Vivid (33 page)

Finally, Mr. Crowley excused himself from
a circle of men and yelled to her over the noise of the hammering and sawing.
"Evening, Dr. Lancaster."

"Good evening, Mr. Crowley. What is
all this?"

"We're building an addition onto your
place."

"What?"

"We're building you an addition onto
your place," he repeated.

Vivid shook her head. She'd understood his
words the first time. "Why?"

"Because you need one."

A very logical conclusion, Vivid admitted,
because the place was dreadfully small, but again, why? "How much do you
think it will cost?"

"It's all courtesy of your neighbors,
and if you start fussing about wanting to pay them, you're going to risk
offending some mighty fine people."

Mr. Farley walked by pushing a
wheelbarrow. He must've heard the conversation because as he passed he said,
"All we want to hear Doc, is you saying thank you."

She looked into his wise old eyes and
realized that he was serious.

Vivid could do nothing but say,
"Thank you."

"Smart girl," Mr. Crowley said.
"Now, come over here and look at these plans my son Paul drew up. The
place won't be fancy, but it'll have a bit more space than you have now."

The plans called for an addition to be
built onto the original cabin that would include another bedroom and study, a
front room, and a kitchen. The old cabin would have its roof refurbished, walls
resealed, and a new plank floor installed. Vivid could then use the additional
space for her office and to treat her patients. Mr. Crowley estimated the job
would take about a week to ten days to complete.

"Whose idea was this?" Vivid
asked after Mr. Crowley re-pocketed the hand-drawn plans.

"Nate's."

Vivid could only shake her head. He wasn't
even here and he was still courting. It would serve him right if she did say
yes to his proposal.

She came out of her reverie to find Mr.
Crowley watching her closely. "I'm sorry, Mr. Crowley, did you say
something?"

"You wouldn't happen to have any
sisters, would you?"

"Yes, two."

"They married?"

"Happily."

"Pity," he said.

Vivid laughed and gave him her most
sympathetic look. "Your sons will find wives, Mr. Crowley, I promise.
They're all intelligent, handsome men."

"But will these marriages happen
before or after they eat me into the poor house?"

They both laughed.

Vivid left the men and went over to the
Grayson house. In the kitchen she found Abigail staring out the window. Vivid
wondered if Abigail was really that fascinated by the activity in the yard or
just the activity of one particular worker. "Abigail, did you and Mr.
Crowley ever settle your differences over Benjamin Rush's contributions to our
race?"

"Yes, we did. We agreed to
disagree."

"How long have you and Mr. Crowley
known each other?"

"All of our lives. His wife and I
were best friends."

"He told me she passed away some
years ago."

"Yes, it's been seven years since we
lost Meggie," Abigail said softly, her voice tinted with sadness.
"Her
given name was
Margaret, everyone called her Meggie. I still miss her."

Abigail turned from the window. "Have
you eaten anything today?"

"The Quilt Ladies brought me a basket
over at the church around midday."

Any sadness Abigail may have harbored over
her friend Meggie's passing disappeared. "Viveca, it is nearly dark. You
need to take the time to eat more often. Who's going to take care of your
neighbors if you wither from lack of sustenance? Sit. I'll fix you a plate."

A knock at the back door saved Vivid from
further lecturing. Adam Crowley entered the kitchen.

"We're done for the day, Gail."

"Good, Adam."

Vivid watched the two of them. Abigail
seemed intent upon ignoring him as she busied herself with fixing Vivid's plate,
while he stood observing her with a knowing look in his black eyes.

"Mr. Crowley, if you haven't eaten,
why don't you join me?" Vivid said.

Abigail, who had her back to them,
replied, "If he wants to stay, he's welcome."

"I'm sure he wants to stay, don't
you, Mr. Crowley?" Vivid asked.

He gave Vivid an assessing look, as if
trying to ascertain her intent. "Yes, I would like to stay," he
finally said.

They had a very pleasant repast. Abigail
and Mr. Crowley were on their best behavior until the subject of Eli came up.
It started out innocently enough. Abigail related Eli's plans to go to
Philadelphia when Nate returned to visit the nation's Centennial exhibition.
Mr. Crowley lobbed the first shot in the skirmish by saying, "Eli's grown
into a fine man, but he should have been
my
son, Gail, our son."

Vivid was so surprised she dropped her
fork, and it clattered on the table.

"Adam Crowley, I am not going to
discuss this with you," Abigail replied.

"Not discussing it won't change
things," he told her. "He should have been mine, and you damned well
know it."

"You have had one too many oaks fall
on your head, Adam Crowley. You married Meggie, remember?"

"And why did I marry Meggie, Gail?
You didn't want me, you wanted somebody with a bit more polish."

"That isn't true," she snapped.

Her anger seemed to shock Mr. Crowley
because he asked quietly, "Why isn't it true?"

Silence.

"Abigail?"

Silence.

He turned to Vivid and said, "See how
she is? Talking to her is like trying to converse with a mule."

He stood then and said, "All right,
Abigail Grayson, I've had enough of your foolishness. If Nate can court a
recalcitrant female, then so can I."

Vivid stared at him in surprise. What had
Nate been telling people?

Abigail looked up at him with skeptical
eyes and asked, "What are you saying?"

"This is what I'm saying. I'm putting
you on notice. Before the snow falls, you and I are going to be man and wife.
This has gone on long enough."

"Are you proposing to court me?"

"No, Gail, we're going bear hunting.
Yes, woman, I propose to court you."

"You have sawdust where your brain
should be."

"With you running me through a
sawmill for the last thirty years, it's no wonder. And just so you'll know I'm
serious, I'll be making the announcement at church on Sunday."

"You wouldn't dare."

He looked into her eyes and said,
"Abigail, you won't believe the things I'm going to dare."

And he left.

Dumbstruck Vivid glanced over at Abigail.
In spite of the heated argument, Vivid swore Gail's dark eyes were smiling.

Because of the work on the cabin, Vivid
moved into one of the spare rooms in the Grayson house. She spent the night
dreaming of Nate.

The next morning she was alerted by one of
the men working in the yard that Maddie of Maddie's Emporium needed assistance.
He drew her a map in the dirt and Vivid and Michigan were on their way.

When she reached the small whitewashed
cabin, she grabbed her bag, and as soon as she was inside the gate, she heard
dogs barking angrily. Then she saw five hounds bearing down on her at a very
fast pace. Instinct told her to hop back over the fence immediately, but her
brain said the dogs would probably jump the fence as well, so Vivid stood
absolutely still in hopes of being rescued before she became their lunch.

They circled her, snapping and growling,
when a man dressed in buckskin and wearing a large beat-up hat stepped
haltingly onto the porch. "Who are you?"

The voice belonged to a woman.

Vivid didn't have time to deal with that
surprise, she was too concerned with the intimidating dogs. “Dr.
Lancaster."

A sharp whistle pierced the air and the
dogs instantly calmed. The woman called, "Now let her pass."

The silent pack parted and, still
trembling, Vivid made her way to the porch.

"Come on in. Sorry about the dogs but
they know I don't like visitors."

Vivid noticed the woman walking as if her
leg was paining her. "Mr. Avery said you needed my assistance."

"Yes, tried to cut my ankle off with
an axe last evening. Want you to take a look at it."

The cabin was plainly furnished and clean.
There were no curtains on the windows and no rugs on the shining plank floor.
There were, however, books covering every inch of the walls.

"Name's Maddie."

"I'm Viveca."

Maddie tossed off her hat and revealed a
beautiful, honey-colored face and a long braid of jet-black hair. She looked to
be only a few years older than Vivid. Vivid watched Maddie ease down into a
cane-backed chair. Her face was etched with pain as she said, "Let me get
my breath here a minute and I'll see if I can get my boot off."

Vivid set her bag on the floor beside the
chair and instructed, "You just sit, I'll take the boot off."

Vivid untied the work boot and gently
eased it off her foot. A blood-soaked bandage was tied around the ankle.
"You must have cut yourself fairly badly. You said you did this last night?"

"Yep, right after supper. I was
chopping wood and the damned blade shattered. What was left came down on my
ankle."

The bandage, torn from a petticoat, had
dried to the wound and Vivid was carefully peeling it away so she could get a
look at the cut. "Hold still now, this will hurt."

Maddie cursed a blue streak as Vivid undid
the layer of fabric closest to the skin. The cut began to ooze and Vivid peered
at it closely, periodically using the bandage to stanch the flow. "The axe
blade may have been defective but its sharpness was true. Bit more force and you’d
have been cut right down to the bone." The diagonal cut ran from just
below her small toe to her ankle on the top side of the foot. Vivid thought
stitching it would be best, but it had to be cleaned first.

While Maddie called out directions from
her chair in the front room, Vivid found a pot in the small kitchen, then went
out to the pump for some water. She brought it back and set it atop the stove
to boil.

"I'm going to stitch you up as soon
as the water's boiled. Now, you said you were chopping wood. Did you clean it
out before you wrapped it?"

"Poured some whiskey on it is
all."

Vivid dug around in her bag for her glass
magnifier. She held the small oval over the still oozing wound and searched for
splinters. The few visible ones she extracted with a pair of tweezers. When the
water came to a boil, she poured some into another pot and threaded two large
needles with lengths of her sturdiest thread and tossed them in. She put some
of the remaining water into a clean china bowl and carried it back to where
Maddie sat.

While Maddie grimaced, Vivid methodically
dripped the cooling hot water over her foot until the wound ran clear. Careful
to keep the blood from filling the wound again, Vivid staunched it lightly and
repeatedly. When the area appeared free of debris Vivid went back to the
kitchen and retrieved the thread.

"Maddie, if you're a drinking woman,
you might want to take a shot of that whiskey right about now because this is
going to sting more than a bit."

"I'll be okay, you just go
ahead."

"Are you sure?"

Maddie nodded yes.

As Vivid eased the needle into the other
woman's skin and began to stitch, Maddie grimaced and winced. She drew in her
breath a few times but she didn't flinch. Vivid went about her work as quickly
as she could to spare her patient prolonged pain, but the stitches had to be
uniform, and as a result it took a bit of time. When it was near done, Vivid
smiled and said, "We're almost there."

Vivid tied off the last knot, cut the trailing
threads, and looked up at Maddie in triumph but Maddie had fainted.

A whiff of ammonia from the vial in
Vivid's bag brought Maddie back to her surroundings. She blinked a few times
and coughed, then asked, "Did I faint?"

Vivid nodded yes.

"Guess I'm not as tough as I
thought."

Vivid smiled. "Your foot's stitched.
You'll have to stay off it as much as you can."

Vivid watched Maddie inspect the stitched
wound and heard her say, "It looks real good. Hurts like hell but looks
fine."

"It's going to hurt for a few days
but it should ease more and more after that. If it just keeps hurting let me
know."

"Sure. How much do I owe you?"
Maddie asked.

"Nothing. First time visit is always
free."

"You'd make a terrible whore, Dr.
Lancaster."