Everyone’s eyes widened at Peter’s mention of such an astronomical sum. Nobody in these parts had that much spare money. The old doctor’s lips began to flap and he began to sputter.
Peter closed his eyes and held up one hand. “Now hold on a minute, I know you’re about to agree with me. And that’s why, you’re about to say, precisely why you don’t have a skilled nurse on staff. Am I right?”
“Well, yes.”
Peter nodded. “I figured as much. Now, you still got that furnished room upstairs?”
“Bah, I do. Yes.”
“And where do you sleep, Doc?”
“Here, most recently. However, got my own place right on the county line there. A nice little place, with a vegetable garden and a rose bush—”
“Mmmhmm, I see. And you’d very much like to be back at your home, and only here at needed, I’m sure. After all...” Peter flashed a winning smile. “You and I both know vegetables don’t grow themselves do they, Doc?”
“No...bah...uh—no, ʽcourse not. Roses don’t prune themselves, neither.”
Peter turned his hands up as though he just thought to invent the wheel. “I have a perfect solution for both of you, where you both come out ahead. Patty and Noah can take the room upstairs, and be on call, so to speak, for whoever comes into the clinic overnight.”
Peter paused and nodded, waiting for the doctor to nod along with him. Which he did.
“I’m sure she’d keep the place up real nice. If you was to, say, throw in one meal from the diner a day for the pair of them...”
Peter shrugged.
“I’d say she’d feel comfortable with a dollar a month salary?” He nodded at Patty. She nodded in return.
“I feel that’s fair, if you do, Doctor.” Patty offered a shy smile. “After all it’s your clinic, and I’d be honored to help you keep it running. I’m good with sums and handwriting and reading, as well.”
The doctor stuck out his hand. “By golly, it’s a deal.” He shook Patty’s hand first, then Peter’s.
“Take your stuff on upstairs.” The doc instructed. “You can get started right away.”
Patty nodded.
After she and Noah disappeared up the stairs, the doctor slapped his knee. “I do believe I got the better end of the deal. I’ll make it a dollar and a half a month, if she’s willing to read all this dang-blasted correspondence.”
Samuel stood up, still in his nightgown. “I’ll step behind the partition and get dressed. I’m mighty keen to see your mama, Rebekah. I’ll be ready to go in a moment.”
Rebekah nodded and Joseph helped her up. “We will wait outside.”
Peter led the way and the doctor followed.
“There’s the matter of the bill,” the doctor started.
Peter and Rebekah shared a look. Peter’s words swirled in her mind. Used the last of our trip money upgrading our seats and buying seats for Noah and Patty.
“We have the laying in fee, per day, use of leeches and the bloodletting, not to mention the food per day...”
The doctor looked from his scribbled note and into the ashen faces of those he was talking to. “Oh—bah—on the leeches, I gave you a discount and didn’t charge by the leech. So that should ease your mind considerably.”
“Mark it down paid, Doc,” an English voice commanded from behind them. Rebekah turned around and saw Mr. Williams walking toward them. “Paid in full.”
Rebekah smiled. “Danke, Mr. Williams, but my father—”
“Your father and I already discussed it when I was in to see him this morning.” Mr. Williams offered a kind smile, and continued. “You see, I never had the chance to settle up with him with what I owed for the wagon wheels you boys were so kind to deliver and stack in my barn without anyone being the wiser.”
Joseph and Peter shared a look.
“It’s the least I can do for a good man such as your father, Rebekah.”
She nodded.
Peter leaned in. “I’m going to get the wagon out of the livery,” he whispered. “I’ll be back to get you all in a bit.”
Rebekah nodded and turned back to Mr. Williams. “Thank you, Mr. Williams, again. You are truly a blessing to my father.”
“Seems I owed more for his wheels than the doctor’s sum. So I sent your brother, Jeremiah, home with the surplus.” He held out a piece of cash money to the doctor. “And this is for you. For what is fair, for all his care and keeping.”
“Ah...bah, ah,” the doctor mumbled. “Thank you, Mr. Williams. Thank you.”
As the doctor disappeared inside, Mr. Williams’s smile faded slowly from his face. “Rebekah, Joseph, listen close. Your Pa is a sick man. Heart seizures are no small thing, and the fact that he recovered this quickly means it was a small one.”
Rebekah cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean use those leeches on him. Tell your Ma to, that is.” He bent down lower. “I worked the cattle drives in the old days with a couple of rough and tumble men by the names of Gus and Woodrow, down in Texas. Tough as they come, so were the men they hired. On one of the drives I was on with them, they hired a fellow to blacksmith for them. He was good and built like a hookin’ bull.”
Rebekah and Joseph shared a look at his choice of words.
