To Rise Above Page 18

  “Who’s the man who’s now talking to yer father but has eyes only for Katie?” Kieran asked Rhiannon.

  Rhiannon searched for her father in the crowd.

  “That’s Mister McKinnon. The pastor.”

  “McKinnon,” Kieran rolled the name on his tongue. “The spiritual advisor on the ship that Katie sailed on?”

  “I believe so.”

  “Is he in love with our Katie-girl?”

  “Yes. I think so.”

  “And Katie? Does she return his love?”

  Rhiannon gave a short laugh. “Who knows? Katie won’t even admit that he loves her. She insists that it’s just friendship,” and Rhiannon gave an unladylike snort.

  Kieran watched his sister for a few moments as she directed Emily and Brennan and Seamus, all the while rocking Moses in her arms.

  “Katie and Eleanor share Ma’s looks but Eleanor’s face has a hardness whereas Katie’s doesn’t,” Kieran spoke softly. “Katie is a very beautiful young woman. She’ll make someone a wonderful wife one day.”

  “Yes,” Rhiannon’s voice was bleak and Kieran looked down at her in surprise. Surely she didn’t think that he meant to compare her with Katie? Of course Katie was beautiful but so was the young woman at his side. Should he tell her?

  He shook his head. No, he must get a job first. Prove himself both worthy and a man. Now was not the time to make his dreams known. But perhaps a hint? Again he shook his head. What would it achieve except to frustrate them both?

  Taking hold of Rhiannon’s chair he manoeuvred her around to the ramp that he had spied on the side of the house that led up to the veranda. He stopped when he reached the front door.

  “Shall ye walk over the threshold of yer new home or shall I carry ye? Either way, no chair.”

  As Rhiannon grasped hold of his proffered arm she smiled up at him and he had his reward. Perhaps he would win her affection one day but in the meantime he would prove himself her friend.

  A shout turned his attention and he looked in horror as first one horse, and then another, reared up with the loaded carts still attached. He grasped immediately what the men trying to calm the horses had not: Seamus had broken free of Katie’s grasp and was heading straight for the horses!

  Dumping Rhiannon unceremoniously back into her chair he vaulted down the stairs and ran after Seamus. The last thing he saw before the horse’s hoof came down on his leg was the look of horror on Katie’s face.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Kieran woke the room was dark and he could only just make out someone sitting at the end of the bed.

  “Katie,” he gasped as he tried to draw himself up, and then cried out as pain shot through his body.

  “Don’t move.” It was the voice of the doctor who had risen and was now standing over him. “You’ve got a broken leg but you can be thankful it’s not worse. That was a brave thing you did.”

  “Seamus?” Kieran managed to croak out.

  “Bruised but fine. You threw him far enough out of the way of the horses’ hooves before the one that landed on you knocked you unconscious. Thankfully it was your leg and not your back or your head that took the brunt. It was a clean break but it will take some weeks to heal.”

  “I’m sorry to be such a burden.”

  “Nonsense. You saved my son’s life. Besides, you’re my first patient in Wallis Plains. Surely that earns you some distinction.”

  Kieran tried to smile but the effort cost him pain. The doctor saw it and removed a bottle from his pocket.

  “This will help you sleep and when you wake I’ll send Katie in to see you. She’s worried – they all are – and despite my assurances, wants to see you for herself.”

  “Rhiannon?” he thought he spoke her name before sleep claimed him once more but he couldn’t be sure.

  The doctor gazed at the young form in the bed beside him. The sheets weren’t even the right size for the bed so hastily had the boxes been prised open and a pair found. As a doctor he knew that his patient would be all right but as – as what? a friend? a father? what was the term for his relationship with this young man? – he felt concern for the boy now lying still upon the hastily constructed bed that was deeper and greater than the concern he normally felt for a patient.

  He was grateful – more than he would ever be able to express – for the selfless way in which this boy – no man, because with that one action he had proved himself a man – had risked his life to spare his son. Had Seamus been killed he would have been grief stricken, but it surprised him to realise that had this young man whom he’d not yet known for a week been killed he would have also been overcome with grief. Perhaps some people just knit themselves into your soul from the moment of meeting, he mused as he replaced the lid on the bottle and placed it once again into his pocket.

  It certainly seemed to have been the case with Rhiannon. His daughter’s reaction had astounded him. Afraid that the unconscious Kieran was dead she had collapsed and it had taken all his wife’s skills to revive her. Had she had her own way, Rhiannon would have been sitting in this room waiting for Kieran to wake but he had sent her and Katie away. Nurse that Katie was, even he didn’t want her attending him when he set Kieran’s leg. No, for that he’d been sent a man from the convict compound and a very good helper he had proved to be too.

  The slow and steady rise and fall of Kieran’s chest showed that he was now sleeping, and the doctor carefully made his way over to the box in the corner. Until someone unpacked his chair this would have to do.

  “So this is Moses? He’s grown since I last saw him.”

  At Samuel’s voice, Katie turned from placing Moses in his basket.

  “Hello,” Katie smiled shyly. It seemed like ages since they had last spoken or seen each other. Samuel had changed little in that time although she noticed he was now wearing his hair shorter than previously and he was more tanned than she remembered.

  Samuel knelt down and placed his finger in Moses’s hand and smiled when the baby tightened his grip on it.

  “Your brother – how is he?”

  “The doctor’s with him now. He’s had to set his leg but he said he will recover.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Samuel teased a smile from the baby before glancing back up at Katie. Awkwardly the two stared at each other.

  “It was a brave thing he did.”

  Katie nodded.

  Another awkward silence. Was it to always be like this?

  “Katie –”

  “Samuel –”

  They both spoke at the same time.

  Samuel rose to his feet. “Ladies first.”

  Katie gave a small smile. “I just want to say how sorry –”

  Samuel held up his hand. “No, it’s I that must apologise. I can’t believe how thickheaded I was not to say goodbye to you that day on the wharf. I was thinking only of myself and I’m sorry. I was selfish. I have no excuse. It has troubled me ever since that I hurt you. Can you forgive me?”

  “I have. I do. Forgive ye, I mean. I shouldn’t have let it upset me like it did.”

  Samuel reached out and took her hands. “No, you had every right to be upset. Friends?”

  Katie nodded and gently withdrew her hands. “Yes. Friends.”

  “I’m glad that’s settled. And now I need to be getting on home but will you please have the doctor send me a message if he needs anything?”

  Katie nodded and walked out onto the veranda and watched as Samuel walked up the hill and toward his own home. Despite Kieran’s accident, despite the tears she and her siblings had shed, despite all that had happened, life was good. Samuel was her friend again.

  “Rhiannon?” Katie found Rhiannon sitting in her chair staring at the place where the accident had occurred. The carts had been unloaded, the boxes carried into the house, the horses returned, and now all that remained as evidence that the incident had occurred were the gouge marks in the ground from when the horses had reared up and their combined strength and the
weight of the load had dug deep into the alluvial soil.

  Rhiannon turned and looked at Katie and Katie winced at the pain in her friend’s face.

  “How is he?” Rhiannon could barely get the words past her lips.

  “Yer father says he is going to be fine. His leg is broken but it’s an uncomplicated break and will heal in time.”

  Rhiannon turned back to stare at the marks on the ground. “He understood.”

  “Understood what?”

  “Things that I couldn’t put into words – about me mostly – like not wanting to be an invalid. He was going to help me walk into the house so that I didn’t have to use the chair. He understood that I wanted to make this first homecoming a good memory without me even having to say anything.”

  “Kieran’s like that,” Katie stated simply.

  “He made me feel like a young lady. Like I was someone special.”

  Katie stared at her friend curiously. “Ye are someone special.”

  “But most young men wouldn’t see that nowadays. Not when I’m in this chair,” and Rhiannon thumped the armrests for emphasis.

  “Kieran’s not like that. He looks past what a person is like on the outside and sees what they’re like on the inside. He’s always been like that.”

  For a long moment Rhiannon was silent, and then, “You’re blessed to have such a brother.”

  Katie knelt down and put her arms around Rhiannon. “I know. I’ll share him with ye if ye like.”

  Rhiannon patted Katie’s arms but said nothing.

  “And now,” Katie rose and took hold of the chair’s handles, “yer father has said we can see him when he wakes but meanwhile it’s time for dinner.”

  “I couldn’t eat.”

  “Ye have to eat. Yer father doesn’t need to be worrying himself about ye too.”

  Katie started to push the chair.

  “Oh all right. But it’s your fault if I choke.”

  “Ye won’t choke.”

  Dinner was a makeshift affair with the younger children sitting on the floor and the older girls and Esther sitting on boxes. That it pained Esther to be in this situation was obvious despite her valiant attempts to hide it. A woman raised according to the standards of good taste and etiquette could not easily reconcile herself to eating off a box! As for the children, they were obviously enjoying the impromptu indoor picnic and had to be reminded several times to return to their places on the floor and finish their meal.

  Perhaps it was because it was so highly an irregular dinner time hour that it wasn’t until the meal was being cleared away that anyone noticed that Eleanor was missing. And only then because the children were squabbling over who was going to help carry the dishes out to the new kitchen and someone argued that it was Eleanor’s turn and there was no angry reply.

  It was Brennan that stated what was now so frighteningly obvious. “Eleanor’s not here.”

  Esther, Rhiannon and Katie stared at one another. Katie’s face turned pale as they each realised that Eleanor had not been seen for several hours.

  “Let’s work this out logically. She was on the boat. Did she get off at Green Hills Landing?” Esther took charge.

  “She did. I know she did,” Katie wrinkled her brow in concentration. “Remember, she complained about not having enough room in the cart and said that she’d rather walk but the doctor wouldn’t let her get out and walk with the men.”

  “That’s right. And when we were here in the yard, Kieran talked of you and Eleanor,” and here Rhiannon blushed, “and I can remember looking at Eleanor as he was speaking. That was just before Kieran’s accident.”

  There was silence and Esther realised that the younger children were standing wide-eyed, aware that something had happened but not sure what. Holding her arms out, she drew the younger children to her side.

  “We’ve established that she was here at the time of the accident,” Esther begun, “so perhaps she was frightened and needed some time alone. She may not even know that Kieran is safe.”

  “She knows. I remember that she was sitting on the veranda steps when Samuel came to say goodbye so she would’ve known about Kieran.” Now it was Katie’s turn to blush.

  “Has anyone seen her since then?”

  Rhiannon and Katie looked at each other then shook their heads in unison. Seamus, Brennan and Emily all shook their heads too.

  “So now we need to decide what to do.”

  “Shall I go get the doctor?” Katie asked the question.

  Esther shook her head. “I’m reluctant to draw him away from his patient.”

  “I could sit –”

  Again Esther shook her head. “No. Perhaps another time but not tonight. Kieran is in a lot of pain and needs all the doctor’s skill and knowledge.”

  “But Kieran is going to be all right?” Rhiannon voiced the question that Katie was too afraid to ask.

  “Your father has assured me that he will recover. I have no reason to doubt what he says. I’m just simply thinking of what is best for everyone and I believe that if we can keep your father with Kieran and solve this ourselves it would be the best course of action.”

  “What if we don’t find Eleanor?”

  “We’ll worry about that when it happens. Meanwhile I suggest that we send a man for Samuel. He’ll know what to do.”

  “I’ll go,” Katie volunteered.

  Gently Esther put the children from her and rose. “You can’t go. It’s getting dark. I’ll send a man.”

  “But it’s not very dark. And it’s summer.”

  “It could get dark quickly. Those trees could block any light the moon might give. Remember this is all new to us.”

  “But let me do something. What kind of a person have I been to be able to forget about me own sister? Ye must think I’m the worst sister there ever was,” and Katie burst into tears.

  Esther moved to comfort her when there was a knock at the door. Nodding to Rhiannon to care for Katie, Esther slowly made her way to the front door. In later days she would laugh at the image of herself being followed by the younger children like ducklings after a mother duck, but tonight all she could think about was the missing girl.

  “Samuel! We were just about to send for you.” The surprise in her voice was evident.

  “And I suspect I know the reason. I believe I have something that you’re missing.”

  “Eleanor!” Esther exclaimed at the same time that Moses woke and started crying. On hearing Samuel’s voice, Katie had started toward the door, but stopped at Moses’s cries and made her way to where he was lying in his basket.

  With Moses in her arms she returned to hear Esther say, “Of course we’ve missed her.”

  “I thought as much. She said no one would care – no one would notice,” (Esther hoped that the guilty look that passed between them all was not obvious to Samuel), “but I told her she was wrong. She begged me not to tell you where she was but I explained that you would all be concerned.”

  “Is she with you?”

  Samuel shook his head. “I left her sleeping in my house. She was quite distraught and cried herself to sleep.” His eye caught Esther’s and he seemed to understand what she wanted to know but wouldn’t ask. “The wife of a neighbour is with her at the moment. She’ll be there when I return.”

  “I’ll just get my hat.”

  While Esther was gone, Samuel stood awkwardly in the doorway.

  “I’m sorry Katie. I knew you’d be worried but I was afraid to leave her on her own even for a minute. She was so upset. When she finally went to sleep I deemed it was safe to take a few minutes to slip out in order to secure the assistance of my neighbour.”

  Katie nodded. “To tell ye the truth, we’ve only not long noticed her missing.” At Samuel’s surprised look she went on, “We’ve been so busy with worrying over Kieran and trying to find items and we just didn’t notice until now.”

  Esther returned and hurriedly issued instructions to the older two girls, and then without a b
ackward look she followed Samuel out into the darkness and warmth of the evening.

  It was several hours before Esther returned and by then beds had been made up on the floor for the younger children and they were all sleeping soundly. Katie was sitting on the floor, a sleepy Moses in her arms, when Esther ushered in a sheepish-looking Eleanor. Yet in the heat of her anger, Katie failed to see it.

  “Where have ye been? We’ve been so worried. Ye had no right to concern us so.”

  At her accusations, Eleanor fought back. “And ye have no right to talk to me that way.”

  “Someone needs to talk to ye. Ever since ye got here ye’ve been concerned with only yerself. We’ve all tried to overlook it but we’re going to overlook it no longer. Ye’ve been selfish and rude and it’s to stop now.”

  “Who do ye think ye are to talk to me like that? Ye’re not Da.”

  “I’m not. But I’m responsible for ye all the same.”

  “If ye cared about us ye wouldn’t have gone and got yerself sent out here in the first place.”

  “That was hardly my fault.”

  “Wasn’t it? Let me tell ye something. I hate this place. It’s not Ireland. It’s hot and it’s dry and it’s brown and it has snakes and it almost killed Kieran.”

  “Ye can’t blame that on the land.”

  “I can if I want to,” and Eleanor ran crying upstairs.

  Katie laid Moses down in his basket and went to follow Eleanor, but Esther put a hand on her arm. Shaking her head she explained, “She’s hurting. Just give her some time.”

  “We’re all hurting.”

  Esther took Katie’s hand and led her to one of the boxes and indicated she sit down. Not until Katie was sitting and Rhiannon had moved her chair closer did Esther speak.

  “Do you remember how you felt when you first left Ireland? The uncertainties? The fears for the future? All the unknown faces? Do you think that perhaps Eleanor is just overwhelmed by it all?”