Chapter 3
Andrew was wonderful.
Julie had decided that on their ride to the church.
He had been polite and kind the whole way.
And then he had continued to be that way on the long ride to the camp.
He was exactly as he had appeared in his letters, if a little more nervous.
That was to be expected. She was also on edge and hoped she hid it well. This was all so new to her.
The camp, though, certainly wasn’t what Julie had pictured in her head when reading Andrew’s letters.
She had expected something a little more settled.
The way he wrote about the place, it seemed that there were the beginnings of houses somewhere and that there was a space for her to set up her apothecary store.
In reality there were tents. White tents, with a cot and a small table and a lantern and nothing else.
Everything in this place was functional but very sparse.
Julie didn’t mind that. Being frugal was something she had learned growing up with a father who was the apothecary in a small town. There was no money to waste.
But this really was the middle of nowhere.
There was nothing and no one around them …
and that was a little scary. Julie had never been in a place where if she walked two hundred yards in any direction she would be so completely alone.
It made her feel a little like the top of her head had been pulled off and her mind was open for all of the universe to peer into.
It was a most unsettling feeling, and so she fought it off with being busy.
After asking Troy where she could get some water to clean up her trunk, she was given a jug and basin.
She headed back to her tent to get started cleaning—and that’s when she saw it.
Sitting on her carpetbag on the cot, its barbed tail held up and over its head, was a big scorpion.
“Oh … goodness.” She took a large step back, bit her lip, and pondered the situation.
Under normal circumstances, Julie was a live and let live kind of person.
She didn’t think that every bug should be squashed just because it was a bug.
She wasn’t one to climb on a table and scream if she saw a spider.
So, she tried to shoo the scorpion out of the tent by jiggling her carpetbag.
It didn’t work. The scorpion just seemed to get angry, flaring its tail at her every time she approached.
“Oh, you blasted creature.”
What was she going to do now? She really did need her bag. Perhaps if she picked up the bag and ran for the door, she could dump the critter on the ground before it got her.
It was as good a plan as any. Gritting her teeth and praying that it would work, Julie gingerly picked up the bag. The scorpion, feeling its world move in a way that clearly didn’t appeal to it, rushed her.
As that hardened carapace came toward her, all of Julie’s usual logic and calm deserted her. Screaming like a milkmaid faced with a mouse, she dropped the bag and ran for the door.
Even outside, she didn’t seem capable of calming down. For some reason all she could manage was running around in a circle, shaking her hands as though to get the scorpion off—even though she knew it wasn’t on her.
It was ridiculous, and some part of her knew that. Some part of her cringed at her absurd panic while the rest of her dissolved in a world of terror.
“Julie?” Troy emerged from one of the tents, holding a large spoon in his hand. “Julie, what’s wrong?”
“Scorpion!” she shrieked in a voice she didn’t recognize. “Scorpion, in my tent!”
Troy blinked, clearly expecting something far worse. “Oh. Don’t worry, we get them from time to time. I’ll get it out of your tent.”
The sound of feet thudding on the ground filled the air, and Andrew came running into the camp. He looked scared, his cheeks pale and his eyes wide.
“Julie!” he cried, rushing over to her. “What happened?”
With Andrew looking at her with concern on his face, Julie felt like an idiot and finally stopped her frantic running.
It was just a scorpion. What was she so worked up about?
She had studied the effects of their venom when learning about herbs and ailments.
Few were deadly to people. And yet it had scared her witless.
Perhaps learning about something in a book was not the same as seeing it in reality.
“There was a scorpion,” she said, as other men came running into the camp. They all looked at her, and she felt terribly self-conscious. “Troy is getting it out of my tent.”
Andrew gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “It didn’t sting you?”
“No.” She leaned into his steadying hand, grateful he didn’t laugh at her foolishness. “Not at all.”
“Good,” he said. He let go of her and went into her tent. Julie clenched her jaw, fighting off the urge to run after him and cling close.
The light was fading fast now, and the smell of something beginning to burn filled the air. A man walked over to the campfire and, wrapping a cloth around his hands, pulled a large cast iron pot from the flames.
“Darn it, Troy! You almost let dinner burn,” the man moaned.
“What?” Troy yelled from inside the tent.
“It was my fault,” Julie apologized. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right, ma’am,” the man standing by the fire called over. “Scorpions’ll scare anyone who’s not expecting a friendly visit. I’m Jeff, Andrew’s little brother.”
She flushed even more, dismayed that Andrew’s brother had seen her at her worst. Andrew had mentioned his brother only briefly in his letters.
She could easily see the resemblance. Both brothers had the same blond hair and were tall and broad-shouldered, but where Andrew’s eyes were the color of the sky on a clear day, Jeff’s were green.
“Got it!” Andrew emerged from the tent. On the bowl of a large wooden spoon he held aloft was a very mashed scorpion.
“Oh,” Julie said, disappointed. “I … I was going to try to take it out of the tent.”
“That doesn’t really work,” another man standing beside her said kindly. “Hi, I’m Michael Wellan, Troy’s brother. Scorpions like cozy places to sleep, and in your bed or your boots is about as cozy as it gets. Let one stay and soon you’ll have a whole nest.”
“Oh.” Julie grimaced, careful to hide her horror. “Good to know.”
A little while later the whole camp met around the central fire, and they were a cheerful group of men, without a single one scolding Julie for her silliness.
She said a prayer of thanks for that. The food also wasn’t bad.
The smoky flavor from the slight burn at the bottom of the pot added a surprising depth.
As they ate, the men told stories and joked around. However much she was enjoying the camaraderie, Julie kept trying not to yawn.
“Don’t feel you have to stay up.” Andrew leaned over to her and spoke softly in her ear. “You’ve been traveling all day. Let me walk you to your tent.”
He stood and offered her his arm, a warm smile on his face. She added “charming” to her list of adjectives to describe him.
When they reached her tent, he held the flap open for her..
“I hope you’ll be comfortable. It can get a little chilly in the early hours. If you need anything, just let me know. I’m right next door.”
“Thank you.” She smiled up at him. “Should I check for critters in my sheets?” she asked, only half joking.
“Yes, always check before you get in,” he said. “And check your boots when you get up.”
They stood there staring at each other a little awkwardly until Julie finally mumbled, “Well, sleep tight.”
“You too,” he said.
She felt an odd warmth toward him and, taking his hand in hers, she gave it a squeeze. “Thanks for everything.”
“I hope you like it here, Julie.” His voice was soft, and his kiss on her cheek was even softer before he walked away. She watched him for a long moment before pulling herself together and going inside.
After changing into her nightdress, she checked the bed before sliding into it. Tired as she was, it took a while for her to fall asleep. She kept feeling the touch of Andrew’s lips on her cheek and remembering the warmth of his eyes.
Sunlight came streaming in through the white tent fabric, turning the world into something far too bright for anyone who hadn’t had coffee yet. Julie groaned and checked her pocket watch. Goodness, it was early. Yet the birds were already singing, and the air smelled fresh and dewy.
Julie checked her clothes and shoes for any visitors and found them thankfully free of anything. She dressed and then stepped out into her first day as this little camp’s apothecary and Andrew’s wife.
Gosh, that was going to take some getting used to, she realized abruptly. After twenty-five years of being ‘brutally independent,’ as her mother put it, Julie was going to have to get used to talking to someone else about her plans.
“Good morning,” Michael Wellan said.
He was sitting at the campfire, pouring out a mug of coffee from a pot.
“Would you like some?”
“Yes, please.”
He handed her the cup. Julie blew on it and sipped. It was bitter and not at all what she liked, but she wasn’t going to turn her nose up.
“We don’t keep sugar,” he explained, probably seeing the look on her face even though she tried to hide it. “It draws every ant in this area into the jar. So, we’re all learning to drink it black.”
“Do you have salt?”
He frowned. “Yes, in the kitchen.”
“Where is that?” she asked. He pointed to a tent.
Julie walked over with him and found a small space cramped with a worktable, a basin and jug, and a couple of buckets of water.
There were boxes, crates, and sacks of food, mostly things like flour and cans of beans and cured meat.
The fresh vegetables, no doubt from the garden, were in crates that stacked one on top of the other.
It took a bit of rummaging around to find the salt jar.
Apparently, since they all took turns cooking, it was often anyone’s guess where things were put.
She would go mad if this was her kitchen.
But it wasn’t, and all she needed was some salt.
When she found it, shoved on a makeshift shelf, Julie added a pinch to her coffee and gave it a stir.
Michael did the same and took a cautious sip. “Well, I’ll be blown away in a tornado. That’s much better.”
“It helps with the bitterness,” she explained.
“You are going to come in handy around these parts. I can already tell,” Michael said, chuckling.
“Where is Andrew?” she inquired, the memory of their goodbye last night as fresh in her mind as when she finally managed to fall asleep.
“He’s up at the mine entrance. He asked me to make sure that you were comfortable. Is there something you need?”
“I’d like to know where I will be treating my patients,” she replied.
Michael looked at her blankly and then grunted. “Oh, that’s right, you’re the apothecary. I have to say, I’m a bit surprised.”
“Why?” she asked as they headed back to the fire.
“Well, a woman as an apothecary is quite unusual,” Michael said.
It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that.
She knew it wouldn’t be the last. For once, Julie held her tongue and tried not to be insulted.
Society was just barely catching on to female medical professionals.
She knew most didn’t mean any harm when they said such things, even if it did ruffle her feathers.
“I’m not sure where you can set up,” Michael went on. “Maybe we should wait for Andrew to get back.”
Julie put her empty mug down on an overturned crate. “And then again, maybe we shouldn’t. I think I should see where this mine is, don’t you? In case there’s an emergency. Andrew said they happen more often than he’d like.”
“I’m not sure?—”
“Show me,” she said, her tone firm.
Michael raised his brows and then shrugged. “Andrew’s going to have his hands full with you.”
She managed to hold her tongue as he led her out of the camp to where a strange tripod device stood over a large hole in the ground.
It didn’t look like a mine. Yet another time where her imagination had taken her thoughts one way, and the reality of the thing was completely the opposite.
Andrew was everything she’d imagined and more, but everything else was turning out rather differently.
“I thought Andrew said it was a cave entrance,” she said.
“It is,” Michael said. “Just not a horizontal one.”
Just then the rope in the pulley began to move and a blond head came out of the hole. And there was Andrew, dusty and gleaming in the morning sun. He turned to Julie and smiled so warmly that all her annoyance and irritation seemed to drain right out of her.
Even though she noticed the two other men turning a wooden wheel that was pulling the rope up, it still seemed magical the way he rose, and Julie found that she was staring at him.
He was so handsome. And that smile he had given her—it was so warm and happy, like she had made his morning just by standing there.
“Morning.” He reached out as though to touch her cheek, then glanced at his grimy fingers and let his hand fall. “I thought you might want to sleep later. I know the journey out here can be exhausting.”
“Thanks.” Julie wouldn’t have minded a little rock dust on her face. “I was tired. Is this really the mine?”
Andrew looked behind him. “Yup,” he said. “We’ve just made the entrance a bit bigger.”
“I see,” she said. “So, I was wondering where you wanted me to work from. Is there a tent I can use?”
He rubbed his chin, oblivious to smearing chalk dust all over it. “Tell me what you need.”
“A building would be nice, but I’ll take a tent,” she said. “I’d like to get things sorted out. You never know when I might be needed.”
He nodded. “Okay. I have an idea. Let’s get you sorted out.”
He wiped his hands on his pants and offered her his arm. As she slipped her arm through his and they set off, Julie, who had felt like a fish out of water ever since the scorpion incident, suddenly had an odd feeling like she was home.