Before he left, he helped Rebecca open the front of the tent to let in a breeze. The part that formed a wall of the bedroom, they left in place, providing Alicia with a sanctuary.
While Rebecca was trying to coax Alicia out of the bedroom to get some air, Powers knocked on the tent post He carried a bushel basket.
“I was wondering when you’d let me start repaying you,” she said as she went to greet him.
“Your horse is doing fine, ma’am,” he said, handing her the basket. The clothes looked freshly laundered.
“I’ll have these done as soon as I can,” she said. The task looked daunting. Perhaps Alicia would help her. Even as she thought it she scolded herself. He was looking after her horse, not Alicia’s.
“I appreciate it, ma’am.” He started to leave, then turned back, fishing in a pocket. He brought out a button and held it out to her. She let him place it in the palm of her hand. He tipped his hat and marched away.
She found a place to stow the basket and went back to Alicia. “He’s gone,” she said. “Won’t you come out now?”
Alicia shook her head. She sat on the edge of the bed, her hands folded primly on her lap.
“But it’s hot in here.”
Alicia shook her head again. “Someone will see me,” she whispered.
“You can stay in the back of the tent, in the shadows. You need to get some air.”
Alicia relented. She followed Rebecca into the main room but moved the chair to the back corner where she could easily slip into the bedroom.
“Now,” Rebecca said, feeling as if she had solved one problem and was ready to tackle another, “tell me what you want me to bring from Father’s tent.”
Before Alicia could answer, her eyes grew big and she scurried behind the curtain.
Rebecca turned to find Paddy Malone with his hand raised ready to knock on the tent post. “I see ye have company, ma’am.”
“It’s only my cousin,” Rebecca said. It was a good thing Aunt Belle hadn’t stuck around a little longer, she thought. There had been a steady stream of men at her tent all morning, though all for innocent reasons.
“Ah. I’ve eggs for ye, ma’am.” He fished two out of his pockets. “I’ll be back another time.”
“She’ll be staying here until Clark’s detachment returns,” Rebecca added softly. “You can trust her to keep your secret.”
He seemed to consider it a moment. “I’ll be around on Sunday, then,” he whispered. He touched his forehead and sauntered away.
Rebecca put the eggs on the straw in the crate of dishes and turned back to glare at the empty chair. Alicia was just shy about her current appearance. When the cuts healed a little, she would be her old self again. Or so she hoped.
Rebecca and Alicia settled into a comfortable routine. Mornings, Whiting came by and shared breakfast with Rebecca, bringing whatever news he had heard. Once he was gone, the women opened the front portion of their tent, to keep it from becoming stiflingly hot. Alicia stayed deep in the shadows but, Rebecca reasoned, she got some fresh air anyway.
Hank brought meat and danced. Rebecca tried to get Alicia to join them, thinking a dance with the boy would revive her spirits, but Alicia adamantly refused.
Independence Day brought a small celebration. With the fort under construction and the constant threat of Indian trouble, nothing elaborate had been planned. Rebecca and Alicia didn’t attend what little activities took place. Without Clark, Rebecca saw no reason to celebrate.
Belle visited every day. She would begin by being sympathetic to poor Alicia and end by being angry. She couldn’t understand why Alicia didn’t simply pretend that nothing had happened and behave accordingly. “I daresay if nobody knows, it can hardly matter,” she said once as she was leaving. “A prospective husband would have to be told, I suppose. But there’s time enough to worry about that”
On Sunday morning, when Clark had been gone for nearly a week, Belle arrived dressed to attend the chaplain’s services. Alicia refused to attend with her.
“But your cuts hardly show,” Belle said. “We’ll tell them you took a fall.”
“I don’t want to tell anybody anything,” Alicia said, turning her sad eyes on Rebecca.
“You go ahead, Aunt Belle. You can tell them I have a stomach complaint.”
“And have everyone in the fort coming by to ask after you?” Belle countered. “I dare say you’d be calling far more attention to yourself and therefore to Alicia if you don’t come.”
In the end, Alicia gave in. A few minutes later, Rebecca, her hand firmly locked in Alicia’s, strolled casually toward the open-air chapel. She realized that she had hardly left the tent in a week.
They arrived just as the chaplain was ready to begin and found seats in the back row. Alicia sat at rigid attention but relaxed as the service progressed. Rebecca decided that Belle had done the right thing by insisting that Alicia come.
The congregation had just begun the last hymn when a commotion caught Rebecca’s attention. Troops were coming in. Clark! Without a thought to propriety, she left her place and ran to meet them.
Her father had left the service as well; she discovered him hurrying along beside her. They intercepted the troops near the corral. Two things registered on Rebecca’s mind at the same time. None of the soldiers was Clark, and one saddle carried a covered body.
She hung back, fighting terror, as the second lieutenant approached the colonel.
“Lieutenant Forrester sent us back, sir,” the soldier said.
Rebecca nearly wilted with relief. She took a deep breath hoping to get her heart back to its natural rhythm.
“We tried to take the deserter alive, sir, but he made it impossible. Lieutenant Forrester said he needed to be returned to the fort, to Dr. Garman and wouldn’t let us bury him.”
The lieutenant was clearly bewildered by the order but knew better than to ask for an explanation. Rumors of a plague might go flying, but Alicia’s secret was safe.
“Where the hell’s Forrester, then?” the colonel asked. Rebecca’s question exactly, though she might have phrased it a little differently.
“We met up with Lieutenant Colonel Custer, sir. He was supposed to rendezvous with Lieutenant Kidder of the Second but Kidder never arrived. He’s trying to pick up Kidder’s trail, and Lieutenant Forrester and the rest of our detachment joined the search. Custer’s had forty-three desertions, sir.”
Rebecca’s father dismissed the officer. He turned to Rebecca and sighed. “Clark’ll be all right.”
She nodded. She didn’t like Clark riding under the command of someone who would inspire so many men to desert.
“Don’t look so sad, girl. He caught the bastard and killed him, too. Alicia won’t have to suffer through a trial. Let’s go give her the good news.”
Better news came later that day when Dr. Garman paid them a visit. He checked Alicia’s cuts and declared them healed.
“Now,” he said, getting down to the real reason for his visit, “this young man they brought in this morning, Private Brooks, is he the one who attacked you?”
Alicia nodded. Rebecca moved closer to her, ready to offer support.
“I’m certain you needn’t be concerned about disease. Should we still worry about a baby?”
Alicia shook her head.
Dr. Garman’s old face broke into a smile. “Good then. All that’s left to do is regain your strength and your spirit. For the first, I prescribe strolls around the fort. As for the second, the best thing to do is find someone who needs your help.”
In the days that followed, Alicia and Rebecca fell back into their old routine, except Rebecca insisted Alicia follow the doctor’s advice and take a walk every day. They went early in the morning before the heat of the day, and while there were few people about. Alicia no longer hid whenever anyone arrived, though she was clearly nervous around men.
When Hank came, she joined in the singing and laughed at Rebecca’s efforts to teach Hank more complicated an
d faster dances. She would offer advice, but refused to take a turn at the dancing.
Sergeant Whiting’s arm healed, and he was put back on the active list. His leisurely breakfasts with Rebecca ended, but he managed to find a minute nearly every day to stop and ask after the women. He always had a bit of gossip and occasionally real news.
In mid-July, Sergeant Whiting reported that cholera had broken out at Fort Harker. “The fort’s been evacuated,” he said.
Rebecca and Alicia were sitting in the shade in front of the tent. Whiting had refused the chair but squatted nearby to talk. Rebecca caught some note of hesitation in his voice and asked, “Evacuated…to here?”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s what I heard.”
Whiting couldn’t stay and left them to mull over the news. Rebecca wondered how poor old Dr. Garman would handle the load. Of course, there could be another doctor on staff, she hadn’t been near the hospital tents to find out, nor had she any reason to have asked.
Alicia’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Maybe that’s who needs my help.”
Rebecca turned toward her young cousin, not wanting to guess what she was thinking. “Who?”
“The sick soldiers when they get here.”
“Alicia. Do you know what cholera is like? Nearly half the people who get it die.”
Alicia shrugged. “Maybe they won’t if there’s enough help.”
Rebecca left her chair and knelt beside Alicia. “They,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “Alicia, I’m talking about you.”
“Rebecca,” she answered quietly, “I need to find some reason to live so I’ll quit wanting to die.”
“Don’t even say things like that.”
“It’s true, Rebecca. All my dreams were ruined that night. I’ll never have a husband, a family. I can’t even stand to have a man talk to me.”
“But that’ll pass, Alicia. You’ve gotten much braver the last few days.”
Alicia shook her head. “You don’t know. I feel so sick inside. It’s more than fear. Once, when you were gone, somebody, I don’t know who, came looking for you. I thought he was—I mean, he even looked like—”
“Alicia.” Rebecca tried to pull her cousin into her arms, but Alicia pushed her away.
“I have to finish. I hid, but this terrible panic came over me anyway. He went away, but I still wanted to run. It didn’t completely pass until you came home.”
“But how can you think of going off to work in the hospital?”
“Dr. Garman doesn’t frighten me. And I don’t think the sick soldiers will either. I know they can’t hurt me.”
Rebecca wanted to scream at her cousin’s logic. “They can hurt you, Alicia. They can make you sick, too. They’ll be quarantined. You probably won’t be allowed to come back here until the epidemic’s over.”
“You don’t need me here, Rebecca.”
“What about your mother? Do you think she’s going to allow this?”
“I won’t ask her. I have to do this.” She rose from her seat and Rebecca stood as well. “I’ll go talk to Dr. Garman.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“You won’t talk me out of this,” Alicia said as they started toward the hospital tent.
“Maybe I’ll volunteer as well.” Rebecca hoped Dr. Garman would help her talk Alicia out of the idea. The work would be discouraging and exhausting as well as dangerous. But if Alicia insisted, Rebecca would be there to watch over her.
Dr. Garman’s reaction wasn’t at all what Rebecca had hoped. “Why, Alicia, this could be just the thing for both of us,” he said. “You may find your life’s work.”
“Or your life’s end,” Rebecca said, growing desperate for an argument that worked.
“Ah, but we’re not so ignorant of cholera as we were twenty years ago. It’s caused by a contaminated water supply. The only case we’ve had here so far is a soldier just in from the field.”
A case here already. Whiting hadn’t mentioned that. “If it’s so safe,” Rebecca said, “I’ll help as well.”
Dr. Garman shook his head. “You have a young husband who’ll be coming home soon. You’ll want to leave the quarantine tent and could well pass the disease on to him, tired and weak as he’s likely to be.”
She couldn’t quite imagine her husband weak, but it was simply a fleeting thought, and her brain returned to the matter at hand. “Then how can you promise Alicia will be perfectly safe?”
The doctor was unperturbed by the outburst. “I can’t promise. But she hasn’t ever been perfectly safe, has she?”
Rebecca gave up on the doctor and turned back to Alicia. Though she had been quiet during the exchange, her chin jutted out at a determined angle. Without another word, Rebecca admitted defeat.
“When should I start?” Alicia asked.
“There’s much to do before the soldiers get here sometime tomorrow. They’ll all be separated from the other troops for a few days. But there are bound to be some afflicted with the disease when they arrive. I’d appreciate your help as soon as you’re willing to give it”
“I’ll go pack a few things,” Alicia said.
The doctor nodded. “We’ll have a place ready for you.”
Rebecca watched Alicia as she packed. “What am I going to tell your mother?” she asked.
“You probably better tell her the truth,” Alicia said. “She’s likely to catch you in a lie.”
Rebecca scowled. “I mean, how am I going to explain this to her? She’s going to be upset.”
“She’s always upset, Rebecca. You should be used to it by now. Will you walk with me to the hospital?”
“No.” Maybe the thought of walking across the camp on her own would make her realize how foolish she was being. She certainly wouldn’t have thought of doing it the day before.
“Then this is goodbye,” Alicia said.
Rebecca let her hug her. She let her leave the tent. She even gave her a full two minutes before she ran to catch up. “I’ll walk with you,” she said.
“Don’t keep trying to change my mind.”
Rebecca shook her head. “No, I know stubborn when I crash into it.”
“Good,” Alicia said, smiling up at her, “because I feel better than I have in weeks.”
She did look more like her old self, Rebecca conceded.
They said their goodbyes again at the hospital. Dr. Garman assured Rebecca that she could visit Alicia outside the tent. “There’s very little chance of spreading the disease without direct contact,” he said.
Rebecca stopped at her father’s tent to give the news to Belle. After moaning, yelling and crying, she finally accepted her daughter’s decision. She said, however, that she would never forgive Rebecca if Alicia died.
Rebecca went home drained by the confrontation. She sank into one of the chairs in front of her tent, feeling lonely. How long before Clark got home? It had been more than a week since there had been any word.
She did her best to shake off the worry. She had enough concern with Alicia. She would have to trust Clark to look after himself.
The next day, Sergeant Whiting stopped by at noon. Rebecca was roasting a chunk of venison. Hank had brought down a deer and practically made himself rich by selling what his mother didn’t want to dry.
“Where’s your little cousin?” Whiting asked.
Rebecca frowned. “She’s decided to become a nurse.”
“A nurse? I see.” He squatted across the fire from her. “She’s volunteered to help with the epidemic. They came in this morning, you know.”
Rebecca nodded. “Don’t tell me you think it’s a good idea.”
“She’s kindhearted. Maybe she felt she had to help.”
Rebecca glared at him. “To make matters worse, I tried to volunteer too so I could watch over her, and the doctor refused my help. Maybe the doctor knows I’m not kindhearted.”
Whiting laughed. “I think you’re kindhearted. You looked after your cousin when she was hurt.”
/> Rebecca’s head came up. “Who told you she was hurt?”
Whiting raised a hand as if to ward off the question. “I just put things together. Her behavior, the deserter, Clark’s request to check in on the two of you.
“Besides, I wasn’t talking about Alicia, I was talking about you. You like to tease and joke and laugh, and none of those poor sick boys would get any rest. You’re nothing like Annie, that’s for sure.”
The smile would have died on Rebecca’s lips if she hadn’t forced it to stay in place. She turned the spit that held the meat and hoped her question sounded only mildly curious. “Who’s Annie?”
“Annie,” Whiting said with a laugh, “was your lieutenant’s girlfriend. She’s nice enough, I guess, but she isn’t full of life the way you are. I gotta go. Take care of yourself.”
Rebecca forced herself to smile up at him as he rose and left. She watched her lunch cook, then char and finally burst into flames while a thousand questions raced across her brain. And the decision she had to make became clearer.
Chapter Fourteen
The tent city ahead appeared to reflect the last colors of the sunrise, and Clark thought for a moment he was hallucinating. It seemed incredible that they had left Fort Wallace little more than two days before. Custer had set a grueling pace and planned to move on today with fresh horses for his seventy-five handpicked men. Clark counted himself lucky not to be one of them.
Custer ordered his bugler to play “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” It brought every unoccupied resident of the fort out to see them ride in.
Clark found Rebecca, her skirt clutched in one hand as she hurried toward the command tent. She slowed occasionally to scan the troops. When she found him she smiled and waved. He returned the greeting. For a moment he could pretend that everything was right between them.
At the corral, the troops dismounted, and Clark turned his mount over to his sergeant. He followed Custer and his junior officers to Huntington’s tent. He passed so close to Rebecca he couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her. There wasn’t time to pull her into his arms, and he contented himself with the brush of his fingers against hers.
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