South of Stavewood (Stavewood Saga Book 2) (10 page)

Chapter Nineteen

    
 
E
mma slipped out of the bed and dressed silently. She pushed Roland’s hair from his face and studied him warily. The color had come back to his cheeks, but he did not stir. She checked the bandage on his arm and pulled the blanket back to look at his thigh. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she felt helpless and wanted to check him thoroughly.

      Tucking the blankets around him, she kissed his forehead softly, and went to the kitchen to refill the bottles.

      “Any change?” Mark looked up from his breakfast.

      “He’s not so cold, and he has some color, but that’s it,” she reported.

      Birget offered the girl coffee, returned to the stove and then placed a plate of sizzling ham and fresh farm eggs in front of her.

      “Oh, thank you!” Emma looked at the food and realized that she was famished.

      “When that man wakes up I’ll have a good meal to put into him,” the portly cook assured.

      “You’ve put a lot of good food into us in this kitchen, Birget,” Timothy remarked as he pushed a thick slice of bread around his plate.

      “How many cups of coffee did you pour in this kitchen the night we thought we had lost this guy?” Tim asked, pointing to the boy.

      “Not enough to heal all the broken hearts.” Birget patted Mark’s shoulder affectionately.

      Emma thought about what Rebecca had told her about Stavewood, and hoped there was something in all the love she saw in the home that would help Roland recover.

      She finished her breakfast quickly as Sara came down with Louisa, and Tim and Mark left for the mill. She played with the child briefly and headed back upstairs.

      Emma sat in the chair beside the bed and held Roland’s still cool hand for nearly an hour. She began to feel drowsy again, removed her gown and climbed in beside him.

      At lunchtime she heard the men talking in the yard, and lay quietly, listening.

      She felt Roland move slightly beside her and she opened her eyes to find him watching her.

      “Roland,” she leaned towards him. “You’re awake! Oh, I was so worried.” She kissed him eagerly all over his face and stroked his hair.

      “Where are we?” he looked around the room with a confused look on his face.

      “Stavewood,” she slipped out of the bed.

      “Wait.” He tried to sit up.

      “No, no, lay back down.” Emma leaned over him and pushed his shoulders back gently.

      “I must be hurt,” he frowned.

      “Why do you say that?” She eyed him with concern.

     “To have slept through this.” He pulled his arm from under the blanket and indicated her state of undress.

      “Oh,” Emma blushed. “I was trying to warm you up.” She explained as she donned her robe.

      “I’m not warm enough yet,” he smiled weakly.

      “Oh, Roland,” she smiled. “I love you.”

      “Will you marry me now?” he asked, examining his bandaged arm and rubbing his fingers over his face, a pained look in his eyes.

      “As soon as we can,” she assured him.

      “What happened? I remember being in the water. There was someone else there,” he furrowed his brow. “Someone jumped me. The mill!” He tried to sit up.

      “The mill is fine,” she assured him and arranged the pillows behind his head. The man who attacked you, his name was Jude Thomas. I guess you know him,”

      “Thomas? I didn’t realize he was out. That bastard. Where is he now?”

      “Mark shot him in the leg and the sheriff has him.” She arranged the blankets across his chest.

      “So he’s alive?”

      “I would expect.”

      “As long as that man has breath in his body he’ll cause trouble.”

      “Well,” she said. “Not today. You can forget about him for now. I’m going down to get you something to eat and let everyone know you’re okay. The doctor will be back soon.”

      “Back?”

      “You have been out all night. You must have had quite a fight with that man.”

      “I wish I could remember, but I just can’t,” he rubbed his eyes,

      “I’ll be right back.”

      Emma hurried down the stairs to find Rebecca in the kitchen, drawing pictures with Louisa.

      “He’s awake,” Emma announced, bursting into tears suddenly.

      “Oh, thank heavens!” Rebecca wrapped her arms around her cousin and smoothed her hair.

      “I’m sorry,” Emma apologized and tried to dry her eyes.

      “Don’t cry ‘tousin Em,” Louisa hugged Emma around her legs.

      The woman lifted her up and kissed her warmly.

      “Mister ‘Couver will be all better soon,” Louisa nodded seriously.

      “Yes he will, baby. He certainly will.” Emma kissed the child’s cheek and fought back tears.

      “This will set him right,” Birget placed a generously loaded tray onto the table.

      “Goodness!” Emma exclaimed. “I’m sure that will do it.” She smiled at the cook affectionately and carried the tray carefully upstairs.

      Bumping the door open with her hip she looked around the room.

      “Roland?” She set the tray down quickly on the bed and found him staggering out of the bathroom.

      “What on earth are you doing up?” she admonished.

      “I wanted to inspect the indoor plumbing,” he groaned.

      Emma helped him back into bed and plumped the pillows behind him.

      “Next time, wait for me.” She set the tray on the bed beside him,

      “It was an inspection I wanted to do on my own.” He looked at her sternly.

      “At least wait until I’m in the room. What if you had fallen?”

      “Then I would have gotten an even better look at the plumbing.” He eyed the food cautiously.

      “Not up to eating?” She watched his pained expression.

      “The coffee looks good. I’ll start there.”

      She pulled the chair close to the bed and rubbed his leg absentmindedly as she gave him the details of the previous night. He finished the coffee and leaned his head back on the pillow. She took his hand and kissed it softly and he drifted off again. She pulled the blankets up over his arms and tucked him in gently, then gathered her clothing and dressed in the bath.

      “He’s sleeping,” she told the women in the kitchen.

      The doctor came and went, pleased to hear that Roland had been awake, leaving them with symptoms to watch for and medication to ease his headache.

      Emma left instructions with the staff that someone was to sit in the guestroom and monitor Mr. Vancouver sleeping under the medication.

      “I’d like to take a walk out to the mill and let the men know he’s been up, would you like to come?”

      Emma and Rebecca walked the path to the big mill.

      “I’m not going to take my time, Becky.” Emma looked pensive. “I’m very much in love with Roland. I just want to be with him. I know you have your reservations about him, but I feel so much for him.”

      “I know.” Rebecca took her cousin’s hand. “I think I was wrong. Maybe he always seemed angry because he had no love in his life.”

      “Do you think he was in love with Mina?”

      “Maybe, but I don’t think Mina returned his feelings. While they were involved I know she was seeing other men. Like that man you had trouble with last night.”

      “Jude Thomas?”

      “Apparently Mr. Thomas had relationships with plenty of the women around here. It’s likely Mina was after Roland’s gold.”

      “Gold?” Emma frowned.

      “Rumor has it that Roland Vancouver is very wealthy. He came here to settle from Canada. There are people who said he struck gold up there.”

      “If he’s rich, why is he Timothy’s foreman?”

      “He and Tim became friends,” Rebecca continued. “Tim asked him because he thought he was perfect. Strong, no nonsense. Maybe he wanted to help Tim out. I don’t know. That husband of mine is very good at avoiding talking to me about business.”

      “How about that,” Emma shook her head slowly.

      Timothy led Emma and Rebecca into the mill office where Mark was waiting and the women sat stiffly, both feeling oddly feminine in the rustic workplace. They listened to the scream of the saws, loud even through the heavy closed door. Emma could see that Rebecca was very nervous.

      “The doctor thinks he’ll be fine then?” Mark sighed in relief.

      “He has you to thank for that,” Emma hugged the boy awkwardly, and he returned her affection easily. She looked at the smiles on Rebecca and Timothy’s faces and realized that, although Rebecca was her cousin by blood, she had found a family in many more ways.

      “We will be married as soon as he is on his feet,” she announced.

      “Ha!” Mark laughed aloud. “The next wedding at Stavewood won’t be
mine
!”

      Rebecca shook her head and smiled.

      Emma studied Roland’s face as he slept soundly. She admired the firm set of his jaw and his high cheekbones. The contrast between his dark hair and fair complexion seemed especially attractive to her. She tried to imagine what it might be like to be married to him. To wake up every morning with him beside her. To see his face across the table at every meal. To see a version of him in a baby’s face. She sat up suddenly and felt her chest tighten. Marrying Roland Vancouver wasn’t just trying out a new hobby. It could mean a baby. She suddenly realized that she was terrified.

      She stood up from the chair and began to pace the room nervously. She loved him, she knew that, but a baby, she thought. All of those months of wondering if the child would be normal, if something about the medicine could still linger. She wouldn’t be the only one whose heart would be broken this time because Roland’s heart would break as well.

    “If you continue to scowl in that way your face may change.” Emma turned to face the soft husky voice in the darkened room.

      “You’re awake.” She wiped her eyes quickly and attempted to compose herself.

      “Come here,” he gestured to her.

      She crossed the room and sat on the bed beside him.

      “What on earth were you thinking about to have such an expression on your face?” He frowned.

      “Honestly,” she admitted. “I decided that I want to marry you right away, as soon as possible, that I love you and cannot live without you. I decided that as I watched you lie there as still and cold as death and I want every minute with you.” She took a deep breath.

      “And all of that made you look that unhappy?”

      “Just now, when I was watching you sleeping I thought of all the same things. How much I would love to wake up beside you every morning, have you always part of my life. Then I scared myself thinking about a baby.”

      “How?” He sat upright on the bed and touched her cheek.

      “I thought about the possibility and I’m terrified, Roland.” He could feel her trembling.

      “You don’t want a family?

      “I do,” she sighed deeply. “But when I lost my baby it broke my heart.” She sobbed a single tear. “And this time it would be your heart, too.”  She hung her head.

      “Is there any reason to think that now, without the Laudanum, you couldn’t carry a child?”

      “No, I don’t know,” she admitted.

      “Emma,” he pulled her to him. “Stop worrying. Just marry me and whatever happens will happen to us together. I think that every demon in our lives will be a lot less terrifying with both of us to overcome it.”

      At the private service for the night watchman a small gathering of people laid flowers on the man’s grave. Emma walked from the gravesite with Roland and Mark at her side, the boy visibly upset. Roland was silent most of the morning and Emma waited to hear what he might have on his mind.

      In the afternoon she went down to the garden to spend some time working among the vegetables while he rested. She had gathered an apron from the kitchen and filled a basket with fresh green beans. She noticed Rebecca and Louisa sitting on a bench near the stables and waved, then returned to her tending.

      “Good afternoon,” Rebecca nodded to Roland as he lowered himself onto the bench beside her. “Were you able to get some rest?”