River

Ben

To have him again in my arms, in the midst of all the trauma of the past two days, threatens to utterly undo me. I don’t know how I will be able to move, to speak, to function. All I want is this. All I want is him.

But when he moves back and looks into my eyes, his own glowing with love, it has to change. He can see there is a problem.

In a moment, he understands and immediately starts taking action to help me. Sometimes he has seemed young and inexperienced to me, but at this moment he takes command in exactly the way that I need. I am incredibly grateful and relieved. My heart is flooded with a rush of love for this man.

Love that I have not before allowed myself to admit. Love that I know to be far deeper than anything I have ever known before, deeper than anything I ever dreamed of achieving for myself. And love that I know must be doomed.

He might be able to save David, but I still know of no way that I am going to be able to save myself from Mason’s clutches. Gregor might know everything, Mason might be foiled, the day might be saved. Yet Samuel is going to learn about my involvement, and he will never be able to get past it. Even if Mason never carries out his threat against me, he will still ruin my life. He will still destroy my love.

But at least I can bring Samuel to David. As we walk down to Under-the-hill I get the sense that I must savor every moment with him, because I just know that somehow, this is all going to unravel and I will lose him.

When we get to the boarding house, most of the men have already left and are heading to the pile driver to work. Gregor, though, is still in David’s room, his hand still on David’s forehead, like he hasn’t moved an inch since I left. David doesn’t look quite as red and sweaty as he did before. Maybe the wet cloth is helping.

Samuel moves to the bed at once. “Hello, Gregor,” he says. Gregor seems oddly reluctant to make room for him, but when Samuel looks at him directly, Gregor comes and joins me near my bed. The room seems quite crowded with all four of us in here. There is barely room for our two cots.

“I’m going to head to work, then,” Gregor says, “now that Doctor Duncan is here. Ben, why don’t you stay here for now, so you can help the doctor with anything he needs. Come and get me if I can help.”

Samuel is too focused on David to respond. I whisper to Gregor, “Thank you.” He nods, then leaves the room, but slowly, as though he wishes he did not need to.

Samuel is examining David. “Where are the cuts?” he asks me. I move forward, pull the blanket back, and lift his nightshirt so that Samuel can see where Mason stabbed him. I am sickened by what I see. The cuts are angry and red, swollen, oozing, obviously festering. I had no idea they had gotten so bad. No wonder David is this sick.

Samuel leans in closer to examine him, gently moving his genitals out of the way to inspect the area. “Three cuts?” he mutters to himself. “No, here is a fourth.” He turns his head to look at me. “What happened?” he asks.

I can’t explain. I can’t tell him about Mason. “Er, it was a fight in the tavern,” I tell him. Samuel looks perplexed, probably because these don’t look like any fight wounds I’ve ever seen, but I guess he decides it isn’t that important. He just needs to treat it, no matter how it happened.

“All right. Can you get me my bag?”

I reach over to the door where he left it, and hand it to him. He uses some alcohol and cloth to clean the area, then he brings out a vial of some kind of amber colored fluid. He opens it and starts administering it to the cuts. He looks up at me as I hover anxiously. “This is honey,” he tells me. “It can help reduce infection in wounds.”

Huh. That’s a surprise.

Once he has smeared that on, he reaches back into his bag, and brings out what looks like some tree bark. “I need to make a tea with this, it can reduce pain and swelling, even fever. Is there a kitchen in the boarding house where you can get some boiling water?”

“Er, yeah, I’ll go get some.”

While I am in the kitchen, where the cook that Gregor employs is pouring some boiling water into a teapot for me, I am surprised when Gregor comes back in. What does he want now?

He pulls me into the hallway outside the kitchen, away from the cook’s ears, and softly tells me, “Stu is obviously looking for you and David. He is staring down the dock. I think maybe you should go tell him that David is sick, and that I’ve told you to stay with him. I don’t want Mason to think that you have betrayed him.”

Oh, god. I can’t escape. But I nod.

“I’ll take the water to Samuel,” he says as I leave, continuing to be unaccountably helpful and concerned.

Stu is glaring at me as I approach the other end of the dock. “Mason won’t be happy to hear that you and David are skipping out on your duties,” he says.

“Sorry,” I say. “David is very sick. He can’t leave his bed. The boss told me to stay with him today, so I can’t think of any way that either of us are going to be able to go watch Gregor’s house today. Doesn’t Mason have enough information from yesterday?”

Stu scoffs. “I don’t believe you,” he says. “You’re scheming something.”

I feel my ears burning. “I’ll show you.”

“Fine.” He follows behind me as I lead him back to the boarding house. I am vastly relieved to see that Gregor is already back at the pile driver, working with the other men, paying no attention to me at all.

When we get back to my room, Samuel is still tending David. David is covered up again, and appears to be asleep. I do believe he is looking a little better. He isn’t tossing and turning, or sweating as much. He still looks extremely ill, though. Samuel looks up from what he is doing. “Dr. Duncan,” I say, “this is our friend Stu. He wanted to come and check on David.”

I have no idea how long I am going to be able to keep up this charade, this pretending that I’m not in the middle of a loathsome criminal enterprise that is going to destroy my life.

Samuel just nods. “I’ve done everything I can for now. I’ll come back in two or three hours to check on him. Please stay with him, he shouldn’t be alone. Try to keep the cool cloth on his forehead, it helps with the fever. Rinse it out every few minutes. If you can, get him to sip some of the boiled water, after it cools. Come and get me if he gets worse.” He says it all very formally, professionally. I wonder if he would kiss me if we were alone.

He gathers up his things, packs them in his bag, and walks to the door. “Nice to see you again, Stu. I believe we have met before, playing poker in the tavern. Have a good day,” he says, so gentlemanly and polite that I could almost cry. I am going to lose this, I know I am, and it will destroy me.

When he is gone, I turn to Stu. “Well?”

He grunts. “Fine. I’ll tell Mason.”

He goes, and I collapse on my bed, sitting with my head in my hands.

Mason

I hear somebody approaching my grove, and I duck behind the trees so I can’t be easily seen. But I realize it is Stu, and come back out.

“What are you doing here?” I didn’t tell him to come here this morning.

“David is sick. Ben has to stay with him. So nobody can watch Gregor’s house.”

“What?” I am instantly furious. “They’re planning something. They’ve probably told Gregor what is happening.” They’ll pay for this.

“No, it’s true. I went to their boarding house and looked myself. David looks half dead. The doctor from town was there taking care of him. He told Ben to stay with him.”

“Why is he sick? What’s he got?”

“How should I know?” Stu grumbles. “I didn’t interrogate the doctor.”

“But you believe he is sick?”

“Definitely. It looks like if he’s alive by nightfall it will be a miracle.”

Well, this changes things. I scowl and sit down on the big rock in the center of the grove. “I have to think.”

Stu leans against a tree and waits.

Well, David and Ben are obviously not going to be of any use to me today. I did get some good information from them yesterday.

But honestly, using them was risky. They were not interested in joining me, were only helping because I threatened them. If it came down to it, they wouldn’t have my back. It’s been amusing to torment them, but maybe I’m better rid of them.

Stu, on the other hand, I believe I can rely on. He says he’ll join me on the Trace when I’m done in Natchez. Well, I guess it’s time to start now.

“All right. Forget them. I don’t need them any more. I want you to go watch Gregor’s house for me today.”

“I have to work,” he objects.

I sigh. “No you don’t. You’re coming with me to the Trace tonight, remember? Consider your dock work over as of now.”

“Hmph,” he says, but I can see that he is already adapting to the idea.

“Go on up the hill the back way. I don’t want you back on the dock again. Settle in across the street from Gregor’s house. Try to see if you can catch sight of his woman, I want to know what she is doing. I’ll come up there in a few hours, and we’ll get ready to make our move. We’ll be back on the Trace tonight.”

He grunts, pushes himself off the tree he is leaning against, and heads out of the grove towards the hill.