To Rise Above Page 9

  “Oh, Renton, I’ve been so afraid. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “What has happened?”

  “It started as a cold like the one that Katie had. Fevers, headaches, lethargy. But we couldn’t bring the fever down. Then she started vomiting. She would thrash around and mumble in her sleep. She’s quiet now but she hasn’t been like this before. I’m concerned.”

  Renton gently put his wife to one side and walked over to the bed. Leaning down he listened to his daughter’s heart before straightening and checking for other signs.

  “What is it?” Esther barely breathed the words out.

  “I don’t know. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything like it before.” He glanced curiously at the man who had not moved. “Are you a doctor?”

  “Renton, this is Mark Richards. A friend of Mister McKinnon’s. He’s on his way to Samuel but called in here first. He’s prayed with us.”

  Renton held out his hand to the man who took it and shook it.

  “I thank you, sir. It’s a comfort to know that others have been praying for my daughter. She’s – she’s precious to us.”

  “I understand. But you must have hope. The Lord can heal.”

  Renton nodded mutely as his eyes went once more to his daughter’s face. So pale. So lovely. He could almost see the stamp of death on her visage. What was Mister Richards saying?

  “I’m sorry sir that we had to meet under such circumstances. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he bowed to Esther, “I’ll take my leave.”

  “I’ll see ye out,” Katie offered.

  “Do you have any message for Samuel?” Mark asked as they descended the stairs.

  Katie shook her head. She hadn’t heard back from Samuel – it was obvious that whatever had come between them had succeeded in destroying their friendship. She regretted the loss of her friend but now was not the time to think on it. Not when Rhiannon could be dying.

  “I’ll pray for your friend. May God have mercy on you all.”

  “Thank ye.”

  Katie quietly closed the door after Mark had left and returned upstairs to Rhiannon’s room. Esther was weeping quietly, her husband’s arm around her shoulders. Not wanting to intrude, Katie quietly slipped away to the room she was sharing with Seamus and knelt down beside her bed. Her prayer echoed Mark’s words: Lord, have mercy.

  The sun was streaming in through the window when Katie woke. For a few minutes she tried to recall where she was. She was so unused to being woken by the sun. Of course, she was in Seamus’s room. She turned her head and saw him still sleeping soundly in his cot. Rising, she quickly dressed and tiptoed down the hall to Rhiannon’s room. Knocking quietly, she turned the handle and entered.

  The doctor smiled at her as she crossed to stand next to Rhiannon’s bed. “She’s woken.”

  “Really?”

  He smiled. “Yes. Well she’s not awake now but she was earlier. It’s a good sign. I think she’s now over the worst of the illness. Come in and sit down. I’ve sent Esther to bed to get some much-needed sleep. But I’ve heard how you shared the burden of nursing Rhiannon and I want to tell you that I’m more grateful than I can ever hope to express.”

  Katie shrugged, not sure how to respond.

  “Will she get well now?”

  “I think so. She was complaining that her legs felt weak when she woke but I suspect that’s just from the fever. Hopefully she’ll be up and about in no time at all.”

  Katie sat and stared at her friend. She still looked pale but the shadow of the angel of death that had been there only hours before had now disappeared. For the first time in days Katie felt hope rise within.

  “We should thank God for sparing her.”

  “Yes indeed,” the doctor agreed. “Would you like me to pray?”

  Katie nodded and quietly, so as not to disturb Rhiannon, the doctor prayed and thanked God that his daughter and Katie’s friend still lived. When he had finished they lifted their heads to see Rhiannon gazing at them.

  “Hello,” Katie smiled tentatively.

  Rhiannon smiled back but said nothing.

  “How are you feeling now?” her father asked.

  “Weak,” Rhiannon responded. “And I can’t move my legs.”

  “At all?” the doctor sounded concerned.

  Rhiannon shook her head. “I can’t make them obey.”

  “Katie,” the doctor put his hand on her arm, “would you please go and wake Esther and tell her to come here?”

  Katie looked sharply at him at the tone of his voice. “Now?”

  “Yes now, and please hurry.”

  With a sinking feeling, Katie ran down the hallway to wake Esther. Something had happened in that sick room – something had reached out with icy fingers and touched the occupants and left a feeling of dread in its wake. She didn’t understand but she didn’t like it at all. With a knowledge born of experience, she suspected that life was about to change for them all.

  Katie waited outside the sick room with Lola and Seamus for the doctor and his wife to emerge. When they did, Esther was supported by her husband.

  “What is it? Has she –?” Katie could not finish the sentence.

  “No. She’s still alive. But it seems that she’s suffered from a paralytic fever,” the doctor’s voice was sad and at his words his wife swayed and would have fallen had he not been holding her.

  Katie re-settled Seamus on his hip. He was certainly getting heavy.

  “Paralytic fever. What does that mean?”

  “It means she can’t walk,” and at her husband stating the truth so bluntly Esther burst into tears.

  Katie felt the shock course through her body.

  The doctor continued. “I’d like to get another doctor to examine her but –” and he looked at his wife and shrugged.

  “But shes will be able to one day, won’ts she? Shes will get better?” the question came from Lola.

  “She may do but we can’t ignore the possibility that she may never walk again. I’ve seen this only twice before. In England. In the one family.”

  “What happened?” Katie ventured when the doctor remained silent, lost in past thoughts.

  “One child died the other was left crippled. Never walked again. Presumably it was the same illness although we have no way of knowing for certain. Perhaps one day mankind will have a better understanding of these things but for now we can only go on what we can see.”

  “So it isn’t the same illness that I had?” Katie’s voice shook as she asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s possible that it is the same and that it affected you differently. With Rhiannon it’s affected her legs so that she cannot move them. It may only be temporary but at this stage I’m afraid that it may be permanent.”

  “What will she do if she never walks again?” Lola’s voice was a whisper.

  The doctor shook his head sadly and didn’t reply. As he led his wife away, Katie and Lola stared at each other in shocked silence.

  “At least she’s still alive,” Lola’s voice reflected her doubt.

  Katie blinked to prevent her tears from falling. “Rhiannon not being able to walk is like a horse not being able to run. It’s not right. Seamus stop jiggling.”

  “Rhee-Rhee. See Rhee-Rhee.”

  “Ye can’t.”

  “Rhee-Rhee.” He started to cry.

  “Here let me take him.” Lola held her arms out for the boy.

  With a sigh Katie handed him over. “Thanks. I’ve got some thinking to do.” Under her breath she added, “Lots of thinking to do.”

  “I never saw you work so hard in all the time we shared a house.”

  Samuel dropped the axe he was holding and turned at the sound of the familiar voice.

  “Mark!”

  “Samuel!”

  The two clasped hands and grinned at each other.

  “It’s good to see you.”

  “You too.”

  “Go inside. I’ll just finish splitting this wood then I
’ll be with you.”

  “If you don’t mind I’ll sit here and watch you work. Quite a new experience for me.”

  Samuel laughed and picked up the axe and a length of timber.

  “Good journey?”

  “Yes. For the most part.”

  Samuel brought the axe down on the wood, neatly splitting it in two. There was something in his friend’s voice that bothered him.

  “Sea sick?”

  “No.”

  “What then?”

  “You’d better put the axe down.”

  Samuel split the next log then laid the axe down. At the serious look on his friend’s face he felt his heart skip a beat.

  “What is it?”

  “I visited your friend the doctor while in Newcastle.”

  “Doctor Sanford? He was here but got called home before I could meet with him.”

  Mark nodded and Samuel shuddered at what he saw there.

  “Rhiannon?”

  “You know then?” Mark’s face revealed surprise.

  “I know that she was gravely ill.” Samuel turned around so that his friend couldn’t see his face.

  “They didn’t expect her to live.”

  “When did …” he couldn’t go on.

  When Mark didn’t reply he turned around and forced out the question that he didn’t want to know the answer to. “When did she die?”

  “She was alive when I left. Still ill but alive.”

  “Alive? Then why the glum face?”

  “She can’t walk.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “A paralytic fever the doctor called it. I called at the house briefly before I left and that’s what he told me. She may never walk again.”

  “Poor Rhiannon.” Samuel bent down and picked up the axe. “And Katie?”

  “She was well when I left. Apparently she’d already been ill but it hadn’t affected her the same. She’s recovered now.”

  “That’s one thing we can be thankful for then.” Samuel lifted the axe above his head.

  “Aren’t you going to ask if she sent me with a message for you?”

  Samuel lowered the axe. “Did she?”

  “No,” Mark laughed. “Now tell me what this is all about. I thought you were friends but both of you look serious and glum whenever the other’s name is mentioned and neither of you will ask about the other.”

  “We are friends.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mark looked sceptical.

  Samuel split another log then propped the axe against the stump he used as a chopping block. He lifted several logs in his arms and carried them to the side of the small building that was now his home and stacked them on the pile already there.

  “Have you argued? You know that the Bible says not to let the sun go down on your wrath.”

  “We haven’t argued. As such.” Samuel picked up another armful of logs. “I’m not sure what’s happened. She doesn’t reply to my letters.”

  “Have you asked her what the problem is?”

  “Yes. And no reply.”

  Mark scratched his sideburns as Samuel took the remaining logs to the pile. He waited until Samuel was again near him before speaking.

  “Seems to me that you’ve done something to upset her. A girl like Katie wouldn’t turn her back on you for no reason.”

  “And how do you know what kind of girl she is?” What was that feeling he was experiencing? Surely not jealousy?

  “I spent time with her at Rhiannon’s bedside – praying and worrying together. She seemed a lovely girl. Not one I would’ve thought given to petty grievances.”

  “That’s just the thing. This is so unlike Katie that I just don’t understand it. I can’t think what the matter is unless it is that she has decided that she no longer wants to be my friend.”

  “And you think that she’d just not tell you if that was what she had decided?”

  “I don’t know. No. No. The Katie I knew would’ve told me. This is so unlike her that I don’t know what to think.”

  “And you’ve not said or done anything to upset her?”

  “Nothing that I can think of. Although I did –”

  “Did what?” Mark pressed when Samuel paused.

  “Nothing.”

  “You were going to say something. What was it?”

  “It’s got nothing to do with any of this but I did ask her to marry me.”

  “You what?”

  Samuel almost burst out laughing at the expression on his friend’s face. This was one thing he’d kept to himself because – well if he was honest it was because he felt sore at Katie refusing even though he knew that neither of them had been ready for marriage. But his pride had been damaged. Perhaps only a little but there is something galling to a man to have his hand refused. He shook his head to halt the direction his thoughts were taking him and answered his friend. “It was just to keep her from going back to the Female Factory.”

  “I see. And what did she say?”

  “I think she refused.”

  “You think?”

  “Okay, she refused. But it was more complicated than that.”

  “I’m sure it was. Now let me get this straight. You ask a girl to marry you out of some misguided notion that you’d be saving her from a worse fate –”

  Samuel felt irritated by the laughter in Mark’s voice. “The Female Factory would have definitely been a worse fate.”

  Mark continued as if Samuel had not interrupted, “- she turns you down and now doesn’t want to have anything to do with you, and you don’t think there’s a connection?”

  “No. Why should there be? She was friendly on the trip to Newcastle. It was after I left to come here that her letters stopped.”

  Mark rose and brushed down his pants before picking up the bag at his feet. “All I can say is that you have a lot to learn about the female sex, my friend. Now show me where I’m staying. And I hope your cooking has improved since the last time you tried to poison me.”

  Samuel lay awake in the night listening to the sound of Mark’s snoring in the next room and going over his earlier conversation with his friend. Somehow he didn’t believe that it was as his friend said and that Katie’s aloofness had something to do with him having asked her to marry him. She had not seemed offended at the time. No, it was after that that something had happened to make her detest him – to not reply to his letters.

  Sighing, he punched his pillow and wedged it under his neck. Perhaps it was just as Mark had said and he had no understanding of females at all. Except that he had thought that he understood Katie. If only he could talk to her they might be able to sort this misunderstanding out.

  A feather in his pillow had worked its way through the outer covering and was scratching his face. With annoyance he pulled it out and threw it on the floor. Perhaps if he didn’t receive a reply soon to his letter he would write again. Just one more time. And then if she didn’t reply … but he didn’t want to think about that. The thought of cutting Katie out of his life forever hurt too much. He’d rather cut out his heart first.

  July 1830

  Chapter Ten

  Cassandra McKay picked up the last of the pearl-headed pins lying on her mother’s dressing table and poked it into the braids she had twisted and wrapped around her head. Standing back she surveyed herself in the mirror.

  Samuel McKinnon was in for a shock – a big shock! She smiled then glanced down guiltily. Perhaps just a little dab of perfume wouldn’t hurt, but no, her mother would sniff it out as soon as she returned. Better not to risk it.

  Creeping to the door she opened it slightly and listened. All quiet. Her father was still busy in the post office and her mother had gone visiting friends. As for her pesky little brother, he was fishing with his friends and wouldn’t be back for hours. Still, just in case … she tiptoed to her room and picked up the book hidden beneath her pillow. She didn’t want Gordon finding this. No telling what mischief he would cause if he got his hands on what lay between its
pages.

  Listening once more at her bedroom door, she then crept downstairs and out of the house via the door furthest from her father’s office. There’d be so much explaining to do if she got caught now. Once out the back door, she moved as quickly as her full skirts would allow, not stopping until she was out of sight of her parents’ home. Then taking a deep breath she began the slow ascent to the schoolhouse and to Samuel McKinnon and hopefully to the fulfilment of all her weeks of planning.

  “Mister McKinnon?”

  Samuel stopped writing the morrow’s lessons on the chalkboard and turned to look at the young lady standing in the doorway. Cassandra McKay: the post master’s daughter. Her younger brother was in his class but the widow Sarah Thornton taught the older girls in her home and before now he had never had cause to speak more than a few words to the girl. He guessed she couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen.

  “May I come in?”

  Samuel glanced around, and then moved toward the door. “Why don’t we sit outside? It’s a beautiful evening and there’s a bench by the well.”

  The girl pouted but allowed Samuel to escort her outside. Encouraging her to sit, he stood a few feet away and observed her closely. She was wearing her Sunday clothes and had wrapped her blonde braids around the crown of her head. He felt a disquiet spirit within and recognised it as mistrust but why he should mistrust a young girl whom he barely knew he could not fathom. The mystery would have to wait until later when he had time to unravel it.

  “Is there something I can do for you?”

  “My brother sings your praises day to day. So I was wondering …” she paused for effect and looked up at him from beneath lowered lids.

  “Yes?”

  “If you would tutor me?”

  “In school, you mean? But all my older students are male.”

  “No, not in school. I was thinking after school.”

  “After school? But I understood that Sarah Thornton teaches the older female students. Surely if you needed help she would be the one to approach.”