“Yes, you would have. Even the doctor thought so.”
Julia pushed Abbie away and lay back down. She then noticed all the women standing in the doorway. “Oh. Hello. Sorry I am such a mess.” She used the sheet to wipe at her eyes and all the ladies crowded around the bed, but it did little good because the tears kept flowing.
“No, dearie,” said Maude as she patted Julia’s arm. “Don’t apologize. We just want you to know you are not alone.”
“Thank you.”
As the women comforted and soothed, a few even offering the truth of their husband’s death, Julia calmed a little but Abbie was not fooled. She knew she was in for a few exhausting days. Julia saw her loss as unfair and Abbie was sure that was going to cause her to cling to her upset for quite a while. She did not expect the girl to get over her loss quickly under any circumstances—she certainly had not—but she did hope Julia did not hang on to this kind of grieving for too long. It could damage the child or worse, cause it to come before its time.
By the time the women left, Julia’s eyes were closing. Abbie sat beside her until she fell asleep and then crawled into her own bed. She fell asleep quickly but suddenly she was yanked awake by deep wracking sobs. She glanced at the squat clock on the bedside table and saw that she had slept barely three hours. Getting up again, she glanced at the bottle the doctor had given her. Not yet, she thought, as she sat on Julia’s bed and began to rub her friend’s back. It was going to be a very long night though. Just once, she thought, she would like to have a peaceful night’s sleep.
*
Abbie woke to Noah leaning over her and groaned. Then she recalled why she was so tired and looked over to find Julia fast asleep. She wished she could do the same but looked at Noah who grinned at her.
“What do you want?”
“Just wondering if you are going to sleep all morning.”
“That would be nice.” She rolled over, turning her back on him, but he tapped her on the shoulder.
She rolled back to look at him. “What?”
“You told me I had to tell someone if I was going somewhere, and I am.”
“Where?”
“I am going to the store.”
“Alone? Do you understand the money part of it all and do you have any?”
“I have a little. I want to see if the store man can get us some books.”
“Can you wait to do that for just a little while? I will get up soon and we can go together.”
“Okay.”
The moment he left she rolled over and closed her eyes. For a few minutes she enjoyed it, but then a nagging thought kept her from falling asleep. Noah was a child. A child would not understand that a little while could be a few hours. He would probably be back in a few minutes. Sighing, she got out of bed and rubbed her hands over her face. She promised herself a nice long nap in the afternoon.
Getting dressed, she washed her face and tied back her hair. After donning her shoes and gathering up little money she had, she trudged down the stairs. She found Noah in the kitchen eating a lovely cooked breakfast. Mabel served her a big cup of coffee the moment she sat down at the table then proceeded to cook her a breakfast. After some coffee, Abbie woke up enough to wonder where the woman got the food.
“Have some supplies come in?” she asked.
“They did. Two full wagons, so your lieutenant brought us over some.”
“That was good of him. I hope they could spare it.”
“I didn’t ask, which was a bit rude of me, but I was not about to do anything to make him take it back.”
“Probably wise.”
“I did make him a nice breakfast from it though.”
Abbie smiled and then proceeded to eat the plateful Mabel set in front of her. She was just wondering if Matthew would come back, when he appeared at the back door and rapped on it. Mabel gave him a gesture to come in and he did, then took a seat opposite her. He looked well rested she thought a little sourly and then felt guilty for the thought.
“Ye are up far earlier than I expected.” He looked at her face. “Earlier than ye wanted to, I suspect.”
“Was that a polite way of telling me I look exhausted?”
He smiled. “My poor attempt at it, aye. Julia?”
“Yes, Julia. She is taking it very hard. It wakes her up in the night.”
“And then wakes ye.” He glanced at Noah who was concentrating on his food. “But I suspicion it was not Julia’s grief that woke ye up this morning.”
“I didn’t wake her up. I was just looking at her to see if she would wake up and then she opened her eyes.”
Abbie could tell that the way Matthew had a hasty drink of the coffee Mabel set in front of him that he was fighting to hide a grin. “Noah wants to go to the store to see if he can get Mr. Darby to get some children’s books in.”
“Ah. Read all the ones ye have, eh?”
“Yes,” said Noah.
“Weel, I can have a look through town and see what I can find if you want.”
“That would be helpful, but I don’t think we ought to just steal from anyone who left them behind.”
“Nay, it isn’t stealing, it is borrowing. We will put them back when they are done.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed her empty plate aside. Seeing that Noah was done she added his empty plate to hers and carried them to the sink. Then she sat back down to finish her coffee. When she finished her coffee she looked at Noah.
“We can go now.”
The boy jumped out of his seat and waited with obvious impatience for her to join him, but Abbie looked at Matthew. “Perhaps I will see you later.”
“I think that is a real possibility.”
Walking off with Noah to get their coats, Abbie decided that Matthew was a bit fresh in the morning. She caught the boy by the hand and they walked off to the store. It did not surprise her to find no books there, but the man kindly lent her two that he and his wife had kept around for their grandchildren when they came to visit. Then she walked back to the house and, once inside, looked at Noah.
“I am going back to bed for a while.”
“Why?”
“Because Julia is very upset and kept waking me up all night long and I got very little sleep.”
“Oh, but will you be awake later to read us a story?”
“I will do that when it is time for you to go to bed.”
“Okay.”
She shook her head as she watched him run up the stairs and into the children’s room. Then she slowly made her way back to her own room, found Julia still sleeping and, after hanging up her coat, she got ready to go to bed. She prayed no one had any emergency or upset because she intended to sleep for a few hours, and if someone woke her before then, she suspected she would not be pleasant. She crawled into bed and snuggled down beneath the covers, tensing when Julia whimpered. When no other sound came after a few moments she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
Chapter Eight
“It still cannot be moved much.”
Matthew grimaced. “It has just finished healing, Boyd. The scar is still raw. Ye need to give it time.”