by Annie Lane
A trail of fear like he’d never felt before coursed through Earl’s body. “Good Lord, run along and fetch Thomas and explain it to him exactly as you just did to me. Tell him to send for the doctor immediately. I ain’t moving her in case the venom spreads and sets to eatin’ her alive. Off you go now. Try and stay calm … but I’m sorry dear boy, prepare for the worst.”
Junior took off running before his father could finish the last word. But he’d heard it alright. He knew what worst meant and he knew what prepare meant. He’d heard both those words used the day his Ma passed away. He gasped for air, but it wasn’t because of all the running. If Beth left him too, he didn’t know what he’d do. He might just go to sleep himself and hope to never wake up again, and that was no way for a small boy to feel. So he ran. Ran hard. Ran fast. He ran until there wasn’t a breath of air left in his lungs or an ounce of strength left in his muscles.
Charlotte opened the front door, startled by the incessant pounding. “Oh, well this is a lovely surprise. You’re back already, where’s...”
“Please hurry, please, please...” Junior panted, hunched forward and clutched at his stomach like he wanted to be sick. “Tell Thomas that Pa needs him out by the creek. Miss Beth’s been bit by a snake and she can’t stand up anymore. We need to get Doc Lawson to her before the vermin come and eat her up. Pa reckons the rats will arrive real soon. Please Charlotte, hurry!”
Charlotte wasn’t entirely sure what Junior was talking about but she knew it sounded serious, so she didn’t hesitate to usher him inside. “I’ll go and get Thomas immediately, things will be alright, Junior, I promise you that much. You and I’ll take the cart over to Doc Lawson’s place and he’ll be here in no time at all.”
Charlotte’s eyes filled with tears and her chest heaved as she raced down the hallway and into the bathroom. A moment later she came back out again, her sobs now uncontained. “Thomas is dressing as we speak. Come on now Junior, we must hurry. Oh dear me ... we must hurry.”
Chapter 21
Doc Lawson stayed by Beth’s bedside the entire night. As the morning sun crept over the hill and sliced through the bedroom window, he frowned down at her sweat-drenched cot. There was nothing more he could do for her but wait it out and hope for the best.
“I don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to fight it. I’ve drained as much of the poison as I can from the puncture wound, but it’s racing through her blood stream right now and a fever like she’s never know before will hit soon enough. She needs to be kept still and be given her medicine every hour on the hour.”
“How will we get it in her mouth?” whimpered Charlotte. “She can’t even hold her head up.”
She’d been inconsolable from the moment Thomas and Earl carried Beth’s limp body through the front door and placed her down carefully on the bed. Doc Lawson had arrived just moments later and then got straight to work, cutting out as much of her tainted flesh as he saw fit to make her better. “Spoon feed it to her if you have to. Just keep her still and it is vital she is given warm liquids. Please understand, her condition is very serious.”
Charlotte burst into a fresh round of tears at his words. Things were bleak and she just wasn’t coping. Thomas wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her from the room so the doctor could finish up in peace and they could pray for Beth together out in the kitchen. Junior had been left to spend the night with Aunty Dawn. She was happy to care for the boy under the circumstances, and adding one more child to the mix was never a problem. She took it all in her stride. He’d have only gotten in the road anyway and Earl had no intention of leaving Beth’s side until she woke.
“I’ll leave you to it ... call for me the instant there’s a change.” Doc Lawson left the house unable to hide his pessimistic expression and with a glum prognosis jangling around in the back of his mind.
“Oh, my sweet Beth,” Earl’s lips quivered as he whispered the words and brushed strands of damp locks back from Beth’s clammy face. The bed squeaked as he leaned forward on one elbow and patted her forehead with a cool cloth. “I’m sorry I treated you so poorly. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to feel the way I do about you. It’s been hard goin’ these last few years and I thought I was doin’ alright by myself.” He paused, took a breath, and ran his fingers gently along Beth’s jaw, caressing her cheek with his thumb. “But I guess I was wrong. I wish you could hear me right now so you might accept my apology.”
Beth’s head suddenly whipped from one side to the other. Her arms jumped and jerked and her face screwed up in so much pain that Earl felt it rattle deep down inside him. The poison was taking over her body, hitting hard, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d completely surrender to its enormity and slip further and further away. Earl dunked the cloth into the bucket of water and rang it out. He held her down and wiped it over her face again, then went back to whispering in her ear — how sorry he was and how badly he wanted her to stay.
The best part of the day was spent much the same way.
Charlotte and Earl traded places regularly while the other one caught up on sleep — if that’s what their restless tossing and turning could even be called. Earl had raced back home to gather more towels and pillows and left Charlotte in charge, but Charlotte was falling apart, and as hard as Thomas tried to keep her mind off things, it was a futile case and he ended up just sitting there instead, holding her hand through the roughest of times.
“She’s still alive, my love,” he whispered, his soothing fingers tracing the length of her spine. “Doc Lawson’s a smart man. The medicine he prescribed will do its job, you just have to wait and see.”
Charlotte nodded weakly, letting her head fall on her husband’s shoulder. She tried to think of every hymn she’d ever learned at Saint Anne’s as a child, and recited the lines over and over again, humming and singing each word softly while her best friend lay on the bed in front of her, completely lifeless.
But Beth didn’t flinch. Her body was not responding to sound or touch or anything else for that matter. “You need to come back for Junior’s sake,” Charlotte knew it was a long shot, but she wasn’t a stupid woman and she’d certainly noticed the way Earl looked at Beth. It might have taken him a while — most men weren’t that quick on the uptake as far as Charlotte could tell — but he’d got there in the end and the love he had for her shone through as bright as any star in the western sky. Earl might not have been ready to admit it just yet, but it was there alright. “You’re going to be that boy’s mother, I just know you are. He needs you now more than ever. Don’t let him lose another person he loves, please Beth. Please come back to us.”
A moment later, Earl wandered back into the room and set the pillows down on the floor. He took a seat on the opposite side of the bed from Thomas and Charlotte and gathered Beth’s hand up in his like it was just the most natural thing in the world to do. Two dark circles framed his eyes and his hair was a rumpled mess. “Any difference?”
Charlotte simply shook her head. There were no words left inside her.
Chapter 22
Another whole day passed and Beth still hadn’t regained consciousness.
Doc Lawson dropped in a few times to check on her progress and he upped her dosage when things didn’t look like they were changing. While Charlotte worried that the wound itself had become red and swollen, the good doctor insisted it to be perfectly normal and was a good sign that her body was healing itself from the inside out. The fever had lessened some but hadn’t entirely resolved and there were still moments when Beth’s face would twist and turn all about like she was in the utmost of agony, only to have it fall completely serene again just minutes later.
The room was still and silent when Earl escorted Junior over toward Beth’s bed. It was the first time he’d seen Beth since the night out by the creek and the mere sight of her, just lying there, not moving an inch, scared the boy like he’d never been scared before.
Junior decided it might be best if he stayed over
by the wardrobe instead of getting too close, that way he could dart for the door if things got bad. While everything inside him screamed to rush over and hug Beth and pour as much love into her body as he could muster, he preoccupied himself instead by counting the number of nails hammered into the far wall and fiddled with a bottle of lotion for a while too, popping the lid up and down until the tears in his eyes got sucked back inside his head.
“I can’t tell ya how proud I am of ya, boy. You should be proud of yourself, too.”
“Thanks, Pa.”
“You probably saved Beth’s life with your quick actions.”
“I did nothing, Pa ... nothing at all.” Junior tool one quick glimpse toward the bed. “It was Miss Beth who saved my life. She jumped right out in front of that stupid snake like she wasn’t even the littlest bit frightened.”
Earl looked down at Beth and took her hand up in his again, touching each of her knuckles like the grooves were made especially to fit his fingers. “I bet she was more frightened that she’ll ever admit. Remember what Ma used to tell you, things aren’t always as they appear.”
Junior smiled then and took one small, tentative step toward the bed. At the mention of his mother he relaxed and somehow felt her aura filling the otherwise stark room. “Yeah I remember. I also remember she said there’s beauty in everything, you just gotta look for it sometimes. Maybe that’s the trouble, Pa ... you just aint lookin’ hard enough.”
Earl frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Miss Beth, look at her right now, Pa. Even all pale and covered in little bubbles like she is, she’s just about the most beautiful thing God ever made. Don’t ya think, Pa?”
Earl’s throat tightened and his muscles set to stone. His eyes bounced back and forth between Junior and Beth. He couldn’t believe he’d just been outsmarted by an eight year old. “Why, I think you might be right, boy ... just between us, o’course.”
“And those eyes! Have ya seen those eyes, Pa?”
The frown on Earl’s face twisted all the way around until he was smiling. “Darn right I’ve seen those eyes. If I was struck down tomorrow and never saw another thing I reckon I’d still be happy. Those sure are some incredible eyes.”
Like she’d been listening to the entire conversation, Beth chose that exact moment to push through the darkness, her lashes fluttering as her eyes slowly opened. Her head was groggy and her limbs felt like they were made of lead, but as she took the deepest of breaths and flooded her lungs with fresh mountain air, gasping a little and fighting the urge to clutch at her wounded arm from all the stinging and the burning, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d just woken up from the most profound dream.
“Beth! Oh Beth ... look Pa, she’s awake!”
Junior’s vociferous cries rattled through the house and within seconds Thomas and Charlotte tore through the bedroom door. Charlotte cried and squealed and giggled and clapped all at once. Thomas stood over the bed and checked Beth’s temperature with the back of his hand. He lifted his eyes and smiled at each of the three expectant faces.
“I reckon’ she’s going to be just fine.”
Junior threw himself atop the bed, and slipped his arms around Beth’s waist. He held her close, never wanting to let go, just in case she changed her mind and closed her eyes again. “Can we keep her, Pa ... please, please, please can we keep her?”
But Earl couldn’t speak.
He couldn’t make his brain connect with his heart, or his heart connect with his mouth, or his mouth connect with any other part of him that required thought. He simply stared down at Beth and felt a wave of emotion wash over him as she gazed back up at him. Her lips curved up at the corners into a small smile, like the tiniest of sea-shells sitting right there on her face.
Thomas sidled up beside him and gently nudged his ribs. “You got nothin’ to say?”
“I got plenty to say, I just ... uh, I just gotta go now. Glad you’re feeling better Miss Beth. There’s somewhere I need to be.” Earl noticed Junior’s arms tighten around Beth’s middle, like he was terrified of letting go just yet, so he faced Thomas and bumped his elbow. “He needs to be here right now. Can he stay here a while with you?”
“Sure he can, but...”
Earl was out the door so fast not one of them saw him leave.
Chapter 23
Earl stood right there before Grace Mason’s headstone, staring down at the grave and feeling like his heart was about to be ripped clean out of his chest. He had stood there many times before, but today everything about it felt different. Either way, his life was about to change.
Earl squatted to his haunches and placed another white flower down on the soil. “So, Grace ... there’s this ... uh, this girl who’s come to town you see and...” Earl stopped suddenly and bit his lip. He figured he could have stayed there for hours, explaining it all to Grace – how Beth had come to be, and what part her son had played in bringing her into their lives “ but he knew with every fiber of his being that Grace already knew the story.
Something told him she’d played some part in it herself.
Earl had always taken comfort from feeling Grace’s presence in everything he did and now was no exception. “Anyway ... uh, Junior loves her to pieces and trust me when I say she treats him like her very own. I know that’s the way ya would have wanted it and I wouldn’t stand for it any other way. That boy was your life, your soul, your everything, and even in death I know you look out for him.”
Hot, salty tears fell free over Earl’s face. He couldn’t be bothered swiping them away and let them drip slowly from the tip of his chin. No one was around to see him anyway, and even if they were, in that very moment Earl couldn’t care less what anyone thought of him.
“What I’m tryin’ to say Grace, is that I’m thinking of making Beth a part of our family. And since you’ll always be a part of it too, since you live so fully in our hearts each and every day, then I need to get your approval to do so.”
Earl sighed with the longing of a broken man. “You’ll always mean the world to me, but my heart needs to beat again, and Junior needs someone to love him just as much as you did. Beth will never replace you my dear Grace, but I’d like your blessing before I go ahead and ask the girl to marry me. If you’re not happy about it, then I’ll simply quash my feelings and get on with life, but I really do care for her ... in fact I might even...”
Earl covered his face then with both hands, shocked by what he was about to say.
It hadn’t occurred to him that his feelings would ever run so deep for another woman. But it was true. No truer words had ever been spoken in fact. The thought of losing Beth had cemented his feelings for her and he couldn’t bear to lose her. He loved her. Earl Mason Senior had somehow, somewhere, for some crazy reason, fallen head over heels in love with Elizabeth Edwards and the thought of losing her was enough to make him shout it from the rooftops.
“So, what do ya say, Grace?”
From out of nowhere the sweet sound of a meadowlark singing in the clear Montana sky rang out as loud and crisp as if Earl was holding it right there in his hand. He looked up, stunned by the unexpectedness of its song and hesitantly wiped his tears away until his face was dry again.
The bird flittered and fluttered and swooped and soared through the sky right above him, singing its perfect melody for all to hear. He watched it a while gliding through the air, rejoicing like it had not a trouble in the world.
Then it simply disappeared from sight.
Earl took a deep breath and stepped back. “Thank you, Grace.”
Chapter 24
Beth recovered well over the following week. Her arm was still tender and she still needed some help getting in and out of the bath, or slipping a dress above her head, or brushing out her lustrous hair, but Charlotte took care of all those things and slowly but steadily she got back on her feet again.
Not strong enough to resume her position at the Barber shop, Beth was forced to give Zeke her no
tice ... to which Zeke nervously proclaimed that no one else would ever fit the bill anyway, so he might as well just do the cleaning himself until she was feeling up to offering her services again.
Junior had been over to visit at the Ackerman’s place every single day after school. Beth adored the child’s company and looked forward to his arrival for hours beforehand.
Louise and Henry Calhoun had called in a few times too, with scones and cakes and anything else Louise could spare from the diner. Even Gabe stuck his head through the door one afternoon, but he didn’t stay long. Beth never did know exactly why he took off so abruptly, but Thomas had whispered to Charlotte later that night after they were tucked up tight in bed, that Earl threatened to spook Gabe’s horse if he didn’t clear off the Ackerman land and not come back. Well, not until he’d worked up the courage to get a ring on Beth’s finger at least. That way Gabe wouldn’t get any funny ideas and the three men could go back to being the closest of friends again.
Charlotte loved the idea of Earl falling for her best friend the way he had. She was thrilled beyond her wildest dreams hearing of the secret proposal, but realized soon enough she’d have to keep her voice down — being that Beth was still occupying the very next room. Keeping her lips sealed shut when Beth strolled into the kitchen for breakfast the following morning was near impossible though, and Beth couldn’t help but wonder what all the whispering and murmuring was about. Must have been a newlywed thing she figured, so she let the issue go without too much bother.
By the time Thanksgiving arrived, Charlotte felt fit to burst if Earl didn’t get around to popping the question soon. A week had passed, and while he’d been to check on Beth as often as he could, still no word was spoken of his plans for an engagement and Charlotte wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep the news under her hat.