Fire Along the Sky
Page 20

“I would never marry on my father's command,” Lily said firmly, though she cast an apologetic glance at her cousin.
“Who will you marry then?” Jennet asked playfully. “You've already said you won't have Simon Ballentyne.”
“When she was little she intended to marry Blue-Jay.” Hannah was hoping that Lily might flush a little at such teasing and take pleasure in it, but instead she went very still.
“Blue-Jay has a woman at Good Pasture.” There was nothing of disappointment in Lily's face or tone. “You know her, sister. Long-Hair's youngest daughter. They are well suited.”
“Are they? Why has no one told me?”
Lily shrugged. “You haven't asked a lot of questions since you came home.”
“Och weel, we'll make up for that now.” Jennet laughed and hugged her knees to her chin. “Does your twin have a woman at Good Pasture as well?”
Lily wrinkled her nose. “Daniel? What sane girl would want him? All he thinks about is going to war.” She flung herself up out of bed, her fingers working to loosen her plait. “Enough talk of marriage. Maybe I'll sail the seas, instead. Like your old friend the Pirate.”
Jennet let out a laugh. “Perhaps we should go looking for Mac Stoker. What an adventure that would be, the three of us. We could call on Giselle and take her along with us. A ship of pirate women, not to be trifled with.”
Hannah threw back the blanket and got out of bed. “There's adventure enough in Paradise today.” She yawned and stretched and then yanked the blankets from her little sister's bed with a grin.
Richard Todd was waiting for Hannah in his study. The draperies had been drawn against the sun and the air was thick with tobacco smoke, brandy fumes, and the sticky sweet smell of laudanum. He looked over Hannah's shoulder to Jennet and Lily and managed an elaborate but not very sincere frown.
“I see you've brought your ladies-in-waiting.”
Ethan sent them an apologetic look from the desk. “He means to say good morning.”
“Do I?” Richard snorted.
“Aren't you coming with us today?” Lily asked Ethan.
“No, he isn't,” answered the doctor for him. “There's work enough right here for him. He prefers a quill to a lancet anyway, don't you, Ethan my dear?”
When they were outdoors Hannah said, “You are fortunate he loves you so, or he would not put up for so long with such treatment.”
Richard Todd sent her a sidelong glance. In the sunlight the yellowish cast to his skin and eyes was more pronounced, the pain lines around his mouth deeply carved. “Put up with me?” He stopped to look around himself at the farmstead and pastures and the forests that he called his own. “When I'm dead he'll have a fortune in land and every penny I've put aside. Not that he wants it. He'll hand it over to you as soon as I'm gone and close himself up with his books.” He cleared his throat noisily. “He has nothing to complain about.”
Hannah gave up the argument for the moment, long enough to stop and talk with Curiosity, who pressed a napkin folded around three hot biscuits into her hand.
Curiosity said, “You going to come back and sit with me when you done with the calls today?”
Richard sent the two of them an impatient look. “If we ever get to the calls in the first place—”
But she cut him off with a hard look and a flick of her fingers. “I wasn't talking to you,” she said firmly. She took Hannah's elbow and steered her away. “Come on back now, you hear me? And bring the girls with you. I got a pie in the oven.”
In the end Hannah and Richard started off alone, as Lily and Jennet had disappeared back into the house. They would catch up, and Hannah had things she wanted to say to Richard out of their hearing.
He used a cane now, and leaned heavily into it with each step. When they had gone a few steps he said, “Spit it out, girl, before it chokes you.”
“I didn't come back here to take over your medical practice.”
“No?” He raised a brow at her. “Why did you come home then?”
Hannah ignored the question. “Curiosity will manage very well, when you decide to step aside.”
Richard glared down at her. “Well, first off, missy, Curiosity isn't so young anymore either, in case you haven't took note. Second of all, there are two patients in this village she can't do much for. They'll be your responsibility, unless you decide to run off. Again.”
He had given her the choice of a number of arguments. Hannah picked the easier one. “I hope you're not talking about the Widow Kuick,” she said.
“I am.” Richard grinned at her, all of his old combative spirit rising up so that blotches of color stained his pale cheeks.
Hannah looked away, afraid that she would not be able to keep hold of her temper if she met his eye. “Jemima isn't about to let me treat her mother-in-law, and you know it.”
He laughed hoarsely. “I'll admit she won't like it much.”
“The Widow will spit in my face and die,” Hannah said.
“Then you'd be doing her a favor. She should be dead the last three years at least. I expect it's all that venom running through her veins that keeps her going.”
“Oh, something to look forward to.”
He was untouched by her tone. “Venomous though she may be, you won't hear her complain. She hasn't spoken a word since that night in the meetinghouse. When I saved you from hanging, let me remind you.”