gray leaf trees’ black silhouettes against the western sky’s fading lavender light. Her arms—twined through the decorative iron headboard on Lydia’s old bed—began to tingle from being in one position for so long. Her tears had dried, but she doubted she would ever smile again. When Connor tapped on the frame of the open bedroom door, Bethany lifted her cheek from the cool metal of the headboard and peeled her gaze away from the lonely view of the western sky.
“Hungry?” he asked, holding a covered dinner plate.
Bethany shook her head, then she turned her face back to the window. Connor set the plate on the bedside table and the mattress lowered as he sat beside her. “Look, Beth, I’m sorry you can’t go to the funeral tomorrow. I know how much Samuel meant to you, but it’s too dangerous for the village. You don’t want to get people sick.”
“What did Lydia find out from the medical journals?” Her dry throat burned when she spoke.
“You and Mercer have to stay quarantined for a few days—”
“A few days?” She snapped her face toward Connor. “Why so long?”
“We don’t have the technology here to test you for infection. All we can do is watch for symptoms. We won’t know if the gray leaf will kill this type of bacteria until we see how Mercer’s body responds to the tea.”
“Will you get sick?”
“No, I was vaccinated against this disease as a child. There was an outbreak where I lived, and the doctors gave me medicine that helped my body build immunity to the disease. But you and your family and everyone else in the Land could get just as sick as Mercer. That’s why we have to be careful.”
Bethany did not understand. “I just want it to go away. Is Justin feeling better?”
“He’s still asleep. I can’t tell yet if the gray leaf is helping. Lydia has been relaying medical orders to me through the door, but I’m not as good at this as she is. I guess we’ll know more when he wakes up.” Connor put his palm on Bethany’s back. His hand was wide and warm. “Are you going to be okay up here by yourself?”
Bethany did not respond but only studied Connor. His brow was furrowed, his eyes held concern, and his voice sounded low and worn. He was worried about her, but she was not worried about herself anymore. She only wanted to be there for Everett when his father was buried, but instead an invisible threat imprisoned her in the unused bedroom of the medical cottage. She stared out the window. The night’s first star appeared in the sky; the tears in her eyes turned its prick of light into a ribbon.
Connor gave her back a soft pat, then he stood. He walked away from the bed in the darkening room. His footsteps stopped at the door. “Lydia is getting your clothes and the sketchbooks you asked for. I’ll go out and light the log beneath the rain tank so you have warm water to bathe. I know you’re upset, but you really should eat.”
She glanced at Connor. Her lingering childish nature told her to resent the man who was forcing her to remain locked away, but she sensed his compassion for her and ignored her desire to pout. “Thank you, Connor.”
He nodded once and left the room. She heard him descend the stairs and leave the cottage. A few minutes later, he returned with a stack of clothes, her favorite pillow, and a satchel. Her sketchbook and pencil box were tucked under his elbow. “Hey, it’s kind of like you get to have your own place for a few days,” he joked.
Bethany was not in the mood to laugh. Connor deposited her belongings onto the bed and stepped back. He glanced at the untouched plate of food on the bedside table but did not say anything about it. He walked to the doorway of the washroom opposite the bed and leaned his head in. “The water should be warm soon, if you want to take a bath. I think Lydia packed everything you’ll need in that bag. I’m going downstairs, but I’ll check on you before bed. Okay?”
Bethany nodded and Connor pulled the bedroom door closed as he left. She scooped the clothes into her arms, carried them to the narrow dresser that stood against the wall, and shoved them into an empty drawer. Then she opened the satchel and dumped its contents onto the mattress. Her pocket-sized Bible fell onto the stack that poured from the bag. Then out dropped a thick piece of folded gray leaf paper. Bethany unfolded the paper and found the silver charm bracelet Levi had given her years before. In her brother’s hurried script, the note read: Dear Beth, I am sorry I was not there to protect you. Levi.
Bethany looped the bracelet around her wrist and fastened its clasp. She watched the silver links catch the lantern light as she gathered the things she needed and carried the lantern into the washroom.
* * *
The muscles in Everett’s back ached from a long evening of farm chores. He propped his pitchfork against the barn door, then he led his father’s favorite horse into a freshly cleaned stall. He stroked a hand across the horse’s shoulder. It was not his father’s horse anymore. Samuel was dead and would be buried in the morning. The mare was Everett’s now. He loved the horse but loathed the thought of owning it because that meant he had lost his father. Though he always knew he would one day inherit the family farm, he never imagined it would happen when he was only twenty.
Everett left the mare and carried his lantern into the next stall to check on its colt. Though the five-month-old colt had been weaned, it tried to push past him to get to the mare. As he held the colt back and closed the stall gate, someone entered the barn.
“Everett?”
“In here,” he called as he leaned out the stall and saw Levi walking into the darkened barn. “Did you and John get everything… done?”
“Yes. The gravesite is ready.” Levi skirted the stall gate and held a hand out to the colt.
“I wanted to help, but you and John were right: my mother needed me here.” Everett lifted the lantern and hung it on a hook in the middle of the barn stall. He glanced at Levi and saw the dirt stains on his clothes from digging the grave. “Has Mandy gone home, or is she still in the house with my mother?”
“She is still here.” Levi crossed his arms. “Listen, Everett… something has happened.”
Everett took a currycomb from a shelf on the wall and began to brush the colt. “Besides my father’s death?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
Levi drew a deep breath. “The man who was in Connor’s aircraft with him is here in Good Springs. Apparently, the Land is undetectable to the outside world, but this man saw it after they were ejected from the aircraft. No one believed him about seeing land, but he spent the past three years trying to get back here and he finally made it.”
Everett stopped brushing the colt. “Did he come here alone?”
“There are four men still on his ship, but they can’t see the Land. He came to the shore alone.”
Everett nodded. “What’s his name?”
“Mercer. Justin Mercer.”
“It sounds like this Mercer
has perseverance. Is Connor happy about it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Levi shoved his hands into his pockets. “Mercer is sick.”
“Oh. That’s too bad.”
“The disease Mercer has is contagious. He says a lot of people in the outside world are sick right now. But that’s not the worst of it.”
Everett pulled a clump of hair out of the horse brush then looked at Levi. “Is it deadly?”
“Yes, and Bethany might be infected.”
“What?” The news hit Everett in the gut like a fast kick. Anger deluged his system and swelled his grief-stricken heart. He spun on his heel and threw the wood-handled brush against the barn wall. The forceful clap sent the colt scurrying to the back of the stall.
Levi did not flinch. “Beth was the first person to see Mercer. He has a bad cough, and she spent the afternoon with him in the medical office,” he explained. “Connor said they had been in there together for a couple of hours by the time he got there. Connor can’t catch the disease because he had some medicine that made him immune to it when he was a child, but Bethany probably breathed it in while she was with Mercer. No one else has been exposed.”
Everett’s father was dead and the woman he loved was possibly infected with a deadly disease. Overwhelmed, he bent at the waist and leaned his hands on his knees. “Where is she now?”
“Upstairs of the medical cottage.”
“I have to go to her.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Lydia has them quarantined. Bethany and Mercer have to stay inside the cottage and only Connor can go in. Otherwise, the whole village could become infected.”
Everett’s eyes stung. He did not bother fighting back his angry tears. “For how long?” Levi did not answer. Everett raised his body and doubled his volume. “For how long?”
Levi spoke through barely parted lips. “Until it’s over for them.”
Uncharted Inheritance (The Uncharted Series Book 3) Page 6
