4. A Wild Adventure by Merry Farmer

Author:Merry Farmer [Farmer, Merry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-11T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

I saac strode into the parlor where William Bond lay on the sofa. He knew too well what the man’s pallor and listlessness meant. Bond’s heart had been failing for years now, but the signs that the end was coming were unmistakable.

“William, how are you?” he asked, taking a seat on the footstool where Elaine sat previously.

Bond glanced past Isaac to where the ladies were huddled together, Rose whispering words of comfort to Elaine. “I’m dying,” he said. “You know that.”

Isaac nodded and took the old man’s hand. “I wish there was something I could do.” The words came out with far more emotion than was right for a man in his position, but there was nothing worse than knowing that all of his years of medical training and experience were useless when Death came calling. It would happen with William Bond as it had happened with Annabelle.

“Don’t give me that look,” Bond scolded him. “I’m an old man whose time has come.”

Isaac shook his head, both irritated and depressed by the lump that came to his throat. “There must be something I can do. I have new medicines, recent creations that medical scientists in London and on the continent are saying might be miracle cures.”

“Tush and nonsense.” Bond made a sound between a snort and a laugh. “I’ve never known a physician who berates himself so keenly for being unable to perform miracles.”

“But—”

“And don’t think I don’t know that it’s because of that lovely wife of yours years ago.”

Isaac snapped his mouth shut. He shot a sideways look toward where Rose and Elaine were standing. They looked on from their distance, but it would have been impossible for them not to hear what Bond said. And damn him, but Isaac’s whole body heated with shame over what they must think of him. “I should have been able to save her.”

Bond snorted. “It was her time, just as it will soon be my time.”

Isaac shook his head. “I failed her.”

“You were the best husband any woman could have hoped for,” Bond argued. “And you could be again, if you would only let yourself see it.”

“I know what you’re trying to do.” Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Miss Rawlins deserves better than a failure like me.”

“A failure?” Bond was so loud that the ladies glanced up from their conversation. He waved to them, then repeated, quieter, “A failure? Because you can’t stop the hand of death?” Isaac lowered his head. Bond sniffed. “No one, no matter how brilliant a physician, can stop death. Think about all of the lives you’ve made easier with your care and attention. Mine, for example.”

A sinking feeling spread down Isaac’s spine. It was painful to even consider that he’d denied himself so much for so long for foolish reasons. But they weren’t foolish, were they? “What if something should happen to Miss Rawlins?” he asked. “What if she too fell ill and I wasn’t able to do anything to cure her?”

Bond snorted. “So help me, Isaac

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