Uncharted Hope

by Keely Brooke Keith

  “Nor should you.” She stayed in the shadow by the door. “I shouldn’t have come uninvited like this.”

  He set a box of nails on the floor and removed the drop cloth from the divan. “Don’t apologize. This is a pleasant surprise.” When she stepped into the light, his mouth fell open. “Sophia, what’s wrong?”

  She couldn’t answer, and he didn’t wait for words. He took her shoulders in his hands and pulled her close. His warmth encapsulated her. “Whatever has happened, tell me so I can fix it.”

  It was the same thing he’d told her when he’d found her outside Alice’s house, trying to move the Davenport desk by herself. He was able to help her then, but this was different. She leaned away until he loosened his grip but not so far as to make him let go. “No one can fix this.”

  He led her to the divan. “Come sit down.” After she sat, he stepped to a dresser that had a sanded headboard leaning against it and drew a folded white handkerchief from the top drawer. He offered it to her. “Tell me what happened.”

  She dabbed her nose. “I meant no harm. Please, believe me.”

  “I do.” He sat beside her and wrapped an arm behind her back. “No matter what, I am for you.”

  The crying and running had weakened her voice. “I was trying to be good at my job, so I could have a life apart from my family, so I wouldn’t have to live with my sister, and tonight I ruined it while trying to save my sister. And now I might lose her too.”

  He didn’t respond but only held her, his fingers lightly stroking her arm. She had to tell him everything. He would find out soon enough. Everyone would.

  “Hubert brought Alice to the medical cottage. She was unconscious and showed signs of head trauma. Dr. Bradshaw wasn’t there. I did everything I was supposed to, but Alice was unresponsive. Hubert wouldn’t leave her to get the doctor. He said I had to do something for her, but since she was unconscious, I couldn’t give her gray leaf tea.” She turned her face to him but didn’t look him in the eye. “I thought of the vapor… of using it as an inhalant. I thought it might save her, but Dr. Bradshaw had said not to give it to a person until we knew it was safe.”

  Nicholas stiffened and his fingers stilled. “Is she… is Alice all right?”

  “No. She seemed to stir for a moment… and then nothing. Dr. Bradshaw is with her now. She said my sister might die.” The fishhook was back in her throat, tighter and more piercing than it had ever been. “She said I shouldn’t have tried something unproven. I knew I shouldn’t have. I knew the gray leaf vapor could be dangerous.”

  As the tears came, she didn’t try to hold them back. Nicholas pulled her close and let her cry. He kissed the top of her head. “You have to go back. You need to be there with your sister.”

  “I can’t.”

  He tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now.” He stood and unrolled his sleeves.

  “Can’t we go somewhere else?” She reached for his arm, gripping his wrist. “Anywhere else? Let’s find a new village and start over together.”

  He patted her hand as one placates a child then buttoned his cuffs. “You don’t want to run away.”

  “I want it more than I want to return to the medical cottage.”

  He grabbed his jacket from a peg on the wall and opened the door. “That’s not true. Your dream is there.”

  “It turned into a nightmare. Dr. Bradshaw probably won’t let me in.” Her feet followed him to the door even as her mouth protested. “What if Alice is dead?”

  “Then you need to say goodbye to her and mourn properly.”

  “I won’t be able to face Dr. Bradshaw or Connor or Mr. Colburn.”

  Nicholas draped his jacket over her shoulders. “You are stronger than you think you are.” He offered his arm. “Let’s go.”

  She allowed him to escort her through the dark village and back to the little white cottage behind the Colburn house. He was right. She had made the wrong choice with the gray leaf vapor, but she could not run away or hide or withdraw. That is what her parents would have done. She wasn’t like them.

  He’d said long ago that she was different from her family, but the full realization was only now setting in. They would run; she would not.

  She stopped on the flower-lined path outside the cottage. “I never really believed their lies.”

  “Hm?” Nicholas stopped too.

  “I thought they had ruined me, that I’d never get their voices out of my head, but in the past few weeks living here, talking to Mr. Colburn and Dr. Bradshaw and you… I never was the same as my family. I won’t run. I did make a mistake tonight, but I did so believing it was the only way to save my sister’s life. If Alice dies, I will mourn. If Dr. Bradshaw ends my training, if I lose my job, I will try something new.” She glanced at the back of the empty Colburn house. “I’ve learned so much living here, but I can forge a new life on my own. Or I’ll stay in Good Springs and help raise my niece and nephew and love the people in my life the way I know how.” She tapped her heart. “I do know how to love. I have all that I need inside me.”

  Nicholas smoothed her fingers around his arm. “And you have me.”

  She nodded and shucked off the jacket he’d draped over her shoulders. He didn’t know what would happen once she walked into the cottage. Still, he was staying beside her—not only staying, but also supporting her. She wouldn’t lose him. He wasn’t just infatuated; he truly loved her. Why hadn’t she realized it sooner?

  She folded the jacket and passed it to him. “I’m not sure what I would have done without you tonight, Nicholas. Somehow you’ve become very important to me and we haven’t even spent much time together yet.”

  He opened his arms and drew her close. “I’ll be waiting right here for you.”

  She absorbed his warm embrace, wishing she could stay in his arms but knowing she had to step inside the medical office and face her future. She took a steadying breath as he opened the cottage door for her. “Thank you,” she whispered to him. He’d gotten her this far. She could take it from here.

  All the lamps in the medical office were burning at full flame. Hubert was sitting in the wooden chair beside Lydia’s desk while Lydia was standing beside the cot, writing on a patient chart. When her gaze landed on Sophia, she set the chart on the table and crossed the medical office in quick strides.

  Sophia braced for a lecture. “I shouldn’t have tried the vapor against your orders, Dr. Bradshaw, and I—”

  Lydia held up a hand. “We both know you weren’t supposed to do something so reckless,” a faint grin curved her lips, “but it worked.”

  “What?” The question fell from Sophia’s mouth as she looked past Lydia at her sister, who was lying on the cot completely still. The purple lump on her forehead was gone. “It worked?”

  “Yes.” Lydia took her hand and led her to the cot. “Alice’s pulse and respiration have returned to normal and her injuries are healing. She awoke for a few minutes and spoke coherently. I believe she will make a full recovery. You saved her life.”

  Her sister would live. Lydia seemed pleased. Sophia’s shoulders slowly relaxed. “So can I stay?”

  “Oh, yes. In fact, you will be staying right here by your sister’s side, attending to her through her recovery.”

  The hook in Sophia’s throat dissolved. She swallowed easily. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “It will mean late nights, probably for several days.”

  “That’s fine.”

  Lydia picked up the patient chart and made a note. “And I expect you to write a complete report of what happened and keep detailed notes of her recovery.”

  “I will.”

  “And Sophia?”

  “Please don’t experiment again without asking me first.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  Lydia turned to Hubert. “You can stay as long as you like tonight, Mr. McIntosh. I want to keep Alice here for a couple of days.”

 
; He stood, his face pale and eyes drooping. “I should relieve Mrs. Vestal of the twins.” He stepped to the cot and lifted Alice’s hand to kiss it. Then he turned to Sophia. “Thank you… and I’m sorry for my behavior.”

  It was the most rewarding words she’d heard all night, even if it wasn’t coming from Alice or her parents. The air around her felt lighter. She looked him in the eye. “I forgive you.”

  As Hubert left, Sophia saw Nicholas still standing outside. Hubert passed Nicholas on his way to his wagon. The men gave each other a polite nod.

  Sophia glanced back at Lydia. “I’ll just be a moment.”

  “Take your time.”

  Sophia stepped outside and closed the door behind her while Hubert drove away. She smiled at Nicholas. “Alice is much better. Dr. Bradshaw expects a full recovery.”

  Nicholas squeezed her arm. “Thank the Lord. And your job?”

  “I’m staying here. Dr. Bradshaw says I am to take care of Alice through her recovery.”

  He angled his head slightly. “Are you all right with that?”

  “Yes,” she answered quickly, and meant it. “Alice needs me. And it’s my job.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The rain flicked off Professor Tim’s windshield wipers, forming a jagged stream over the passenger side window. Bailey stared at the frantic drips that clung to the glass as the car sped down the empty highway to Accomack County. The droplets quivered at the same frequency as her insides. Could she really go through with this?

  The rain let up as they neared Eastern Shore University. Professor Tim flipped on his turn signal even though they were in the only moving car in the vicinity. He glanced at her as he drove through the empty campus. “Are you sure this is what you want, Bailey?”

  “Yes.” The word slipped from her mouth, but her gut sank. The thrill of stealing the gray leaf tree saplings and Justin Mercer’s data was wearing off. All that remained was the sharp ping of regret.

  Tim parked near her car, which she’d left behind a maintenance building that housed the university’s incinerator. He unbuckled his seatbelt. “Okay then. Let’s do this.”

  Bailey met him by the trunk. He popped the lid and slung the strap of her duffle bag over his shoulder. The gray leaf’s aroma hit her like an unblocked punch. It roused memories that weren’t hers to keep: the shape of the Land on Justin’s screen, what she imagined a full grown gray leaf tree looked like, the feeling of its healing power that Justin described but the world would never know. She rubbed both hands over her face, trying to wipe away her guilt.

  While Tim unlocked the building, Bailey felt for the sunglasses case inside the front pocket of her backpack. She hadn’t mentioned it to Tim and wouldn’t. Someday, the sunglasses might be the only way to prove to herself that any of this had happened, that the gray leaf tree and the Land existed, that she had family somewhere in the world.

  He held open the door and turned on the light. Rows of florescent bulbs buzzed to life between the pipes and ducts on the ceiling. She caught a whiff of metal and ash, but the gray leaf scent prevailed above the stench.

  Tim lowered the duffle bag to the floor. While he flipped switches and opened the hatch on the incinerator’s primary chamber, Bailey knelt to unzip the duffle bag. As each tong of the zipper released, more of the gray leaf’s life-changing aroma filled the air.

  She drew the saplings out of the long bag like a mother would lift a newborn from the cradle. “I can’t do this.”

  Tim squatted beside her and reached for one of the limp silver leaves that dangled from the bundle. “They are dying anyway.”

  “I know.” A tear wet her cheek. It had been so long since she’d allowed herself to cry that she flinched at the sensation. She wiped it with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry. I’m being ridiculous.”

  “It’s okay to feel, Bailey.”

  She stood and passed the bundle to him. “We have to get this over with. Put them in.”

  “We’re saving innocent people and an uncharted land—the only good place left.”

  “I know.” She cleared her throat then passed him notebooks and computer components from the bags. “It’s for them—the family I have and don’t even know. They will stay safe. That’s all that matters.”

  Once all evidence of the gray leaf was loaded into the incinerator, she walked out to her car. Tim stayed inside. Metal clanked as the incinerator’s chamber locked. Then a hiss echoed through pipes.

  Bailey tossed her backpack onto the backseat of her car next to the suitcase that contained what little she owned. How many times in her life had she moved with only one suitcase? Sometimes she’d waited at school for a foster parent only to have a social worker pick her up with her one suitcase in their backseat.

  Tim put his hand on her shoulder, startling her. She jumped but it didn’t trigger her self-defense.

  He held up both hands. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t have any fight left at the moment.”

  He lifted his chin at her car. “What’s next?”

  The sun streamed out between clouds. It glared off the puddles around the parking lot. She squinted as she met Tim’s gaze. “When I was ten, I got to live with a family outside the city. It was the best two months of my life. If there are this many empty buildings around here, imagine how many empty farms there must be out there.”

  Tim looked toward the road. “Are you going to drive until you find one?”

  She shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

  “Is that what you want? What you really want?”

  “I want a simple life in the country—raise my own vegetables, milk a cow. You can come with me if you want. You have been more like a father than anyone I’ve ever known.”

  Tim let out a slow breath between pursed lips. He sank his hands into his pockets and stared at the ground.

  A knot tightened under Bailey’s tongue. If he cried, she would lose it. “I have to go somewhere else. I can’t worry about Global or what complications might stand in the way. If I can live through a water poisoning and plague and war and do what I just did to those miraculous saplings, I can find a piece of countryside and plant a garden.”

  Tim lifted his gaze. “Are you sure you don’t want to find the Land? I could get us on a flight to Cape Town. My nephew would be up for the adventure. I know he would.”

  She fidgeted with her car key. “I want to get away from everything.”

  “The Land sounds far away to me.”

  When she didn’t respond, Tim raised a finger. “Don’t say goodbye. Not yet.” He smiled, and a fleck of light hit his eyes like it used to in class before they would begin an experiment. “Let me buy you lunch before you go.”

  Justin would go home at some point this afternoon and find out what she’d done. There was no way to know how he’d react, but the possibilities made her check the road.

  Professor Tim was peering at her over the rim of his glasses, awaiting her answer. Something about the look in his eyes gave her hope.

  She grinned. “Okay, but I can’t stay long.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Sophia closed the gate at the front of Alice’s yard and climbed the shadowy steps to the door. She shifted her basket to the other arm then lifted her knuckles to knock but stopped short. Instead of knocking, she turned the doorknob and let herself in.

  “It’s me,” she said before her gaze landed on Hubert, who sat in the rocking chair in the parlor with both of the twins sleeping in his arms.

  He grinned and nodded once in greeting.

  She raised the cloth that covered the basket and whispered, “I brought food from Mr. Colburn.” The sweet aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls filled the air. She tiptoed through the parlor then set the basket on the kitchen table. “Is Alice asleep?”

  Hubert shook his head and removed his hand from Vera’s back long enough to point toward Alice’s bedroom.

  “I want to check on her before I go.”

  Hubert nodded again then
leaned his head against the back of the rocker and closed his eyes. Sophia paused in the hallway to watch them. She’d never seen him rock Clyde and Vera to sleep, much less nap with them.

  A smile pulled at Sophia’s lips as she turned into Alice’s bedroom. Her sister was resting on top of the covers with her head propped on two pillows with mismatched cases. Dark curtains covered the window, but a sliver of light shone between them.

  Alice raised her head. “Are the twins sleeping?”

  Sophia’s smile hadn’t faded. “In Hubert’s arms.”

  “They bonded with him while I was gone.”

  “He looks content.” She approached the bed. “How are you feeling?”

  Alice lowered her head to the pillows. “My strength gave out once I got home. It comes and goes without warning.”

  “That’s normal during recovery. Give yourself time.”

  “I’m tired of sleeping during the day. Makes a person weak.”

  Sophia pointed at the window. “Want me to open the curtains?”

  “Sure.” Alice grinned, faintly. “You’re not half bad at taking care of people. Might be a good nurse after all.”

  Sophia took it as a compliment. She opened the drapes then sat on the edge of the mattress beside Alice. “I don’t plan on having a medical career, but I want to learn all I can from Dr. Bradshaw.”

  “You should become a doctor. You could if you wanted to.” Her words slurred as she yawned. “It’d be the best thing to happen to this horrible village.”

  Alice was wrong on both counts: Sophia shouldn’t become a doctor and Good Springs wasn’t horrible. She let her sister’s comments go but wanted to test the bounds of their new relationship in a positive way. “Nicholas Vestal is taking me to the bluffs for a picnic this afternoon.”

  A sincere smile rounded Alice’s cheeks. “You must be really fond of him?”