“I-I’m feeling much better,” Ingrid managed in spite of her mouth feeling as dry as sand. “Not dizzy at all anymore so I’m sure I can go home—”
“Have a sip of water,” Molly broke in gently, leaning over to lift Ingrid’s head.
“It’s only as a precautionary measure,” Caleb interjected. “We’d all feel much better if you’d stay the night.”
“Yes, we would,” Molly said as she placed a cup to Ingrid’s lips. “Drink slowly now, my dear.”
Ingrid obliged her, the cool water soothing her parched throat as she took several small sips. When her head was raised a little higher, she was finally able to glance across the room to the opposite bed, her eyes widening in shock.
Sheriff Logan sat with his back to them beside his son, who lay sleeping with his lower left leg protruding from the blanket and sheathed in a plaster cast.
“Dear Lord, what’s happened to David?” Suddenly coughing from swallowing wrong, her eyes watering, Ingrid tried to sit up even as Molly pressed her back down upon the pillows.
“Calm yourself, Ingrid, it’s not as bad as it looks. He took a tumble near the cemetery and injured his leg, but it wasn’t a bad break, thankfully. Children are fortunate that way, their bones still pliable. He’ll be up and running around again in a few weeks.”
“Oh, no, it’s my fault! I disciplined him at school—I didn’t know about his mother!” Ingrid tried to sit up again, this time Kari leaning over her to push her gently but insistently back onto the mattress.
“Of course it’s not your fault, Ingrid! Seth, please fetch Sheriff Logan over here, will you?”
His black cowboy hat in hand, Kari’s handsome husband nodded and turned to go, but already Joshua had left his son’s side to stride toward them. Tears welled in Ingrid’s eyes as he took the chair Molly offered him and sat down beside her bed.
“I’m so sorry, Joshua, truly. If I’d only known, I would never have punished him—”
“Davy’s going to be fine, and I don’t want to hear another apology from you, Ingrid. Are we agreed?”
She stared at him, silenced as much by him using her given name as that she’d done the same thing to him, a sudden familiarity between them that made her blush to her roots.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ingrid saw a glance pass between Kari and Seth, and then they both stepped away from the bed. Molly and Caleb went to join Dr. Davis across the room, leaving her alone with Joshua. Ingrid felt so flustered that still, she gave him no answer, while Joshua glanced over his shoulder at his son and then back to her.
“Like I said, he’s going to be fine. No one to blame other than myself, really. I should have guessed Davy would head out to the cemetery. I would have realized it once I got home and saw he wasn’t there—but him stumbling into the ravine? An accident, pure and simple.”
“You would have found him before anything happened if not for riding after me instead!” Ingrid blurted, finding her voice at last and not convinced at all that she wasn’t at fault. “I had no idea the heat would affect me like it did. I was wrong to get so upset with you. I don’t know what might have happened if you hadn’t brought me here. Thank you, Joshua.”
He didn’t reply, as if quietly absorbing what she’d said, just looking into her eyes and she, into his…but then he shifted in the chair and glanced once again at his son.
“I should get back to him.”
Ingrid nodded, her cheeks feeling even warmer than before as he stood and walked away without another word. Almost at once, though, Kari hastened to her side, where she pulled the chair even closer and sat down.
“Molly told us what Sheriff Logan did for you,” Kari said in a hushed voice so only Ingrid could hear. “Sweeping you onto his horse and riding here like the wind? The whole town must be talking about it!”
“Oh, dear.”
“Oh, dear? Is that all you have to say? The man saved your life, Ingrid! Not just once, but twice, according to Molly. She said if he hadn’t shouted out to warn you, you might have been run over by a wagon—”
“I don’t know, everything happened so fast,” Ingrid cut her off, shaking her head. “It might have been him shouting. I was running down the street, so upset that I couldn’t even think straight—though maybe it was the heat after all. He thought I had punished his son with a rod for acting up in class, but I would never do such a thing and he realized it. That’s why he came after me, to apologize. Yet he said, too, that I must be hallucinating because I thought someone else had cried out to warn me…”
Ingrid fell silent and heaved a ragged sigh, her temple aching again as Kari grasped her hand.
“Oh, Ingrid, forgive me. I shouldn’t have said a word about any of this to you. You’re supposed to be resting and not recounting such distressing events.”
“I’m all right, just tired,” she murmured, hoping to reassure her sister, whose blue eyes were filled again with concern. “Do Anita and Andreas know what happened?”
“Yes, they left the infirmary a while ago. Anita would not stop weeping, you know how she’s always so dramatic, until Seth’s father finally asked Andreas to take her home.”
Ingrid gave a small laugh, which made Kari smile, too, now not looking half so concerned as she squeezed Ingrid’s hand.
“We’ll talk more in the morning when I come to pick you up. Get some rest and don’t worry about a thing. Papa said he would cancel school for the rest of the week, which is probably just as well with this terrible heat. He said if we don’t get more rain soon, there may be a drought.”
