Numbness was better, in some respects, but as a physician he knew pain might mean healing.
She seemed to see him differently, too, in the few moments they had to look, talk and say nothing remotely close to what they wanted to say. He made his peace with that, because larger concerns loomed.
One concern that embarrassed him was the disappearance of Nick Martin. Perhaps embarrassed was the wrong word, he told himself, the morning he found Nick gone from the military reservation, along with two hundred dollars, the entire contents of his special fund. Joe endured a scathing rebuke from Colonel Bradley for being so careless around an idiot, and knew that his pride was more wounded. It was an easy enough matter to assure Bradley he could make good the loss with his own money.
Mostly he missed Nick’s help around the hospital, and his escort for Susanna and Maddie to the Rustic Hotel every afternoon. He discovered he missed Nick for a lot of reasons; maybe he missed his strange friendship.
“Gone? You mean as in gone?” Susanna asked that afternoon as he walked her and the child to the Rustic Hotel.
No wonder he loved her. She had the good sense to laugh at herself, which gave him permission to laugh, too, because it was the funniest thing he’d heard in days.
“Yes, that gone,” he teased, which earned him a slap on the arm, which made Maddie laugh, too.
“Any idea where?” Susanna asked.
He could only shrug and suggest that Nick had followed the increasingly large number of miners now using the iron bridge that took them to the Black Hills and lots of gold, or so they hoped. Amazing that just the thought of gold seduced otherwise reasonable men to take a chance on Indians, accident, ailments and other calamities.
For a change, Jules Ecoffey was there on time at the Rustic, worry etched all over his face. Susanna saw it, too, and distracted Maddie with another cookie purloined from the generous Maeve.
“Is Claudine dead?” Joe whispered.
“No, but hemorrhaging. Could you come? I brought an extra horse so you wouldn’t have to take the time to get one.”
“Let’s go.”
Susanna was so well in tune with him that he didn’t do more than wave his hand. She nodded, kissed Maddie and handed her up to Jules. Joe looked back once to see her still watching them.
When they arrived at Three Mile, one of the women took Maddie with her, and he followed Jules to Claudine’s crib. He knew what he would see, but he was never prepared for it. No one should suffer as consumptives suffered. She had bled so much that she was impossibly white, her eyes large and terrified.
Once the blood was cleaned up, he helped Fifi dress Claudine in a clean nightgown. He held her frail body as another woman changed the bed, then carefully settled her between tidy coverlets, with a well-wrapped iron pig at her feet. He knew the hospital wouldn’t miss it.
There was nothing he could do, so he sat with her, telling her about Maddie’s progress at school, which lit up her tired eyes.
“She’s a bright one, Claudine.”
The prostitute nodded and struggled to speak. “Promise me …” was the best she could do.
“I promise you she will have an excellent home and all the education she needs to make a real difference in the world.” Joe swallowed, amazed how his callus-free heart could ache so much for this prostitute he could not help. “Of course, she still has a fine mother. Claudine, you’ve done good things with Maddie.”
The woman nodded, then slept, at peace in that strange way of patients who have reached the point of acceptance.
He rode back to Fort Laramie long after dark, thinking he would just go to bed. He went instead to the Reeses’ quarters, knocking softly on the door when he saw there was still a light on.
In nightgown and robe, Susanna let him in, her finger to her lips. “I couldn’t sleep until I knew,” she told him.
He sat in the armchair he figured was Dan’s, wondering if he would have the energy to get up. “I’m not sure what she’s using for blood now, because she lost so much. Hanging on, Suzie.”
He had never called her that before. For all he knew, it was a nickname her former husband had used. Her smile told Joe otherwise, which relieved him, because he had wanted to call her that for ages. “I just sat with her and made her all kinds