Ingrid did as he bade her, frightened now that she might faint when the room seemed to shimmer and sway around her. Then Molly was holding her head so she might drink some water while a damp cloth was laid across her forehead that felt wonderfully cool.
She heard the low hum of voices, Molly saying to Charles, “I added a drop of laudanum to help lower her temperature.” She felt the doctor’s fingers once more at her wrist to check her pulse, and then everything drifted peacefully away…
* * *
Joshua Logan paced the front porch, knowing he had given Charles and Molly Davis the impression that he’d done what he could and intended to leave, but he wasn’t going anywhere.
At least not until he knew Ingrid Hagen would be all right, his jaw clenched with concern.
“Foolish young woman,” he muttered to himself, still not believing she had bolted from the schoolhouse and raced down the main street in the full heat of the day.
Her skirt hoisted to her white-stockinged calves, her petticoat flashing, and locks of blond hair coming loose from her bun as she had fled from him like she imagined the devil was at her heels.
If she had only given him another moment, he would have apologized to her for his unwarranted accusation of taking a rod to his son—yet he had himself to blame for alarming her with his unexpected appearance in her schoolroom.
He’d become so angry when he got home from the sheriff’s office to spend a few hours with his children and Emily had sobbed that Davy was still at school being punished. Joshua had left his daughter with their housekeeper, Inez, who lived with the family, and couldn’t have ridden across town fast enough.
Upon his arrival, there had been no sign of his son, just Ingrid with an eraser in her hand and the blackboard covered with Davy’s careful handwriting. If Joshua had taken a moment to collect himself before uttering a word to her, he would have seen that he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion and spared them both an unfortunate misunderstanding.
Sighing heavily, Joshua paced to the far end of the porch with long strides and back again, blaming himself, too, for the dangerous malady that had overcome her.
God forgive him, she was fresh from Minnesota and not accustomed to their Texas heat! He had noted at once upon entering the schoolhouse how overwarm the room had felt, Ingrid’s cheeks two bright pink spots of color. He had been relieved to hear that Davy had already left, though Joshua hadn’t seen him on the way there.
The children knew to head straight home after school for siesta during the hottest hours of the day, when they enjoyed a nap or simply played indoors. Hadn’t Mrs. Jahn informed Ingrid that this was the way they did things in Walker Creek? Didn’t the woman warn her about staying late after school when even the thick limestone walls wouldn’t offer much reprieve from the blazing afternoon heat?
Joshua shook his head and sat down on the porch swing, though the rocking motion only heightened his unease instead of calming him.
He had known today might be rough for him and his children, but it had taken a regrettable turn he hadn’t anticipated. He had every confidence in Dr. Davis’s ability as a physician, but heat exhaustion was nothing to trifle with.
Why hadn’t he kept Davy home this morning instead of sending him off to school? Joshua had seen first thing that his son wasn’t acting like himself when Davy picked at his breakfast, his usually healthy appetite all but fled. Davy had been short with Emily, too, which wasn’t like his son at all, Davy usually so loving with his younger sister. That should have pointed Joshua to trouble ahead, but he had been preoccupied with his own roiling emotions over Mary’s death a year ago to the day.
An accidental death that still haunted him for its swift savagery. Her life snuffed out in the blink of an eye when she’d fallen backward while saddling her mare and split open her skull on a shovel.
Yet what haunted him even more were her embittered last words to him when he had run out after her to the stable.
“I can’t live this life any longer, Joshua! Never knowing if you’ll come home at the end of the day or end up with a bullet in your back! I hate it—the worry, the fear, and your stubborn refusal to find another way to make a living. It’s squeezed the love right out of me. I don’t want you, I don’t want the children, I just want to catch the train to San Antonio and find another way to live!”
Then it had happened, Mary wildly waving him away when he’d come closer to try and calm her, and she lost her balance, her outcry cut off as bone struck metal.
A sickening sound. A death sound.
Stunned, Joshua had sunk to his knees to pull her lifeless body into his arms; only then had he seen Davy standing at the stable door.
His young son having heard everything, seen everything, tears streaming down his ashen face.
Joshua heaved a ragged sigh and rubbed his stinging eyes with his fingers, the horror of that moment something he would never forget. He could forgive Mary for anything—not loving him anymore, deciding to leave him—but saying she didn’t want their children?
Joshua rose from the porch swing and began to pace again, thinking that Davy should have made it home by now.
The boy wouldn’t have gone to any friend’s house; he knew Joshua liked for them to sit down to supper together. All he wanted to do was get home himself and hug his children and assure Davy that he wasn’t angry at him for acting up in school—
“Sheriff?”
His breath catching, Joshua met Molly’s gaze as she held the front door open for him.
“Charles thinks Ingrid will be more comfortable in one of the infirmary beds, but he hurt his back the other day and can’t carry her. Would you give us a hand?”
Exhaling with relief, Joshua nodded and followed her inside. “She’s going to be all right, then?” He didn’t miss Molly’s inquisitive sideways glance at him, but chose to ignore it as they approached the settee where Ingrid appeared to be sleeping peacefully.
