by Montana West
“I tried to tell people they were only imagining things, but apparently Andrew and his mother have not made matters any better. Mrs. Jones at the general store says Mrs. Willard was there this morning and actually made the announcement to anyone who cared to listen.”
“If ever there was a time when I hated someone it is now, Ada,” Cora shook her head. “How could Andrew be so callous as to pull off such an act?” Cora’s eyes filled with tears. “I may have lost a brother and the man who is my soul mate,” she began weeping. “If they are truly lost, how can I go on living with this pain?”
“Cora,” Ada moved closer and held her friend as she cried. “God of all comfort will see you through this, and you just need to know you are not alone.”
“Thank you for being there for me, Ada, I was going crazy in this room alone because I cannot bear to face anyone just yet.”
“I understand. Elizabeth says she will come by tomorrow and spend the day with you.”
“I am so happy to have good friends such as you two.”
Cora was unable to sleep that night even though she was completely exhausted. She had cried so much throughout the day and even the herbal tea that Naomi Willows had given her to get her to relax was not doing anything for her. All her senses seemed alert, as if she was waiting for something to happen.
“Lord, heal us of this pain,” she prayed. Her mother was really affected by Henry’s disappearance and presumed death. Cora was grateful for neighbors and church members who had come to comfort them. The house was silent because most of them had gone back to their own homes but Cora knew they would be back tomorrow.
Everyone was waiting for Sheriff Eli to return with the equipment that would help them dig to the deeper parts of the mine that the rescue parties had been unable to reach with their hand tools, and so funeral preparations had been held off, and for this Cora was glad. With each passing moment, it became more likely that her brother and Louis were dead, but she couldn’t accept that. Couldn’t accept the possibility of burying them.
Thirst finally forced her out of bed in the middle of the night. The lamps were burning brightly in the whole house as if keeping vigil, so she easily made her way to the kitchen which was her mother’s joy because it had been made just like the one back in Akron, down to the stove that she had brought with her.
Cora was standing and gazing outside through the sheer curtains in the kitchen and she thought she saw movement beyond the trees from the gate. At first she was terrified and thought that perhaps some persons were coming to attack them in their vulnerability so she put the lamp out and stood watching in the darkness.
Then she heard as though someone was calling out and she frowned, leaning forward to get a better look at the moving shadows.
“Michael!” Cora heard someone call out and her eyes widened in disbelief. The voice sounded just like Henry, and without any thought as to her safety she opened the kitchen door and rushed out screaming Henry’s name, which roused Michael and parents and they were just in time to see Cora tearing down the short driveway.
“Cora has lost her mind,” Mary said sadly, beginning to cry again. “Am I losing her too?”
“Hush,” Walter put on his thick overcoat and carried a lamp.
Michael ran out of the house in pursuit of Cora and then almost fell down in shock when he recognized his brother who they had all thought was dead.
“Henry?” he asked hoarsely. “Am I seeing a ghost?”
“Michael, come and help me,” Cora yelled as she struggled with Louis’s still form. “Quick, before I drop him.”
Henry nodded and assisted by Cora, they dragged Louis into the house.
“Get him to the room that I am using,” Henry said. “He needs a lot of warmth.”
Michael and Cora needed no second bidding and they took the half-conscious man to Henry’s room. Cora was glad she had cleaned it earlier that day and with Michael’s assistance managed to get Louis into the bed and tucked him. He began shivering violently and Cora turned to Michael.
“Go and get me some warm water, quick, Michael,” she said, sounding like a commanding officer. While Michael was getting the water, Cora went to her room and grabbed an old cotton sheet from her trunk which she ripped into large pieces. When the water was brought she began wiping Louis down.
“Cora, you should not be doing that, it is not proper,” Michael protested and earned himself a sharp look from his sister.
“So go and report me to whoever you want to,” she turned away and went on cleaning the dirt off the face of her beloved. She was crying and laughing softly and Michael stood watching her for a while.
“Cora, let me take over from here and then you can come back when I am done.”
“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly and handed over the damp cloth to Michael. “Be careful and do not hurt him.”
Michael shook his head in amusement. “Go and make some tea or something,” he pointed at the door. “I have everything under control here.”
“Thank you, Michael,” Cora half ran out of the room. She needed to see and touch her brother and reassure herself that she was not dreaming. She entered the sitting room which was now well lit. Henry sat on the long arm chair, their mother next to him, wringing her hands and crying.
“Henry?” Cora approached him slowly and fearfully as though scared that he was just a figment of her imagination and he would disappear.
“Cora,” Henry stood up unsteadily and she rushed to him, causing him to fall back on the chair and she landed on his lap.
“Henry, you are alive,” she said happily. “You are alive, Henry, we thought you were dead.”
“Well as you can see, we are alive and well,” Henry held his sister tight and then his stomach growled.
“Oh Henry, you must be so hungry.”
“I am.”
“I will go and heat up some soup for you,” Cora stood up happily and went to the kitchen, singing as she worked.
Cora resumed her position at Louis’s bedside, touching his face gently. He was shivering and quite restless and Cora was frightened. Louis was still unconscious and his fever was very high. His lips were dry and cracked and because she knew he could not drink anything she got a clean cloth and dipped it in water and then held it to his lips so that few drops at a time went into his mouth. At first he resisted but she persisted and then he began to swallow a small amount at a time.
She was grateful for the training her mother had given her in caring for a sick person and she remembered when her grandmother had lay dying how she had nursed her and made her comfortable during the last days of her life.
“My love, you have to get better,” Cora pleaded with the unconscious man. “I prayed and God brought you back to me, please don’t leave me now.” She was oblivious of the tears that were running unchecked down her cheeks. “Come back to me, do not leave me,” she sobbed softly. “I cannot live without you, Louis Albert, please come back to me.”
Cora was unaware that her whole family were standing at the door watching her. Henry had a large mug of soup in his hand from which he sipped from time to time. Because of spending close to three days without food, his mother would not allow him to immediately eat anything for fear of his empty stomach rejecting it.
“Louis, please,” Cora begged. “Please do it for me,” she wept, soaking the cloth and holding it to his lips. “Please drink some more water,” but he turned his head away and began thrashing violently on the bed.
“He is having spasms,” Mary rushed to the sick man’s bedside. “They can be very dangerous, quick, Cora, go and get my bag of herbs and I will show you which ones we need.”
Cora rushed into her parents’ bedroom and found the bag of dried herbs that her mother kept handy for the treatment of all kinds of ailments. She brought it back to her mother who pulled out the different small bundles tied in cloth. “This is yarrow, we need to make some tea out of it so Louis can drink it to make his fever break while at the same time we need
to bathe him with it to control the fever so that it does not result in spasms. Go and get me boiling water, quick.” Mary was all efficient now and everyone, including Walter, was kept on their toes.
When Michael once again bathed Louis with the yarrow tea, he stopped thrashing around and when he was decently settled, Cora and Mary returned to the room.
“You must make sure that he drinks this stuff, it is bitter but it will help with his fever,” Mary pointed at the mug that had been placed on the table. “Michael, tell your father to ensure that we do not run out of boiling water.”
When Cora tried to get Louis to drink the foul tasting tea he resisted, clenching his teeth. “Louis, please, drink this for me, my love,” she whispered, uncaring that her mother was close. “I need you to get well.” She tried to coax the still unconscious man but to no avail and in the end, Michael came up with the perfect solution.
“I am going to hold him and force his mouth open, so be ready to pour the tea into his mouth in small bits so that he does not choke.”
The solution worked perfectly and Cora was glad when the mug was emptied but her joy was short lived when Louis vomited almost the entire concoction out. Cora looked at her mother helplessly. “What do I do?”
“Even though he has vomited the tea out, some of it has remained in his stomach and we will give him a little time and then repeat the treatment again,” Mary left the room.
For most of the night, Louis lay hovering between life and death and Cora was terrified. She would not leave his bedside and insisted that Henry use her room as she watched over the sick man. Not even her mother could get her to go and sleep and her parents began to worry. She was exhausted but stubbornly kept vigil over him.
She had a jug full of yarrow herbal tea and kept giving it to Louis in small sips which he expelled through vomiting but she kept on. The sheets were soiled but she decided not to change them yet because the treatment was going on. At some point in the night, Louis shot up and sat up straight, his eyes glazed over and Cora realized that he could not see nor recognize her.
“Mama?” He held out a hand. “Wait for me, I am coming,” he said and Cora knew fear like never before. If Louis was seeing his dead mother and wanted to follow her, it meant that death was beckoning him and he was not resisting. “Mama, do not leave me again,” he sobbed, harsh dry nerve racking sobs that terrified Cora. “Please wait for me and let me go with you,” he cried.
Cora rubbed his chest and back with a tincture of foxglove because her mother had explained that it would help treat the fever and delirium, and soon Louis lay back on the bed, his eyes closed but his body was still heaving.
Cora knelt down beside Louis’s bed and held his hand to her forehead, her tears pouring on his hand.
“Father Lord,” she prayed. “Here I am, helpless, hopeless and full of despair. You are my only hope, You alone can come through for me at this point in life.” She sobbed, sniffing and pleading with God. “My soul mate who You brought into my life is lying between life and death and I cannot reach him, only You can. Louis is a good and Godly man and while I understand that You may have need for him in heaven, I am pleading with you to allow him to remain with me here for a time, Lord. Do not receive him into Your paradise at this time, look on me Your handmaid and have mercy on me for how will I live without this wonderful man Lord?”
She wiped her tears but more took their place. “From the moment that I responded to Louis’s advert, my heart was knit to his and when I finally saw him, the union of our souls was complete. Now my soul mate lies at death’s door, we have tried all we know and I now leave it all into your hands.”
She was silent for a short while. “Lord, I beg for Your forgiveness because of the anger and bitterness that I have carried in my heart towards my parents because they refused to allow Louis to marry me. Your Word clearly says that I should honor my father and my mother but I have not honored them with my heart, and in all this time I have only paid lip service and been hypocritical in my service to them. But not anymore. Here and now I lay everything down, my pride, my hurt, my bitterness and pray that You would wash me with the Blood of The Lamb that was shed for me. Clean and purify my heart, O Lord, create in me a new heart filled with love and truth always.
“Dear Lord, do not let my sins cause Louis Albert to suffer death when it is not yet his time. Have mercy on Louis and have mercy on me, Lord. I cannot live without Louis and be whole, if You take him away then You will have taken the essence of my life away, and all that will be left will be a shell that cannot love any other man, Lord. Please be merciful to me, in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
Cora closed her eyes, exhausted. She felt as though everything had been wrung out from within her and all that was left was dryness. But she also felt cleansed and her last thought as she drifted into sleep was that Louis’s breathing was changing.
Mary and Walter looked at each other silently, observing their daughter who was fast asleep by Louis’s bedside, her head on his hand.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Cora, Cora, wake up,” Henry shook his sister gently but firmly. “Wake up,” Cora heard his voice from far away and she forced herself to wake up and when she opened her eyes and sat up, she groaned. Her neck was cricked and her left arm she had been lying on was stiff. She immediately realized where she was and gave a cry as she looked towards the bed.
“Louis?” She asked in a shaky voice, dreading the answer.
“Is going to be alright,” Henry laughed softly. “His fever broke, and when I came to check on him, I found him sleeping peacefully. Cora, Louis is going to be alright but I am now worried about you.”
“Henry, are you sure Louis will be alright?”
“Yes, dear sister. Now I suggest you go and lay down for a short while as Michael and I give Louis his bath and change these sheets that are completely soiled.”
Immediately her head hit the pillow, the young girl fell into a deep sleep, unaware that she was the topic of discussion of the members of her family. Mary and Walter were in their bedroom getting much needed rest after their ordeal and hearts full of gratitude to God for the safe return of their son. Cora was another matter altogether.
“What is going to happen when that boy wakes up?” Mary asked her husband. “That Cora is still taken with him is quite obvious and yet now Andrew has made a strong suit for her. This is going to get all complicated.”
“Calm down, mother, let us give the boy time to heal and then we will ask him to leave our Cora alone. As good Christians, let us help him on the road back to recovery because after all, he saved Henry’s life. Once he is well then we will put our foot down.”
Meanwhile as Michael and Henry bathed the now sleeping man, they were having their own discussion.
“We have never been so scared in our lives, Henry,” Michael was still shaking inwardly at how close his brother had come to losing his life. “Please do not ever put us through such an ordeal again.”
Henry gently wiped Louis down, taking great care not to cause him any discomfort nor to wake him up because his body needed the rest in order to heal itself. He looked up briefly and smiled at his brother and then resumed his work. “Michael, only God can keep us safe, that is something that I learned these two days that Louis and I were stuck in the mine. You need to stop tormenting yourself on my behalf because it could have happened anywhere else, not necessarily the mines. Hundreds of people go into mines and come out unscathed and safe, this was one of those freak accidents and I am alright now.”
“Still,” Michael took a deep breath. They had finished cleaning Louis up and dressed in in clean, loose-fitting cotton clothes. They needed to change the sheets so Henry gently rolled Louis on his side facing Michael and then rolled the sheets under him, then he watched as Michael rolled him back towards him and removed the sheets. They performed the same routine when laying new sheets on the bed and soon Louis was clean, wearing clean clothes and lying on clean sheets. As if he knew that all was well, h
e sighed in his sleep and turned on his side.
“It must have been terrifying for you,” Michael gathered the dirty laundry and rolled it into a ball and placed it under his armpit.
“Louis made everything bearable,” Henry stood beside the bed looking down at the man who had saved his life. He owed so much to this man and forth from today he was going to stand by Louis and give him all the support he needed. “There were times I thought of just laying down on the cold floor in the mine and giving up, but Louis would not let me. He kept telling me to think about you, Cora and our parents and the dreams that I have. And here I thought that Cora was stubborn!” He chuckled. “No wonder they are so much in love.”
Michael frowned. “What do you mean?”
Henry raised his eyes and looked straight at his brother. “It means, Michael, that none of us have any business standing in the way of the happiness of these two. It is not right, and I, for one, am going to support our sister and this man who I found out to be a man of substance and character and just right for Cora.”
“What about Andrew Willard?”
“What about him?” Henry moved to the foot of the bed, lowering his voice so his parents would not hear him. “There is no way on earth that I am going to allow that man anywhere near our sister. Cora has made her choice and been steadfast about it, we have no right to prevent her from being with the one man who will, who does, love her unconditionally and wholly.”
Michael had no words to say anymore and he left the room. Henry sat on the stool that Cora had vacated some minutes earlier. “My promise stands, Louis Albert. You are a noble man and I am going to be your defender and supporter just as I have done for Cora all these years.”
Louis smiled in his sleep as though he had heard every word.
***
Cora was humming happily as she dressed. She had slept for about three hours and then got up quite refreshed. The sun seemed to share her joy because it shone brightly even though there was a slight breeze. The world looked perfect this morning and her parents heard her tinkling laughter as she came out of her bedroom, gliding all the way to Henry’s room to check on her patient.