to have anyone look at it because I haven’t checked to see if I’m right yet. I haven’t looked them up, and who knows if there are any true experts left. I was going to experiment on myself if I couldn’t find anyone to give me answers.”
Rubin’s gaze jumped to her face. You won’t be doing that.
We can’t lose the old ways. Just because no one is actually using the plants anymore, or they are being killed environmentally, doesn’t mean they don’t work.
We can have this discussion another time.
His voice was a gentle caress that slid like velvet against the walls of her mind and sent fingers of desire creeping down her spine. She supposed he was right. She felt too exposed and vulnerable right then, with Patricia looking up at her with her piercing eyes. She reached her hand out to Jonquille unexpectedly, making her wonder if the older woman had her own psychic gift. It was entirely possible.
“I think the book will help you a great deal. Rubin and Diego bought Edward and Rory a computer and printer and copier. The Internet hardly works most of the time, but when the satellite service is working, then they have a reason to argue about who gets to use it. My point being, I can have one of them copy the book. It’s in Rubin’s mother’s handwriting. Beautifully penned and illustrated.”
I had no idea. I would have wanted a copy of that book.
I will give it to you, of course, Jonquille said hastily.
She means for you to have it. I’ll ask her if we can make two copies. I’ll see if Diego wants his own. Perhaps three while we’re at it. Thank you for even inquiring. I wouldn’t have known.
How is her back?
Very messed up. She’s lifting too much weight again. It’s an ongoing battle I have with her. I don’t know how to stop her.
“You’re going to make me cry at your wonderful generosity, Mama Patricia. No one has ever been so kind to me. Growing up the way I did, everything was about duty. I suppose you know a lot about that, don’t you? But you, at least, had the love of family to surround you and learn from.”
“I did,” Patricia said, squeezing her hand and reluctantly letting go. “Life could be hard here at times. We all had to work when it got tough, but we loved one another and that was felt. My husband was a good man. A really good man. Building this house was a big priority to him. He was so good with wood. You can see Edward takes after him.”
She rubbed her palm lovingly along the carved bed frame. It wasn’t intricate, but it was lovely. “My Matt was such a good man. He would come home at night after working all day and insist I sit and listen to the wind in the trees while he served dinner. I always made sure to have it ready or he would have insisted on cooking it. He said women aged too fast and died here. He was terrified whenever I got pregnant that I would die in childbirth.”
My sister Mary died in childbirth. She was Matt’s first wife. Their oldest son, Nick, is Mary’s child. Patricia raised him like her own. Matt didn’t like Patricia to get pregnant, but back then, there wasn’t a lot about birth control here.
There was no bitterness in Rubin. He genuinely cared for Patricia and thought of her as family.
Jonquille nodded her head. “He sounds like an amazing man, Mama Patricia. You must miss him so much. I’m very certain he wouldn’t be happy with all the heavy lifting you’re doing though. I can see it’s really hurting your body. Our spines have cushions called disks sitting between each of our vertebrae so they don’t scrape against each other. That’s all up and down your spinal cord, right? As we age, those cushions can start to dry out. If you put too much stress on your back, a disk can tear or break. The more weight you pick up, the more work you do, the more disks can rupture. That can cause your arms and legs to really hurt. Or they can feel numb or tingle.”
Patricia’s eyes went wide with shock. “Really? That happens to me all the time now, especially in my hands. It’s from my back, you think?”
“Most likely. You have to take better care of yourself. You have two sons at home with you now.