Cora did likewise. “I’ll let Torin give you a complete tour, showing all the details of his home. But your room is all the way at the end, and we’ll go straight there.” Cora linked arms with Ivy and pulled her down the hall. She gestured to the right with her free hand. “Dining room, kitchen, Jewel’s bedroom.” Waving to the left, she said, “Parlor, Torin’s room, and then yours. The back door opens to the garden, the privy, and the stables.”
The cozy space was smaller than her room at home by two-thirds, with a Jenny Lind bed covered by snowy linen and a puffy down comforter. A colorful quilt in a green, pink, and pale-blue pattern was spread across the foot. Next to the bed hung a gold mirror over a narrow chest of drawers. A washbasin and pitcher on an oval doily rested on the top. Pegs along the top of one wall would hold clothes because there was no wardrobe, and a shelf for books extended above them. Above the small writing desk,green curtains dotted with small pink flowers framed the single window.
“Elsie made these.” Cora moved to finger the edge. “To show she’s eager to welcome you and become friends.” She sidestepped to place a hand on the quilt. “This is my gift. One of my patients made it for me in payment for my services. She said it’s an eight-point star on point pattern.” She took a seat on the bed, picked up the quilt, and opened the folds to expose the stars inside diamond-shaped boxes.
Ivy sat next to her and ran a hand over the quilt. “It’s lovely. But don’t you want to keep it?”
Cora chuckled. “I suspect it’s only the first of many I’ll receive. Sometimes, people can afford money in payment for my services. But I’ve gotten jars of jam. Eggs. Even a chicken. Luckily, that patient lived in town, so I didn’t have a long drive with a chicken.”
Ivy could only imagine. “Oh, my.”
“I gave the food to Brian. The chicken is living quite happily in the Bellaire-Norton henhouse.”
“And your next job? Will you return with a goat?”
“A pig.” Cora laughed. “Not a suckling, but still small. Uncle Andre will have a pen built for it a decent distance from the house.”
Ivy wrinkled her nose. “You certainly couldn’t bring a pig here. Jewel would fall in love with it, and there goes your good eating. It would be a spoiled pig for the rest of its life.”
“Yep. Hog heaven.”
They both giggled.
Cora’s smile fell away. “I didn’t want to talk much about my next job last night and ruin our good spirits. If I’d known you’d be moving here, I wouldn’t have accepted this laying in. I’ll be staying with a couple out on the prairie. Isolated. A first baby. The husband’s so afraid about leaving her to get help froma neighbor woman. Driving her to town would be too far. He insisted on me staying for three weeks and promised I’d have my own room. They must have some money because Dr. Cameron says they have a real house and not a dugout or soddy.”
Ivy shivered. “I can’t imagine living in either.”
“Those three days in a dugout that I wrote you about were three too many. Dark and crowded and depressing.”
“But you delivered your first baby by yourself.”
“I was so nervous the whole time. Had to pretend otherwise, of course.”
“You have plenty of practice at pretending,” Ivy teased.
Cora gave her a light elbow jab. “As do you.”
Ivy leaned against her friend. “You arenotto worry. I know you’re not abandoning me.” She strove to sound more reassuring than she felt. “I’ll be fine,” she lied.
Brows lifting, Cora shot her a skeptical look.
“No, really.” Ivy reached to squeeze Cora’s hand. “I’m not saying it won’t be challenging and awkward. It’s a different life, after all, from what I’m used to. But I’m excited to be here. Nervous, of course. But that’s natural, of course.”
“Of course,” Cora echoed, the third time in a teasing tone. “I was nervous, too, about traveling here. But I didn’t dare allow myself to show any fear. Aunt Rose was wary enough for both of us. If she’d caught a hint of my feelings, she’d have made us turn back.”
“Sweetwater Springs was a good place for you two to find husbands,” Ivy teased. “In less than a year, you’ll both be married.How good and right sharing feels. I’ll never again take our time together for granted.
Cora shook her head, causing a tendril of loose hair to bounce against her cheek. “I’m not sure I’ll wed within that year. I’m finding my way with my nursing. I’ve wanted this career for so long. Even though Brian agrees with me that I’ll continue afterour marriage, still, things are bound to change. I’d rather wait. Not like Elsie, who wants to wait several years to wed.”
“Autumn? That would squeak you in at a year.”
“We’ll see, oh matchmaker.”
“I’m glad your fiancé supports your career.”
“While I’m gone on this nursing case, Brian has promised to visit me. Mr. Bellaire will let him take the sleigh if the snow is too deep. So you and I can exchange letters. I want to know everything about how you are settling in.”
“But how will I get the letter to Brian? He’ll be working at the newspaper office doing those edits on his book.”
