“And where is Miss Landway when she’s needed?” Mrs. Smiley’s sharp tone startled Daniel. “She’s not off on Tuesdays, is she?”
“I beg your pardon?” Daniel turned to her.
“I know your mother was talking with her this morning, but that doesn’t mean she can take the whole day off.”
Daniel struggled to pull his attention from Gwendolyn based on what he’d just heard. “So Miss Landway was with my mother this morning?” He couldn’t keep his eyes on the orderlies shifting Gwen to a stretcher and Mrs. Smiley’s scowling expression at the same time.
“Well, someone had to have a talk with that woman. She showed no signs of listening to me.”
Daniel’s head was spinning. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ll come out and say it, then. If you won’t look out for your own affairs, Dr. Parker, someone’s got to do it for you.”
Gwendolyn made a pained cry as the orderlies hoisted the stretcher up. He checked to see that her neck had been properly stabilized with canvas braces before turning back to Mrs. Smiley. “You spoke to Mrs. Parker—” right now he couldn’t even bring himself to call that woman his mother “—about Ida?”
Mrs. Smiley’s eyes narrowed. Clearly, she took his use of Ida’s first name as confirmation of her suspicions. “I spoke to your mother about Miss Landway, yes. And I see I was right to do so. No respectable young woman ought to be making sandwiches for you alone in the kitchen in the middle of the night.”
The look in her eyes as he’d passed her in the hallway that night shot up into his memory. She’d been coming from the kitchen and knew Ida was there. Apparently, she’d thought him deliberately sneaking off to the kitchen not in search of a sandwich but in search of Ida. Suddenly the pieces of this whole disaster began falling into place.
“Mrs. Smiley,” he said through gritted teeth, his years of frustration over the effective but persnickety matron boiling up beyond his control. He leaned in, keeping his voice as quiet as he could manage given that there still might be children in earshot. “You could not have been more wrong,” he growled, gripping her shoulder. “How dare you go behind my back like that! How dare you make such assumptions! I’ll deal with you later. But for right now, I’ll thank you to lead the girls in prayers for Miss Martin’s safety because it is the children who should be our concern, not petty gossip!”
With that, Daniel turned on his heels to follow the ambulance. At least now he had no need to visit his mother to see if she’d been behind Ida’s offer—he had all the proof he needed. His impossible challenge now was to find Ida and see to Gwendolyn at the same time.
* * *
Ida lay slanted against Leanne’s soft couch cushions, willing herself to find the energy to get up and return to the Home. She was dreadfully overdue, but her whole body felt fragile and hollow, as if she might shatter to pieces before she made it down Leanne’s front steps. She’d always prided herself on being such a strong, unsinkable type. It threw her to know Mrs. Parker’s clever manipulations could steal all that away.
What threw her most of all was how much she’d come to hope she would be considered worthy of Daniel Parker. “I’m a sensible sort,” she said to Leanne. “I’m not given to fairy tales, much as I’m fond of the happy ending you and John ended up with. I thought I’d talked myself out of being with him. Until he kissed me, that is. That knocked the sense right out of me.”
“Love does that, Ida.” Leanne stared at Ida again. “Are you sure, really sure, leaving is what you want to do?”
“Yes. If Daniel and I lived all alone on a desert island, we could get our happy ending. But Daniel needs to live in Charleston society for the Home to survive. Even if he loves me—and he truly might—it’s still about more than just the two of us.” Ida put her hands over her eyes. “Glory, but I wish I could just walk right onto that train right now. The thought of going back there and looking into his eyes again, of facing that monster of a woman in Isabelle Hooper’s parlor ever again... I think I’d rather go back to the army than to the Parker Home!”
Leanne sat up. “Maybe you can. If anyone could make it happen, John could. Do you want me to send word to his office?”
Ida managed a dark laugh. “Of course not. I’m just whining. But I love you for even taking up the notion.” She slapped her knees, telling them to make her rise. “No, it’s time for this old girl to get herself on back and show some of my legendary gumption. Besides, I’d never, ever leave those darling children without a proper goodbye.”
Someone started abusing the front knocker of Leanne’s house, rapping at it hard.
“Goodness,” Leanne said, “what is going on?”
Before she could even make it to the salon door, Ida heard a commotion in the hallway and a familiar voice. Seconds later a sweaty, out-of-breath Donna Forley pushed through the doors. “Nurse Ida. You’ve got to come!”
“Donna!” A dozen questions buzzed in Ida’s head. “How did you find me?”
Donna spilled words out in a waterfall of wheezes. “I heard Mrs. Smiley say she thought you were at Dr. Parker’s mother’s house and I didn’t know where that was so I went to Mrs. Hooper’s house and she knew Mrs. Parker was somewhere else so we thought about trying here so I ran here and you have to come now because Gitch is hurt badly, really badly—” Donna bent over and collapsed into the nearest chair.
Leanne sprung up and poured a glass of water. “Someone’s hurt?”
Ida bolted up off the couch. “Gitch?”
Donna grabbed at the water, gulping it down between words. “She fell. At the bathing pool. Oh, Miss Ida, her head. It was all bloody. Dr. Parker was calling for the ambulance. She was all pale and still. Everyone was crying. It’s terrible. She didn’t wake up, Miss Ida. If she dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Donna started crying herself.
Ida grabbed Donna’s hand. “You clever girl for finding me. Donna, you never stop surprising me. Dr. Parker sent for the ambulance? To Roper Hospital?”
“I don’t know. I suppose so.”
Ida began gathering her things. The vision of Gitch lying bloody on the bathing-house floor filled her head, the red color pooling like dread in her stomach as if she’d been there to see it herself. She could picture Daniel on his knees, assessing, trying to stay calm beside the pale, still child. Gitch. Dear, sweet Gitch! All her dread at returning to the Home was replaced by a desperate need to be back there, beside all those frightened children. Or at the hospital beside Daniel and Gitch—honestly, she couldn’t say which urge was stronger.
Ida squeezed Donna’s hand tight. “Do you know if Dr. Parker went with the ambulance?”
“He was shouting at Mrs. Smiley just before he left. I’m pretty sure he left with the ambulance, yes.”
Daniel? Shouting at Mrs. Smiley? That wasn’t like him, even in a crisis. That, combined with a quick calculation that Roper Hospital was closer than the Home, made her decision for her. “Donna,” Ida said as calmly as she knew how, “here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to take Mrs. Gallows here and go back to Mrs. Hooper’s house. Gather as many of the Aunties as you can, and bring them all back to the Home so that there are plenty of friendly adults to help keep the children calm.”
“Okay.” Donna sniffed. Leanne produced two more hankies, handing a fresh one to Ida—who’d gone through several—and one to Donna.
“I’m going to go to the hospital where Gitch is,” Ida continued. “I promise I’ll send word back as soon as I can, but you have to understand it may not be for several hours. It’s time for you and Matthew to show us the adults you can be today. That means staying calm and in control. Help Mrs. Smiley and Mr. Grimshaw.” She patted Donna’s hand. “You can cry and let the little ones cry—we all want to cry—but you can’t lose your nerve. Mrs. Gallows and Mrs. Hooper will help. I know for a fact they’re good friends
to have.” Ida looked up at Leanne, then back at Donna. “You can count on them. And pray. Gitch needs our prayers. Dr. Parker does, too. God loves Gitch as much as we do, and we need to trust that today.”
“Everyone was wondering where you were.” Donna sniffed again. “Mrs. Smiley was shouting at Dr. Parker about you not being in the infirmary. Is something wrong?”
Ida sighed. “I had a little problem, but it’s all sorted out now, so you don’t have to worry about it. You tell everyone at the Home that I’ve gone to the hospital to be with Gitch and I’ll be back just as soon as I can. Mrs. Gallows knows everything else and she can talk to the Aunties if they have any questions, but right now our hearts and minds need to be on Gitch, right?”
“Right.”
All three of them stood. Leanne had already pinned her hat on and was handing Ida her own while she passed a damp napkin to Donna. “Press this to your face, child. It’ll help. You’ve been through quite a dash and we don’t need you to overheat.” That’s my Leanne, Ida thought. Once a nurse always a nurse.
While Donna pressed the cloth to her face, Leanne caught Ida’s gaze. “Will you be all right at the hospital?”
Ida felt her resolve settle into place, that steely certainty she could always count on in a tight spot. “I’ll be where I’m needed. The rest is up to God.” After a quick hug, Ida added, “But I wouldn’t mind a prayer or two, if you’re asking.”
“We’ll be praying every second,” Leanne said. “Won’t we, Donna?”
“Yes, Mrs. Gallows.”
Leanne smiled tenderly and wiped a wet tendril from the young woman’s forehead. “Why don’t you call me Leanne? Or better yet, Auntie Leanne?”
“That’d be a fine thing...Auntie Leanne.” Ida was glad to see a slip of a smile return to the girl’s face. What a harrowing day Donna had endured. And the day was far from over—Ida expected it would be a very long night before any word of Gitch’s prognosis could be sent.
Just before they left the house, Leanne pulled Ida aside. “I think that I shall find some reason to ask Isabelle’s assistance in keeping Amelia at the Home with us or at her own house. I don’t think she’d go to the hospital, but you don’t need her there.”
Ida pushed out a breath. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Thank you, Leanne. Daniel must be beside himself right now. I’m so thankful I can be there for him this one last time. Say nothing to Isabelle or the children about my plans for Washington. I’ll find a way to tell them in my own time, but that certainly isn’t now.”
“Of course.” Leanne gave her one last hug. “Oh, take care. I won’t stop praying until I hear from you. We’ll have every single one of the Aunties praying, as well.”
“It will be enough,” Ida said, hugging her friend back. “It has to be.”
Ida hugged Donna once more, and watched Leanne and the girl turn left out the door while she squared her shoulders and turned right toward Roper Hospital and the fragile fate of Lady Gwendolyn Martin.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Doctors did not belong in waiting rooms. It was the cruelest of tortures to ban a physician from the surgery, to exclude him from participating in the care of someone he cared about. On the other hand, Daniel was glad they had taken Gwendolyn straight into X-ray and surgery in order to identify and treat her wounds.
Cranial fractures were held hostage by time, their damage made better or worse by how well swelling or bleeding was controlled right from the start. His own brain knew he was of no use in a surgery in this case, his own emotional state making him more liability than help should drastic measures be required. He’d called in Michael Hartwick—the doctor who’d worked on his own face—but that hadn’t eased his panic one bit. Too much could still go wrong.
He walked down the hall to stare at the pediatric ward, finding the rows of metal hospital beds far too much like those at the Home.
Ida was right—too much about the Home was institutional. Identical and colorless, with no individuality. It was no “home” at all. The dormitories at the Home should feel nothing like this ward, and yet Daniel could not help but think that only the change of the walls from gray to white would be Gwendolyn’s clues that she was not at home.
Ida could change all that. Ida had already begun changing that.
Half of him yearned to bolt through the hospital doors and go find her. I need her. The Home cannot be a home without her. You sent her to me, Lord, and I pledge to You as surely as I pledge to fight for Gwendolyn to heal, that I will fight for Ida to stay. I know what Mother is up to, and she will not win. And yet he knew Ida was strong, while tiny Gwendolyn was weak. His heart was with Ida, but his duty was with Miss Martin. And so he found himself standing in the hall of the hospital, fists clenched, cursing the woman who had placed him in this loathsome war between two allegiances for the sake of some silly social contrivance that had never meant anything to him in the first place.
“Daniel!”
Daniel turned to see Ida rushing toward him down the hallway. He didn’t bother with words. He didn’t care who saw. He simply drew her to him so fiercely that a nurse farther down the hallway nearly dropped her files. Ida resisted for a moment, which told him all he needed to know about how successful his mother’s tactics had been. But he would not let her keep her distance. Daniel held her close until her worry and the power of his care overrode her caution, and bit by bit she melted into his arms.
He knew the moment he had won her back, and it was as if his entire world stopped holding its breath. He had been as fearful—if not more so—of losing her as he had been of losing Gwendolyn. He gave silent thanks that she could still be his. He stroked her hair, breathing in and drawing strength from the particular precious scent that surrounded his Ida.
Her unruly hair was wild out of its braid and her eyes were puffy with tears as she looked up at him to ask, “Is she...?”
“We don’t know much yet.” He kept her hand in his as he walked her back toward the surgical waiting room.
“What do we know?”
“Concussion, that much is sure. They should be able to rule out cranial fracture soon, but I don’t know the extent of the damage to the cheekbone and the jaw.”
Ida’s shoulders fell in relief, and she let out a breath. Daniel had pretty much done the same when the surgeon had sent word out of that good news. “Thank Heaven. I’ve been praying with every step I ran over here.”
“There are no signs of bleeding on the brain yet, but they have to keep watch. What we do know,” he went on, running his thumb across the back of Ida’s palm, “is that there is some kind of fracture of the jawbone, with two broken molars. Hartwick has a procedure he learned from the war that he’s doing—wiring her jaw shut until it heals. I expect he’s doing that right now.”
“You called in the doctor who worked on you?”
“I wanted the best man for her. It’s her face, after all.” He felt his own voice near to breaking.
“Her jaw wired shut,” Ida said with a burst of nervous laughter at the procedure even Daniel had to admit sounded a bit gruesome. “Oh, she won’t like that.”
“She will live,” Daniel said, infusing the words with all the certainty he could. “It will give her the best chance at healing. From what we know right now, unless something new springs up, I believe she will make a full recovery.” He hated what he had to add. “But some things will never be the same.”
“I know.”
“I will never get the sight of that blood on the cement and in the water out of my head as long as I live.”
Ida touched his cheek. “Oh, Daniel, it must have been horrifying. The children—they must be so frightened. We have to tell them Gitch will be okay.”
Daniel took a deep breath. “I’m having the bathing pools filled in starting tomorrow.”
“Are you really sur
e that’s necessary?”
“I’ve made a decision.”
She looked at his eyes, and silenced whatever reply she was readying.
“I’ve made another decision. My mother is never to speak to you outside of my presence ever again.”
Ida’s eyes flew wide open, her face showing a flurry of emotions before her gaze went to the floor. “You know.”
“I learned only moments before the ambulance arrived, or I would have been out looking for you. Mrs. Smiley let it slip that she’d approached my mother about the impropriety of us being found alone in the kitchen after midnight.”
Ida’s brows bent and her lips pursed. “Mrs. Smiley? Your mother never mentioned her, or even that they’d spoken. And here I thought I’d won that woman over.”
“I’ve half a mind to fire her for going behind my back like that. And I won’t discuss in your company what I feel about my mother right now for whatever it is she said to you.” He took Ida’s arm in his. “I saw the letter from Walter Reed, Ida. Don’t go. Don’t you dare leave me.”
“John found out about the position and I thought...”
Daniel held his hand up. It galled him to admit the depth of his mother’s actions to Ida. “Dr. Bennet is a friend of the family. My mother made sure John Gallows heard about that position. She pushed Bennet to mention it to Leanne’s husband while suggesting that I should arrange for you to leave.”
“Even before the socks?” Ida had every right to look shocked.
Daniel hated to make it worse. “Actually, it was even more devious than that. I believe she put the whole thing in motion before she even tried to convince me to send you packing. I believe she only viewed my consent to give you up—consent which I would not give, by the way, consent I would never, ever give—as an unnecessary luxury.”
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