A Midwife Crisis (18 page)

Maybe her new dress wasn’t as fancy as Caroline’s, but it was the prettiest Katie had ever owned. The deep green fabric had cost her plenty, and the hours spent working on it had left her tired, but the image staring back at Katie from the mirror made it all worthwhile. A real party dress, complete with lace and a daring neckline, lifted Katie’s spirits higher than they’d been since Caroline arrived.

A quick pinch to her cheeks added color, and the curls around her face gave a soft touch, which pleased her. She smiled and took a calming breath, readying herself to leave her room to attend her party. Her party. She’d never had one of those before and just the thought of it made her giddy.

“Katie?” John called to her from outside her door.

She hurried to answer it, and her breath caught in her throat. He always looked handsome, but tonight he had outdone himself. His suit fit him like a glove, accentuating his strong physique, and the dark fabric of his jacket made his eyes almost glow. A whiff of bay rum tickled her senses and a smile curved the corner of his mouth. Suddenly she had images of his mouth on her body. Merciful heavens.

She swallowed. “Good evening.”

John fought to remember why he had come to Katie’s room. The vision standing before him knocked all thoughts from his head and half the wind from his body. Damn, she was beautiful. Where did she get that gown? The deep emerald color brought out her eyes, and the neckline brought out other things.

His eyes traveled quickly to her breasts, swelling above the neckline, before he forced them back to her face. Damn it if other things weren’t swelling now.

“Did you want something?” she asked.

Of course he did, but what? Then he remembered his gift. “Yes, I wanted to give you your birthday gift before the other guests arrived.”

“Oh.” She smiled, her eyes sparkling even more. And he felt it throughout his entire body. Then she raised a brow, hidden slightly by a curl, and he realized he’d been staring at her like a nitwit.

“Here.” He thrust his package at her, wondering how a man with his education and experience could be flummoxed by a mere brow.

She accepted his gift and walked to her bed to sit and open it. Hesitating for a moment, he followed her into the room, but took the chair across from her. His body was at a borderline mutiny, and he didn’t trust himself to sit beside her just yet.

A tiny gasp brought his mind back from its lecherous thoughts to the beautiful woman who’d caused them. “Do you like them?” he asked.

Katie pulled the new boots from the wrapping paper and looked up at John with tears in her eyes. “I can’t accept these.”

“Why? Are they the wrong size?”

She shook her head. “They’re too expensive.”

“They weren’t expensive at all,” he lied. The boot maker in New York had charged him an arm and a leg to finish and ship the boots before Katie’s party. Luckily, he had an extra arm and leg. “Besides, they’re from Julia.” Another lie, but he knew she wouldn’t refuse a gift from Julia, and he couldn’t bear the thought of her walking through the snow in her old boots.

The look in Katie’s eye told him she didn’t fall for his story, but she was grateful for it just the same. She could keep them if they were from Julia. “I’ll be sure to thank her.”

“Do you need help putting them on?”

She blushed, and he realized what a ridiculous question he’d asked. It wasn’t his fault, though. All his blood had left his brain and pooled somewhere in his groin.

“I think I can manage.”

He smiled. “You probably can.”

Then she returned the smile, and he wished the rest of the world would go away. “I’ll see you downstairs, then,” he said, backing toward the hallway in an attempt to look debonair. It would have been more effective, however, if he hadn’t bumped into the door on his way out.

Katie’s soft laughter followed him into the hallway, but the warm feeling it gave him stopped abruptly when Caroline intercepted him at the top of the stairs.

“How lovely of you to escort me down to the party.”

Was that what he’d done? “My pleasure,” he said, adding to his recent list of lies. Though he probably
wasn’t being fair to Caroline. She was guilty of nothing more than not being Katie and that wasn’t her fault, just her misfortune.

“Do you like my gown?”

Oops. John glanced at her obviously expensive, obviously French gown and smiled. “It’s lovely.” And he supposed it was.

By the time they reached the foot of the steps, the voices of several guests mingled in the air. Rebecca Fisher had been the first to arrive and had volunteered to greet guests so John could take Katie her gift. In his brief absence, many had come, all chatting and laughing as they ambled to the parlor.

Katie’s family was there, all siding with their pick of her fiancés. Frank Davis, Reverend Stoker, Gloria Pennington, to name a few, were already examining the foods on the buffet table fixed by the cooks John had hired from Huntington.

The laughter and friendliness of the guests brought a smile to John’s lips, but Caroline’s grip on his arm tightened.

“Have you ever seen a bigger collection of hoydens in your life?” she whispered, looking up at him as though they shared a common bond. She tipped her head toward Rebecca. “Look at that dress. I wouldn’t be caught dead in it.”

John glanced at Rebecca and thought she looked remarkably well for a woman who’d just given birth to her fourth child a few weeks before. Her dress was plain but clean, and her face glowed with excitement. Actually, in many ways she was more attractive than Caroline.

But he couldn’t tell her that so he said, “These people have no need for fancy gowns.”

“Doc!” One of the men who’d helped at the barn raising smacked John on the shoulder before Caroline had a chance to respond to his comment. “This here’s a real nice thing you done for Katie.”

“She deserves it,” John said, wishing he could remember the man’s name. Luckily, Caroline had wandered off, and he didn’t have to introduce them.

“She does indeed,” he answered. “Ain’t no woman finer than Katie.” Suddenly the man looked past John’s shoulder toward the hall and let out a low whistle. “Speak of the devil.”

John turned to see Katie standing in the doorway. And for the second time that evening, she took his breath away. Unfortunately, she had the same effect on Randy, Harold, and Freddie. All three made a mad dash to her side, each vying for her attention like lovesick fools. He eyed the crowd for a second to determine if there was room for one more fool before Julia’s tug on his sleeve diverted his attention.

“Daddy? Have you seen Harvey?”

“Harvey?”

“My kitten,” she answered, bending over to look under the buffet table.

“I thought we determined the kitten was a girl.”

“Today she is, but I want a boy kitten, and I think if I name her Harvey, she might change her mind.”

There was a time he would’ve corrected her misconception, but he was finding it difficult to remember that time now, so instead he knelt to lift the tablecloth and look for Harvey.

Katie’s heart warmed at the sight of John on his knees beside Julia. There was a time he would never have crawled on the floor in front of his guests, but she was finding it difficult to remember that time, and it was all she could do not to join them in their search for whatever they were searching for.

“Will you save a dance for me, Katie?”

Randy’s question forced her to tear her eyes away from John. “Of course I will,” she answered absently. Caroline had joined John at the table, her tinkling laughter carrying across the room.

“Who’s the woman with Doc?” Grandma asked. Katie hadn’t even noticed she’d crossed the room.

“That’s his sister-in-law, Caroline.”

“They look right purty together. Like they belong.”

Katie knew what Grandma was doing, but it worked just the same. Caroline and John
did
look right together, like the perfect couple enjoying an evening with friends.

A warm hand on the small of her back dragged her attention away from the table once more. “I got you a birthday present,” Randy said, then leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Later, I’ll give it to you in private.” He ended his message with a kiss on her cheek. She heated in response.

Every muscle in John’s body tightened as he forced himself to stay where he was. Crossing the room and planting his fist in Randy’s face would ruin Katie’s party, but that little son of a bitch had just kissed her in front of everyone. Granted, it was on the cheek, but his
hand was on her back and from John’s vantage point, it appeared to be rubbing circles.

“Look, Daddy,” Julia said, interrupting his homicidal thoughts as Randy stepped away from Katie to get some punch.

Julia beamed up at him as if it were Christmas morning. “We have friends.”

And damn if she wasn’t right.

Guest after guest greeted John and thanked him for inviting them, each smile genuine and open. Men teased about his blisters from the barn raising and women laughed about his fifty-dollar chicken, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he was part of a community. Imagine that.

“Is there any music around here, Doc?” Frank Davis asked.

“Absolutely,” John answered, crossing the room to the gramophone. Several people partnered up in the center of the room, waiting for the music to begin, but when the soft waltz tune filled the air, all heads turned toward him in confusion.

“It’s called a waltz,” he said, and all heads nodded in unison as they looked at him as if he were from another planet. So much for community.

“It’s really very simple.” He searched the room for the perfect partner. “Katie?” he said, reaching his hand toward her. “Would you help me show everyone the waltz?”

She blushed prettily. “I’m really not very good at it.”

“Nonsense. You’re perfect.” He hadn’t intended that
to come out the way it did, but who could argue with the truth?

She stepped into his arms as the crowd cleared the center of the room. “Just follow my lead,” he whispered, stepping into the music and out of reality.

Around the room they twirled, her skirts weaving about their legs as the music carried them away. Her cheeks flushed from the heat and excitement, her tenuous glances to his eyes causing his heart to skip. The soft scent of vanilla drifted from her, and it took all his willpower not to bury his face into her hair and inhale her essence.

Her hand on his shoulder seared through his jacket, and he remembered the feel of her fingers as she’d held his head against her breasts. His body responded for the thousandth time that evening, forcing him to drag his brain back to the present and away from its imaginings.

Then she looked up at him.

Her lips parted as her breathing picked up from the dance or maybe from his nearness. He could only hope. But as his gaze slid down the column of her throat to the valley rising and falling between her breasts, his step faltered.

She looked away with embarrassment and quit dancing. It was only then that he realized the music had stopped. A lone clap marked the beginning of a weak round of applause and a murmured response or two about the dance, jolting him back to the realization there were others in the room. Many others, and they were as embarrassed as he was. Should he say something?

He stepped back and bowed to Katie, trying to think of a way to salvage the situation, when suddenly the front door burst open.

“Doc!” A man rushed into the parlor carrying an unconscious woman in his arms. Blood poured from wounds on her head, soaking her dress in crimson. “Please help my wife,” he pleaded. “She’s been hit by a carriage.”

Katie saw John’s shock as soon as it crossed his face. All color drained from his cheeks, and his eyes locked on to a vision from the past.

“Of course,” she said, stepping toward Ed Monroe. “Take Elsa across the hall to Dr. Keffer’s office and put her on the examination table.”

Ed left the room as the guests’ confusion and noise filled the parlor. Katie grabbed John’s arm and shook. “John,” she said, squeezing until he turned to look at her. “She needs you.”

“I can’t,” he whispered.

“Yes, you can and you will.”

He rubbed his hand across his jaw as he stood staring at the doorway.

“We don’t have time to think about this,” she said, taking his hand. “You’re not a new doctor, and that’s not Lois.”

Luckily, he followed as she led him out of the room. She wasn’t big enough to pull him against his will. With each step she felt his strength return and by the time they made it to his office, John was back.

“Get the bandages and sutures from the cabinet,” he said to Katie, pulling off his jacket and rolling up his shirtsleeves.

“Is she going to be all right, Doc?” Ed asked.

Katie glanced at John, catching his eyes for a second before he faced Ed again. “If I have anything to say about it, she will. But right now, I need you to leave the room. Miss Napier and I have work to do.”

Ed nodded and left, pulling the door closed behind him. Rushing to John’s side, Katie laid the supplies on a table beside Elsa.

He folded a bandage and placed it against the gash in her head. “Hold pressure on this while I check for other injuries.”

Katie did as he’d requested, then watched in amazement as he ran his hands down her arms and legs, pressing and probing as he searched for broken bones. Then he pushed against Elsa’s belly and sighed with relief.

“Anything broken?” Katie asked.

“I don’t think so and there doesn’t appear to be any internal bleeding. Hopefully, once we get this gash sewn on her head, it’ll just be a matter of her waking up.”

Lifting the bandage, Katie fought the urge to wince as the blood poured from the injury. But John’s steady hands pulled the wound closed and sutured the damage with skill and gentleness. An hour later, the bleeding had stopped, and a bandage was in place, but Elsa still hadn’t moved.

John pulled a chair beside Elsa and sat, his eyes glazed as he watched her.

“Do we let Ed come in?” Katie asked.

He continued to stare at Elsa and Katie knew what he was thinking.