[Troublesome Creek 01] - Troublesome Creek (35 page)

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Authors: Jan Watson

BOOK: [Troublesome Creek 01] - Troublesome Creek
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Willy saw Dr. Corbett first. Copper heard him yell from the barn, “Sissy, set another plate. Doc’s back again!”
She peeked out the screen door, and indeed there he was, ambling across the yard with Willy, who swung his black doctor’s bag. Thankfully, Mam had fried some extra chicken, just in case.
“Oh no, ma’am,” Copper heard him say when Mam met him on the porch and asked him to supper. “I don’t want to trouble you. I just came by to check on our patient.”
“Nonsense,” Mam replied. “You’ll stay and eat. Come on in. Daniel’s on the settee.”
His presence filled the cabin as he knelt and pulled up Daniel’s nightshirt. Copper watched him probe the wound with his long, slender fingers. “Does this hurt?” he asked as he made his way up Daniel’s leg. “How about this?” Then the words they’d waited to hear: “Daniel, you’re going to be just fine. Let’s try walking a few steps.”
Daniel slid to the edge of the settee and stood. Willy supported him on one side and Copper on the other as he took his first wobbly steps.
“Now,” the doctor said, “let’s see you walk by yourself.”
Mam stood by the table with her hand to her mouth, and Copper held her breath as Daniel hobbled to the door and back, wincing with each step. His eyes found his mother’s. “It feels funny. It feels like something’s too tight . . . like my leg is drawing up.”
“Hmm,” the doctor said. “Hmm.” He lifted Daniel and set him on the corner of the table. Taking Daniel’s foot in his hand, he asked him to push as hard as he could.
“Mrs. Brown,” he said finally, “Daniel’s going to need a bit of work. Seems the poison has affected this long muscle.” He traced upward from Daniel’s ankle to his knee with one finger. “The muscle’s cramping when he walks. It’s causing him to limp.”
“What does that mean?” Mam asked, a note of panic in her voice. Copper slipped her arm around Mam’s waist. “Will my boy be crippled?”
“Oh no, my dear,” he answered assuredly. “Not at all. I’ll just need to teach you how to exercise this muscle to get it back to full function.”
Copper lifted Daniel from the table and held him on her hip. He nestled his head against her shoulder. His little white nightshirt billowed around her waist. “Teach me, Dr. Corbett. I’ll see to Daniel.”
“Yes, please,” Mam said, her voice still shaky. “Please show Laura Grace what to do.”
“Me too,” Willy piped up. “Do we get to use that rubber hammer?”
 
That evening Copper sat on the porch with Dr. Corbett and practiced Daniel’s care while Mam and Daddy did her chores.
Over and over he showed her how to contract and release the muscles in the leg. Willy was their willing patient and Daniel watched, laughing from his chair. When she was sure of the exercises, the doctor taught her how to make and apply a poultice to draw out soreness and inflammation.
As Mam and Daddy took seats on the porch, Doctor Corbett took a hickory nut-size lump of alum and mixed it with egg whites in a tin pan. He stirred and stirred until the alum turned to jelly. Pouring the whey into a clean jar, he took the jelly and put it on a clean cloth before wrapping it around Daniel’s lower leg. Copper was to wet the cloth with the whey several times a day for the next few days, making more as needed.
Afterward she watched, fascinated, as the doctor took a tortoiseshell fountain pen from his bag and dipped it in a tiny pot of ink. He wrote the directions for the alum jelly in a precise hand, waved it in the air for a moment, and presented it to her.
The combination of alum and egg whites made for a sticky mess. “Time for a washup,” she said, and he followed her to the outdoor bench where they kept a basin and a bucket of water.
She took a dipperful of water and poured it over his hands as he scrubbed them with lye soap, and then he did the same for her. It seemed like a very intimate gesture somehow, sharing a towel, and she found herself wanting to lean against him as he stood beside her at the bench. When his hand accidentally touched hers, she trembled, and when her eyes met his she saw his yearning.
The spell was broken when Pard let out a long and lonesome neigh from the barnyard. “Poor old Pardner,” Dr. Corbett said.
“I’ve been neglecting him.” He hung the towel on a nail and turned to Daddy. “Mr. Brown—”
“Will,” Daddy said, a sparkle in his eyes as if he knew what was coming next.
“Will—” the doctor cleared his throat—“I wonder if you’d permit Laura Grace to take a stroll with me. I was thinking of taking Pard to the creek for a drink.”
“That would be fine, Doc,” Daddy answered straight-out. “Just fine.”
“I’m sure Willy would like a walk also,” Mam interjected.
“Boy howdy, would I! Can I ride Pardner?” he called, already running across the yard. Suddenly he stopped and ran back to Daniel. “I won’t be gone long, buddy, and I’ll bring you something special.”
 
“I’ll bet Dr. Corbett was glad you suggested Willy go along,” Will teased. “Did you see the sparks between those two? I was afraid they’d set the porch afire.”
“What’s wrong with the cattle trough by the barn?” Grace asked, her eyebrows raised. “Last I looked it was full of water.”
“I haven’t seen Copper so lit up since I gave her that shotgun for her birthday. Maybe we ought to let her take the good doctor hunting come Saturday morning. He’d be curious as a hound dog on a cold trail if he could see her flush some turkeys.”
“Please, Will, don’t be entertaining such a thought,” Grace said. She took out her hanky and pressed it against her nose. “He is much too sophisticated for her,” she huffed. “I am afraid an assignation with Dr. Corbett could only lead to distress.”
“Well, darlin’, any man who hurts my daughter—” he stroked his beard and started rocking—“doctor or no, will find his tail so full of buckshot, he’ll be using it as a sieve.”
“Please don’t be coarse.” She rocked harder. “Can’t you just send him on his way? We can care for Daniel now.”
Will faced his wife. “Grace, you surprise me. I thought it was your wish to have Copper living in the big city. Think of all the fine things she’d have if she was a doctor’s wife.”
“But don’t you see?” Grace answered, her brows knit together. “I wanted her to find her own strength before she became someone’s wife. I wanted her to have an education and an avocation. I hoped she would come to know herself before she became the same as someone else’s property.”
“Why, Miss Grace!” Will stopped midrock. “If marrying me made you my ‘property,’ then I’ll have to say you’re the best bottomland I ever bought.”
“Will Brown! Forevermore.” She cast a look at Daniel, asleep on the settee they’d dragged out to the porch. “I’m just trying to explain my feelings. I thought you would feel the same.”
“Let’s not go borrowing trouble.” He stood and stretched. “She’s only gone to the creek, not Lexington. I’m sure with Willy in attendance they won’t even get to hold hands, much less jump the broom.”
He picked up the water bucket and dashed lukewarm water over the porch rail. Starting down the steps with the bucket, he paused. “I’ll give him this: he has a firm handshake, and he looks a man in the eye. If it’s meant to be, it will be. We’ll have to trust the Lord, I reckon.”
 
“Doc, Doc . . . watch this! Watch this.” Willy selected a thin, round rock and let it fly. “Hey, good one. That was three skips an’ a hop. I can teach you how to do this if you want.”
Copper watched as Dr. Corbett squatted beside Willy on the bank. He looked over his shoulder and gave her a wink as he threw a stone that sunk without a skip in the middle of the creek.
“Boy, Doc Simon, you’ve got a lot to learn. Here, you got to hold it just so an’ kind of slide it off your fingers so it glides instead of plops.” Willy chucked a few more stones. “Maybe if I could find some more thin ones you could do better. You wait here with Sissy, an’ I’ll be right back.”
“Come sit beside me while we wait for Willy,” Dr. Corbett said to Copper. “I’ve a feeling it won’t be long.” He spread his jacket on the grass.
Feeling strangely shy, she took the offered seat. A queer, fluttery feeling settled in her chest, and she could feel the color rising in her cheeks. She sat stiffly, nearly touching his shoulder as he leaned back, resting on his elbows.
“I hear there will be a pie supper at the church on Saturday,” he offered. “Will you be going?”
“We’re all going. Daddy always pays the most for Mam’s pie.” She kept her eyes straight ahead as if there were something fascinating on the creek bank, afraid she might see that look in his eyes again. “One year he paid a dollar fifty. Last year John Pelfrey bought mine for a quarter after Silas Parker bid fifteen cents. It’s always great fun.” Scooting away from him a little, she tucked her skirts firmly under her legs.
“John Pelfrey? Is he the son of the man who came to get me yesterday?”
“The very same. He said my crust was as tough as ground-hog leather, but I’ve learned to make it flaky since then. I haven’t decided what I’ll bake, but I’m thinking of blueberry or maybe chocolate. . . . That’s my favorite, but Mam says you shouldn’t please the cook but please the guest.” She stuck a stray curl behind one ear. “The hardest part’s the meringue. Mam’s peaks like snowcaps, but mine tends to droop.” Copper was aware she was chattering on, overcome by nerves.
Dr. Corbett took her hand and turned it over, stroking her palm with his thumb, a delicate touch that sent shivers up her spine. He lingered, tracing the lines on her palm, as if it were a map and he needed direction. Copper feared this might be her undoing.
Thankfully, Willy came crashing up the creek bank, providing a welcome distraction. “Here, Doc, try these. They’re smooth as buttermilk. . . . Even a girl could skip with these. Sorry, Sissy, but you’re not really a girl anyway.” He skimmed the surface of the water with a rock. “Sissy can do anything, Doc. Did you tell him about the time you decked the wildcat? If you do, be sure to leave out the part about the chickens under the bed. Mam’s still sore about that.”
“Speaking of Mam,” Copper said, “it’s dusky dark. We’d better get back.”
“Oh, Sissy, do we have to?” Willy whined. “I was just starting to have fun.”
“Come on, Willy,” Dr. Corbett said. “Pard needs a rider.”
“Did you remember something for Daniel?” Copper asked.
“Yeah, hold on.” Willy pulled an arrowhead from his pocket.

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