Warm tears of joy filled her eyes and rushed down her cheeks, but she did not care. “Thank heaven that you woke up, Joseph. You have been asleep for quite some time. Most of the day in fact,” she said. Her heart leaped as she conversed with her husband, something the feared she would never have the luxury to do again. Every word out of her mouth and into his understanding ears was cause for celebration.
Joseph squeezed her hand again.
She quit rambling and stared at her husband. “Are you trying to tell me something, Joseph?”
Another squeeze.
Rebekah wiped her eyes with her free hand. “Let me see, how can you tell me what you need?” As Rebekah tried to come up with some way for the pair of them to communicate, she saw it. A darkening ring on the sheets around Joseph’s middle.
Rebekah patted his hand and tucked it up on the bed. “I see what you were trying to tell me. It makes sense now.” With her back to her husband, she drew in an exhausted breath.
Please, God. Give me the physical and mental strength to be able to do this, to take care of my husband. My family.
Outside, the sun was threatening to peek over the horizon. Her day was about to begin, yet she felt she had gotten absolutely no rest. From the next room, Dawson began to chirp his warning cry.
“Sissy…” A sleepy voice came from the doorway. “Did you forget to bring me a litter box? I need to clean up after the little babies.”
I am going to need you Fater God, in a way I never have before. Please, do not abandon me now, in yet another hour of my need, for this one may be the most trying hour I have ever known.
Chapter Nine
With Dawson on the floor on a thick, folded quilt and holding his feet, he was a bit happier. Not only did he get a clean diaper, but he now had a clear view of his mater, as well, as she cleaned the bedsheets and his fater.
Thomas had proven himself to be quite a helping hand when it came to cleaning up after his wild babies, though even after being cleaned, the smell of infant raccoon and skunk urine was quite a bit different from anything she had smelled before.
“We may have to set up a loft for you and your pack in the barn,” she joshed before Thomas left to check in on their parents.
Thomas, though, thought that was a grand idea. “Wunderbaar!” he shouted, as he dashed out the door, bound for the Stoll homestead. “I will move my sleeping things out there tonight!”
Rebekah chuckled as she cleaned and changed her husband, something that was strangely intimate in a way she had never imagined. However, it was more humbling than anything.
Joseph’s eyes followed her, and he gurgled something in his throat.
“If you are telling me that the water is too cold, my love, I am sorry but there is nothing I can do about that. With the weather we have been having, I cannot keep the water warm enough in the time it takes to come up the stairs.” She grinned at her husband as she teased him.
Still, he grunted. This time, she could almost make out a word. “Sorry.”
Rebekah’s jocular face softened. “Are you trying to apologize for needing help, Joseph?” She flipped the quilt into place and moved around to sit next to him. She took his hand in hers and stroked his face gently with the other.
“So sorry,” he managed again in a whisper.
Rebekah chewed her bottom lip. “Joseph, there is no need to be sorry. I will always take care of you. And I know you will take care of me, too.” Gently, she pressed her lips to his.
The passionate, unexpected kiss yesterday swirled in her mind. For a brief moment, she wondered if that would be the last time she ever kissed her husband, this side of heaven. Now, thankfully, she knew that was not the case.
Joseph was so weak; he could hardly kiss back.
“Tired,” he whispered when she pulled away.
She eased off the bed. “I will change your bandages and then let you rest.” She gestured to the cup of water and spoon she had brought up. “Maybe I can even entice you into having a sip or two of water. I would like you to drink this entire cup this morning.”
Joseph appeared to be nodding off, so she hurried with the cup and spoon. After sticking another pillow under his back and head, she pushed the spoon of water between his lips. “There we go,” she said.
Several spoons of water later, she felt as though she had claimed a major victory. “Now, just to change your bandages.”
Ever gentle, she removed the rag that Fogarty had applied to Joseph’s forehead and tried not to grimace at what lay before her. An obvious hoofprint, there in the middle of his forehead, with two obvious gashes from which all the blood had come. Now, they were purple and crusted, while bruises spread out from them in various shades of black and blue.
Joseph’s eyes burned through her as she took yet another washcloth and dipped it into a basin of water at the bedside. “I am just going to try and clean you up a bit.”
“Careful,” came a masculine voice from behind her. “Do not be giving my son-in-law a headache now.”
Rebekah’s eyes widened as she turned around. It couldn’t be, could it?
When she saw who stood in the doorway, her heart skipped from a thump to a gallop. “Fater!”
Sure enough, Samuel stood in her bedroom doorway with Thomas at his side. He was pale, paler than she had ever seen before, perhaps thinner, too. But despite that, he was there, grinning in her doorway. An actual answer to a prayer.
“I heard from a little bird—” Samuel tousled Thomas’s hair. “Or should I say a little skunk and a little raccoon, that my son-in-law had an unfortunate accident yesterday.”
“Oh Pa!” Rebekah pushed herself off the bed and ran into her father’s waiting arms. “I am so grateful you are here!”
He hugged her tightly. “You mean, alive?”
“Yes, that too!” She pulled back and studied him. “Did the twister, or tornado as Mr. Fogarty named it, do any damage to your house?”
“What twister?”
Rebekah studied her father. He did not appear to be joshing. “You mean, you did not see it?”
