astounding. He didn’t look at her. He looked at Patricia. He didn’t order her. He simply acted as if he were stating facts. He believed in her. Jonquille allowed her palms to mimic Rubin’s—settling over the scar tissue causing such problems, this time about three inches above the shoulder. She took a deep breath and concentrated on opening the well of healing deep inside her.
Heat rose fast, rushing up to spread out across her arms to her hands and fingers. She closed her eyes, visualizing that heat going straight to the scars on the shoulder, removing them, creating the clean lines again so Patricia wouldn’t have pain or lack of movement.
Nice. Keep moving. Don’t stop there. Look down the arm at her joints. Keep going.
He was moving around to the other side of the bed and Jonquille nearly panicked. Where are you going? Rubin.
You’re doing just fine. Take each problem one step at a time but keep working steadily. Just as you assessed her, fix the problems. I hit the worst of them. I’ll take care of this side and then we’ll work on her back. After that we have to convince her sons to keep her from working so hard again. Maybe this time they’ll listen.
For the first time she caught a little hint of anger toward the absent brothers who hadn’t protected their mother more. She understood. Rubin’s mother was buried in the graveyard behind his cabin. He couldn’t save her no matter how many times he came back and helped other families. He’d cautioned Patricia and evidently her sons as well.
There was no change of expression on his face. Even in his mind, he appeared calm. Again, she liked that about him. Rubin wasn’t a man given to losing his temper. He wouldn’t fly into a rage. He could get angry if provoked, but he stayed in control.
The longer she worked, the more she grew in confidence. She didn’t constantly check in her mind to make certain Rubin was right there overseeing her. The visualization came easier. She knew when she was on the right path and when something didn’t feel right. Twice she caught the beginning of arthritis and was able to stop it. That was a victory for her. In Patricia’s leg, one vein wasn’t working quite as well as it should be. She went back and reassessed to see why the blood wasn’t flowing properly.
Rubin glanced up and smiled at her. Good work. I fixed the main problem. You fix the vein.
She tried not to glow. She had never been praised in her life and it felt good to have someone acknowledge she did something right. The vein took longer than she would have liked, mainly because she wasn’t certain what she was doing. It had been a while since she’d studied every aspect of the human body, and she went slow until she felt confident she was on the right track again. By the time she was finished, Rubin had completed working on Patricia’s entire right side.
“You’ll have to turn over, Mama Patricia. I want to examine your back,” Rubin said gently. There was the merest hesitation on her part. Rubin smoothed the pillowcase. “We want to finish before Edward and Rory get here. They’ll be pulling in any minute, won’t they? Jonquille, you might want to just observe and let me do this fast so we get it done. Patricia doesn’t like the boys thinking she might be ill.”
“Of course, no problem. I understand completely. Mama Patricia, it was so sweet of you to allow me to learn on you. Do you know very much about natural plants? I’m so interested in them and what they can do versus modern medicines.”
Patricia turned over, presenting her back to Rubin, laying her head on her hands and looking at Jonquille when she positioned herself right where the older woman could see her. “I have an old handwritten book of plants, what they look like and what they are used for, to help when someone is sick or injured. Rubin’s mother actually made it for Mary, and Mathew kept it. She was amazing at healing. She had the gift the way Rubin does. She would have loved talking to you about plants.”
“I would love to see it, Mama Patricia. I’ve spent hours and hours in the woods sketching as many of the plants and roots as I could find that would be helpful. I added what I thought they could be used for. I’m embarrassed