A Chance Encounter - Book One of the Western Girls Trilogy

Chapter 9

After three days at Mrs. Brown's Boarding House, Nick slowly began to improve and Mr. Bishop took him home. He hired a team of nurses to give him around the clock care and continued with the treatment Mallory had started.

Mallory had slept nearly all day and then all night too, after they left the boarding house. She was exhausted but relieved that he appeared to be on the mend, though it was going to take some time before he was fully recovered. He had gone through periods of high temperatures, followed by cold skin with chills and shivering. He would wake up, but be confused and not recognize her or Mr. Bishop. His heart would race and he would start panting as though he had just run a foot race. Then he would fall back into unconsciousness.

"How do you feel, dear?" Mrs. Brown asked when she came downstairs the following day, fully rested and wearing one of her new dresses.

"Much better," she said. "I can't believe how tired I was!"

"You barely slept the past few days. I'm surprised you're up so early, to be honest."

"Well, I'm going over to check on Mr. Warren," she said. "If he's not improved at least a little, I might have to tell Mrs. Guthrie that I need to take the week off."

"I'm sure she'd understand. But I'm sure Mr. Bishop is taking good care of his brother, too."

"Well, I'm going to go check for myself." she smiled, heading for the door. She skipped down the steps and walked to the end of the road where she turned towards Mr. Bishop's house. She had just reached the end of the boardwalk before turning down his street, when something on the ground glistened in the morning sunlight and she looked down to find a brand new penny.

"Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck!" she murmured to herself as she bent over and picked it up, tucking it into her pocket. She hummed the rest of the way to Mr. Bishop's house.

"You look like you're in a good mood," Mrs. Hanson smiled when she opened the door.

"I am!" Mallory replied. "I slept like a rock last night."

"Mr. Bishop's in the study. Mr. Warren's upstairs in his room. The nurse is here and she says he's improving slowly, but she's seen this before and it takes some time for the body to recover. Says you did a fine job looking out for him."

"That's good news," Mallory said. "I suppose I should let Mr. Bishop know I'm here."

"He'll be glad to see you,"

She walked to the study and tapped on the door. "Mrs. Hanson said he's improving."

"Ah, Miss Quinn!" he set his book down and got to his feet. "Yes, he is on an upward trend, it seems. Your treatment seems to be the right course of action. Mrs. Pymm, the nurse that's with him now, says that if we'd let the doctor do any bloodletting like he suggested, he might not have made it. He was far too weak for that. I'm glad you knew what you were doing."

"I don't know about all that," Mallory said. "I just know I'd seen it work before. You look like you finally got some rest too!"

"Isn't it amazing what a good night's sleep can do?" he chuckled. "I think I slept for sixteen hours!"

"Me too. At least. It may have been more. Mrs. Brown said I kept falling asleep in the common area until she told me to go to bed. I don't remember what time that was, but I didn't get up until this morning."

"Thank you," he said softly. "I don't know if he would have survived if you hadn't been the one taking care of him."

She nodded. "I keep trying not to think about what would have happened if he hadn't made it off the train or if he'd collapsed somewhere in the middle of town or something."