“Doctor Pansy will set Burdette’s leg, then check on your Ma. They’ll both be fine, but it might take them a while to mend,” Kiowa tried to believe the words he was saying to Nolie.
“But I can’t take care of them by myself,” Nolie whispered, all of a sudden worried about becoming the man of the house?
“You got your Uncle Gabe and Aunt Iva Mae, besides your Shepard grandparents to help out. Let alone every woman in town will bring enough food to feed an army while your ma and sister are on the mend.”
Nolie let that sink in, but then he looked up at Kiowa. “And you?”
Kiowa’s lungs seized with Nolie’s question, stalling his answer. After a second, he breathed deep to fill his lungs.
“Yes. I’m here for you too,” Kiowa said as he looked at his dirty, calloused hands, then at Mary’s delicate fingers lying limp, tied to her side by the shawl on the board.
How he wanted to touch her, but he didn’t dare, not knowing what was wrong with her. But he could be here to comfort Mary’s son.
Burdette’s blood-curdling scream caused him and Nolie to jump, but not Mary. Her daughter’s cry didn’t penetrate her unconsciousness and wake her.
“Burdette must have woken up when Doctor Pansy put her leg back in place,” Kiowa said as he gripped Nolie’s shoulder. “That means the worst is over for your sister and her leg can start to heal.”
Kiowa didn’t say anything about the blood he saw on the girl’s dress. Hopefully it was from a scrape on her skin instead of indicating the bone had broken through the skin. Kiowa’s stomach curdled at the damage Doctor Pansy might be working on to save the girl’s leg, let alone her life. If the injury became infected…Kiowa stiffened as panic hit him again, but he had to stay strong for Nolie.
“You want to run over to your grandparents to be sure they know about the accident? I bet your sister would like Grandma Darcie to sit with her, and then go to the saddle shop. Your Grandpa Reuben, Uncle Gabe, or Uncle Tate are bound to be there. You can come back later after your ma and sister are awake to talk to them. Okay?”
Nolie took a shuddering breath, probably relieved at the suggestion, but at the same time scared to leave his mother.
“I promise I won’t leave your ma, Nolie, and you know why,” Kiowa said slowly, looking Nolie in the eye. Nolie stared at Kiowa a moment, then nodded his head.
“Go through the front waiting room to check, but I bet we’d hear your grandma if she were already there.”
“Yes, sir,” Nolie whispered before he touched his mother’s shoulder, then walked to the door. One more glance toward Kiowa, then Nolie slipped through the door, leaving Kiowa alone with Mary.
“Dear Lord, please let Mary be all right. I can’t stand it if…” Kiowa started to pray but stopped, not able to continue his thoughts out loud.
Kiowa hesitantly smoothed Mary’s hair from her forehead. The woman hated having messy hair or wrinkled clothes. She’d be appalled at her appearance, and Kiowa wished she’d wake up to complain about it.
The exam room burst open, Doctor Pansy and her assistant, Avalee Paulson, moved to take charge of Mary. “Let’s get Mary off the board and on the table, then you can leave Kiowa.”
“But—,” Kiowa protested as the woman quickly untied the restraints and held Mary still.
“Slowly pull the board out from under her, Kiowa,” Doctor Pansy instructed, holding on to Mary’s head.
Kiowa did so, wishing the jarring would wake Mary, but she remained limp on the table.
“Thank you for your help, Kiowa. I’m sure Mary would have appreciated it. You can go back to work now,” Doctor Pansy said as she felt along the back of Mary’s neck.
“I don’t feel any vertabrae out of place, but we don’t know—,” Mary told Avalee, then stopped as she noticed Kiowa was still standing by the door. “Please leave, Kiowa. I’ll let Mary’s family know her injuries and prognosis when I figure out what all is wrong.”
Kiowa took one last long look at Mary then left, wishing she’d open her eyes to meet his. He took a deep breath when he stepped outside the doctor’s office. If Mary survived her fall, he was going to make some changes in his life, and hers.
Chapter 2
Mary slowly awoke, noting the room didn’t smell like her floral-scented bedroom. She was partial to rose bath soap and toilet water, but now the air’s odor was more like alcohol…and a commode that should have been emptied a few days ago.
The light and feel in the room weren’t right for early morning either. Being May, she’d opened the bedroom window ajar to let in the spring air overnight, and the filmy curtains usually made a pattern of its lace dance across her light blue blanket which lay on her body and her bed.
She heard murmuring voices from another part of the apartment, but they didn’t sound like her children’s voices. And why were they awake before her anyway? Mary was always up first and usually had breakfast on the table by the time they were dressed for school.
Was it Saturday and she’d slept in? She turned her head toward the bedroom door and quickly squeezed her eyes shut when a piercing pain shot through her skull. The back of her head throbbed as if it had its own pulse, and she felt queasy. Was she still in bed because she was ill?
Mary tried to turn onto her side, hoping to slowly ease her way to sit on the edge of the bed. She needed to get up to see her children. Had they peeked in on her and decided she needed to sleep? Burdette was capable of preparing meals, but it wasn’t something her daughter usually had to do for herself and her brother, Nolie.
Was she tangled up in the sheet and blanket? Mary couldn’t get her legs out from under the bedding. She tried kicking the covers off…but something was holding her legs perfectly still.
Mary spread her arms out to her side and realized the bed she was on was narrower than her own. Trying to push off the covers, she thought she might be tied onto the small…surface. She wasn’t laying on her mattress, but something hard and narrow.
Mary slowly slit her eyes open, waiting for the room to come into focus as she opened her eyelids, trying to slow down the panic building in her chest.
Why couldn’t she move?
“Burdette?”
She paused, thinking she’d hear her daughter’s footsteps on the hardwood floor hallway of their apartment.
“Burdette? Nolie?” She tried to raise her voice so they could hear her if they were in the kitchen.
Mary struggled against the pain in her head, not wanting to yell for help, but her anxiety was overtaking her need to stay calm.
Her bedroom door opened, and Mary laid back down in relief.
“Burdette, something’s wrong. Can you help me out of bed?”
“Mary, this is Doctor Pansy, not Burdette.” Mary felt the woman’s hand press down onto her shoulder.
“Can you focus on my face and see me clearly?”
She struggled to open her eyes again, not realizing she’d tightly squeezed them shut to block the pain.
“Take deep, slow breaths, and then open your eyes.”
Mary did as Doctor Pansy instructed her, realizing Doctor Pansy was leaning over her, looking concerned.
“Why are you here, Doctor Pansy? Did Burdette fetch you?”
“It’s so good to see you’re awake and talking, Mary,” Doctor Pansy sighed as if she was truly relieved.
“You’re in my exam room, Mary. You and Burdette took a tumble down your apartment stairs. Do you remember that?”
Mary stared at Doctor Pansy while she searched her befuddled brain.
“No.” She answered, then realized what the doctor had said.
“Is Burdette all right?”
“She is now, but it will take Burdette a while to recuperate. She broke her right leg, above the knee.”
Mary struggled to move again. She had to get to her daughter.
“She’s all right. I set the leg, and she’s being moved to her grandparent’s house right now. Amelia and Reuben will be taking care of her whil
e her leg heals. Nolie will stay with them too.”
“Oh, no.” Mary rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the pain in her head. “When did we fall?” And why couldn’t she remember it?
“This morning. Burdette was going to school, and you were headed down to open your shop.”
Doctor Pansy hesitated a minute before adding, “It rained overnight, and the street was muddy. Nolie had been up and down the steps before you and Burdette left, and a couple of steps were wet with mud. One of you accidentally slipped, apparently causing you both to fall.”
“I hope no one told Nolie it was his fault that Burdie broke her leg.” The siblings were so close, and Mary didn’t want anything to change their feelings toward each other.
“I can’t say, Mary. I’ve been busy with Burdette, and you.”
“The fuzziness in my mind is starting to clear, but I can feel a lump on the back of my head. I assume I hit my head tumbling down the stairs?”
“Yes, you hit your head pretty hard, and you’ve been unconscious for a while,” Doctor Pansy acknowledged. “Anything else hurt? Your back, arms, legs? I couldn’t feel any broken bones, but you have a large bruise in the middle of your back.”
Why couldn’t she feel it? “Yes, my back hurts. Am I tied to the exam table, so I don’t slip off?”
“No, why?”
Mary thought about her answer for a second. “I tried to sit up, but I thought my legs were tied down, so I didn’t slip off the bed…or I guess the exam table.”
Mary saw the worry in the doctor’s eyes before she composed her expression.
Doctor Pansy lifted the sheet off her legs, but looked at Mary while saying, “I think you might have injured your back in the fall, but I couldn’t really test your reflexes while you were unconscious. Let’s test them now. First, move your right big toe.”
Mary thought she did, but she wasn’t sure since the raised sheet blocked her view, besides the fact she was lying down.
“Now, wiggle all your right toes…Try to rotate your ankle.”
Try? Was her foot not working? Mary’s chest raced as she tried not to panic.
“Now, move your left foot.” Doctor Pansy’s relieved breath was audible, and she quickly looked up to Mary.
Doctor Pansy raised the sheet above her hips. “Raise your right knee a second, put it down, and then your left knee.”
“Can you twist your right knee and hip to the outside?”
Doctor Pansy was biting her lip. Was she waiting for Mary to move, when she thought she’d already done it?
“Now the same for your left side. Swing your knee out while turning your hip.”
Doctor Pansy laid the sheet back on top of her body and kept her hands underneath the sheet for a few seconds.
“Do you feel my pushing on the sole of this foot?”
“No,” Mary answered in confusion. “Which foot are you pressing on?”
Doctor Pansy didn’t answer.
“I feel you pressing your thumb into my…foot now,” Mary said in relief.
“Which one?” Doctor Pansy challenged her.
“It was my left foot. You were pressing into my instep.”
Doctor Pansy dropped the sheet and moved forward to clamp her hands around Mary’s left hand.
“I don’t know if it is permanent or only temporary, but your fall down the stairs damaged the nerves running through your spine. Right now, you’re not moving your right foot, leg, or hip at all. Your left leg moved a little and you finally felt my fingernail pressing into your instep, although I pressed hard all over the top and bottom of both feet.”
Mary’s breath hitched and held with panic. Was she paralyzed? How would she take care of her children? Her store?
“Breathe, Mary. Your back is badly bruised and swollen. I’m not surprised you’re having some nerve issues. You must have been temporarily airborne to fall that hard on your back, instead of just sliding down the stairs.
“Right now, I’m thankful you’re breathing, coherent, and talking.”
Doctor Pansy squeezed Mary’s hand, and she tightened her grip as if the doctor’s hand was a lifeline.
“And luckily your shoulders, arms, and hands seem fine by the way you’ve wrapped your hands around mine,” Doctor Pansy beamed, as if was a miracle.
And maybe it was.
“What happens now?” Mary whispered, fearing to hear the doctor’s answer.
“You test your patience—and probably your family’s—while your body heals. Someone will have to take care of your body, and I mean all parts of it, while you recover. As we don’t know the extent of the damage, besides not being able to walk, you may have no bladder or bowel control either.”
Mary groaned with disgust. That’s why the commode smell was strong around her.
“I don’t know that for sure, because you’re been unconscious, Mary. I’m just warning you it might happen. I hadn’t cleaned you or changed your clothing yet because I wanted to wait until you were awake.”
“And I can’t just hop off this table and jump into a hot bath of steaming rose-scented water right now, can I?” Mary snarled in disgust.
“No, not yet,” Doctor Pansy tried to placate her.
Mary prided herself, almost to a fault she admitted, that her appearance and clothing were impeccable. Now she smelled like she’d bathed in urine!
“Right now, just be content with the fact you’re alive, Mary. My waiting room is full of your family and friends praying you’d wake up.”
Mary, thankfully, could feel her tears run down across her cheeks. Yes, she was grateful to be alive and would be able to hold her family again, even if she couldn’t stand, or walk, to do so at the moment.
“I’ll go out and tell everyone you are awake and talking. Are you prepared for a few visitors? I won’t let the whole community come in at once, but your family needs to see you to ease their minds,” Doctor Pansy said with a light tone, probably thankful she’d be giving good news instead of the worst possible.
“Yes, please. I need to see Nolie if he’s there too. He must be so upset.”
“He’s here, along with your folks and siblings. I think one or two of the Reagan wives are staying with Burdette while they are waiting to see you.”
As Doctor Pansy left, Mary’s thoughts turned to who would take care of her while she was convalescing. Surely her back would heal in a few weeks and their lives would return to normal.
No, Burdette’s leg would take at least six weeks to heal, and even then she might have problems walking upstairs to their apartment.
The pounding in the back of her head returned as she tried to concentrate and worry about how she was going to manage their problems.
At least she had family to help her and her daughter during their healing.
What if she could never walk up the steps to their apartment again?
“Oh, Mary, you gave us quite a scare! Are you all right now?” Darcie took her left hand as Reuben moved around the table to grab her right hand. This wonderful couple adopted Mary when her and Gabe’s mother, Victoria, abandoned them when Mary was twelve and Gabe was fourteen. Gabe, her half-brother, was Reuben’s son but they had been apart for a decade until Reuben went back to New York to find him.
Darcie’s children, Tate was then a toddler and Amelia, a baby, had given Mary and Gabe a solid family foundation when the adults married.
“I’m all right, but where’s Nolie? I have to see him,” Mary asked as she looked around the room at her family’s worried faces.
“Nolie’s with me, Mary,” Kiowa assured her as he eased her son in front of him.
Mary held Kiowa’s gaze a moment, then let go of her parent’s hands to cradle Nolie as he crashed onto her chest, sobbing with his worry and sorrow. Mary rounded her shoulders in pain at his impact, but at least she felt the pain and could move her arms.
“It’s okay, Nolie. It’s okay,” she comforted her son.
But it was my fault! I should have wiped my feet on
the rug before running up the stairs. You’ve told me umpteen times and—”
“Nolie. Listen to me,” Mary commanded as she pulled Nolie’s face back to make him look at her. “Accidents happen. I was up and down the steps already this morning too, and I don’t remember cleaning my shoes.”
“But—”
“Accidents happen. Life isn’t always fair,” Mary told Nolie, but couldn’t help looking around at her family. It was a lesson many in this group had already learned and now it was Nolie’s turn.
Doctor Pansy cleared her throat and looked at Mary. She understood the doctor was trying to ask if Mary wanted to explain what her situation was, or if she wanted Doctor Pansy to explain.
And how to word it without Nolie feeling any worse?
“Doctor Pansy says I… can’t walk…while my back heals. I’ll need constant help,” Mary tried to keep her voice from wobbling worse than it was.
“Well, we’ll move all three of you into our house, then,” Darcie said with the conviction of a mother hen.
“No,” Kiowa spoke up. “Darcie, you’ll have your hands full taking care of Burdette and Nolie. I’ll take care of Mary myself.”
“Excuse me? There’s no way you’re taking care of my daughter, Kiowa Jones,” Darcie glared at Kiowa in disbelief, along with the rest of her family.
Kiowa met every one of their stares and then turned to Mary, as if to ask her permission. She gave a slight nod.
“I’ll be taking care of Mary, because she’s my wife.”
The only person in the room who didn’t gasp in surprise was her son, Nolie. Only her children knew about her and Kiowa’s secret marriage.
Chapter 3
“What?”
When!”
“No, you can’t be married to—"
“That’s enough! You don’t need the details, other than we married last December. Burdette and Nolie know because they were there for the ceremony, but don’t bother them with questions about it,” Kiowa warned Mary’s family.
He was Nolie and Burdette’s step-father, and it was his right to look after them.
Grooms with Honor Series, Books 10-12 Page 16