Katie rose from her seat on the boardwalk and slunk back into the shadows, her eyes wide as she watched the unfolding scene.
The doctor dashed out with his nightcap on, the large blue tassel flopping this way and that. “What have we got here?”
“I think it’s a heart seizure. Brought him in from the Amish settlement just north of here.”
Katie’s heart began to pound.
The doctor fiddled with his hands where Katie couldn’t see. “He’s alive. I have a pulse, though faint. You’re a miracle worker getting him here on time. Help me get him into the clinic.”
Katie absorbed the scene as the two men carried him from the wagon and into the clinic.
The Englishman’s voice was loud. “Sorry to leave you with this, Doc, but I have a whole mess of people waiting on their wagon wheels down at the livery. So I got to go, but his son is here.”
“Can’t stay here, son. I have to work. Take him with you, Mr. Williams.” The doc huffed as he carried his patient. “What’s his name, anyway?”
A familiar voice rang out in the dark street. “Stoll. Samuel Stoll.”
Katie sucked in a hard breath.
With a blue quilt over his arm, Jeremiah Stoll, the oldest Stoll son, emerged from the wagon bed. “If I can’t stay, at least let me leave this with my father.”
Jeremiah! Katie jerked her head back and hit it on the corner of the splintery wood with a resounding thunk. I can’t let him see me.
***
Katie waited until Jeremiah and the white-hatted Englishman were back in the wagon before daring to move from her shadowed hiding spot. She dashed through the billowing dust left by the retreating wagon and hesitated only a moment at the doctor’s door. Knocking once out of respect, she let herself in without waiting for an invitation. Emotion bubbled in her throat and blurred her vision.
“Sit there by the door,” the doctor commanded, without looking up from whatever he was doing to Mr. Stoll, who was laid out on a table. “I’ll be done...in...a...there now.”
Mr. Stoll’s limp arm flopped off the table. A second later, a cascade of blood flowed down the soft underside of Samuel’s arm in glistening rivulets. It dripped off his pale fingers in fat drops. Katie’s stomach lurched.
“Oh. Oh my.” She hiccupped and covered her mouth with her hand as the world around her beginning to spin.
The doctor turned to face her, blood spangled across his white apron. “I have lots of work to attend to little lady. Your father is in good hands with me, as I’m not a drunk like most other doctors out this way.”
Katie blinked as the doctor split in two and then went back together. The background spun into a dark shade of blurry shapes. She grasped the back of the straight-backed chair to steady herself. Vomit burned in her throat.
“Oh, yes sir...” Katie stumbled over the feet of the chair in a feeble attempt to get out the door to the safety of the dark, deserted street.
“Furthermore,” the cranky doctor continued, advancing toward her, “what you Aim-ish people do best is pray. So go on now. Get after it. But don’t do it here.”
Katie took wobbly steps onto the wooden boardwalk, gulping in the fresh air, as the doctor loomed in the doorway. “While God’s busy tending your prayer, I’ll be able to save your father’s life. There’s nothing you can do here, so go home. I’ll send word up to Gasthof when he’s fit to travel. Now good night!”
With a slam, Katie was alone in the street. The cool air wrapped itself around her in a welcome assault. After the stuffy heat and coppery aroma in the doctor’s clinic, the chill of the night sent her to her knees, retching and heaving right in front of the almighty door. Tears streamed from her eyes and a hint of helplessness burned in her soul behind the bitter aftertaste of fear.
A voice, which should have startled her, called her attention from her newfound predicament. “Darling, you look like you could use a hand.”
Katie turned her face toward the sound. Standing before her in a checked tweed jacket, an oval-faced brunette extended her hand. A smile played upon the woman’s plump lips, as though she knew a secret, but wasn’t telling. Katie accepted her hand and allowed herself to be pulled upright on wobbly knees.
“I’m—I’m Katie. Katie Knepp.”
The pretty brunette’s tilting smile widened into a grin. She still didn’t let go of her hand. “Hello, Katie Knepp. My name’s Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cochrane.”
Katie returned her sincere and somewhat solemn smile. “Elizabeth, what br—”
Elizabeth’s coughing laugh interrupted her. “My name is Elizabeth, Katie Knepp. But you can call me the name I’m better known by. Nellie Bly, the woman who spent ten days in a madhouse.”
Chapter Four
Montgomery, Indiana
“There’s the livery where Pa sells his woodwork.” Rebekah’s tired voice was oddly charged on the night wind. “See? It says Williams on it.”
Joseph nodded. “That it does. Peter, let’s pull over and unload these wheels for Samuel.” Reining the rig to a halt, Peter and Joseph slipped off the sides and into the inky darkness. Despite the apparent lack of lights burning in the livery, Peter and Joseph made short work of the expertly made wagon wheels and piled them neatly in the shed.
Alone in the wagon, Rebekah rubbed her eyes and peered into the darkness. Something about being in the world of the English, remarkably alone, sent shivers dancing down her spine.
Please hurry, Peter and Joseph.
A rogue movement caught her eye. Deep in the shadows of the room above the livery, a familiar Amish hat seemed to move across the window. She rubbed her eyes again and squinted. I must be more exhausted than I thought...
Huffing, Joseph and Peter climbed almost-silently back into the wagon. “Let’s go on into town,” Joseph whispered. “We don’t want to wake anyone up if they’re staying in the upstairs loft.”
Peter ran his hand over his smooth cheeks and down off his chin. “And we’ve got to find Katie. She may be in trouble.”
***
A solitary light flickered in a window on Main Street as Joseph drove the wagon. Doctor’s Clinic, read the shingle above the door.
Rebekah sucked in a gasp. “Joseph, Peter—” Pointing to the sign, the words she tried to say strangled in her throat. “This must be where they brought Pa.”
“Looks like someone’s awake,” Peter offered as Joseph pulled back on the reins once again. “Let’s go see how Samuel’s doing.”
Without bothering to wait for help from either of her male companions, Rebekah leapt from the back of the wagon. Offering only a slight tap on the door, she was inside before Joseph and Peter were even on the wooden boardwalk behind her.
The silent room, eerily pale in the light of the lone candle, was punctuated by a coughing snore when Rebekah stepped on a creaky board. With a grumble, the doctor appeared from around a makeshift curtain. His nightcap was blue and the tassel at the end bounced lightly and was not in tune with his creased and hollow face. The smile that threatened to overtake Rebekah’s lips at the display quickly melted when he began to speak in rough tones.
“Girl, I told you to leave and not come back.”
Rebekah opened her mouth, but any words that might have been silenced as the doctor’s hand swung up quickly as he stepped toward her. “I said I would send word to your settlement. I said your pa was receiving the best—”
Peter’s voice, deeper and more authoritative than ever before, came from the doorway. “That may be. Perhaps the only thing you’re lacking in is a proper bedside manner for your patients’ families.”
Eyes wide, the doctor’s jaw fell open. Rebekah turned and immediately saw why. The light from the single candle illuminated her brother, who was turned sideways. He appeared at least one formidable foot larger than the wee doc. With his jagged scar through his eyebrow and down his cheek highlighted, no amount of simple Amish garb could hide his English past.
Joseph, his own handsome face shadowed in hues of the night, stepped from behind Peter and spoke. “We’re sorry to disturb you, but we came to check on Samuel Stoll, my future father-in-law. May we see him?” Something that glimmered behind Joseph’s stormy eyes made it clear that the answer had better be yes.
With a nod, the doctor pointed to a curtain on the opposite side of the clinic. Joseph strode passed the lot of them and gently took Rebekah by the arm. “Come on, let’s go see your father.”
