“He was worth it.” The whispered words rang loud in the room and even louder in Jacob’s ears. The pain, the exhaustion, the very real chance that she might still die echoed in the weariness of her voice, yet her conviction drowned out all else. No matter what the sacrifice she was called to make, her love for her child made him worthy. “William,” she announced, her eyes again growing heavy. “For your father.”
“William,” Trent repeated. “It’s a fine name.” He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his wife’s forehead.
Jacob knew what he would be wanting to do if it had been his wife who had barely survived the night. And he certainly wouldn’t
be wanting a roomful of company looking on while he climbed into bed beside his woman and held her and the babe she had blessed him with. He caught Mollie’s eye and signaled for her to gather his instruments while he pulled Alice into the front room in order to give her further instructions about caring for her sister and little William.
“She’ll need lots of rest. Tell Trent not to let her out of bed for at least a week. I’ll stop by every day to check for infection and to be sure the child is getting enough nourishment. She’ll need to feed the babe regular, even if her own strength is flagging. You can help her set the child to her breast if need be.”
“I’ll plan to move in for the week, Doc.” Alice crossed her arms over her chest and gave him such a fierce look, Jacob was sure neither Trent nor Amy Walters would be able to dissuade her should they try. “I’ll keep my nieces busy, take care of the cookin’ and cleanin’, and see that Amy gets the rest she needs.”
Jacob was nodding his agreement when Mollie slipped out of the bedroom and handed him his doctor’s bag.
“Alice,” she said softly. “Mr. Walters asked to see you.”
The other woman scuttled off without another word. Jacob had just placed his hand at the small of Mollie’s back to lead her toward the door when Trent rushed out of the bedroom.
“Wait, Doc.” The urgency in his voice had Jacob turning and walking back toward him in a flash.
“Has something happened to your wife? The babe?” His grip on the doctor’s bag grew painful. Could he have missed something, some symptom hidden beneath the mother’s fatigue?
Trent Walters shook his head. “No, Doc. They’re both sleeping. I just . . . I wanted to thank you.” The liquid glimmer in the man’s eyes made Jacob’s throat constrict. “I thought I was gonna lose them both. Mrs. Horeb said as much. You saved my family, Doc.” He reached out and clasped Jacob’s free hand in a firm grip. “Thank you.”
Never much good at accepting thanks, Jacob turned his gaze away and cleared his throat. “Yes, well . . . you should be thanking Miss Tate as well. If it weren’t for her quick thinking, your babe would surely have perished.”
Mollie blushed as Mr. Walters released his hold on Jacob in order to embrace her in an enthusiastic hug. Jacob frowned at the sight of another man’s arms around his woman, but it was only right that she receive credit for the part she’d played.
His woman
. Had he really just labeled her as such? It seemed odd yet so very, very right. What also felt very, very right was getting Trent Walters’s arms away from Mollie.
Jacob clasped the man’s shoulder. “Your wife’s not out of danger yet. Neither is William. I’ll be stopping by regularly to check on their progress.” Trent stepped away from Mollie to regard Jacob with solemn eyes. “I left instructions with your sister-in-law. Be sure to follow them.”
The man vowed to follow each instruction to the letter, then showed Jacob and Mollie out. Jacob took Mollie up in front of him on his horse and kept Galen to a walk as they rode back to town. Dawn had begun to lighten the sky, but Jacob didn’t want to risk his mount tripping over an unseen obstacle.
Who was he kidding? He held Galen to a walk because Mollie felt too good leaning against his chest. He wrapped one arm about her waist and drew her even closer. She tipped her face back to look at him.
“We made a good team tonight, didn’t we?”
He thought they’d make a good team every night. If she would consent to a different type of partnership. He squeezed her a little tighter. “We made an excellent team. Thank you for coming.”
“I’ll come whenever you need me, Jacob.” Her face looked so earnest. It seemed only natural to bend down and touch his lips to hers.
“I fear I’ll always need you, Mollie.” He whispered the words in her ear, low and gruff. Then he kissed her again. Urgent. Breathless. A kiss that conveyed all his words could not. Her lips responded, softening under his onslaught. Her fingers tangled in the hair at his nape as she turned to accept his kiss more fully. A warmth that defied the predawn coolness suffused him. This
was
his woman.
Galen meandered to a halt at his master’s lack of attention, then shifted restlessly. The sideways motion brought Jacob back to his senses. He eased his lips away from Mollie’s and stroked his hand over her hair. Her dazed expression made him smile. One of these days, he really ought to try kissing her when their feet were on the ground.
“I need to get you back to Mrs. Peabody’s,” he said, as much a reminder to himself as an explanation to her. He took the reins more firmly in hand and nudged Galen into a trot.
Once outside her back door, he held out his arm and helped Mollie slide down. He instantly missed her warmth and her gentle weight pressed against his chest.
“Take the afternoon off and get some rest, Mollie. You deserve it after your hard work tonight.”
“I don’t mind coming to the clinic,” she said, even as a yawn snuck up on her and stretched her mouth wide before she could hide it with her hand. “Mrs. Peabody doesn’t take kindly to idlers who take to their beds when the sun is shining.”
“Then go visit Adam. I’m sure Curtis would let you make use of a spare bedroom for a couple hours.”
Mollie stepped close to his horse and placed her hand on his knee. His blood pumped at the contact, but it was the happy glimmer in her eyes that captivated him. “You know,” she said, “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you speak of him with no trace of bitterness in your voice. I like it.”
She turned away then and disappeared into the house, leaving Jacob to stare after her. How had she snuck past his defenses so completely that he found himself wanting to please her more than he wanted to hold on to the grudge that had fueled him for so long?
An irrational urge to follow her into the house and hold her close nearly took him off his horse. The last time he’d felt love this strong was when his parents and sister were alive. Could he risk opening himself to that kind of pain again?
He had to. Because the pain of seeing her share her life with another man would be immeasurably worse.
Chapter Ten
Early the following afternoon, Jacob stepped out of the Cold Spring Café after treating himself to a slab of beefsteak, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, and a slice of blackberry pie made from local berries that had just come into season. The sweet tang of the syrupy berry filling lingered deliciously on his tongue. Could this day get any better? Two lives spared in the dark of night, a soul-searing kiss with the woman he loved as dawn broke, and a string of satisfied customers that morning with minor ailments that could easily be remedied. Life was sweet.
“Dr. Sadler.” The tart, pinched voice matched the puckered, disapproving face of the woman marching with military precision toward him. The click of her heels on the boardwalk tapped out a cadence as tight as any drummer’s on the battlefield. “I’d like a word with you, sir.”
The flavors he’d just been savoring soured in Jacob’s mouth. “Mrs. Peabody.” He dipped his chin and touched the brim of his hat. “What can I do for you, ma’am?”
The silver-haired woman glared at him from beneath a straw bonnet that sported so many feathers he marveled that the thing hadn’t taken flight. “What you can do is cease encouraging my boarder to engage in improper behavior.”
The humor he’d found in Mrs. Peabody’s hat vanished. Jacob clenched his jaw as he fought to maintain a polite expression. Had the woman been awake before the sun that morning? Had she somehow witnessed the kiss he and Mollie had shared? But no, she couldn’t have. They’d still been on the outskirts of town. Even if Mollie’s landlady had the eyes of a hawk, she wouldn’t have been able to see. But what if someone else had seen and had spread the tale?
“To what, precisely, are you referring, madam?” Jacob adopted his best elitist airs. One couldn’t spend holidays in New York and Boston attending parties with the Thorntons of King Star Shipping without learning how to put an upstart in their place with a downcast glance, superior tone, and a sniff of disapproval. He’d been on the receiving
end of such tactics often enough to mimic them with frightening accuracy.
Mrs. Peabody retreated a step and blinked. But he had to hand it to her, she didn’t stay cowed for long. “I’m referring, of course, to the fact that you sent for her in the dead of night to attend a birthing.” She gave a fairly credible sniff of disdain of her own as she eyed him. “Everyone knows it’s indecent for an unmarried lady to attend such an event. It’s far too indelicate for an innocent. Besides, she has absolutely no experience that would make her an asset in such a situation, which means the only thing your little stunt accomplished was to expose Mollie’s reputation to further censure.”
Jacob tightened his hands into fists in order to keep them from wrapping themselves around the prudish woman’s neck. He glared a warning at her, but Mrs. Peabody’s righteous indignation would not be stifled.
“It’s bad enough the girl has thievery in her past, but now every decent man in town will worry that her nightly escapades have irreparably tarnished her virtue as well. No one will have her.”
“That’s enough,” Jacob ground out through his clenched jaw. A quick glance told him no one had yet taken notice of them. He needed to keep it that way, so he kept his outer demeanor polite even as his voice lowered to a dangerous growl that did nothing to mask his fury.
“The only one impugning Miss Tate’s reputation is you, madam. While it is true that Miss Tate is not yet married, she is an excellent nurse. If it weren’t for her intervention last night, Trent Walters would be burying a son today, and possibly a wife as well. I won’t apologize for calling her to that birthing, nor will I allow you to cast suspicion upon her character in my presence.”
Mrs. Peabody’s eyes widened, as did her nostrils, as if she’d finally caught scent of the predator stalking her.
“And if I hear any disparaging remarks about Miss Tate’s reputation, I will place the blame firmly at your feet. I’m sure the Walters family would be glad to champion her. As would my uncle. It would be a shame for someone as socially prominent as yourself to lose her standing in the community because you could not refrain from wagging your tongue.”
The woman reared back and sputtered. Jacob took that as his cue to leave. He tipped his hat and strode away from her. He needed to get Mollie out from under that woman’s roof as soon as possible.
The most desirable option being moving her into the clinic as his wife. But she deserved a proper courtship, not some rushed affair that would lend itself to whispers behind closed doors. Of course, if he were openly courting her, the hours they spent together in the clinic or on house calls could raise eyebrows as well. Jacob smacked the trunk of one of the young pines that stood outside his clinic with enough force to shake needles loose. Shoot, maybe he should just abduct her and elope. A smile finally curved his lips as he imagined Mollie’s response to that idea. She’d probably dose his coffee with castor oil for a week if he suggested such a thing.
He was still smiling when he entered the clinic’s parlor and found Curtis waiting for him. Oddly enough, he didn’t immediately frown at the older man’s presence. The usual tightness still gripped his chest, but the pressure had lessened. Perhaps the healing between them had truly begun.
“Curtis.” Jacob nodded politely to his uncle as he moved across the room. “What can I do for you? Is Adam’s leg paining him?”
“No. The boy’s fine. I was looking for Mollie.” The worry lines cutting into the man’s forehead set off a twinge of unease in Jacob’s gut.
“She assisted me with a birthing last night. I gave her the afternoon off. Hopefully she’s resting somewhere.” Jacob kept his tone light even as a growing sense of dread dug claws into him.
Curtis gave no sign of relief at the news, which only intensified Jacob’s trepidation.
“I know all about the Walters baby. Mollie told me herself this morning when she came out to the house. Even asked if she could use the spare room for a nap later this afternoon. Then she spent a good thirty minutes chatting with Adam before heading back to town to prepare lunch for Mrs. Peabody. She promised to return with a surprise for Adam. We expected her an hour ago. The boy’s sure she’s delaying just to torture him, but something inside me warns that it’s more serious. I came to town to search her out. Checked with Mrs. Peabody first. Caught her as she was headed out for some shopping. She informed me that Mollie had left nearly an hour past, right after cleaning up the luncheon dishes. Now I learn that she’s not here, either.”
Curtis shifted from one booted foot to the other, then finally looked Jacob square in the eye. “I think something’s happened to her, Jacob.
I can’t explain it, but I can’t shake the feeling, either. Will you . . . will you help me look for her?”
The man swallowed hard but held Jacob’s gaze. Between the bitterness Jacob had spewed at him the first time they’d met followed by the cold silence he’d doled out when he’d made that house call yesterday, it must have taken a lot of fortitude, not to mention desperation, for his uncle to ask such a favor of him. It was the desperation that spurred Jacob to agree.
“I will.”
Curtis nodded, his relief palpable. Jacob felt no such consolation. Acres of forest lay between Cold Spring and Curtis’s farm. Too many places for an injured person to lay undiscovered.
“Saddle my horse,” Jacob said as he strode toward the back of the house. “I’ll be ready as soon as I grab my gun and medical kit.”