Chapter Two: The Sickness
The man, Robert Thompson, had been there when Temperance had awaken later that evening. He had cooked a meager supper of beans and potatoes for the ladies and while Temperance and her mother had been unable to bring themselves to eat, Jessica and Charlotte had filled their bellies.
Later that night, Robert had pulled Temperance and her mother Herriot aside, “Ma’am’s, I need to know where you want the caskets? A funeral and burial in town or…”
“There isn’t money for that,” Herriot stated bluntly, causing Temperance to frown. It was her mother’s voice but the words sounded distant and cold. And those green eyes lacked any of the warmth her mother had once possessed.
Robert tipped his head and coughed lightly into his arm. Temperance noticed he seemed more pale than he had earlier. She felt sorry for him. To have fought so hard for so long and now be playing nursemaid to a bunch of women simply because he had made a promise to a dying man to do so. She was sure all the man wanted was a nice long rest.
Temperance swallowed hard and fought back yet another wave of pain at the knowledge of what had become of half her family. When she once again met Robert’s eyes he was gazing at her gently. She forced a smile, “We’ll bury them here at home.”
Robert nodded, “I’ll go collect them in the morning for you. I’m real sorry about all of this…” Robert’s voice tailed off as Herriot, wandered away, going through the door beside the kitchen and disappearing inside the bedroom she had once shared with Temperance’s father. The door closed with a resounding click.
“I had better get the girls cleaned up and ready for bed,” Temperance announced. “They’ll have a million questions I’m sure.”
Robert nodded and tipped his head toward the door, “I’ll go outside and get to work. Do you happen to know where the shovel would be?”
Temperance shivered, “The barn. There is a stall full of tools and it will be in there.”
“Thank you, Miss.” Robert ran his hand through his thick black hair and then disappeared out the door.
Temperance was simply going through the motions as she helped her sisters clean up and dress for bed. They were unusually quiet and Temperance knew they were upset and confused over the tension and sadness in the house.
As Temperance tucked them both into the bed the three of them shared in the loft Jessica finally spoke, “Tempy, did something happen to papa, Gregory and Thomas?”
Temperance swallowed hard and felt her eyes burn. She couldn’t lie to them. They would see caskets for themselves tomorrow. “Yes,” she whispered. “They won’t be coming home to us alive.”
Jessica immediately began to cry. “What does that mean, Tempy?” Charlotte whispered, her innocent three year old heart not fully understanding.
“They have gone to heaven, Char,” Temperance’s voice broke, “They died.”
It was several long and taxing hours later before Jessica and Charlotte finally drifted off to sleep with tears still drying on their red faces. While they hadn’t truly remembered the family they’d lost they had fallen in love with the stories--the idea of what would be--and now all that had been ripped away from them.
Temperance had changed into her nightdress but knew that sleep was not going to come soon. She grabbed her knitted shawl and slipped down the ladder. She entered her mama’s room and found the woman still wearing her dress, curled up upon the bed and staring into space.
Temperance swallowed hard and walked to the edge of the bed, “Mama?” she whispered.
There was no response. Her mother didn’t even bat a lash to let Temperance know she sensed her presence.
“Mama, I got Jessica and Charlotte to bed. Robert is going to help us lay papa, Gregory and Thomas to rest tomorrow. We’ll be okay, mama. You take your time to heal and I’ll make sure everything else is taken care of….”
Temperance kissed her mother’s cheek. She grabbed a quilt from the hope chest at the foot of the bed and draped over her mother’s still form. With one last glance at the woman, Temperance left the room and closed the door.
She leaned there against the closed door for several long moments, simply breathing and fighting back her own sadness and worry. She had no idea how things were going to be okay but she had to have faith. Her mama was a good seamstress and if they moved into town she could make a fairly good living--much better than she made living three hours away. Temperance was old enough to get a job cleaning at the hotel or working in the diner. Everything would be okay--it had to be.
She wrapped her shawl tight around her shoulders to ward off the chilly May night air and stepped onto the porch and the glow of the lantern light that was hanging beside the door. She sat down in the rickety rocking chair and looked out over the rolling hills and the mountains in the distance. They were lit up by the moonlight and an eerie calm seemed to have fallen over everything.
“It’s awful late, Miss. You should be resting,” Robert’s voice was suddenly filling the night and Temperance let out a squeak and covered her pounding heart with her hand.
“You scared me!” she accused as she turned to look at him.
He tipped his head and offered a sad smile, “Sorry, Miss.”
Temperance sighed and watched him as he sat sideways on the steps. She studied his profile in the lantern light. He had pulled off his uniform jacket and wore a white tunic tucked into his pants. He was skinny and pale and his clothes were stained with sweat and dirt. Dirt also streaked his bony hands and sunken cheeks--probably from digging her family’s graves.
But there was something else there. She knew that he must have been handsome before the war and could be again given proper meals for a time. And he was kind and gentle. She’d seen the way he interacted so well with her sisters over supper and it had touched her.
“How old are you, Robert?” she inquired, desperate to fill the night with something other than silence.
“Twenty,” he replied without looking at her.
“You look older than twenty,” Temperance stated bluntly and then bit her lip. “Sorry… I’ve always tended to speak without thinking.”
Robert just laughed lightly and turned his gaze to her. His blue eyes were so gentle and warm. “That’s alright, Miss. The war took its toll on me I guess.” He coughed lightly and winced a little. “It wasn’t what I thought it would when I was sixteen and rushed to join up that’s for sure. There wasn’t always enough food--wasn’t always any food actually. We walked a lot. Miles and miles, days and days, weeks and weeks of walking. And we only got one uniform a year so you can imagine how smelly that got…”
Despite her sadness, Temperance felt herself smile and she was so grateful to Robert for that. Robert sighed and glanced out over the land, “Then there were the gunshots, the cannons, the smoke, the screams….” his voice trailed off into the night. “No it was nothing like I thought it was gonna be.”
“Do you have a family, Robert? You should be with them if you do.” Temperance hoped he didn’t. She wanted him to stay.
“No, I don’t have any family,” he replied. “My mama died when I was twelve and my papa died in the war. I was the only child they had that lived past the age of seven.”
Temperance shivered. So much sadness and death in this world! Robert mistook her shiver for being cold and he stood quickly and grabbed his jacket from the banister before laying it over her shoulders, “You should get inside, Miss. You need to rest.”
Temperance stood and looked up at him. He was quite tall, probably around six feet. “Thank you for coming, Robert. I don’t know what we would do if you weren’t here.”
Temperance felt her heart beat faster when he slid a strand of her red hair from her face, “I won’t leave you all. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.” He quickly dropped his hand and took several steps back. “Go on in and get some rest now.”
Temperance nodded and pulled his jacket tighter before slipping back into the house. She felt more certain now that everything would be okay. Robert was here and he was going to take care of them…. And he wasn’t much older than her. Maybe God had sent him here for her.
With sadness and hope alike warring inside her heart, Temperance slid into bed with her sisters and closed her tired eyes.
***
Temperance, her mother, Jessica and Charlotte all stood clutching hands as Robert and another man from in town worked together to lower the three caskets into the three graves that Robert had dug the night before.
The wind was blowing fiercely and it dried the tears as they slid down their red cheeks.
Temperance was quick to take the girls back to the cabin once the burial was complete though she couldn’t get her mother to join them. The woman simply lay down across her husband’s grave and refused to move.
Robert saw the other man away and then stepped into the cabin with Temperance and the girls. Temperance took one look at him and grew concerned. He was still very pale and now dark circles were around his eyes and his lips seemed nearly colorless beneath his mustache. Sweat slicked his skin and she could hear the breaths he took as they rattled inside his chest. Not only that but his blue eyes appeared glazed and far too bright…
Temperance went to the chair he was seated upon and laid her wrist upon his brow. He quickly jerked away from her but not before she felt the fever that was burning there.
“You’re sick!” she accused.
“It’s nothing,” he replied just before a fit of coughing overtook him. It was a bad cough and Temperance thought it sounded as if his lungs were going to be torn straight out of him.
“You need rest,” she urged.
Surprisingly enough Robert nodded. He stood and then swooned, nearly going down to the floor. Temperance caught him around the middle and helped support him as she led him to the sofa. She could feel the heat radiating off his body and through her dress. He truly was very ill.
She laid him down on the sofa just as another body wracking cough overcame him. Temperance had no idea what to do. There were no doctors way out here and even the town, which was three hours away, had no doctor. She did know that for coughs her mother had a chamomile tea stocked away and cold rags should help with the fever.
Quickly Temperance put some water on to boil and wet a few rags with cool water. She went back to Robert and he seemed irritated when she began to rub one along his overheated brow.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his breathing ragged and his voice strained.
“Trying to help your fever,” she replied. “And I have some tea brewing for your cough.”
Robert nodded and coughed again, burying his face against the sofa as he did. When he looked back at her there was a ghost of a smile pulling at his pale lips, “You’ll make someone a fine wife some day. Bossy and caring all at the same time.”
Temperance smiled despite her worry but that smile disappeared when he once again buried his face in the sofa and coughed.
For hours, Temperance nursed him, only to realize he was getting his worse. His cough worsened, his breathing became more and more labored and his fever simply climbed higher and higher.
Jessica and Charlotte had gone up to their loft bedroom and her mother was locked inside her room. Temperance looked down into Robert’s fever clouded eyes, “You have to snap out of this now, Robert. We need you… you promised me you would make everything okay. I need you.”
He mumbled something in response but it was incoherent and his eyes didn’t seem to truly see her.
Temperance was terrified.
By dawn it became clear that nothing she did was going to help. He had long since stopped coughing, his body had run out of the energy to do so, and he was no longer awake. His fever raged, his breathing rattled and he lay as still as death.
“Tempy, what’s wrong with Robert? Is he sleepy?” Charlotte asked quietly as she tugged on her hair and Jessica cut them both off a slice of cinnamon bread leftover from the day before.
“Yes,” Temperance hispered, her voice hoarse from sadness and fatigue. She hadn’t slept a wink and had merley kept a vigile beside the sofa, “Yes, he’s sleepy. You girls eat and then go feed the animals.”
It wasn’t long before Temperance found herself alone once again inside house and she lay her head upon Robert’s chest. His shallow, rattling breaths were frightening but she was so afraid that they soon lulled her to sleep.
She yawned as she woke. Se had no way of knowing how long she’d been asleep. She was about to raise her head and resume her caretaking when she realized that the room was silent and that there were no rattling breaths coming from beneath her ear.
Tears filled Temperance’s eyes as she very slowly raised her head and looked down at the lifeless face of the man who was supposed to have taken care of them all--the man she had let herself believe God had sent just for her.
What was she going to do?
Temperance laid a gentle kiss to his cheek which was now cool beneath her touch.
The cabin door opened and Temperance looked up to see Charlotte step in and the next occurrence caused Temperance’s blood to freeze in her veins. Charlotte, laid a hand over her pale cheek, took a deep, wheezing breath and coughed.
A/N: This story is flowing out and feels right.. something the last two i tried to work on didn't do.. honestly I think my niche is this time period and a little on the darker side. That's where i feel the most inspiration while I write..