Angel of the Cove

by Sandra Robbins

  Simon released his grip. “Yeah, that’s something else you always say.” He glanced at Anna. “Are you all right?”

  She shrank against the pie safe on the wall behind her, rubbed her wrist, and nodded. Tears flooded her eyes and ran down her face. She glanced back at the man on the table, then to the blood on her hands, and backed away. Nausea rose from her stomach. She grabbed one of the cloths from the edge of the table and clamped it over her mouth.

  Turning, she ran out the back door into the cool night. She made it to the side of the cabin before she could go no further. She gagged but couldn’t repress the sick feeling any longer. Minutes later she sagged against the side of the house, her stomach now empty of the supper she’d enjoyed.

  There was a sour taste in her mouth, but worse than the taste of bile was the shame at what had happened in Granny’s kitchen. How would she ever face Granny and Simon again? After a moment she pushed away from the house and stumbled toward the well.

  She drew a bucket of water and set it on the ground. Bending over, she cupped some water in her hand and rinsed her mouth. Then she scooped up a handful and splashed it in her face. After another drenching, she turned back toward the house but stopped.

  She couldn’t go inside as long as Simon was here. She didn’t want him to hear the things Granny was going to say to her. Walking to the tree where she and Simon had sat earlier, she dropped to the ground, circled her knees with her arms, and pulled them up under her chin. Maybe her dress would be dry by the time Simon left.

  How long she sat there she didn’t know. What seemed like hours passed before she heard footsteps leaving the kitchen and the sound of voices from the front of the house. She stood up and crept toward the back door in hopes of entering the house undetected. The kitchen proved to be empty and she slipped inside.

  Tiptoeing to the door that led to the front room, she listened to Granny and Simon talking on the front porch. “You sure you kin make it home with ’im on his horse?”

  “I’ll have to. I keep thinking if I had stayed longer at Luke’s house this afternoon, he might not have gone over to Wear’s Valley. Maybe I could have kept this from happening.”

  A snort of disgust rumbled from Granny’s throat. “You gotta quit thinkin’ like that, Simon. Luke is a grown man, and he makes his own decisions. All you kin do is talk to ’im and pray.”

  “I do pray for him, and I pray for Naomi and the children too. She’ll be worried if he doesn’t come home.”

  “I reckon she will be, but land’s sakes, I don’t know why. This man gives her more grief than any woman ought to have to live with.”

  “I know, Granny, but he’s her husband. Tell Anna goodbye for me, and tell her I’ll see her tomorrow.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Anna turned and ran to her bedroom. She didn’t want to hear Granny tell Simon what a disappointment she was. Granny probably already regretted allowing her to come. Closing the bedroom door behind her, she threw herself on the bed and buried her face in the goose-down pillow.

  A breeze blew through the open window, reminding her of other summer nights when she was a child and she would be tired from playing all day. She would fall asleep on the parlor sofa and Poppa would pick her up in his strong arms and carry her to her bedroom. She wished she could be a little girl again. She had been happy then. She’d thought she could accomplish anything she dreamed about. Tonight she had learned that wasn’t true.

  A soft tap at the door made her sit up on the bed. Granny’s voice drifted through the door. “You all right, Anna?”

  “I…I’m fine.”

  “You sleep well, and don’t worry ’bout tonight. We’ll talk in the mornin’.”

  “You sleep well too.”

  Fresh tears rolled down her cheek. She could imagine what they would talk about in the morning. Granny would tell her she wasn’t cut out to be a nurse, and she would send for Uncle Charles to come take her home. Then she’d have to face Robert and tell him he’d been right all along. She didn’t have the grit it took to be a nurse.

  That thought sliced through her heart, and she fell back on the pillow and buried her face again. She wanted to learn to help people who were hurt and sick, but tonight she had failed in her first attempt. If by some chance Granny let her stay, which she hoped with all her heart she would, she had no idea if she could do what was expected.

  In the front room herbs hung on the wall, and drugs she would never be able to tell apart sat on the table. She’d thought she would only be watching and learning, but Granny had hinted that she might have to perform procedures by herself. I’m not ready for that, Anna thought. I’ll never be ready for that.

  Perhaps the most troubling thing about her failure tonight was the fact that Simon had witnessed it. There was a quality about him that had made her like him from the very first moment they met. She’d never talked as freely or felt so at ease with any man as she had when they sat under the tree and peeled apples.

  She thought of his cut finger and how she’d held his hand. Even though she’d told him he was her first patient, her racing heart was not that of a nurse helping someone in pain. That emotion scared her more than anything else that had happened tonight.

  If Granny did let her stay, and she was prepared to beg for the chance, she had to be careful. Right now the most important thing she could do was salvage what was left of her dignity and work to prove her brother wrong. She couldn’t afford to let anything else distract her.

  Chapter 4

  Anna had been awake for an hour, but she couldn’t make herself open the door of the room where she’d slept. The smell of baked biscuits drifted from the kitchen, and her stomach growled with hunger. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the door. At some point she was going to have to face Granny and take the tongue-lashing she deserved. She couldn’t put off the inevitable much longer.

  What had made her think she could be a nurse? After her complete failure to help with an emergency last night, she feared Robert was right in refusing to let her go to New York. If Granny sent her packing today, she would have to put up with his I-told-you-so for the rest of her life. Facing Granny couldn’t be worse than living with Robert’s smug attitude about her failure.

  Robert had no regard for her wishes or what she thought. She’d lost count of how many times he’d told her he knew what was best for her. Even Mama had been unable to make him see that at times he went too far in his attempts at assuming Poppa’s role.

  If Granny sent her home, she knew what her fate would be. With no money of her own and no way of escaping the farm, the only thing left for her to do was marry whomever Robert picked out. Anna shook her head. She couldn’t go back to that way of life. No, she wouldn’t go back.

  She opened her eyes, straightened to her full height, and clenched her fists at her side. It was time to face Granny’s wrath and try to persuade her that last night would never happen again. No matter how frightened she was, she had to convince Granny to let her stay, and the conversation could be put off no longer.

  Anna took a deep breath and pushed the door open. From where she stood she could see Granny bent over the iron cookstove. A soft hum from Granny’s lips rode the stove’s heat waves radiating throughout the room, and the sound drifted to Anna’s ears. As she listened, the mellow tones encircled her and wrapped her in what felt to her like arms of love. The fear from just moments ago vanished, and in its place Anna felt a yearning like she’d never known.

  She didn’t want to go home, not just because it meant she would have to face Robert but because it would mean leaving Granny. From the moment she’d walked into this small cabin and spied the herbs on the wall, she had sensed there were great mysteries about healing to be learned here. If she left, she would never get the chance to glimpse the vast knowledge Granny had acquired as she tended the sick and dying. She would never see babies born or give comfort to those sick and dying. Birth to death and all that came between. That’s what she yearned
for more than anything else in her life.

  Easing into the room she stopped beside the kitchen table, already set for two people. A plate of biscuits and a jar of molasses sat in the middle of table where Luke Jackson had lain last night. Anna swallowed back the nausea that roiled in her stomach at the memory of what had occurred here. How long had it taken Granny to scrub the table clean of Luke Jackson’s blood? Anna shivered at the thought. She should have helped with the task. Instead she had cowered in her room, afraid to face Granny’s wrath.

  Now as she studied the woman who’d taken her into her home, she realized she should have recognized the understanding and concern she’d heard in Granny’s voice last night when she stopped outside the door to tell her goodnight. A lump formed in Anna’s throat. She reached out, wrapped her fingers around the back of one of the chairs, and took a deep breath. The events of last night couldn’t be undone, but now she had to concentrate on a new beginning in Cades Cove. “Good morning, Granny.”

  Granny glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “Good mornin’, Anna. These here eggs will be ready in a minute. Go ahead and take a seat.”

  Anna slid into the chair where she’d sat at supper and waited for Granny to join her. The hunger she’d felt a few minutes ago had now dissolved into cold fear flowing through her veins. Granny set a platter of ham and eggs on the table between them and took her seat.

  Granny opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, Anna interrupted her. “Granny, I’m so sorry…”

  Granny’s eyes widened, and she held up a hand. “Whatever you’ve got to say can wait until after we say thanks. After all, the good Lord’s done blessed us with this here food today, and I’m feelin’ mighty thankful for it.”

  “Yes, Granny.” Anna swallowed the words she’d intended to say and bowed her head.

  “Dear Lord,” Granny began, “we thank You for this here food You gave us to eat and all the other blessin’s You done given us here in the Cove. I thank You, God, for a-bringin’ this fine young woman to my cabin. I know she’s got a lot to learn, but her uncle’s done told me she’s got the gift of healing in her hands. And I believe that, Lord, because You done told me the same thing in my heart. I know I ain’t as smart as the teachers she’s gonna have in New York, but I know with Your help I can teach her how to trust herself when she’s in bad situations like the one we had last night. I believe You have big plans for Anna, Lord, and I pray we can help her overcome her doubts and get her started on her way to makin’ a mighty fine nurse. Amen.”

  Anna sat in stunned silence, unable to open her eyes or lift her head. After a moment she glanced up at Granny, who was concentrating on spreading some blackberry jam on a biscuit. Anna cleared her throat.

  “I…I don’t know what to say. I expected you to send me packing this morning. I was prepared to beg you to let me stay.”

  Granny placed the biscuit on her plate and smiled at her. “Darlin’, I started helpin’ the folks in Cades Cove when I was younger than you. My ma was a midwife, and she taught me everything she knew. The first time I went with her to help birth a baby I ran out of the house and went home. I dreaded facing my ma because I’d shamed her in front of folks, and I was afraid she’d never forgive me.”

  “What happened?”

  Granny smiled. “When she got home, I was a-layin’ on my bed cryin’. She came in and sat down beside me and stroked my head. She said she knew how hard it was for a young girl to see what I’d seen that day, and she said she did the same thing the first time she helped her ma.”

  Anna’s eyes grew wide. “She did?”

  Granny chuckled. “Yeah. I told her I didn’t have no gift, and I wasn’t goin’ back to no birthin’ agin. She jest laughed and said I would because the need to help folks was in my blood, and I couldn’t git rid of it no matter what I did.” Granny’s eyes softened. “And we gonna find out if it’s in your blood too, Anna.”

  Tears welled in Anna’s eyes. “Do you think it is, Granny?”

  Granny leaned back in her chair and tilted her head to one side. “I cain’t rightly tell yet, ’cause I ain’t a-judgin’ you on what happened last night, but I’ll know by the time you leave here. If you really want to be a nurse as bad as you say, then you have to believe in yourself. You have to understand there’s gonna be some tough times down the road, and you have to trust in the good Lord to help you face those times.”

  A tear spilled from Anna’s left eye and trickled down her cheek. “Then you’re not giving up on me yet and sending me home?”

  Granny threw back her head and laughed. “’Course not, child. I ain’t in the givin’ up business. We gotta git you ready to go to New York.”

  Anna jumped to her feet, darted around the table, and knelt beside Granny. Tears gushed from her eyes as she bent over and laid her head in Granny’s lap. “Thank you. I promise I won’t let you down again.”

  Granny’s hand stroked Anna’s head, and her touch reminded Anna of how her mother had comforted her in the past. She’d always wanted to please her mother, and now she found herself determined to please a woman she’d known for less than twenty-four hours. Something told her, though, that this midwife who lived in a small cabin in a remote valley of the Smoky Mountains might turn out to be the person who influenced her life more than anyone else.

  Anna raised her head and stared at Granny, who smiled down at her. “Those biscuits smell good, and I’m starved.”

  “Then let’s eat, and then we’ll get to work. We got lots to do if’n we gonna get you ready to go to New York, and time’s a-wastin’.”

  Simon stopped at the front door of Granny’s cabin and peered inside. He raised his hand to knock but stopped at the sound of laughter coming from the back of the house. The voices of Granny and Anna drifted from the kitchen, and Simon sighed with relief.

  All the way to the cabin, he’d wondered what he would find after the events of last night. He knew Granny would do everything in her power to encourage Anna, but he had no idea how Anna would react. She might even want to leave. That thought troubled him, and he had no idea why it should. After all, they’d only met yesterday afternoon, and he barely knew her. But his heart told him he wanted to get to know her better.

  He said a quick prayer that God would allow him to do that and took a deep breath. “Granny,” he called out, “it’s Simon. I brought a rabbit for you.”

  Footsteps shuffled on the wooden floor and Granny appeared in the doorway. She smiled and wiped her hands on her apron. “Come on in, preacher boy. Me and Anna’s havin’ us some breakfast. You can eat with us.”

  Simon shook his head. “No, thanks, Granny. I ate a long time ago, but I would like to have a cup of coffee if you’ve got any.”

  Granny chuckled and motioned for him to come inside. “There’s a pot on the stove. Pete Ferguson brought me back some when he went over to Pigeon Forge a few weeks back. I been savin’ it for when Anna got here, and you can help us drink it.”

  He held up the burlap sack he carried. “I killed you a rabbit this morning. I’ll take this around back and wash up at the well before I come inside.”

  Granny nodded. “Fine. Come on in the back door when you git finished. We’ll be in the kitchen.”

  Simon hurried to the smokehouse and set the burlap sack inside before he went to the well. He glanced down at the dirt-streaked pants and shirt he’d worn into the woods this morning and frowned. He looked a mess, not like a man who hoped to impress a woman.

  His hands froze in midair, and the water he’d scooped up to wash his face trickled between his fingers. Impress a woman? He had no idea where that thought had come from. There was no reason to believe Anna Prentiss could ever be interested in him. She’d told him right away what her plans were, and he could tell from the determination on her face that nothing was going to get in her way. If he had any thoughts about her, he’d better get them out of his head right now.

  The only problem was…he didn’t know how to do that.
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br />   He recalled the scene in the kitchen the night before and shook his head. She wasn’t like the other women in Cades Cove, whose harsh life had made them strong. Maybe it was best if she did leave the Cove. He doubted if she had what it took to survive here.

  Scooping up more water, he doused his face and slicked back his wet hair. He’d go in the kitchen, have a cup of coffee with Granny, then be on his way. He had more important things to do today than worry about a spoiled woman who couldn’t stand the sight of blood.

  He strode to the kitchen door and stopped before he entered. Anna, holding a cup of coffee in her hand, sat at the table. She was smiling up at Granny, who stood beside her. The laugh he’d thought sounded like tinkling bells drifted to his ears.

  Simon didn’t move as his gaze roved over Anna’s face. His heart raced and his chest tightened. In that instant he knew it didn’t matter whether or not Anna was spoiled or if she wasn’t like the other women in the Cove. There were unfamiliar feelings taking root in his heart, and they had to do with Anna. Looking at her stirred him in a way he had thought was for other men, not for him. Now he knew differently. He’d never met anyone like Anna, and he prayed she wouldn’t leave before he could come to grips with his feelings.

  Anna set her coffee cup down and glanced toward the back door where Simon stood. The intensity in his eyes made her face grow warm, and she wondered if he was remembering how she’d run from the kitchen the night before. She forced a smile to her face. “Good morning, Simon. I hear you’ve killed a rabbit.”

  He stepped into the kitchen, glanced at Granny, and nodded. “I left it in the smokehouse. I’ll dress it for you before I leave.”

  “Then you’ll come back and help us eat it tonight?” Granny grinned at him.

  Anna laughed at the flush in Simon’s cheeks. He turned to her and chuckled. “So you think that’s funny, Miss Prentiss? Well, just for that, I’ll be here.”