Chapter 26 Claire
The telephone rang as Claire was settling Jenny down for her afternoon nap. It was their party line ring, and Claire rushed to the phone.
She’d sent the letter to Red, and by Saturday she was on pins and needles.
She didn’t even go out to hang the clothes on the line in case she missed him, but only Bridget called and Claire wasn’t ready to talk to her yet.
Claire went to Mass on Sunday and came straight home, hoping against hope that he would be sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for her.
He wasn’t, and the telephone remained silent all day.
How could he read what she wrote and not come straight home?
Claire grabbed the receiver before the second ring. Please, Lord, let it be Red.
But it was Bridget . . . again.
“Claire,” Bridget said in a whisper. “I need you to come up to the hospital.”
Claire took a sharp breath at her sister’s desperate tone. “Is it Frannie?”
“No,” Bridget said quickly. “I can’t explain but please, Claire, come now.” Claire heard a man’s angry voice in the background. “And park behind the hospital, where the ambulance comes in.” She hung up.
Claire sat down heavily on the kitchen chair. What on earth? It was Jenny’s nap time, not to mention Red could call—or walk in the door—any minute. But her sister had sounded so . . . un-Bridget-like. And she needed Claire’s help.
What else could Claire do but pack up Jenny and head to Mammoth?
It took Claire more than an hour to get there, thanks to a busload of tourists stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures with a bison. Claire parked behind the hospital, and as she juggled Jenny and the diaper bag, Bridget opened the back door and pulled her inside.
“What took you so long?” She hurried Claire down the hallway and pushed her into an examination room, before Claire could even ask for an explanation.
“Beth?” Claire gaped at the young woman sitting on the table with the tanned doctor she’d met at Canyon sitting beside her.
“I’m sorry,” Beth said in a small voice. “I couldn’t think of anyone else, and on the card you gave me . . .”
Claire remembered. If there’s ever anything I can do, anything at all. The poor girl looked pale and young and scared. Claire shot a questioning glance at Bridget. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?”
“They won’t let her leave,” Bridget said bluntly.
“Her in-laws want to keep the baby.” Claire didn’t comprehend that outlandish statement before Bridget was talking again.
“She’s scared out of her wits. That horrible father-in-law of hers is going to hide her away somewhere in Wyoming until the baby is born, and he’s getting very impatient out in the waiting room. ”
“Wait.” Claire tried to catch up. A baby? Beth was pregnant? Claire began to put it together. Beth at the train station saying she was going home. Pete Henshaw claiming she was unwell. Her defeated look as he took her away.
“Did you call the sheriff?” It seemed like the logical solution if Beth was being mistreated.
Dr. Sampson frowned. “We talked about it, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve done anything illegal. At least not yet.”
Beth bit at her lip. “And Pete is good friends with Tom Eagle.”
Claire nodded in understanding. The sheriff was Tom Eagle’s oldest son. “What about your uncle?”
Beth shook her head and blinked hard. “He didn’t even come to the funeral. You know how he is.” Beth wrung her hands in her lap. “Mrs. Wilder, if you could just get me to the Depot, I can—”
A violent pounding on the door made Claire jump and Jenny startle. Pete Henshaw’s face appeared in the small window. “I’m taking Beth home,” he said. His gaze landed on Claire and his eyes narrowed. “What is she doing here?”
Claire backed away from the door.
“As I said,” Dr. Sampson replied in a commanding tone, “I’m doing some tests. I must insist you stay in the waiting room.”
Pete Henshaw’s scowl made Claire’s neck prickle in alarm.
She should have stood up to him that day at the Depot.
She’d been right when she suspected that Beth was afraid.
She thought fast, and turned to Beth. “You could take the northbound bus from the Depot tomorrow morning, but . . .” She paused, considering.
“Pete will be there waiting for me,” Beth finished miserably.
Claire nodded, putting down the diaper bag and walking Jenny back and forth across the small room as she thought of their options.
She couldn’t drive Beth all the way to Coeur d’Alene, it was at least five hundred miles.
But she could get her to a bus. “Beth.” Claire took her hand.
It was ice cold and trembling. “I can drive you to Ennis tomorrow, and you can take the bus from there.” Ennis wasn’t far from West Yellowstone.
Pete wouldn’t look for Beth there . . . she hoped. “You can be home by tomorrow night.”
Beth’s eyes widened at the idea, but then her expression fell. “It’s too much to ask, Mrs. Wilder. I couldn’t —”
But Bridget was helping her down from the table and dictating instructions to Claire. “Make sure she eats and drinks plenty of water. Have her rest if she gets dizzy or nauseous.”
Claire peeked out the window of the examination room. “How are we going to get her past Pete?” The man wasn’t going to let Beth just walk away.
“Leave that to me,” Bridget said. “You just be ready to go.”
Three minutes later, the hospital fire alarm went off.