Darkness

Gregor

When Sarah and I get back, with a little package that the kitchen prepared for me, Samuel is dealing with a few more patients. The other Samuel, his uncle, is in Matilda’s room, trying to wheedle her into eating her soup.

“Hello, Matilda,” I tell the child, “this is my friend Sarah. She thought you might like to have her company tonight.”

Matilda brightens. Wolk tells me, “Sarah resembles Matilda’s nursemaid, with her dark skin, and the child feels comforted by this. She is more homesick at this point than actually ill.”

Sarah smiles and sits down on the side of Matilda’s bed. I hand her the package. “Hello, Matilda,” Sarah smiles at her. She peers into the bowl of soup, and picks up the spoon to stir it around. “Don’t you like your soup?”

Matilda crosses her arms and shakes her head. “It’s yucky.”

Sarah takes a small taste from the spoon, and whispers to her, “I think you’re right.” Then she opens the little basket, and says, “I have something better here for you. She pulls out some fresh bread and other choice items, and lays them on Matilda’s tray. “If you finish this supper,” she whispers conspiratorially to the child, looking over at her father as though hiding a secret, “I have a cookie in here that you can have.”

Matilda sets to eating her new meal with a good appetite.

I lean close to Samuel. “See? She’s fine. Go get your nephew and take him to the club for dinner. You both need a meal and a rest.”

Samuel grins at me. “Very well, my boy, you win.” He kisses Matilda on the head, and tells her, “Be a good girl for Sarah, my sweet, she will tuck you in after you’re finished with your supper.”

“And my cookie!” Matilda reminds him.

“Of course, Matilda Rose, and your cookie.”

I shoo him away with a smile, and he leaves the room.

“He is very relieved about the arrangement with Sarah, and very much looking forward to gossiping and dining at the club.”

Well, good. One problem solved.

“How’re the other patients?” I ask Wolk silently, watching Sarah patiently and kindly guiding Matilda through her meal.

“The ones who had the benefit of your touch last night are all much improved, and should be well enough to go home in the morning. The patients who arrived today are still quite ill.”

“Well,” I think to him, “looks like I have my work cut out for me.”

The doctor ducks his head into the room, his uncle standing behind him. “Thank you Gregor,” he tells me, “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Go,” I tell him, “eat and rest. I’ll take care of everything here.”

I say goodnight to Sarah and Matilda, making sure to lay my hand on the child’s head for a brief time, feeling the healing energy flow. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything, Sarah. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this.”

She smiles and nods, and I leave Matilda in her capable hands to go out and start visiting the other patients. Time to get handsy.

Rosy

“My turn to hold him!” Emily tells Grace, who relinquishes Vernon unwillingly only after Mother turns a dire gaze upon her. She brought the kids over for a visit after dinner. The days are growing longer as summer approaches, so it feels like there is more time before bedtime for the siblings.

It’s a homey little scene. Ben is at the infirmary still, where Gregor has gone for the night. Jake and Jack are nowhere in sight, taking advantage of the lingering twilight to go to the fort they built somewhere down by the river. Nadine is still here, but not working, she is just visiting with Mother and I for a while before she goes home. Sometimes I get the sense that she prefers to linger here, rather than spending the evening with her husband, but I don’t pry into her personal business.

Emily holds Vernon under the arms, letting him stand up on her lap, and he energetically bounces up and down, giving her an enormous smile, and my sisters coo and giggle, making him burst out laughing.

Us ladies, all mothers, smile at the happy scene. What could be nicer than the sound of laughing children?

“Is Gregor coming back from the infirmary any time soon?” Mother asks.

“I don’t really expect him to,” I tell her, “he promised to watch over the patients while Doctor Duncan goes to have supper and take a rest.”

She shrugs. “I don’t see why it has to be your husband. Wasn’t he out working at Homochitto all day?”

My mother doesn’t understand. Nobody else does. “He enjoys helping the patients, Mother, and he’s really good at it.”

“He might need more help,” she says. “I heard at the mercantile that more people are falling ill. I think there will be more patients by tomorrow.”

Nadine adds, “I think that’s true. A couple of my husband’s leatherworkers were out sick. And he told me last night that some of the slave patrol are too.”

Mother sniffs. “Well, I won’t mind if the slave patrol is too sick to be making a nuisance of themselves. I sure wish they hadn’t built that whipping post right outside the store. Most days they have some poor slave strung up there for hardly any reason at all.”

It always makes me shudder a little to be reminded of the whipping post. I will never forget that dark day when Gregor was its victim.

Nadine shakes her head. “Pastor Colbert seems to think that the patrol is justified. We’ve been going to church every Sunday since he arrived, and he talks a lot about keeping everyone in their place, especially slaves and Indians. I used to wish my husband would be more faithful, but I’ve started to regret it. The sermons seem very dark to me now that we have a new pastor.” She sighs.

My goodness, poor Nadine. She doesn’t often talk like this, it must be hard on her. I remember the one sermon I heard Pastor Colbert preach, the first day he was here, and I didn’t like it at all. Neither did Gregor.

I can’t think of any response, and apparently neither can Mother, and there is a moment of silence while I thread my needle for the embroidery project that has been lingering all year. I hardly ever get the chance to work on it now that Vernon is here.

The silence is interrupted by the boys coming back. “Good thing you’re here,” Mother says, “it’s nearly dark out. Just about time to go home and get to bed.” The girls moan from where they are now lying on the rug with the baby, encouraging him to roll over.

Jake says, scratching his arm, “Um, is there any of that pie left from dinner, Nadine? I was telling Jack how delicious it was.”

Nadine smiles and stands up. “Just a little. Kids, you all want a little bedtime snack?”

They leap up and follow her in, leaving Vernon on the floor staring after them, wondering where his playmates went.

“Ha! My turn,” Mother says, and swoops down to pick up her grandson, cuddling him and smooching his cheek.

Before long, my family has departed to cross the street and go to bed in their little house. Nadine goes home, Jake heads to bed, and I take Vernon upstairs to nurse him and lay him in his cradle.

Then to lay in my lonely bed, again without Gregor, and wish he was here. I know that he is away because he is helping everyone, including Ben and Samuel, but sometimes I wish he wasn’t quite so selfless. I’d like to keep him more to myself, if I could.

I fall asleep, finally, thinking about the kiss that he gave me before he left to go to the infirmary, promising me better things to come.

My dreams are full of him, his slender and muscular body, the things he does to me, the way he makes me feel.

Gregor

By midnight, I have had the chance to make the rounds several times for each of the fourteen patients here at the infirmary, spending time touching them through one artifice or another, concentrating on healing each of them. The people from last night are almost entirely well, including Ben, who grouses that he is being forced to stay here for no particular reason.

“I think Samuel will let you go home in the morning,” I tell him. Other than putting my hand on his forehead to check his temperature, I haven’t had any excuse to touch him very much. It seems fine, though, Wolk tells me that his system shows little sign of lingering yellow fever symptoms. “I’m sure he’ll want you to take it easy for a few days, though, so don’t bother coming to work yet. We won’t even be there tomorrow, Rosalind is coming out to Homochitto with me to help plan the wedding with Margaret and Dalila, while the crew finishes up building the cabin for Moses.”

He huffs impatiently and crosses his arms, clearly bursting with the desire to get out of bed and go help. “I didn’t even help at all with the cabin, or the infirmary, or anything.”

“Well,” I say, “maybe rather than come back to work for a few days at my house, you could volunteer to stay here and help Samuel with the other patients?” I add, “After he gives you a clean bill of health, of course.”

“You don’t need me at home?” he asks.

“Well, we will be gone tomorrow, and then again on Tuesday for the wedding. Maybe you could come on Sunday or Monday, if you’re feeling up to it. But otherwise just rest, and if Samuel agrees, you could help him doing some light work around here.”

He nods, grateful to have a plan to become useful again.

“For now, though,” I say, “get some sleep. If Sam gets back and finds me keeping you awake yakking, we’ll both be in trouble!”

He grins, and I manage to pat his shoulder before he lies down on his pillow.

I peek into Matilda’s room, very quietly, and see that she and Sarah are both sound asleep. “Matilda is also basically well,” Wolk tells me.

I am finishing up making one more round of the new patients, just to catch them up on their healing to where the former patients were, when Samuel returns.

“Back so soon?” I ask with a smile.

He shakes his head ruefully. “I was away longer than I intended. It’s been almost six hours.”

“Good,” I say, “you needed it. Feel better?”

“I do, so much. Thank you, Gregor. Everything all right around here?”

“Yep. Very quiet. Everyone seems to be asleep, and they were all feeling pretty well last I did the rounds to check on them. I think you’ll have a quiet night unless anyone new arrives.”

“Great. Go home.”

“What? I’d be happy to stay, I told you.”

“Nope. Get out of here. You said yourself everyone is sleeping and it should be a quiet night. I will never forgive myself if you end up getting sick because you are wearing yourself out so I don’t have to.”

I am going to argue, but Wolk says, “Darling, he is right. Samuel is rested, the patients are all feeling better, their symptoms relieved, and your wife misses you.”

“Really?” I ask him silently. “How so?”

“She was feeling very lonely for you when she went to sleep, after the nights you have spent away. And she is currently dreaming about making love to you.”

Oh. It’s not yet one in the morning, so I have hours before sunrise. I wonder how she would feel about my waking her up to make her dreams come true, I think wryly.

“She would most certainly welcome it.”

“All right then, Samuel, I’ll head out if you insist,” I tell him, suddenly eager to be home.

“Get some sleep,” he says.

I only nod. Who knows, maybe? It is the gift that usually only Rosalind can give me. But I plan to make her a gift first.

When I get home, I take off my shoes and creep silently up the stairs. I don’t want to disturb Jake or Vernon. As I disrobe I watch her head on the pillow, her long hair tousled as she turns in her sleep. I see her move beneath the covers. “Is she still…?”

“Oh yes,” Wolk thinks, seeming amused. “Her dream is quite… graphic.”

Oh hooray! I slip between the covers, and when I move my hand across her body, and slip it underneath her nightgown, she comes awake with a gasp. Without a word, she turns to me, and pulls me to her.

Bliss.