Chapter Fourteen
The crank on the laundry mangle squeaked as Alexandra hurriedly ran one of Aidan’s shirts through it.
She was focused on her task, determined to get the laundry hung before the morning slipped away.
She caught the water squeezed out in buckets she’d arranged beneath the mangle, since she’d stopped being willing to waste a drop.
She shook her head ruefully at herself; she never thought that she’d be hoarding water like it was diamonds before she’d moved out here. She wondered idly what her old acquaintances would say if they could see her now, sleeves rolled up her forearms, sweating as she labored.
I doubt they would even know me, she thought.
She glanced down at her hands, red and roughened from the never-ending cycle of laundry and scrubbing that a full house required.
She couldn’t help but chuckle under her breath as she remembered all the fretting she used to do over keeping her hands soft, even sleeping in gloves with lanolin on them.
The shirt, squeezed free of excess water, landed in a basket on the other side along with the other damp laundry. Alexandra paused, then lifted it to stretch her back, her hands pressed against her hips.
The brief moment of respite was broken by a blood-curdling scream.
Alexandra looked up sharply, trying to locate the source of it.
Laundry forgotten, she jogged around the side of the house, lifting her skirt slightly.
Her eyes scanned the ranch, and she quickly spotted Bella on the ground, clutching her leg.
“Bella!” Alexandra cried, dashing over to her. The girl was curled up on the ground, holding her leg tightly, while her brothers looked on.
“It’s not my fault,” Danny said without prompting when Alexandra arrived.
“Never mind that,” Alexandra said, putting a hand to Bella’s forehead to try and calm her.
“Let me see it, sweetheart,” she coaxed, gently pulling on the girl’s hands.
Reluctantly, still hiccupping out sobs, Bella released her leg, revealing a thoroughly skinned knee. Alexandra tutted sympathetically.
“Danny, run up to the house and fetch Aunt Lisa,” Alexandra instructed. “Tell her to bring water and a clean bandage.” She glanced up at him and saw his face turn mutinous at being told what to do. “She’s your sister,” Alexandra said firmly, staring at him until she saw his expression change.
Danny took off for the house, running on gangly legs. Alexandra turned back to Bella, who had stopped sobbing, but still had tears streaming down her face. Gary fidgeted nearby, his round little face concerned.
“She’ll be all right,” Alexandra reassured him, taking pity on him. “Can you sit up?” she asked Bella, who nodded after a moment.
Alexandra helped her sit up. To her surprise, the girl leaned on her, burrowing into Alexandra in a way that she suspected wasn’t just about supporting herself. Absently, Alexandra stroked the girl’s hair away from her forehead.
When Danny returned, he wasn’t alone—Lisa trailed behind him, holding bandages and a brown glass bottle.
Alexandra had insisted that she stay abed that morning because she looked so pale.
It cheered Alexandra to see Lisa had something of her old energy about her, her steps quick and her face lively and attentive.
“Well, now,” Lisa murmured as she knelt beside Bella in a poof of skirts. “What’s happened here?”
“I—was—running—and—I—” Bella said haltingly, her words coming out in little sobs.
“Okay,” Lisa said soothingly. “I understand.” She turned and sized up Danny, who was hovering nearby.
“I imagine she was trying to keep up with you, mm? Seeing as you’re so fast, do you think you can run off to get some clean water for us?
” Danny hesitated. “Come on, man, double-time!” Lisa barked with all the authority of an army captain.
Danny bolted off, and Alexandra had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.
“Can I help?” Gary asked, squatting down next to Lisa, who flicked a glance up at Alexandra.
“You can, if you’re careful,” Lisa said gently. “Now, the most important thing is that we wash the dirt out of the wound,” Lisa explained. “We also have to keep the bandages from getting in the dirt. When it’s time to wrap her leg, you can help me keep the bandages from falling.”
Gary nodded, his face as serious as could be.
Danny returned with a pitcher of water, which Lisa accepted graciously. Bella eyed the pitcher suspiciously, and Alexandra could feel her little body tense.
“Will it hurt?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“I expect it will mostly be cold,” Lisa said with a smile.
Slowly, she poured water over the cut, which made Bella jump. She let out a small whine, evidently not thrilled at the impromptu partial bath. “Easy now,” Alexandra murmured in her ear.
Somehow, in the process of rinsing, Bella had wound up on Alexandra’s lap. The weight of a child against her chest felt surprisingly natural, almost comforting. Her arms went about Bella’s midsection of their own accord.
With the cut rinsed, the extent of the scrape was clear. Most of Bella’s knee was raw and bloody, which made Danny recoil. Gary, however, leaned in, curious. Lisa set the pitcher aside gently and reached for the bottle.
“Is that a magic potion?” Gary asked.
“Not exactly,” Lisa said with a smile. She held the bottle out to him and let him take a sniff, which made his nose wrinkle.
Alexandra, remembering her own scrapes as a child, tensed automatically. She knew what was coming next, and it wouldn’t be as enjoyable as a cold-water rinse.
“It’s a tincture of witch hazel,” Lisa explained. “Two parts water, one part clear spirits, one part witch hazel.”
“It’s twenty-five percent alcohol?” Danny inquired, his forehead creased.
Lisa regarded him with a surprised expression. “It is,” she said. “Have you a hidden talent for numbers, Danny?”
Danny shrugged and looked at his feet. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “We just learned about percents at school last year.”
Lisa hummed thoughtfully, her eyes locking with Alexandra’s for a moment.
“All right, now this part is unfortunately not going to be fun,” Lisa said gently.
“Is it going to hurt?” Bella asked, fresh tears in her voice. Alexandra automatically hugged her tighter, pressing her cheek against her head.
“Yes,” Lisa answered matter-of-factly. “It will hurt, but only for a moment. It’s important that we put this on your wound—it will help it heal faster, and it will help keep it from going bad.
” Lisa turned the bottle over on a swatch of bandage that she tore off the roll.
“Do you think you can be very brave for only a few seconds?”
Bella hesitated, then nodded. She reached up and clutched Alexandra’s arm that was wrapped tightly around her chest. Alexandra could feel her trembling.
“Did you know that Aunt Lisa used to hike in the Appalachians?” Alexandra said suddenly.
She could feel Bella shake her head. “She did. She used to go right up the mountains on long treks.” Alexandra glanced up at Lisa, her face paler than when they had left Philadelphia.
She liked to remember her aunt as she had been, before the war and the illness that had taken such a toll on her health.
“What’s the Appa-lach-ians?” Gary asked, never taking his eyes off Lisa.
“They’re mountains,” Danny answered. “In the eastern states.”
“That’s right,” Alexandra agreed. “Well, they have these bears that live in the mountains, small black ones.”
“No such thing as a small bear,” Lisa argued. “Especially when it’s looking at you.”
“Oh, don’t act like it was a grizzly,” Alexandra chided, which made Bella giggle slightly.
“So one day, Lisa was out on one of her treks. She stopped to rest by a stream, and wouldn’t you know it, a bear spotted her and came closer, sniffing the whole time.
Like this,” Alexandra said, snuffling in Bella’s hair, which made her giggle again.
“Then what happened?” Gary asked.
“Well, Aunt Lisa had packed her pockets full of snacks for the trip, you see, and bears have very keen noses and a terrible weakness for sweets. That bear wanted her cookies, and he wanted them right now. He came right at her, sniffing and sniffing,” Alexandra said, her voice rising with the tension.
Lisa shot her a tolerantly amused look from beneath her brows as she prepared the square of bandage with witch hazel.
“What’d she do?” Danny asked, caught up in the story in spite of himself.
“The only sensible thing she could think of doing,” Alexandra said, pausing for tension. “She bolted right up the nearest tree.”
“In a skirt?” Bella asked.
“Oh yes,” Lisa answered.
“So there she was, stuck up in a tree, thinking she’d just outwait the bear,” Alexandra said. “Then, wouldn’t you know it, she looks down, and the bear starts climbing after her!”
“Bears can climb trees?” Gary looked at Lisa, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“Like a cat,” Lisa confirmed.
“What’d you do?” Gary breathed.
“I leaped down from the tree,” Lisa answered.
“It’s true,” Alexandra said in response to the children’s collective gasp. “She leaped down and landed on the ground. When she did so, she twisted her ankle something fierce. Even so, she hobbled to the nearest settlement as quick as she could.”
“All by yourself?” Bella asked. “Why didn’t you just wait for someone to rescue you?”
“Sometimes we have to rescue ourselves,” Lisa said. “And besides, I didn’t want the bear to get me or my cookies. They were my favorite ones—ginger and cinnamon!”
“So,” Alexandra said, holding Bella tight, “do you think you can be brave like Aunt Lisa for just a moment and sit still for this part?”
Bella gave a sharp nod once, and renewed her grip on Alexandra’s arm. To her credit, the girl did her best not to flinch, but still let out a long, protracted squeal as the tincture made contact with her knee. Alexandra could feel a tear plop onto her arm.
“Brave girl,” she murmured, stroking Bella’s hair again.
Lisa, with Gary’s very serious assistance, wrapped the wound quickly, securing the bandage with a tidy knot.
When they were done, Lisa passed the supplies to Gary and Danny, with strict instructions to put them back exactly where they had been found.
Lisa got up off her knees in stages, and stood a moment getting her breath back before she followed them in.
Alexandra helped Bella to her feet. The girl wobbled on one foot, hesitant to put weight on her injured leg. She started to limp back to the house, but became unsteady, her arm windmilling to catch herself. Alexandra steadied her with a hand on her back for a moment.
To her great surprise, Bella, focusing hard on walking, absently slipped her hand into Alexandra’s. Alexandra held on and said nothing, in case saying anything about it would stop it.
They must have been so lonely out here, Alexandra thought.
As they were making their way back to the house, Aidan walked past, coming from the direction of the barn, a large bag of something on his shoulder.
He paused for a moment, looking at them.
Alexandra braced for criticism, for him to blame her for Bella getting injured.
Instead, he simply took in the sight of them, and then continued on his way without a word.
Alexandra watched him go until Bella pulled at her hand restlessly. She shook her head and continued up to the house. She didn’t have time to wonder what that man’s problem was today. She had three children to see to—lessons, feeding, and, dare she think it, perhaps just love.