Patty opened her mouth to speak, but Peter interjected. Always the big brother, Rebekah thought with a laugh. Patty laughed too.
“We talked about that.” Peter hooked one thumb behind a suspender. “Figured on her nursing and caring for folks, perhaps the doc here in town needed some assistance.”
Rebekah nodded. “He seemed as though he did the night we were there.”
The thought of her father, weak and sick in the bed covered with slimy, blood sucking worms burst into the forefront of her mind with fiery clarity. “Joseph—”
“We will go see my future father-in-law whenever you’re ready,” he interjected. “See, already thinking alike.”
“I’m ready now,” Rebekah said, finally waking up in her mind.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Joseph asked. “Let’s go!”
***
Rebekah knocked on the door at the doctor’s clinic then let herself in without waiting for an answer from the other side. “Hello, Doctor,” she called. “My name is Reb—”
“Rebekah Elnora Stoll,” Samuel finished. “My daughter. Come in, come in.”
Rebekah limped across the floor and pulled back the partition that had afforded her father some privacy during his illness. The sight of him, smiling and pink, as opposed to ghastly pale and unconscious, brought a surge of emotion to Rebekah.
She slapped her hands over her mouth and fell to her knees by her father’s bedside. Cleansing tears flowed from her eyes as Samuel patted her head. “Welcome home, Daughter. I hear you’ve had quite the experience. Or journey, I should say.”
Rebekah lifted her head and sniffled. “Heard? From who, Father?”
“Katie came by to check on me just a moment ago.”
“Didn’t know there were two of you plain gals that first night,” the doctor grumbled from the corner. “Still sorry about that misunderstanding there.”
Rebekah and Joseph shared a look. Peter, stone-faced, said nothing.
“Joseph,” Samuel said, extending his hand. “I’d be much obliged if you’d be so kind as to make room for me in your wagon. I’d like to go home today, if the doctor has no complaints.”
“You’re free and clear, Mr. Stoll,” the sour-faced doctor grumbled. Somehow Rebekah was able to take him a mite more seriously without his blue nightcap swishing in the wind.
Samuel craned his neck. “Peter, hallo. Who’ve you got there with you?”
Peter sat Noah down, and Patty stepped out from behind him. Noah, ever mindful of his manners, stepped to the side and took his mother’s hand. He offered Samuel a shy, blue-eyed smile. “My, my, the family resemblance is uncanny,” Samuel said. “Rebekah, the young lad is a spitting image of you, when you were a tot.”
“Really, Pa?”
“Really. Right down to the black fringe of lashes around those big shining eyes.” Samuel smiled. “I take it you already knew you were related?”
Peter held his chin in one hand. “Just discovered it ourselves. Cousins!” He gestured to Patty. “This here’s Patty. Her father married my—well,” he cut his eyes to Rebekah. “Her father married our biological mother’s sister.”
“I see.” Samuel nodded thoughtfully. “You went for the woman you wanted to be your family, and came home with family you never knew you had.”
Nobody spoke. Samuel broke the unintentional silence with a beaming smile and hearty laugh. “God, my boy! He has a wonderful way of working out knots, doesn’t He?”
Peter nodded. “That He does, Samuel. Hey, doc?”
“Um… pr… um…. yes?” The doctor seemed lost in thought, with papers scattered all about a large, oak desk. His nightcap hung on a hook nearby and a jar filled with blackness sat on the edge of the desk. He looked up from his writing. “What can I do ya for?”
“I couldn’t help but notice you were squinting something awful at those papers.”
“Eyesight ain’t what it used to be, sonny.”
“Ever thought about hiring some help? Looks to me that you could use it.”
Rebekah shared a look with Samuel. They shared a quiet chuckle then turned back to watch.
“Why sonny, I’ve only thought about it every durn day of my sad life since I come out here to this wildness!” The doctor pushed himself up. “But nobody around here wants to work for what I can afford to pay them. There ain’t nobody qualified to do the job that ain’t a drunkard, to boot.”
Peter cocked an eyebrow. “I see.” He gestured down to Rebekah. “Joseph, would you be so kind as to help my sister into a chair? I reckon it’s time her bandage was changed.”
“Bandage?” Samuel’s smile faded. “What bandage?”
“Yeah,” the doctor added. “What bandage?”
“Rebekah hurt her ankle,” Peter explained as Joseph helped her off her knees and into a chair. “Seems we need the bandage tended to.”
The doctor grumbled and pushed himself out of his desk. “As if I didn’t have enough to do, have this man to discharge with his jar of leeches, that fellow with the infected thumb that I told to come back after dinner, and Widow Appleby, that hypochondriac nincomp—”
“It’s all right doc, my cousin Patty here, who just happens to be looking for work, is a trained nurse. Trained in Europe.”
The old doctor sat a little straighter in his chair.
Peter continued. “She can take care of a little old bandage, I assume.” Peter arched his brows. “Freeing you up for all your other important work, of course.”
The doctor sank back into his chair, silent. “Is that so?” He fingered his smooth chin. “I’ll say, let’s see what she can do then.”
Peter stepped to the side. “Patty?”
Samuel motion to Noah, who skipped across the floor and stood beside him, of course, never saying a word.
Patty stepped forward, and extended her hand to the doctor, who took it and took no qualms to hide his surprised look. “You may call me Patty, or Mrs. Shadrach O’Shaughnessy. My late husband would be keen to know his name was still being used appropriately.” She nodded curtly then turned to Rebekah.
“Rebekah, first thing we’re going to do is elevate your sprained ankle. It isn’t broken, we already know that. But, seeing how swollen and discolored it is, it’s likely sprained.”
The doctor nodded from the corner.
Patty pulled up a little stool. “Noah, son, please hand me that blanket there.”
Noah pointed to a folded gray wad in the corner.
“Yes, that’s the one.”
He did as he was told then returned dutifully to Samuel’s side.
