Rebekah gasped when Joseph pulled back the curtain. Samuel was pale and a scarlet-tinged bandage was prominently displayed in the crook of his arm. Life seemed to have drained from him, leaving the former giant of a man gaunt and pale. Still, his chest rose and fell with infinitesimal breaths.
“He is alive...yes?” Tears welled in her eyes as she bent and pulled back the thin, shroud-like blanket. “Joseph?”
“He is.”
Rebekah placed her hand on her father’s arm. It was cool to the touch. She studied her father, memorizing his features and storing them in her memory, just in case. Several lumps beneath his thin nightshirt caught her attention. “What’s this?”
The stammering doctor found his voice. “Miss, I wouldn’t—”
Before he could finish, Rebekah made the grisly discovery. Beneath her father’s nightshirt, attached to his chest, were several giant, red worms. Obviously engorged, a few pulsed grotesquely.
“What kind of medicine are you practicing here, mister?” Peter’s voice was as intimidating as ever.
The doc removed his nightcap and wrung it in his hands. “It’s experimental. I bled him when the boy and Mr. Williams brought him in, but his heart was still beating irregularly. The leeches—” He gestured toward the pulsating worms. “They take out a little bit of blood over a long period of time whereas if I had simply bled him more, I could have taken too much and stopped his heart completely.”
“Why do you need to take out blood at all?” Joseph knelt and took Samuel’s hand. “God be with you,” he added on a whisper.
“He had a heart seizure and we think that those may be caused by a sickness of the blood. By letting the blood, it both gets rid of the diseased blood and eases the burden on the heart by making it pump less blood thus allowing it to rest. And hopefully, to heal.”
Rebekah shifted her weight. “Are these the only leeches?”
“No. The ones you see are around his heart and lungs. There are more at every major pressure point; his ankles, behind his knees, behind his ears. And in his groin.”
Joseph and Peter groaned collectively.
The doc continued. “I have to keep his other arm free of leeches. Should he have another heart seizure, I will need to bleed him again to take the pressure off more quickly.”
Rebekah dipped her head. “Thank you for taking the time to explain my father’s condition. And thank you for working so hard to care for him.”
The doctor nodded. When he spoke again, his voice was more subdued. “I’m sorry for running you out when you brought him in. I should have tended to your nausea when the bloodletting made you ill. I apologize.”
“I didn’t come earlier.” Rebekah lifted her head. “Was a girl like me here earlier?”
Peter stepped forward. “Katie. Katie was here. She was sick and you didn’t treat her?”
The doc hung his head. “By the time I finished tending Mr. Stoll, I came out to check on her. She was gone. Took up with Nellie Bly, looked like.”
Scarlet crept up his neck and tinged Peter’s cheeks, making the scar from the hot glass that had burst on his face when he worked as a factory lehr boy so many years ago stand out like white lightning. “She was here and you ran her off? Left her sick in the street to be taken in by a stranger?”
The doc began to sputter. “I—er, sir I assure you...”
Peter’s trembling hands were on his collar in an instant and his eyes wide. And wild.
“Her name is Katie. She’s the reason we’re here, to find her. And you ran her off.” His nostrils flared as his breathing came in short bursts.
Rebekah sucked in her bottom lip. “Peter, no!”
Joseph placed a hand on his shoulder, hard. “Don’t do it, Peter. She’s out there, and she’s close. Let’s go find her.”
Still trembling, Peter removed his hands from the doc’s rumpled collar and turned away. As he turned and stomped back toward the door, Rebekah caught the glimmer of a tear slide down his cheek. Joseph stepped after him.
Rebekah started to follow, but stopped short. “Please tell me. Is there anything that can be done for my father, Doctor?”
Visibly shaken, the doctor smoothed at his nightshirt as if to compose himself. “That’s what I’ve been meaning to tell you. There’s a possibility he won’t wake up. We simply have to wait and see.”
Her own life seemed to fly out of her with each expelled breath. Not Pa. Not my gentle, loving father. Rebekah trudged to the straight-backed chair next to her father’s bed and sank into it. “Then I will wait here until he does so.”
Weary-eyed, the doc shook his head. “No child. You’ll do nothing but worry yourself sick. I’ll tell your pa you wanted to, though. And how you woke me in the middle of the night to check on his progress.” He patted her arm in awkward thumps. “But let him rest and get well. Now, it’s time you go. Find Katie and make sure she’s safe. It’s a mean world out there, but you certainly don’t have anything to fear with that big, blond lug at your disposal.” He offered a sideways smile.
Rebekah returned it. “He’s my brother.”
She took the doctor’s proffered arm and rose. Together, they walked to the door. “Thank you again.”
“What was your name, child, so I can tell your father?”
“Rebekah. Rebekah Stoll.”
The doctor nodded. “I see. Well Miss Stoll, I saw Katie leave with Nellie Bly, the forthright little spitfire that is bound for New York City. Rumor has it, she’s going to attempt to circumnavigate the globe in less than eighty days.”
“Cir...come—”
The doc hid a smile. “To go around the world, child. The entire world. And the headlines say she’s leaving soon.”
Rebekah reached for the door handle. “I must hurry. Thank you again.”
She could feel the doc’s eyes on her as she rushed to the rig Joseph had waiting.
“Hurry, Rebekah,” the doctor called. “Remember, New York City. Nellie Bly. Hurry.”
Peter’s large hand pulled her into the wagon bed, snagging her dress in his haste. The wildness lit his eyes again as Joseph let go with a mighty “giddap.”
“What’d he say, Rebekah?” Peter demanded. “What’d he say about New York City?”
Rebekah smoothed at the snag in her dress. “Katie’s headed there with a woman named Nellie Bly, who is some kind of record breaker.” The strange English term felt odd as it rolled off her tongue. “Nelly’s aim is to go around the world in eighty days and she leaves soon.”
Chapter Five
Montgomery, Indiana
Katie looked around as though seeing the world through new eyes. “But I thought the café at the train depot was closed?”
Nellie narrowed her eyes into a sly wink. “My newspaper arranged for it to be open for me. See, I’m headed to New York City under the cover of darkness so as to be left alone by the masses.”
Katie followed her into the back entrance of the dark café. As if by magic, the twinkling of lit candles brought a soft glow to their tiny back room. The café was indeed filled with servers, all grins and ready to be of service to the mysterious Nellie Bly.
“Wow, I can’t even imagine why...” Katie’s jaw muscles were much too loose to form a coherent word or audible letter.
“Why Katie, because I’m going to be the first woman to travel around the globe.”
