heap when she had heard them was that Matt had been standing beside her.
He’d barely breathed. His shoulders had straightened, then stiffened. Standing so close, she’d felt a shiver run over his body. Even though his jaw had clenched and flexed, he hadn’t cried out at the grievous thought.
That thought haunted everyone’s mind, for sure, but until noon today, no one had spoken the words aloud.
What nearly made her knees buckle seemed to leave Matt unshaken. She knew he must be terrified, but he had stood taller and acted braver than any man she’d ever met.
The long hours between noon and now had been bearable only because of Matt’s strength. She’d show him the same grit of spirit even though she felt fragile.
Since the doc wouldn’t appear on the road for all her staring at it, she went back inside the house. The teapot whistled for her attention, so she brewed up one more cup of peppermint tea that Lucy would not drink.
Earlier in the day the poor child would drink what was put in front of her lips then promptly lose it into a pan. Over the aching hours of the afternoon she had stopped doing even that. She’d turned her pale face toward the pillow and refused even the tiniest of sips.
Since liquid was what Lucy needed to stay alive, Emma carried the steaming mug into the bedroom with a smile of confidence. Unfortunately, the smile would soothe only Matt, since Lucy rarely opened her eyes anymore.
He sat in a rocking chair beside the window holding Lucy. His arms looked part strength, part tenderness drawing her close to his heart. The color of his shirt had deepened to a dark blue plaid where it had become soaked from the warm wet sheet tucked about her.
The chair rocked against the floor with a creak. Matt sang the song about Utah Carl saving the life of little Lenore. Emma remembered the song from that not so long ago night that Matt had driven her out to her homestead. Emma understood now that the song had been about Lucy’s father.
Did Matt sing it to Lucy because he believed that father and daughter would be together soon? Emma choked back a groan. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Lucy in such a way.
Waving goodbye from the station platform would have been sorrow enough. To lose Lucy to the grave would be unbearable.
Matt hummed for a moment, then looked up.
“I can’t tell if she hears me or not.”
Emma sat on the bed, shoving aside Princess to make room. The dog stood up, followed its tail in a circle, then settled beside Fluffy.
“I hear you, Papa.”
Lucy’s voice sounded thin and dry. Matt dipped his ear close to her tiny cracked lips. When she said no more he thumped his head against the back of the rocker with a long slow sigh.
Emma slipped to the floor in front of the rocker.
“Its Mama, baby. You’ve got to try and drink some of this tea.” She stroked the damp curls off Lucy’s forehead and wished that the moisture had not come from the sheet, but from sweet healthy sweat. “Please, take just a sip.”
Lucy shook her head once, weakly.
Emma took a small square of clean cotton from the pocket of her apron. She dipped it in the tea.
“Open her mouth and see if she’ll suck on this. Maybe enough will trickle down her throat to do her some good.” She sat back on her heels and watched Matt press the dripping cloth to Lucy’s lips. He dabbed her mouth to moisten it then slipped the peppermint rag into her mouth
“She’s taking it.” The first smile she’d seen in more hours than she wanted to count tipped the corners of Matt’s lips.
“Let’s try it again,” she said.
She dipped the rag into the tea three more times and Lucy sucked like a baby with her bottle.
“We’d better make that enough for now.”
“Pray God it stays down,” Matt said.
She touched his knee and nodded. “It will. This time it will.”
There was no way of knowing that, but sounding sure made her spine a little stiffer and her voice a bit firmer.
“Rachael wonders if it’s water that makes the children come down with this infantile cholera.” She stood up, moved Princess’s tail out of the way and sat once more upon the bed.
Thunder clapped in the distance. The sudden bang rattled the shutters at the window.
“The water looks clean enough. I wonder what would cause it to make folks sick.”