Amethyst (18 page)

“One thing at a time,” Rand counseled as he pushed the kettle to the back of the stove. He laid ham slices in the frying pan before pouring himself a cup of coffee. “You want some?”

“No, thanks.” Opal finished washing Per and dressed him in clean, dry clothes, including a sweater and woolen stockings. She set him on her lap to pull his shoes on, but they wouldn’t go.

He whimpered and pulled his foot back, looking up at her over his shoulder. His eyes looked as crusty as his nose.

“Too tight with all that stocking in there, eh?”

“Put his shoes on, then pull the wool stockings over them. From the look of him, he won’t be running around much on the floor anyway.” Rand chucked his son under the chin and headed back to the bedroom. Even with the vent in the wall for the heat to float through, the bedroom was not warm.

He brought Ruby and the baby back out, wrapped in quilts, and, pulling the rocker close to the fire, set them in it.

“Sorry to be so weak yet. I thought I’d be feeling fine by now.” Ruby set the baby to her breast and covered her with a flannel blanket.

“Is she warm enough?” Opal asked, setting Per on his stool on a chair pulled up to the table.

“She’s fine, but from the looks of him, Per isn’t.”

“I know.” Opal handed the little guy a crust of hard bread to gnaw on while she finished making breakfast.

“Jelly.”

“Coming.”

With the rest of the breakfast on the table, she and Rand sat down and he said grace, thanking God for keeping them safe and snug in this strong house. “And, Lord, protect our cattle and our livestock, the men in the line shacks, all our friends, and the folks around here. You can see through the blizzard, and if you choose, you can calm the wind. We thank you for this meal and for Opal, who is taking over so capably. Amen.”

“Thank you.” She dished up the bowl of mush for Per, drizzled honey on the cereal, and checked the cream. It had thawed enough to pour, so she gave it a stir and poured some on his cereal.

Per pushed the bowl away. “No.” He coughed again and rubbed his nose.

“You have to eat.” Opal reached for his bread and smeared more jam on it before giving it back to him. She glanced to Ruby. “Should I feed him?”

“If you can.” Ruby laid her hand on her son’s forehead. “Warm.”

Opal studied the pale skin and bright red circles on his cheeks. He really did look miserable. She stood and picked him up, then sat back down with him on her lap. Kissing the top of his head, she dipped a spoonful and held it to his lips. Like a little bird, he opened wide and the mush disappeared. “Good boy, Per. Let Opal help you.”

“Ja, Opa.”

After eating about a third of the bowl, he shook his head and turned his face into her shoulder. “No mo.” He turned to look at his mother. “Ma?” And held out his arms.

“Trade you.” Ruby nodded to the babe in her arms.

“All right.” Opal stood, Per on her hip. After wiping his nose again, she set him on the table, took the baby, and Per crawled into his mother’s arms. Opal’s stomach rumbled. Here she’d fed the others but not had a bite yet herself. But glancing down at the little bundle wrapped so snugly and sound asleep in the crook of her arm, she felt a grin stretch her cheeks. “For a human baby, she’s not bad.”

“Opal Marie Torvald!” Ruby faked a glare at her sister. “What a thing to say.”

“Well, if she was a calf or colt, and it was summer, she’d be running across the pasture by now, following her mother, all spindly legs and fluffy coat. She’d even know how to get her own food, just bop her mother’s udder.”

Rand rocked his chair onto the back legs, picking up the game. “Of course, we wouldn’t have branded her yet, but…”

Ruby shook her head. “You two.” She kissed Per and wiped his nose again. “Blow, Per.”

He looked up at her and coughed, then sneezed instead.

“Well, that worked about the same.” Ruby wiped his nose and face and glanced up at Opal. “You did save some of that goose fat, didn’t you?”

“Yes, there was plenty after I made the gravy. I poured it into the crock.” Goose grease had many uses, one of which was for healing chapped skin. Bear grease was best for waterproofing boots, chaps, and even leather jackets. Rand had learned that from the Indians. Opal handed him the baby and fetched the crock.

Per turned his face away when Ruby dipped some up with her finger, but she persisted until his nose, cheeks, and mouth wore a patina of the fat. After rubbing the last of it into the backs of her hands, Ruby put both arms around her son and rocked back and forth.

Opal added more wood to the fire. “If we’re to have bread today, I better get going on it.” She cleared the table and put the dishes into the steaming dishpan. This wasn’t what she’d planned for today, but the book she’d been reading would have to wait.

“Why don’t you forget the bread and make biscuits,” Ruby suggested. “All right.” Opal felt a surge of relief.

Rand stood with his daughter in his arm and carried her over to the cradle he’d moved near the back of the stove. Ghost, their mottled gray-and-black cow dog, looked up from her nest, yawned, and went back to sleep. Laying the baby on her tummy in the cradle, Rand covered her with the baby quilt Ruby had made and checked the woodbox. “I’ll fill both of these and stack some more inside the door so it warms up. There’s snow on everything out there.”

“You’re not going out to the barn, are you?” Ruby yawned, her jaw cracking.

“No. Once I get the wood in, Opal and I are going to bring our bed in here where it is warmer. You and Per both look ready for a nap. Then we’ll bring Per’s bed in, and Opal can bunk with him. I’m going to close off the back of the house by hanging the buffalo robe over that doorway.” He indicated the hall entry. “Next time I build a house, the fireplace is going on an inside wall so the heat can go both ways. That hole in the wall works fine except when the cold gets as bad as this.” He shook his head. “Some different having a family in here instead of a bunch of ranch hands.”

“What a good idea, not that you are planning on building a new house any time soon.” Ruby felt Per’s forehead again and shook her head. “You better take some of those willow twigs I brought in and steep them for a tea. Rand, we still have some of the whiskey, don’t we?”

Opal knew that honey and whiskey added to the willow-bark tea was good for coughs, and from the sound of Per, she’d better get it made sooner rather than later.

Some time later with the back rooms blocked off, Opal could feel a difference in the heat. Between the fireplace and the kitchen stove, the room felt almost warm, although with the beds in place, there wasn’t a lot of room for walking around. Ruby and the children slept through the clink of stove lids that made noise no matter how hard Opal tried to add wood silently. The wind seemed to have let up, or else she’d just grown so used to it that she ignored the howling and shrieking.

Rand brought in more wood, lining it up against the wall next to the back door. “I think this is the worst I’ve seen since I moved here.” He spoke in low tones so as not to disturb those sleeping.

Opal had a boiler steaming with diapers that she’d need to hang to dry. While Ruby had strung the winter clothesline on the back porch, they now needed one in the kitchen.

Rand took his hammer and a thin rope to the buffalo-hide drape. “I’ll stretch this in our bedroom. The diapers can freeze dry there so we still have room to move around in here.”

Opal kneaded her back with her fists. Making biscuits, cooking, scrubbing diapers on the scrub board, then rinsing and wringing them as dry as possible—no wonder Ruby was tired by the end of the day.
I’d rather do roundup and branding anytime than this. And what’s happening with the cattle and the horses?
She knew Rand was thinking much the same but was being very careful about what he said so as not to distress his wife. Ruby needed all her energy to take care of the baby and get well herself.

By evening, with the storm still raging, Opal thought to read awhile.

Rand stoked the fires and lay down with a sigh. “Wake me when you go to bed, all right?”

“Sure.” But it wasn’t two minutes later that Mary started to fuss, and that woke Per, who started to cry, and that set him to coughing.

“Is there any more of that tea?” Ruby asked.

“Yes, I’ll get it.” Opal had poured the remainder into a small jar and set it on the warming shelf of the stove. She closed her book and heaved herself to her feet to fetch the medicine and a spoon.

Per turned his head away when she tried to spoon it into his mouth. “Ma.”

“Come on, Per, be a good boy.” He shook his head. She whipped the spoon back just in time to keep him from spilling it.

“Do we have any clean diapers?” Ruby asked.

“A few. The others will be dry by morning.”

“Better bring some in and dry them above the stove.” Ruby sounded as weary as Opal felt. “I’m sorry I’m not more help.”

“We’re doin’ fine.” Rand jumped out of their bed, shoved his feet into his leather moccasins, and headed for the cold part of the house. He brought back an armful of frozen stiff diapers and leaned them on the backs of chairs. “Guess we could dry them with an iron if we had to.”

Opal looked at the solid standing squares of white flannel. “New kind of table decorations?”

“No, we invited diapers for dinner.” Rand winked at her.

“Soon they’ll be melting with joy.” She tried to keep a straight face, but glancing at Ruby did her in. She wore a Lord-deliver-me kind of look.

Opal felt a giggle coming on, the kind that happens when you are so tired you can’t see straight.

But Per started coughing again, so hard his whole body shook.

“I’ll hold him. You bring the medicine.” Rand picked up his son and wrapped both arms around him, one around his middle, the other his head. “Now.”

“Rand, be careful.” Ruby waved her free hand.

He nodded to her and then to Opal.

Lord, help us
. Opal shot her plea heavenward, as she’d been doing all afternoon.

Per screamed, but he swallowed the two spoonfuls.

“Thank you, Lord.” Rand’s heartfelt prayer covered it for all three of them.

The night ahead, their second with the storm raging, loomed long and dark.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I’d just as soon you stayed up here in the main house. You know what the last blizzard was like.” Cora Robertson looked over her shoulder to the man shrugging into his heavy wool coat.

“We have the ropes strung. I’m closer to the barn from the soddy.”

“I know, but…” She shook her head. “I just got me a feeling. We have plenty of beds. You and Joel can take my bed, and I’ll sleep with one of the girls. Sometimes when it’s real bad cold we bring the beds or pallets into the kitchen and sleep by the stove.”

“It gets that cold?”

“It can. One year the water bucket froze not ten feet from the stove. We wore our coats and hats in the house, mittens too.”

Jacob let out a sigh and gave a slight nod. “Do I need to go get anything from the soddy?”

“Not that I know of.” A smile lightened the seriousness of her face. “Glad you changed your mind.”

“Me too, Pa.” Joel unwound his muffler and hung it back on the peg by the door, followed by his coat.

“Think I’ll bring in more wood.” Jacob glanced at the full woodbox. “Stack it by the door?”

“We never can have too much dry wood.” Cora Robertson pulled the coffeepot to the front of the stove. “Give everybody a hot drink before we go to bed. We got plenty of hot rocks too and a bed warmer.” She pointed to a round shallow pan with a lid and a long handle. “Fill that with coals and slide it around under the covers.” A shadow crossed her face, like a cloud hiding the sun. She turned to fetch a gingerbread cake from the larder.

Jacob tucked his chin into his collar, the muffler he’d received for a Christmas present wrapped around his hat and the lower part of his face. He brought in five loads of wood, with Joel opening and closing the door for him to keep as much of the cold outside as possible. Even here on the sheltered side of the house, the wind drove the snow in what looked to be an impenetrable wall. The roar of it sounded like a train passing overhead. His nose burned in spite of the scarf.