Moonlight on Water (36 page)

“Does he think K. C. will recover?”

She walked with him out into the hallway and sat on the top stair. Resting her head against the wall, she said, “I've asked him that every day. The answer is always the same—we must wait and see. If she can survive the disease's symptoms, it'll be obvious, for the first recovery is almost as quick as the onset.”

He sat beside Rachel and took her hand. Her skin was raw from the constant wringing of cloths to put around K. C.'s throat to keep the little girl from taking a chill. He cupped her cheek with his other hand. She sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned against it.

Looking past her, he could see out the window at the far end of the hallway. The sun's glitter on the Ohio River held a siren song for him, urging him to return to the free life that was his. Everything he had dreamed of since he was K. C.'s age awaited him there.

He took a deep breath and said, “Honey, I've got to leave.
The Ohio Star
is already more than a week overdue with its very first shipment. I don't want to leave you when K. C. is still ailing, but—”

“You must go.” She sat straighter and met his eyes. The anger or disappointment he had feared he would see was not there. Only fatigue that must be weighing on her eyelashes because her eyes were only half open.

“Rachel, I want to stay and help with K. C.”

“I know that.” She stroked his cheek. “I also know that if you don't deliver that shipment, you and Horace will lose
The Ohio Star
.”

“K. C.—”

She interrupted him again. “Doc Bamburger and I are taking care of her as best we can. There's so little we can do.” She sighed. “I hope whoever's left out at River's Haven will change their minds and allow him to go there to help.”

“Even if they did, would he have time? There are so many ill in Haven. I heard what you said to your brother out there. Doc Bamburger can't tend to everyone who's sick in Haven
and
in River's Haven.”

“I don't know what we'll do if he sickens.” She took his face in her hands. “I know why you need to go, but I wish you could stay.”

“You've found a home in Haven. I can't do the same. My life is the river. I'm glad I was here to help you bring the children from River's Haven.”

“You always seem to be around when I need you to save me from my own stupidity.”

“It wasn't stupid to save those children.”

“No, it wasn't, and it wasn't stupid to fall in love with you.”

He smiled sadly.
“That
was stupid.”

“I don't care. I love you.”

Her lips welcomed his, and he wanted to lose himself in her warmth. As he teased her ear with the tip of his tongue, she whispered his name. His fingers slipped along her, rediscovering every delight that awaited him. He brightened her skin with kisses until the longing for her became a need.

It took every bit of his willpower to release her as a clock downstairs chimed three times.

She rose and straightened her dress. “I must tend to Kitty Cat. The doctor said it's important not to miss a single time of clearing out her throat.”

He stood more slowly. With his feet on a lower riser, his eyes were even with hers. His arm around her waist brought her back to him as he asked, “Will you be all right?” He shook his head. “I don't know how many times I've asked you, and your answer's the same. You'll be fine.”

“I
will
be.”

He tipped her chin toward him. “I know how you hate to be alone.”

“I'm not alone. I have Kitty Cat in there.” She pointed to the bedroom, then put her hand over her heart. “And I have you here.”

“I'll be back as soon as I can.”

“I know.”

“Are you going to stay in Haven?”

“For now. I really can't make any plans.” She glanced at the bedroom door.

He tilted her face toward him again. “If, after she's better, you want to go somewhere else,
The Ohio Star
will take you any place along the river where you want to settle.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice suddenly as cold as it had been when she bade her brother goodbye. Was that what she was telling
him
now?

He had thought now—when she had no more connections to River's Haven—she would reconsider his offer for the life that would make them both happy. They would have each other and the lives they wanted. Or so he had thought. He had been wrong again.

As she turned to go back into the room, he opened his mouth to call after her. He closed it Anything he said now would only hurt her more.

Wyatt walked down the stairs, halting when he heard a weak cry. K. C.! That concoction that Rachel was using must burn her already ravaged throat. His hand tightened on the banister; then he strode out to the street. As he reached the gate, he saw Sawyer on his porch.

He was about to call to Sawyer and ask about the children, but paused when Mrs. Sawyer opened the door and held out her hand to her husband. The look they exchanged was so intimate that Wyatt felt like a voyeur. It linked them together, and it was made up of a tenderness that could not be described and a love that did not need to be.

Walking along the street, he stared at
The Ohio Star
. The fingers of smoke coming from the twin smokestacks announced that Horace had the boiler going, just as Wyatt had asked. The cargo was no longer on the deck, so it must have been put in the storage room, just as Wyatt had asked. The planks had been pulled in, disconnecting the boat with the land, just as Wyatt had asked.

He looked back at the village as he went down the hill to the river. Then he turned toward the river. He was a riverman, and he had a chance that few others got.
The Ohio Star
would make him and Horace rich men.

“How is K. C.?” Horace asked as Wyatt strode down the pier.

“Just the same.” Loosening one of the thick ropes from the post holding the boat in place, he tossed it onto the deck. He walked to the other.

“We're really leaving today?” Horace walked along the prow of the boat, matching Wyatt's steps. “You're leaving them when the young'un is so sick?”

“Rachel told me to go so we didn't lose
The Ohio Star
.” He jumped aboard, sensing the eagerness of the boat to take to the current in the middle of the river. He waited for the answering anticipation to fill him.

“This shipment can wait,” Horace argued.

“We're more than a week late.”

“Who cares? There isn't anything perishable in the storerooms.”

“Perishable …” He grabbed the railing on the stairs and started up them. “C'mon, Horace. You need to get the boiler sending some pressure to the wheels before we drift out into the river.”

“I can't believe you're abandoning her after you seduced her.”

Wyatt climbed to the uppermost deck with Horace trailing after him. Throwing open the door to the pilothouse, he faced his partner and asked, “And why can't you believe that, Horace? Haven't you abandoned every woman you've bedded up and down the Ohio?”

“You ain't me, and Miss Rachel
loves
you!” Horace stayed outside the pilothouse, his hands fisted. He hit one against the other in frustration. “And you love
her
! That's the difference!”

“We can't talk about this now.” He glanced out the window. “The boat's drifting away from the pier. Will you get the wheels turning?”

He thought Horace would say something more, but his partner stamped away. Wyatt was sure he could hear every step between the upper deck and the boiler room.

Resting his arms on the wheel, Wyatt waited for the whistle that would tell him the boat was ready to get underway. He started to look downriver, but his eyes were drawn back to the little town huddled beside the Ohio. When he and Horace had first come here, seeking a haven to repair
The Ohio Star
, he had not guessed that he would leave with his mind on a woman who had given him every reason to stay. Every reason, but then she had asked him to go to seek his dreams upon the river.

The whistle squealed up the tube beside the wheel. He reached for the controls for the paddlewheels. This would be the first time he had piloted
The Ohio Star
with both her paddlewheels working. A dream come true was now his. He steered the boat out into the river, this time not looking at anything but the water.

“Easy, easy,” Rachel said as she put her arm around Kitty Cat. Rearranging the little girl's hands on the neck of the guitar, she added, “I told you that you could play it only if you didn't sing. You can't strain your throat now.”

“But, Rachel—”

She put her finger to the child's lips. “No unnecessary talking either, Kitty Cat. You must rest your throat so you don't get sick again. That's the C chord. Now show me that G chord.”

As Kitty Cat stretched her short fingers to place them in the proper place among the frets, Rachel smiled. She had almost given up on miracles, but Kitty Cat was alive. As the doctor had told her, once the little girl passed the most crucial moment of the disease's progress, the first signs of recovery would come swiftly.

Across the street, both Sean and Belinda were slowly recovering. Others had not been so lucky. Many houses still had new cases, and more than a dozen people had died. Four of those were children from River's Haven, but they had been beyond help when they arrived in the village.

Somewhere amid all the work and the prayers, she had been cured, too. She had committed her life to River's Haven because she had been afraid of death, which had taken all her family except Merrill. As she had fought to save Kitty Cat, she realized that she had to accept death as she had learned with Wyatt's help to accept life. She had to let go of what had been and not regret its loss, but relish the memories she would never lose.

She looked in the direction of River's Haven. In the past two days, all sorts of rumors had come along the river, and she had no idea which ones might be true. There were whispers that everyone in the Community was gone or dead. Other stories suggested that the River's Haven folks had found a surefire cure for diphtheria but would not share it. That rumor she did not believe, because the River's Haven children would not still be here if that was true. She hoped the other tale was as inaccurate.

A whistle blew, and Kitty Cat tried to move to look out the window toward the railroad tracks.

With a laugh, Rachel kept her in place. “Young lady, you need to rest. Doc Bamburger told me the last time he was here that you must stay away from drafts.”

Rachel's smile evaporated as she picked up the guitar and put it in a corner of the small bedroom. Doc Bamburger was now sick with the disease he had tried to halt. The villagers were left on their own without the doctor's gentle care or any medicine. Telegrams sent seeking help had not been answered. No one, not even doctors, wanted to risk death by coming to Haven.

Had that whistle announced the train arriving from Chicago with the medicine the village so desperately needed? She hoped so.

What her heart yearned for could not be relieved that easily. She lowered her eyes before Kitty Cat could see her sorrow. How odd that she now had what she had always hoped for—a family—but the dream was hollow without Wyatt.

“Are we done with my lesson?” whispered Kitty Cat. “Will you read me a story?”

“The one from Miss Underhill's fairy tale book?” She smiled weakly.

“Yes! The one about the princess on a glass mountain and the prince who rescued her.”

Picking up the book, Rachel sat on the bed. She started to page through it. When Kitty Cat took it and balanced it on her lap, the little girl quickly found the story she wanted.

“‘Once upon a time,'” Rachel began, “‘there was a king with a daughter so beautiful that he placed her on a glass mountain. Only the bravest, most worthy knight would be able to scale it and win her heart. So she sat there, day after day, year after—'”

“Rachel!” Alice came running up the stairs.

Putting down the book, Rachel called, “We're in here.”

“Rachel, Emma just stopped by to say that medicine
and
doctors have arrived in Haven!” She smiled at Kitty Cat. “Maybe everyone else can be saved.”

“Doctors?” asked Rachel. “How did anyone convince them to come here?”

“I can be very persuasive,” said a deeper voice from the hallway. “Or so I've been told.”

“Wyatt!” She jumped up from the bed.

He scooped her up into his arms and twirled her about. As he lowered her back to her feet, his mouth slanted across hers, eager and demanding and offering her everything she had feared was lost forever. She locked her fingers behind his nape and clung to him, fearing if she let him go she would open her eyes to find he was only the fantasy created by a broken heart.

When he raised his mouth from hers, his heart beat against her and his breath warmed her face. He was real!

“What are you doing back here?” she asked, combing her fingers up through his hair. She wanted to touch every inch of him to convince herself that he was really here holding her. “Your shipment was going to take you at least a week down the river.”

“I couldn't worry about delivering some dry goods down the river. My most important delivery was right back here to Haven.”

“You?
You
brought doctors and medicine?”

His thumb coursed along her cheekbones as he smiled. “They really didn't need much persuading. The doctors want to stop this outbreak of diphtheria before it goes beyond Haven and River's Haven.”

“River's Haven? You took doctors there, too?”

“Our first stop once we had a full cargo of help to bring here.” He smiled. “Your brother's alive and well and just as ornery as ever, but even he had to see the sense of getting assistance from outsiders.”