Chapter Sixteen
Jed could barely think straight as he urged Ash on through the night.
He’d lost all reason the moment he’d touched Lila’s feverish face, relying entirely on instinct to function properly.
Maeve had pressed herself fully against his chest now, her shawl completely obscuring the poor toddler.
Occasionally he’d catch the sound of a weak wail, which spurred his heart into a frantic fluttering each time.
There was nothing more he could do than what he already was, though.
He held the lantern as steady as he could to light their way, and he guided Ash ever forward, the horse running as fast as his body would allow.
There was nothing left to be done, save offering a prayer and clinging to desperate hope.
Midnight fields soon became clustered homes. It was the fastest Jed had ever made it into Bighorn. He eased up on Ash’s reins, bringing the stallion to a nervous canter while he struggled to find his voice. “Maeve, where’s the doctor live?”
Her eyes swiveled up to meet him, wide and panicked.
“Maeve–?”
The realization looked like it struck her hard as fat tears welled in her eyes.
“I– Sadie told me he moved recently. I was supposed to visit, but then Pa-” Her expression froze briefly. “I should’ve visited. I’d know where Uncle Wit were at if I did.”
The guilt was heavy in her voice, but Jed didn’t have the time to comfort her. “What about Joshua? He’s gotta know just about everyone in town, right?”
Hope lit up Maeve’s face. “H-He has an apartment near the station house! If we go there and, God willing, he ain’t on patrol–”
That was enough to spur Jed on. He gave Ash’s reins a yank in the right direction, and the stallion broke into a gallop once more.
The main road was completely bare, a large stretch of darkness only occasionally broken by the weak flicker of a candle in a home’s window.
Occasionally, a sliver of moonlight graced the walkway, and Jed clung to the light desperately as he raced past storefronts and wagons of weary travelers taking refuge within the inns and taverns.
Finally, the station house appeared around the next corner Jed took. Next to it stood the apartment building in question, and Jed didn’t even waste time tying off Ash. He practically fell out of the saddle, his arms extended to take Lila before he went running for the front door.
“Joshua!” Jed’s voice cracked as he called out for the sheriff, clutching Lila tightly against his chest. Even through his coat, he could feel the heat radiating off her frail little body.
Maeve appeared soon after, pounding on the door in a frantic, desperate display. It seemed to do the trick as before long, the stumbling sound of a man roused from sleep came from within the home.
Jed grasped Maeve’s shoulder and pulled her back to his side as the door flew inward, saving her from falling on her face. Joshua blinked owlishly, the flickering candlelight illuminating the dark circles under his eyes as he tried to wipe away his fatigue.
“M-Maeve?” It took the sheriff mere seconds to realize something was wrong. Whatever sleep tried clinging to him was immediately shaken off, and he quickly ushered the two into his home.
“We need Uncle Wit, Joshua!” Maeve barely managed the request through heaving sobs. Jed demonstrated the urgency to him by revealing Lila’s feverish form to the sheriff, whose posture stiffened immediately.
“Wit- Ah, Dr. Whitaker went out on a call across town earlier tonight,” Joshua explained, already throwing his outerwear over his nightshirt. “But he’s gotta be finished soon. You brought a horse?”
“Take him,” Jed begged. “Please, Sheriff, bring him back soon.”
Joshua nodded, donning his hat before heading out the door. “Take my bed, Maeve! It’s the second door on the right, and use whatever you need in the closet!”
With that, he was out the door, and the sound of a horse’s whinny soon followed, paired with the clatter of hooves.
Maeve immediately went in search of the closet, leaving Jed to hunt down the bedroom.
The apartment was very simply furnished, the perfect amount of space and sentimental objects for a man who worked long hours away from home.
Jed eventually found his way into Joshua’s bedroom, grabbing as many blankets as he could along the way. He uncovered Lila momentarily, and she immediately protested this with a terrible wail.
“I know, hon. I know ye’re cold.” It took everything Jed had not to break down in tears himself.
He gently maneuvered the toddler under a light summer quilt, fixing her pillow just so before layering heavier blankets on top.
As he tugged at the corner of a handmade quilt, a cold jolt crackled inside him; he’d completely forgotten to grab her lilac blanket.
Guilt throttled Jed’s heart as he nearly fell to his knees at Lila’s bedside.
How could he have forgotten something of such importance to the little girl at a time like this?
Maeve came flying through the door, water sloshing out of the sides of the bowl she carried. Her arm was draped with several rags, and as she set the bowl on the desk, she turned to face Jed, clearly taken aback by his expression. “Wh-what is it? What’s wrong with her?”
Jed blinked furiously. “I–I forgot her blanket.”
Maeve stared at him for a quiet moment. Something flickered on her face, as if she too had just realized what they’d forgotten. As if, just for a moment, she thought of herself as terrible a person–a parent–as Jed felt he was.
But she quickly shook her head and began to wet the first of many cloths, passing it to Jed before starting another. The ridiculousness of his statement settled heavily in his gut, and Jed quickly pushed his guilt aside to focus on Lila.
‘Why’d I say that like it were the end of the world?’
He gently dabbed at the toddler’s sweaty face.
‘Why’s a blanket causing me such guilt?’
Nothing was making sense to him right now. His emotions, his reactions, his doubts, they all had to be pushed aside for Lila’s sake. He couldn’t focus on his inner turmoil right now.
Not while Lila still needed him.
Time felt abstract, like trying to reach out and grasp a piece of particularly thick fog.
Jed had fallen into the rhythm of taking a wet cloth from Maeve, patting Lila down, and handing the used cloth back to his wife before the cycle began anew.
He wasn’t sure how many times he’d wiped Lila down before Dr. Whitaker finally made his appearance, but when the older man dressed in tweed suddenly appeared in the doorframe, Jed felt reality lurch back into focus.
“Uncle Wit–!”
Maeve almost knocked over the near-empty water bowl with how quickly she stood. She squeezed the doctor in a tight hug, the sort one would give to an ages-old friend.
“I’m sorry,” Maeve apologized frantically. “I know this ain’t the sort of get-together Sadie planned for us. I–I should’ve visited sooner. I should’ve– I just weren’t–”
“It’s alright, Maeve,” Dr. Whitaker assured. “I know you’ve had a lot on your plate, and Sadie has done plenty to keep me company.”
Dr. Whitaker. Of course. It hit Jed all at once.
Sadie’s fancy clothing, the high-quality food she brought with her during visits…
Maeve’s chosen sister wasn’t just a spoiled town girl with an undisciplined spending habit.
Those ribbons she wore from past childhood stories weren’t a rare treat; they were commonplace, something her family clearly had no problems purchasing in the first place.
It occurred to Jed there and then how little he really knew about Maeve’s life before they’d met. The friends she kept, the challenges she’d overcome...it was something he silently promised himself to work on understanding further.
Uncle Wit gently removed himself from Maeve’s grasp, moving to Lila’s beside before carefully kneeling next to Jed.
“As much as I would like to formally greet you, Mr. Mercer, I’m afraid my patient comes first. I’d ask you to go and wait in the dining room.
Joshua left to fetch my niece, so I won’t be lacking for help upon her arrival. ”
Jed’s feet remained frozen in place. A small part of him feared that if he let Lila out of his sight, he’d never see her again.
“Come on, Jed.”
Maeve gently grasped his hand. The look in her teary eyes was a mix of fluctuating panic and…an unspoken trust. She really did know this man, well enough that she fully believed him capable of taking care of Lila.
Jed didn’t like the thought of leaving the room at all. But he wanted to trust Maeve, and that desire eventually won out over his fear.
***
It felt like the hours crawled by as Jed waited with Maeve.
They’d boiled at least two separate pots of coffee, and neither had been without a mug in hand since then.
He was currently nursing his fifth or six cup, sitting rigidly at the dining room table while Maeve began to pace the length of the living room once more.
Sadie and Joshua had barely given them a greeting before rushing back to help Uncle Wit. Occasionally, Jed would catch one of them slipping out of the room to grab extra supplies, but whenever he moved to ask a question, the reply was always the same: “Don’t worry.”
His fingers drummed against the table, jittery from the amount of coffee he’d ingested in such a short time. ‘Don’t worry.’ How could he not be worried? It seemed a simple instruction, but putting it into practice felt impossible.
“It’s all my fault.”
Maeve’s trembling voice broke the tense silence that had blanketed the room since they had been dismissed from the bedroom. Jed looked her way, the usual bright blue of her eyes clouded over from her constant tears since the moment they’d discovered Lila’s sickness.
He abandoned his mug at the table, moving sluggishly to close the distance between them. “Maeve, you weren’t the cause of this.”