"Here are blankets." Naomi dropped the load of covers beside her.
Dinah didn't shift her focus from parting the buckskin. "Cover his upper body to get him warm."
When she had a full view of the bulging thigh, her insides clenched. The skin wasn't pierced, and it had turned dark purple and swollen to twice the size of her fist. She had to let out the blood pooling in there. She'd need to set the bone, too, so an incision would have to be made and soon.
She raised her head to study the landscape around them. "Is there a house? Somewhere close we can take him?" Hopefully a place that would be more sanitary than here in the dirt.
The men looked at each other again, then the older brother spoke. "We can take him in the wagon to the house. It's about a half hour up the mountain."
She eyed the conveyance beside them. Bumping in that would move the bone even more, perhaps pinching the femoral artery, which would practically ensure the man bled out if she didn't stop the problem immediately.
She searched the area for another option, and her gaze caught on a wooden structure tucked into the edge of the woods. "What about that? Is it clean inside?"
"No." For once, the bushy-beard man answered quickly. "It's dirty and full. There's no floor."
That wouldn't do then. She turned back to her patient and his swollen purple leg. "I need a blanket to put under this."
The brothers helped her lift the leg while she held the broken section, then slipped the cloth under. While they worked, she gave Naomi instructions for what to pull out of her case. Her bag held enough basic supplies that she would be able to bandage the incision and splint the legs together. That should hold until they got the man back to his house.
At last, she took out her surgical blade and pulled the cut leather farther back from the swollen area.
"Wait." The older brother spoke, and she looked up at him.
His dark eyes studied her, worry darkening them even more. "What are you going to do?"
Of course he would want the details. Back in Wayneston, she would have taken time to inform the patient's family of her plans. She lowered the blade. "See this dark area? His femur—um, thigh bone—is broken. It's a break significant enough to release blood and marrow from inside the bone, and it’s pooling beneath the skin. I'm going to make an incision, release the blood so it doesn't spread into his organs and drown them, and then set the bone pieces back into place. After that, I'll suture the incision and tie his legs together as a brace until we get him to his bed." She'd need to reset the leg with traction at that point, but she could explain when the time came.
She turned to Naomi. "Can you prepare a needle and thread?"
Naomi reached for the supplies, so Dinah returned her focus to her patient. Though his eyes remained closed, he flinched and shifted around a bit. Probably the pain and blood loss kept him from being fully aware of what was happening. That would work in his benefit for this next part.
She leveled a serious look at both men. She’d need their help. "Hold his shoulders and feet so he doesn't move. One of you at each end, please."
The men positioned themselves as requested. Before she began, she lifted her eyes to the heavens.
Guide my hands, Lord. Let me do good, not harm.
CHAPTER2
Bile rose in Jericho Coulter’s throat as he watched the blade pierce his brother's bruised flesh. It wasn't the sight of the blood gushing through the slitted skin that made him want to cast up his accounts.
Jonah could die.
This couldn’t be how his baby brother’s life ended. Yet, inadequacy snaked around Jericho’s neck. For nine years now, he'd done his best to keep his siblings alive. Ever since their parents succumbed to illness, he’d battled one challenge after another. He’d failed Lucy, and now this single slip-up might cost Jonah his life.
Jonah shifted beneath Jericho's grip, and Jericho tore his gaze from the flow of blood that thankfully slowed. He looked down at the boy's face. His brother was no longer a boy, though, not at twenty-two. With his skin as pale as snow, he didn't look sturdy enough to be called a man.
"It's all right now. You're gonna feel a lot better soon." He could only pray those words would be true.Ifhe was a praying man. Which he hadn’t been for a while.
He lifted his gaze to the doctor. A woman doctor, so she’d claimed. Certainly, she hadn’t hesitated to take charge of Jonah's injury. Only a person experienced in medicine would dive in the way she had. That confidence was the only reason he'd allowed her to do all she was doing.
Did she truly have the skills to set the leg correctly? If this was a break to the thighbone, as it looked to be, placing the bone correctly could make the difference in whether it could ever bear weight again.
Back in Fort Scott, a man in town once fell from the second story of the West Hotel and broke his thighbone. After it healed, he’d never been able to walk without a cane. Would the same thing happen to Jonah?
The thought shot a jolt of fear through Jericho’s veins. Jonah would be miserable restrained like that.
But he kept a tight hold on his brother's shoulders while the doctor continued her bloody task. Her mouth set in a grim line as she adjusted the leg, her fingers disappearing inside the wound, probably moving the bone around.
