Kate stared at the rumps of the mules, her aching hand flexing and clenching. “I, ah, I just get lost in my thoughts sometimes.”
She could feel his eyes still on her, and she forced down the agitating memories before they showed on her face. Would he press her for more? She swallowed.
Jacob gazed at her for another long moment and then looked down at his boots. “You know, Kate, I gotta thank you. For takin’ care of me this past while.”
“Of course,” Kate said in a small voice. “It was nothin’.”
“It weren’t nothin’. After what happened to you … I just wish it could’ve been different.”
Kate just nodded, blinking hard.
After a moment, Jacob cleared his throat. “I’m gonna try ridin’ tomorrow. Seb’s been callin’ me all sorts of names for lazin' about while he does all the work.”
“I bet you’re itchin’ to get back to your scoutin’,” Kate said a little too brightly. “You’ve probably been bored silly sittin’ in this old wagon all day.”
“It was never borin’,” he said quietly, squinting out into the morning sunshine.
Quiet descended again. Just two people sitting beside each other and staring out over the prairie. Kate knew she should be happy with Jacob healing so well. But she’d come to depend on his nearness. On that awful night in Fort Kearney, her heart had been tied together with his, wrapped in twine and inextricably linked. And now he was leaving. They would go back to how things were before, yet her world was so much different now. How far could that invisible twine stretch before it snapped and hedrifted away? She yearned for him to stay, to sit beside her and talk with her and make her laugh and forget her mistakes. But she could never tell him that. Not in a million years.
Chapter 17
Twodayslater,Mariaand Davie took sick.
Kate rode in their wagon that day, helping James take care of his beloved wife and son, keeping them cool with damp cloths, giving them as much water as they would take. Winifred still gave milk despite the rigors of the trail, and Kate brought some over with each milking, dipping a cloth in the warm, creamy liquid and dripping it into Davie’s mouth. He would only take a few mouthfuls before writhing and screaming in protest. He just wanted his mother. But she was so sick she couldn’t even nurse him. Kate’s mind filled with apprehension as she watched her friend being ravaged by this sudden fever. Where did this sickness come from? What could she do to make them better? Would the baby be all right? It was well into the night before she returned, exhausted, to collapse into her pallet under the wagon.
In the morning, Ma had developed a fever.
Over the next few days, Kate tended her mother with growing concern while Ian drove the wagon. The fever escalated quickly. By the end of the second day, Edith drifted in and out of clarity, her body hot and her lips cracked and dry, refusing to eat in her delirium. Kate made a broth with what she could find, and while her father held his beloved wife, and her brothers looked on in concern, she spooned the broth into her mother’s mouth. Kate knew she would need all the sustenance she could get to fight off whatever sickness ravaged her body.
Ma driftedinto a fitful sleep, and Kate left her in the gentle hands of her father. Taking the tureen of soup, she headed over to the Leightons’ camp.
“How are they doin’?” she asked James gently.
He rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes dark with exhaustion and worry. “They’re both so sick. I don’t know what to do.”
Kate pushed through her own tiredness to encourage him in his. “Stay strong, James, for their sake.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “What can I do?”
Together they fed Maria some broth, then tried to get Davie to take some too. The poor little one just cried, writhing in his father’s arms, a worrying cough sounding deep in his chest. “Keep him cool,” she instructed James. “I’m gonna make a poultice for his chest. You can have the soup. Keep tryin’ to get him to drink.”
Back at her own wagon, she checked in on her mother. “Any change?” Her father shook his head, worry carving deep lines on his face. Ma stirred weakly in his arms.
“I’ve heard there’s six others who took sick the last few days,” Ian said quietly, his brown eyes worried.
“Who?”
“Well, the Leightons you know about, but one of the Schmidt boys has it, and Old Man Thomas too.”
“Who’s takin’ care of Mr. Thomas?”
“He ain’t got nobody,” Danny answered.
Kate couldn’t bear the thought of that sweet old man suffering alone. She took a deep breath. “All right. Keep Ma cool and give her as much water as you can. If she starts coughin’, come find me.” She carefully searched through her mother’s satchel of medicines, tinctures, and herbs. She’d always been interested in Ma’s lessons on herbs and homeopathy, even attending a few births with her to apprentice in midwifery care. Kate was just grateful she had managed to pay attention tosomething her mother taught her.Please let there be mint!Relief washed over her when she found the packet of leaves, carefully dried and preserved. She took two of the precious mint leaves and crushed them into some boiled water, the bright aroma reviving her in her weariness.
Night had fallen by the time she got to Old Man Thomas’s dilapidated wagon. Most folks thought him downright insane taking this trek at his age, and all alone. Kate admired his spirit; he could see the silver lining in almost every circumstance. Kate knocked on the frame of the wagon. “Mr. Thomas?”
“Is that Kate McGrath I hear?” came the weak reply.
