Gabriel's Bride (31 page)

18

R
achel wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand and set back to milking Sundae. The brown and white doe that Gabriel had bought her at the auction had quickly turned into her favorite. Funny disposition, eager to play, and so gentle Samuel could ride her around the pasture.

“Can I wide now? Can I?” He tapped Rachel on the shoulder for the umpteenth time in so many seconds.

“Not, yet,
liebschdi
. Let me finish getting her milk. Would you like to help?”

He shook his head. “I wanna wide.”

Rachel swiped at her forehead once again. She must be coming down with something. She’d felt terrible all day. All week. Ever since church last Sunday when Beth Troyer had offered her a piece of mince pie. One look at the sweet treat, and she hadn’t been the same since. It was strange, indeed. She’d always had a fondness for mince pie.

She stopped, pressing a hand against her churning stomach. Maybe some buttermilk would settle it down. That would have to wait a minute. She wanted to get finished with Sundae before she stopped. She had just been so tired lately. No doubt it was the heat and whatever bug was ailing her. It had been unseasonably warm with the temperature reaching nearly one hundred degrees even though it was just June. If July was much worse, she didn’t know how she’d be able to stand it.

“Rachel?” Simon called around the side of the house. “We’re going down to the creek.”

She cast a glance back over her shoulder. Simon, Joseph, and David stood at the side of the house, fishing poles over their shoulders. “Are your chores done?”

“
Jah
.” David nodded, and the rest followed suit.

“Fine, then. But don’t stay gone too long.”

“I wanna go.” Samuel jumped up and down, excited at the prospect of spending the afternoon with his older siblings.

Rachel moved the bucket out from under Sundae so she wouldn’t kick it over. She released the goat back into the pasture. “You don’t want to go for a ride?”

Samuel looked from his brothers to the goats and back again. “I wanna go fish.”

If Samuel went with his brothers, she could lay down on the couch and catch up on her rest. With any luck she’d feel better by supper. And definitely back to herself by tomorrow.

The thought was selfish.

She shook her head. As tempting as it was, it was not a
gut
idea. “
Nay
, Samuel. You don’t know how to swim.”

“I don’t wanna swim. I wanna catch some
fisch
.”

Her resolve slipped a notch, and she yanked it back in place. “You would be in a world of hurt if’n you fell in.”

“Awh,” Simon interjected. “Me and Joseph can swim. Besides, we haven’t had any rain in weeks. The creek is so low it barely covers our feet.”

“It couldn’t be that low or the fish would all be dead.” She looked back to Samuel’s eager face.

“Pwease, Wachel. Pwease.” He danced in place so anxious to follow after his
bruders
.

She looked to Simon who nodded importantly. “We’ll look after him.”

“Who’s going to look after you?” She asked the question, but she was just so tired. Too tired to argue with four determined
buwe
. An afternoon’s rest in the cool house was almost more than she could stand.

“We’ll look out for each other.”

Against her better judgment, Rachel nodded. Samuel was getting older now. He needed a few more freedoms, and his brothers wouldn’t let anything happen to him. “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “Just stay out of the creek.”

Samuel danced a little jig and threw his arms around her neck. “
Danki
, Wachel.
Danki
.”

“Mind your brothers.”

“I will.
Ich liebe dich
.”

Tears of exhaustion filled her eyes. “I love you too.”

It was his scream that woke her an hour and a half later.

She jackknifed into a sitting position, hardly aware that she had been asleep. She must have been more tired than she realized.

Then the scream sounded again.

“Samuel?” She jumped to her feet, her heart plummeting as he continued to cry. But they say a mother can tell the difference in her child’s cries and this one meant he was hurt. Bad.

“Samuel!” She tore out of the house, not stopping until she reached the edge of the yard. If he was screaming and crying he wasn’t drowning. He was still taking air, and that was a
gut
thing. Or so she told herself.

She crashed through the woods nearly colliding with Joseph as he ran to get her. Tears streamed down his face, leaving little tracks in the dirt on his sunburned cheeks.

“Rachel, Rachel,” he sobbed. “It’s Samuel.
Mach schnell
. Please hurry!”

Dread filled her and propelled her faster and faster through the woods. Branches pulled at her dress and snagged in her prayer
kapp
and hair, but she continued to run, following Joseph as he stumbled along. “What happened?”

He shook his head, so winded from his sprint that he couldn’t form the words to tell her.

A giant fist squeezed her heart. “Please, God, let him be okay. Please let him be okay.”

Finally the trees thinned, Samuel’s cries grew louder in her ears and suddenly she found herself on the mossy bank of a small creek.

Simon and David crouched near a fallen log on the other side, Samuel on the ground between them.

They muttered nonsensical words in
Deutsch
, tears on their cheeks as they patted their
bruder
, trying to console him.

“Samuel!” They turned at her voice, gratitude and relief shining in their eyes.

Rachel splashed through the creek and to the other side, not bothering to take off her shoes as she crashed through the cold water. “What happened?
Was iss letz
?” she asked, dropping down beside them.

Samuel twisted on the ground, crying and cradling one hand in the other. Blood stained his shirt, smeared his face.

“
Shlange
.”

The word sent panic searing through her.
Snake
.

She had a hundred questions on the tip of her tongue, but all she could think about was getting Samuel to a
doktah
.

She gathered him in her arms, his body hot to the touch. “Wachel,” he managed to sob through the tears. It was next to impossible to determine how much of his reaction was from panic or pain, but Rachel feared the worst.

She’d no more lifted him off the ground when he turned his head and vomited.

“It’s going to be
allrecht
,” she crooned as she started out of the woods. But she was unfamiliar with the path. “Simon, you need to lead us out of here and quickly. Do you understand?”

Tearful and frightened, Simon nodded. “This way.”

She followed Simon through the woods, praying with every step even as she struggled under the weight of Samuel’s prone body. He was conscious and moaning, crying her name as she raced toward the house.

Lord, please let him be okay. Please don’t let anything happen to him. Please, please, please . . .

It seemed like an eternity before they finally broke through the thicket and back into the yard. Thankfully, the laundry wagon was still next to the line. She gently laid Samuel inside.

Eyes closed, he blindly grabbed for her. “Wachel, don’t leave. Don’t leave me.”

Tears filled her eyes at his request. He wouldn’t be in this state had it not been for her. If she hadn’t’ve let him go down to the creek with his brothers.

“I’m not going to leave you.” She choked on the words, biting back tears that would serve no purpose. She had to remain calm for both of their sakes. “We’re just going for a little ride,
jah
?”

“
Jah
, okay.”

She brushed his sweaty hair back off his forehead, hating that he already seemed feverish. There was no time to waste. “I need you to be quiet and still. Can you do that?”

“
Jah
.” His voice was thready and weak. He was about to lose consciousness.

Maybe that was for the best. The poison wouldn’t spread as quickly if she could keep him still.

“Here we go.” She wiped the tears from her face and grabbed up the handle.

She couldn’t walk fast enough. She had only one destination in mind and that was Ruth and Abram’s. She could get there on foot much quicker than if she took the time to hitch up the buggy. John Paul had a car. He could take them into town, to the doctor.

She just couldn’t run fast enough.

Her breathing was ragged by the time she reached Ruth and Abram’s
haus
. But she couldn’t take the time to catch her breath. She needed to get Samuel tended to and quick.

She ran up the stairs, her breathing raspy as she knocked on the front door. But no one came. She knocked again, louder, more raps. Someone had to be home. They just had to be. She knocked again, nearly doubled over in her attempts to catch her breath.

The door swung open, and Ruth was there. “Rachel,
was iss letz
?”

“It’s Samuel,” a voice behind her supplied.
Simon.
Simon had followed her all the way to his grandparents’
haus,
and she hadn’t realized he was with her. Her attention had been completely wrapped up in the unconscious boy bleeding in the laundry wagon. “He got snake bit.”

Ruth flew into action. “Simon, go find John Paul. He’s down by the barn somewhere. Tell him to come.
Mach schnell
.”

Simon nodded and raced off.

“Rachel, let’s get him in the car. That way you can leave as soon as John Paul gets back to the house.”

Rachel nodded and pulled the wagon back across the road.

Behind the phone shanty, where Abram didn’t have to look at it, sat John Paul’s faded blue car. By
Englisch
standards it wasn’t a nice car, but it would sure go faster than a buggy pulled by a horse.

“Easy.” Ruth helped Rachel load Samuel into the back of the vehicle. His head lolled to one side, his breathing swallow and wheezy.

Rachel slid into the back seat next to him, cradling his head in her lap. She kept his neck straight, his airway open even as she ran her fingers through his bright red hair. He was such a sweet and precious child.

Please don’t let him die. Lord, I know Your will is above all else, but please don’t let him die.

She didn’t even have a chance to say
aemen
before John Paul slid into the front seat. “
Ach
, Rachel. Hold on. We’ll get him into the doctor.”

She nodded as he cranked the car, and for the first time since this nightmare started she let her tears flow.

“Hold on,
shveshtah
. He’s going to be okay.”

She looked up and met John Paul’s steady gaze in the mirror. Normally full of mischief and delight, his expression was solemn and sad. His lack of confidence did nothing to bolster hers.

“We have the car,” he said, as if knowing she needed more reassurance. “We’ll take him into Pryor. They have a bigger hospital.”

She nodded. Chouteau was a better idea than Clover Ridge and Pryor a better one than Chouteau. The few miles distance would be nothing when compared to the speed of the car. They would make it. For his sake they had to.

She hated riding, but it was excruciating sitting there with Samuel, knowing that his death would be on her hands. She should have never let him go down to the creek with his brothers.

His skin felt clammy to the touch, but thankfully he hadn’t thrown up since they had loaded him into the wagon. That had to be
gut, jah
? As much as she tried to console herself, she knew that it was all her fault.

“I’m sorry, Samuel.” She closed her eyes against the image of his pale face, his shiny hair such a contrast to the pasty skin. Even his freckles seemed to stand out more.

Don’t let this be the last time I see his face,
she prayed.
I’ll do anything. Just please don’t let him die.

When they pulled into the Emergency Room entrance, a team with a stretcher was waiting for them. Most likely Ruth had called from the phone shanty to let them know that Samuel would be there soon. Rachel almost hated letting them take him from her as they loaded Samuel onto the gurney. They wheeled him inside, doctors and nurses hovering around him.