A Midwife Crisis (14 page)

Another man joined Old Pete with a round white instrument resembling a guitar. His fingers moved up
and down the neck of the instrument with blazing speed. “What’s that?”

“That’s Ryan Stewart.”

John smiled. “I meant the instrument.”

“A banjo.” Her smile was tinged with disbelief. “You’ve never seen a banjo?”

He shook his head.

“Then you’ve probably never seen a juice harp either.”

Shaking his head again, he watched in fascination as another man joined the song. Only this one held a small object in his mouth, which he flipped at the side to make an odd twanging sound.

The last to join the crew had no instrument except his voice, which he used to shout, “Dancers, square your sets!”

“Do you square dance?” Katie asked John.

“No. I don’t know how.”

Before Katie could respond to John’s confession, Randy rushed across the barn and grabbed her hand. “Come on, Katie. Let’s show these folks how this is done!”

Katie laughed and followed Randy to the center where several other couples had already taken their places. The music kicked up a notch, if that was possible, and the shouting one began issuing orders in a language John had never heard before, but everyone else seemed to understand perfectly.

Sashay here, promenade there, and allemande in between, John watched as a whirlwind of skirts swept the new floor clean.

Laughing voices, clapping hands, and stomping feet
led John to surmise this was the way they tested their new barns. If the rafters held up after an evening of this, the barn was as solid as a rock.

One song ended and another began and the men, who had only moments before seemed too tired to walk, were now moving as if their pants were blazing.

But none in the group had Katie’s spirit. Her face glowed and her smile sparkled as she laughed and twirled around the room. His enjoyment of her enjoyment was more than satisfying, but Katie had other plans. Before he knew what was happening, she was dragging him to the floor.

“I don’t know how to do this,” he protested, but it was too late.

“I’ll show you!” she shouted, and then the twirling began.

She pulled him one way and then someone else pulled him another and by the time the dance was finished, he was surprised to learn he hadn’t ended up in the creek.

He suspected that some of the pulling had been extraneous, especially when Randy had almost sent him into a pole, but even with that, he couldn’t remember ever enjoying an evening more.

Until it was time for the wagon ride home.

John, Katie, and Grandma sat on the wagon bench, while the rest of Katie’s family and Julia sat in the back. Rebecca had given Julia the ugliest yellow kitten John had ever seen, but Julia claimed it was exactly what she’d wanted, so it was cuddled inside her coat while she slept.

The cold night air was settling into John’s overused
body and Grandma’s conversation wasn’t helping things any as they wobbled over the dirt road toward town.

“I swear, that Randy Kopp is the finest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Don’t you think so, Katie?”

“He’s handsome enough,” Katie answered.

“
Handsome?
He’s more than just handsome! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man work so hard. Why, I think he single-handedly built most that barn today.”

John gritted his teeth and hoped Lightning found a big enough hole in the road to bounce Grandma off the bench. As dark as it was, maybe John could pretend he didn’t see her bounce away, and he could leave her behind as she sang Randy’s praises to the night.

“All the men worked hard today,” Katie replied, and the pitiful hole Lightning hit only managed to scoot Katie a little closer to his side.

The warmth of her leg, coupled with her response, helped soothe John’s pride and keep his tongue in check. Maybe having Katie next to him was better than bouncing Grandma down the road anyway.

Tuning out Grandma’s prattle, he concentrated on the mule’s path down the road and allowed his mind to replay the day. Particularly the part where he’d decided it had been a great one. He was having trouble remembering that feeling since his muscles were setting up like stone.

“Do you want me to help put Julia to bed?” Katie asked, when they finally reached John’s house.

“Nah,” he answered, hoping he sounded better than he felt. He reached for his sleeping daughter from Katie’s pa, who handed her over the edge of the wagon into John’s arms.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said to Katie. “But there’s no reason to come until about noon. I imagine Julia will sleep in late.”

Katie nodded, then drove the wagon and her family off into the night, while John struggled to make his legs move. Up the four thousand steps that led to his second floor, he carried his daughter, wondering when she’d gained so much weight. He removed her coat and shoes, deciding there was no harm in allowing her to sleep in her dress, with her kitten. She snuggled into her pillow without opening her eyes.

John eyed the floor beside her bed; tempting though it was, he decided he’d be better off to sleep in his bed. Unbuttoning his shirt as he walked down the hall, he managed to remove his shoes before finally falling face-first into his pillow.

No wonder the ancient Egyptians were all dead.

Lord have mercy, but Katie was tired. She’d been up half the night delivering Ida Thompson’s ninth baby only to go straight to John’s to fix lunch. After spending the day doing John and Julia’s wash, she started their dinner, then headed back to her cabin. She was glad to have the use of John’s wagon, but that required unhitching and bedding Lightning down in the shed each evening and rehitching him each morning.

To make matters worse, her family had turned into pigs—whiny, pouting pigs at that.

“Are we having eggs for dinner again?” Pa asked, acting as if that were all they’d had for the last ten years.

Katie plopped another egg into the hot grease of her skillet and cringed. “It’s all I have time to fix. If you all would help around the cabin a little, maybe I’d be able to fix something else.”

“It wasn’t a problem until you started working for Doc.” Grandpa came limping into the kitchen, evidently guilty of eavesdropping.

“It wasn’t a problem for
you
. I was the one doing all the work.” She couldn’t believe she’d said that, but it was the gospel truth. It was also the last straw.

Untying her apron, she slammed it on the cupboard.
“Fix your own supper,” she said, wishing she’d had the courage to add the word “damn” like John had done.

She stormed from the kitchen to the front porch and fresh air, realizing when she dropped into the rocker that she’d fried enough eggs for them.
She
was the one that wouldn’t have anything to eat.

Her stomach growled when she thought of the beef roast with potatoes and carrots John and Julia were having for dinner. She didn’t remember the last time she’d had a beef roast. If it weren’t for the deer meat some of the people she doctored occasionally gave her, chicken was the only meat she’d ever get.

The cabin door squeaked loudly as Grandma came out to the porch, clutching her shawl around her shoulders. “Are you cold?”

“No,” Katie answered. Anger had a way of keeping the chill away.

Grandma hobbled over to the other rocker and set it in motion before she began the speech Katie knew was coming.

“Things was much easier when you wasn’t working in town.”

Katie didn’t bother with a response. It would save time just to wait until Grandma was finished, and Grandma was nowhere near making her point yet.

“I seen you with the doc at the barn raisin’. You fancy yourself in love with him, don’t you?”

Katie stopped her rocker. In love with John? “Of course not.”

Grandma’s rocker didn’t miss a beat. “That’s good, ’cause you know that’d never work out.”

Katie forced her legs to set her rocker back to rocking.

“He’s not like us, Katie. He lives in a big fancy house and wears fancy store-bought clothes.”

“That doesn’t make him bad.”

“No,” Grandma agreed, “just different. You’re a good woman, Katie, and you need to stick to your kind. Dr. Keffer will never fit in with your people, and you will never fit in with his. In his mind, you’re just the hired help.”

“I don’t believe he thinks of me that way.”

“He pays you, don’t he?”

With that, Grandma left the porch and her point behind. And what a dandy point it was.

John placed the last of his Henry David Thoreau books on his library shelf with a grin of satisfaction. Now that Katie had taken over for Mrs. Adkins, there was no longer a need to leave his house in shambles. Another day should have his library restored to its original immaculate and boring state.

“Mornin’.” He heard Katie’s voice echo in the downstairs hallway, announcing her arrival, and not a moment too soon.

He’d done his best getting Julia ready for the day, but her hair had left him in a quandary. Every time he ran the brush through the curls, they seemed to expand until finally he gave up for fear they would gobble up his daughter completely. Katie would know what to do.

“Oh, Julia,” Katie said as he walked down the stairs for the kitchen. “What has happened to your hair?”

“Daddy,” Julia replied simply, leaving Katie to fill in the rest.

John chuckled, looking forward to the morning. A new development and one that never ceased to surprise him. He stepped into the kitchen, warmed at the sight of Katie attempting to tame Julia’s curls.

“Good morning, Katie,” he said, with a smile.

Katie looked up at him and for the first time since they’d met, a wall fell between them. “Good morning, Dr. Keffer.”

“Doctor?”

She returned her attention immediately to Julia’s hair. “I think that since I’m here so much now, that would be a little more appropriate, don’t you?”

Hell no, he didn’t. But getting to the bottom of this wasn’t possible with Julia in the room. Luckily Julia took a nap right after lunch. If John could make it until then, he’d find out what was going on and fix it.

Was it the kiss? It didn’t seem likely. That had happened more than a week ago, and they had been together every day since. Whatever had caused this change happened yesterday, and things that change that quickly can be changed back. He hoped.

Maybe she needed another kiss.

Maybe he needed to have his head examined.

Katie stoked the fire in the cook stove, then added a glob of bacon grease to the skillet, relieved when John left the kitchen. She’d thought long and hard about what Grandma had said, trying to decide if it was true.

Not that it mattered.

She already had three fiancés. Wasn’t that enough?
But then again, he
had
kissed her. Of course he’d only done that once, and he’d done it out of anger. Though several times since then she’d gotten the distinct impression he wanted to kiss her again.

Maybe she needed another kiss.

Maybe she needed to have her head examined.

Katie started to add an egg to the hot skillet but stopped when the door chime jingled. Wiping her hands on her apron, she headed toward the front door only to find John had reached it first.

“John!” A beautiful woman in a fawn-colored traveling outfit rushed through the front door and into his arms.

Heart dropping, Katie stepped back. Unable to tear herself away, she watched from the end of the hallway as John returned the hug.

“Caroline?” he said, clearly surprised, but not disappointed, by the woman’s arrival.

Caroline cupped John’s face with her gloved hands. “It’s so good to see you. I’ve worried myself sick ever since you left New York.”

She lowered her hands and looked about her. “This house is lovely, but the town leaves much to be desired. There’s nothing here, John. Why on earth won’t you come home?”

Caroline didn’t give John a chance to answer before she gestured toward the open door and front porch. “Oh! Would you mind paying the boy for bringing me here from Huntington? I thought sure you’d pick me up at the train station or send a coach.” The tone of her voice was only slightly admonishing, and the look she gave John was teasing if not downright flirting.

“I didn’t know you were coming.”

“You didn’t? I sent a letter. Didn’t you receive it?”

John shook his head. “I’m sorry. I would have arranged to meet you had I known.” He reached into his pocket and stepped onto the porch to pay whoever it was that had delivered Caroline to his door.

“Oh well,” she said, with a flutter of her hand. “I’m here now and that’s all that matters. Can you get your manservant to bring in my luggage?”

“I don’t have a manservant,” John said as he returned inside and closed the door. “I’ll get your bags later.”

She gasped. “How on earth do you survive without a servant?”

“Things are different here,” he said, as though he’d been listening to Grandma too.

“Well, hopefully you won’t be here much longer anyway.” She flashed a brilliant smile that made her eyes glisten before she looped her arm through John’s and said, “Where is your parlor? We have so much catching up to do.” With that, she and John strode into the parlor and out of Katie’s eyesight.

It was as though a whirlwind had swooshed into the house in perfectly tailored clothing with matching bonnet and gloves. Katie looked down at her brown calico day dress, her white apron smudged with this morning’s breakfast. She didn’t own a corset or a bustle, which no doubt had helped Caroline’s figure look so perfect.

Absently, Katie patted her brown hair tucked into its simple braided bun and thought about the lush beauty of Caroline’s upswept blonde curls. Even the way she spoke clearly placed her in John’s world.

God had sent Katie a message. Had she been falling for John? Probably, but Caroline had snapped Katie out of her delusion faster than a slap in the face. And Caroline didn’t even know Katie existed. By this time tomorrow, John wouldn’t remember that fact either.

“Katie?” Julia tugged on her sleeve. “I set the table in the kitchen for breakfast.”

Katie looked down at Julia and held back a tear. “We’re going to need to set things up in the dining room.”

“But we always eat breakfast in the kitchen.”

Katie doubted Caroline had ever even seen a kitchen. “I suspect things are going to be different from now on.”

“Why?”

“A friend of your pa’s just came here from New York.”

“Really?”
Julia’s face lit up with the news and, as usual, the excitement sent her to bouncing. “Who is it? Did you meet him?”

“No,” Katie said, ushering Julia back into the kitchen. “It was a woman your pa called ‘Caroline.’”

Suddenly the bounce stopped, and the light in Julia’s face went out. “Aunt Caroline?”

“Well,” Katie said cautiously, “I don’t know if she’s your aunt, but she was a beautiful woman with blonde hair.”

“Oh.” Julia walked over to the table and began collecting plates to carry to the dining room. Katie waited, hoping she’d explain her odd reaction and trying to decide if she should pry more out of her.

But Julia remained silent while she took three place
settings to the dining room, moping as she went. She returned to the kitchen and set a plate and silverware on the kitchen table. Katie knew that setting was for her.

Help eats in the kitchen.

Maybe that was what had Julia upset. It had Katie a little upset too, but it wasn’t Julia’s fault. It was just the way polite society did things.

Finally Katie could take no more of Julia’s sadness. “Julia?”

Julia stopped and looked up at Katie as if her heart were breaking.

“Eating in the kitchen isn’t that bad. I kind of like it out here.”

Julia’s lip pouted as a tear slipped out of the corner of her eye. “But I want to eat with Daddy.”

“You are going to eat with Daddy.”

Head shaking with the gravest expression, Julia wiped at her tear. “Aunt Caroline doesn’t think children should eat at the big table. I always had to eat in the kitchen when we went to her house.”

That changed things entirely. It was one thing to send the help to the kitchen, quite another to exclude Julia. “This isn’t Aunt Caroline’s house,” Katie said with more bravado than she had a right. She was counting on John standing his ground, though based on his greeting of Caroline, Katie wasn’t sure where he was going to stand.

Deciding to take a chance, she patted Julia on the head and said, “Why don’t you go to the parlor and tell your pa and your Aunt Caroline it’s time to come for breakfast?”

“But—”

“Then you,” Katie interrupted, “are going to eat with your pa just like you always do.”

After scooting Julia out the door, Katie dished up the gravy and eggs to carry to the dining room. John and his houseguest entered just as Katie set the food on the table.

“Katie?” John said, ushering Caroline in her direction. “I’d like you to meet Lois’s sister, Caroline. She’s just arrived from New York, and she’s going to be staying for a while.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Katie said, wishing her apron weren’t smudged.

But Caroline didn’t look at her long enough to notice smudged aprons or even if Katie had an extra arm. She gave a quick nod, then turned her attention to John. Katie knew a dismissal when she saw one, and she wasted no time leaving the dining room, hesitating only for a second when she heard Caroline ask, “Really, John, don’t you think Julie would be more comfortable in the kitchen where she could visit with the cook?”

Katie didn’t hear John’s reply, but since Julia didn’t soon return to the kitchen, she assumed he’d defended his daughter’s right to eat at the big table. She supposed she should be offended by Caroline referring to her as the cook, but considering she couldn’t even get her own niece’s name right, being called “cook” seemed like a mild offense.

Cleaning the kitchen with more zeal than usual, Katie failed to hear John enter the room until his voice startled her from behind. “Katie?”

She spun from the sink to face him, relieved that Caroline was not in company. “Yes?”

“Why didn’t you eat with us?”

“I already ate.” Which wasn’t entirely a lie. She’d eaten many times in the last twenty-nine years.

“Oh,” he said, apparently accepting her explanation.

“Did you get enough?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid I’m faced with another dilemma that I need your help with.”

“What’s that?”

“I didn’t receive Caroline’s letter that she was coming, and I have no arrangements for her lodging. Not that it would matter, as there’s no place else for her to stay anyway.”

Katie nodded, wondering what he was trying to say, but decided to wait patiently until he got around to it.

“Anyway,” he said again, “Caroline is a young, single woman and I’m a widower.” He waited as though he thought she understood what he was talking about. He was wrong.

Sighing, he filled in the rest. “I’m afraid in order for her to stay here, I need a chaperone. Do you think you could move in until Caroline leaves?”

Katie felt her face flush. He didn’t trust himself alone with the woman, and he thought Katie’s presence would protect her.

“I’ll pay you well,” he added when Katie hesitated, and he couldn’t have driven home Grandma’s point more if he’d tried.

Packing up all her worldly possessions didn’t take nearly as long as John evidently thought it would. He’d
insisted she leave for home right after lunch as though it would take all afternoon to pack. Two everyday dresses, one Sunday dress, two pairs of stockings—one of which was still pristine white and in its tissue paper—a hairbrush, a coat, a cloak, and two chemises were all Katie had to her name. Considering some of the items were on her body, the bundle wrapped in her quilt wasn’t very impressive.