preacher’s caution was for safety’s sake alone and that she didn’t really believe there was anything to be alarmed about.
* * *
Since Lucy likely needed a prayer, Matt got up from the bed and let Preacher Sizeloff sit in the spot he had occupied for the past eight hours straight.
Emma stood in the doorway with her arms folded tight across her middle. The absence of a smile worried him as much as Rachael Sizeloff’s frown when she bent low over Lucy and murmured into her pale ear.
Matt walked to the doorway where Emma stood, biting her lower lip. To comfort himself he gathered her up in his arms and rubbed his cheek on top of her head.
“I’m pleased that Pearl came home,” he whispered. He felt her hair shift under his jaw when she nodded.
“Lucy’s going to be just fine,” she murmured low. “I’m sure Rachael is going to tell us just that.”
The preacher cradled Lucy’s cheek in the palm of her hand.
“Where does it hurt, little Miss Lucy?” She picked up the tiny hand that had seemed to go from plump and pink to thin and blue just overnight.
“My back and my legs.” Matt had to strain to hear. Her voice had grown faint. “But mostly my tummy.”
“What about here, on your arms, does this hurt, sweetie?”
Lucy nodded.
“I saw your pups outside. My, but they’ve grown half as big as their mother.”
“Mama won’t let them come in the house.” Emma’s shoulders sagged under his arms.
“You try and get some rest. I need to have a word with your mama and papa.”
Before she stood, the preacher bent her lips close to Lucy’s ear and whispered something. Matt couldn’t hear much, but he thought he caught the words pup and house.
Rachael waved her hands at Emma and Matt, shooing them into the parlor as if they were a pair of wandering chickens. She shut Lucy’s door behind her.
Red leaned against the front doorjamb with one foot on the porch and one in the parlor. He looked like a shadow against the glow of morning.
Matt stared at the preacher and knew that Emma and Red did, as well. Even though she didn’t have any medical training beyond motherhood, she had spent hours at the bedsides of the sick, comforting and praying. She would know when someone was deeply ill.
“I agree, you should send for Doc Brown…right away.” She touched Matt’s elbow and looked at him with worry creasing her eyes. “I can’t be sure, but it could be the infantile cholera.”
The floor shifted beneath his feet. Children died of the cholera! Some lived through it…but some didn’t.
“Lucy’s strong—she’ll be fine,” Emma said with confidence, but her fingers trembled on his arm.
“Day before yesterday she was fine. Right now she’s not like I’ve ever seen her… . I’m going for the doctor,” Matt said.
“You can’t!” Emma leaped for the door. Crowding in beside Red, she set her legs wide and clamped her hands down on her waist. “You can’t go to town!”
She wouldn’t be much to pick up and set to the side, so he took a step forward.
Mrs. Sizeloff’s hand, touching his sleeve, halted him. “She’s right. Hawker’s in town.”
“Hawker doesn’t count for much right now.”
“Emma’s right, Matt. If that no-good shoots you, how will you bring back the doctor?” Mrs. Sizeloff asked.
Matt was sick of the threat of Hawker hanging over his every move. Even moving to California was giving in to the man. But Preacher Sizeloff had a valid point. Setting things to right had no place right now. Only Lucy mattered.
When she was well, Hawker would have to be dealt with. No one that he loved was safe while the man breathed.
“I’ll go!” Red spun about, but Matt caught the back of his vest.
“I’ll tie you to the barn door if you try.”
“Nobody needs to get killed to get the doctor here.” The preacher shook her head. “My Josie has to take the children home, anyway. He can send out Doc Brown.”
“The wagon will slow your husband down.” Cousin Billy popped his head through the open parlor window. “I’ll take Thunder and have the doc back in no time.”
“I’d thank you for that, cousin.”
Billy’s offer gave Matt heart. He wasn’t alone in this trial. Family was worth everything. A man could live in the middle of a field with no shelter at all more easily than trying to face what the world heaped on him without them. They were worth every sacrifice.
Emma went to the open window and peered