Three Times Blessed by Lori Copeland

Author:Lori Copeland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-03-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Claudine Madison’s irregular home with all its redundant rooms finally found a purpose for the well. It quickly became a staging area for the town efforts to aid the sick. Townspeople brought quilts and made pallets on the wood floors, while the ailing were taken to the church and bedded down. Ten people were currently ill, some sicker than others. Women cooked and carried food and helped dish up nourishing broth and force-feed hot sweet tea. Sadie and Adele, deemed saints now, kept Tate away from the ill and worked long into the night.

Audrey wiped her forehead with the hem of her apron. It seemed unbearably hot in the church sanctuary this morning. Between trying to keep up with the parlor work and the ailing, she felt like a puppet. A very tired puppet. Lack of sleep and overwork sapped her strength.

Josh Redlin came through the front door this morning and threaded his way through the room, speaking to the ill. This had to be hard on him too. Responsibility for the well-being of every family on the train must weigh heavily on him. Now he approached the table where the women washed dishes. Willow and Audrey greeted him, but Copper turned her head and ignored his entrance. Audrey sighed. Copper and Josh had flared at each other more than once over the past week, and yesterday she’d declared she wasn’t speaking to the man. If only. The moment one or the other crossed the drawn line, the temporary ceasefire would shatter.

“Good morning, ladies.” Josh leaned against a corner of the table. “Too bad the church doesn’t have large enough cooking facilities. The wood stove won’t hold all the pots and it’s hard to carry food back and forth from the Madisons’. Anything I can do to help?”

“Yes, you can carry these pots out to the wagon.” Willow indicated the stack of clean kettles. “I think we’re through in here.”

“Be glad to. Appreciate what you’re doing to help out.” With one hand, Josh picked up three of the cast-iron kettles that formerly held broth. “Anything else?”

“Yes.” Copper swung to face him and Audrey clamped her teeth. “You can get that quarantine lifted so I can leave for Beeder’s Cove. It’s thoughtless to keep us tied to Thunder Ridge with no way in or out.”

He leveled a straight look at her. “I didn’t impose the quarantine. If you don’t like it, talk to Dr. Smith—or better yet, Horace Padget. It was his idea.”

“You could persuade the doctor to lift the quarantine.”

His jaw set. “No, ma’am, I couldn’t. Horace Padget seems to be running the show, and I can’t talk to the man because of his wife’s fear that her family will be affected. I’m not about to go up against Padget just so you can leave.”

Copper faced him, hands on her hips. “It’s not about me. Other wagon trains have to detour around Thunder Ridge, which is what you should have done. Then we wouldn’t be in this fix.”

“And a lot more people would be dead.

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