the wood.
Better not to encourage him. She twisted up her hair and pinned it carefully in place at the back of her head as the horses continued north. The track dwindled until the trees crowded on either side and the ruts evened out to ground covered by low bushes and broad-leafed vines. She sighted something long and dark hanging from a blackberry bramble, as if it had reached out to snag the last horse or human who had ventured this way.
Both Wallin men fell silent. The clatter of the wagon wasn’t so loud that she could miss the scree of the hawk that crossed the opening between the trees. The breeze was coming in off the Sound, bringing the scent of brine like fingers combing through the bushes.
He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.
That chance for peace was what had brought her here so very far from what she’d planned for her life. She should not let the misguided actions of an impetuous boy change that.
Nor the fluttering of a heart she had sworn to keep safely cocooned from further pain.
* * *
How could his brother have been so boneheaded? Drew glanced over his shoulder at the youth. Levi had curled himself around the supplies on the wagon bed like a hound before the fire, and it wouldn’t surprise Drew if his brother started snoring. The boy had absolutely no remorse for what he’d done. Where had Drew gone wrong?
“I’m really very sorry,” he apologized again to Catherine as he faced front. “I don’t know what got into him. He was raised better.”
“Out in the woods, you said,” she replied, gaze toward the front, as well. Her hair was once more confined behind her head, and he knew a moment of regret at its disappearance. Levi might have been the one to cry out at the sight of it, but the satiny tresses had held him nearly as captive.
“On the lake,” he told her. “My father brought us to Seattle about fifteen years ago from Wisconsin and chose a spot far out. He said a man needed something to gaze out on in the morning besides his livestock or his neighbors.”
She smiled as if the idea pleased her. “And your mother?” she asked, shifting on the wooden bench, her wide blue skirts filling the space at her feet. “Is she truly ill?”
It was difficult to even acknowledge the fact. He nodded, turning his gaze out over the horses. “She came down with a fever nearly a fortnight ago.”
He could feel her watching him. “A fever that lasts that long is never good,” she informed him in a pleasant voice he was sure must calm many a patient. “Do you open the windows daily to air her room?”
He’d fetched gallons of water from the spring, even trudged down to the lakeshore to draw it cold from the depths. He’d stoked up the fire, wrapped Ma tight in covers. But he hadn’t considered opening the windows.
“No,” he answered. “Doesn’t cold air just make you sicker?”
She shook her head, Levi’s hat sliding on the silk of her hair. “No, indeed. The fear of it is a common belief I have had to fight repeatedly. Fresh air, clean water, healthy food—those are what cure a body, sir. That is what my father taught. That is what I practice.”
She was so sure of the facts that he couldn’t argue. He knew from conversations with Doc Maynard that Seattle was woefully behind on recent medical advancements. As one of the few physicians, Doc was overwhelmed with the number of people ill or injured. He must have been overjoyed to have Catherine join his staff.
“I hope you’ll be able to help her, then, ma’am,” he told her. “Before we return you to Seattle tomorrow.”
He glanced her way in time to see her gaze drift out over the horses. “You did not seem so sure of my skills earlier, sir.”
With Levi right behind him, he wasn’t about to admit that his initial concern had been for his brother’s matchmaking, not the lack of her skills. “We’ve known Doc for years,” he hedged.
He thought her shoulders relaxed a little. She sat so prim and proper it was hard to tell. “My father’s patients felt the same way. There is nothing like the trusted relationship of your family doctor. But I will do whatever I can to help your mother.”
Levi’s smug voice floated up from behind. “I knew she’d come around.”
Though Drew was relieved at the thought of Catherine’s help, he wanted nothing more than to turn and thump Levi again.
“As you can see,” he said instead to Catherine, “my brother has a bad habit of acting or talking without thinking.” He glanced back into the wagon in time to see Levi making a face at him.
“My brother was the same way,” she assured him as he turned to the front again with a shake of his head. “He borrowed my father’s carriage more than once, drove it all over the county. He joined the Union Army on his eighteenth birthday before he’d even received a draft notice.”
“Sounds like my kind of fellow,” Levi said, kneeling so that his head came between them. “Did he journey West with you?”
Though her smile didn’t waver, her voice came out flat. “No. He was killed at the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia.”
Levi looked stricken as he glanced between her and Drew. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t,” she replied, but Drew saw that her hands were clasped tightly in her lap as if she were fighting with herself not to say more.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Drew said. “That must have been hard on you and your parents.”
“My mother died when I was nine,” she said, as if commenting on the weather. “My father served as a doctor in the army. He died within days of Nathan. It was a very bloody war.”
How could she sit so calmly? If he’d lost so much he would have been railing at the sky.
Levi was obviously of a similar mind. “That’s awful!” He threw himself back into the bed. “Pa died when I was eight, but I think I would have gone plumb crazy if I’d lost Drew and Simon and James and John, too.”
Her brows went up as she glanced at Drew. “You have four brothers?”
He chuckled. “Yes, and most days I’m glad of it.”
“We had another sister, too, besides Beth,” Levi said, popping up again. “She died when she was a baby. Simon says it about broke Ma’s heart.”
It had almost broken Drew’s heart, as well. His parents had been grieving so hard that he’d had to be the one to fashion the tiny coffin and dig the little grave at the edge of the family land. He’d never dreamed his father would be dead just five years later.
Please, Lord, don’t make me bury another member of my family!
The prayer came quickly, and just as quickly he regretted it. It was selfish. If a man prayed, he should ask the Almighty for wisdom to lead, strength to safeguard those he loved. The Lord had blessed him with strength. Some days he wasn’t too sure about the wisdom.
Beside him, Miss
