Summer of the Midnight Sun (12 page)

“I’ll do the dishes afterward,” he said with a quick wink at Leah.

“You are a good man,” John said, slapping Jacob on the back.

The storm increased in intensity with a fierce wind that threatened to tear down their little shelter. Kimik sang for them, telling Leah he could make much better noise than the wind. She felt a small amount of comfort in the good nature of her companions. Leo and Addy curled up beside her as if offering her their warmth. Leah gave them each a few affirming strokes before settling down beside them. Before long Leah’s eyelids grew heavy, and she no longer heard the wind but rather was mesmerized by her own rhythmic breathing.

In her dreams, Leah was a young woman again. She was taken back in time to Ketchikan and her home in the woods with Karen and Adrik. She had been happy there with Jacob and the rest of her family. Karen had given her husband three beautiful children: Ashlie, a lovely girl who looked a lot like her mother; Oliver, who definitely took after his father; and Christopher, who seemed a happy blend of both.

Leah loved these children as if they were her siblings. She missed them all so much. Ashlie was now fifteen, nearly a grown woman. She’d been almost five when Leah had left home to help Jacob, and though she’d seen the family several times over the long years, it wasn’t the same. Little Christopher hadn’t even been born when Leah had left Ketchikan, but Oliver had been a comfort to her. When Jayce had rejected her, Leah had spent a lot time helping care for Oliver. Karen seemed to understand.

“He loves you unconditionally. Babies are like that—men are not,” Karen had told Leah. She told her this again now, in her dream.

Leah sat at Karen’s table and sighed. “It isn’t fair that I should love someone so much only to have him reject me. What’s wrong with me? Why am I not good enough for him to love in return?”

“I doubt it has anything to do with you,” Karen had told her quite seriously. “Jayce obviously has other things on his mind.”

“But I want him to have me on his mind,” Leah had protested.

She heard the baby cry and started to get up from the table. It was strange, but her legs wouldn’t work. Karen only smiled and then faded from view, while the baby continued to cry.

When Leah awoke with a start, she realized it wasn’t a baby crying at all, but a combination of the wind and Jayce. She sat up and reached out to touch Jayce’s forehead. He was feverish. Leah’s chest tightened. The wound was infected—there could be no other explanation.

The heavy overcast skies stole the sun’s light, but the small fire allowed her just enough light to see the contents of her bag. Oopick had thoughtfully planned for such a problem. There was willow bark and several other herbal remedies that Leah could use in case of emergency. She pulled a tin cup from the bag and poured water into it before setting it in the coals at the side of the fire. She carefully portioned out some of the willow bark into the water to make a strong tea to fight the fever.

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked, yawning as he sat up.

“He’s feverish. I think the wound is infected.”

“Can you help him?”

Leah felt her hands shake as she tried to stir the water. “I hope so.”

Helaina wondered for several days what she should do regarding her situation. No one in Nome knew anything about the
Homestead
except that it had been in harbor, then had left again.

Nothing made sense or offered her insight—no matter how she analyzed the situation. She tried talking to the chief of police, but he had no solution for her. She had posed the possibility of some natives taking her by boat to catch up with the
Homestead
. The man had only laughed at her and told her how ridiculous her proposal truly was, given the fact that the ship could be all the way past the Arctic Circle by now.

Helaina had finally come to the conclusion that perhaps her only hope was to return home and try another time. Maybe she and the Pinkertons could plan ahead and be ready for
Homestead
’s return to Seattle.

Sleep was hard to come by. Her mind was constantly battling to find a better answer to her problems, while the daylight followed them well into what should have been darkness, and totally ruined her routine cycle of day and night. It seemed this foreign and very strange land would offer her no ease.

She had made one friend. When fierce headaches would not leave her, Helaina made her way to a doctor. Dr. Cox seemed happy to meet a woman of social quality and knowledge. He had treated her headaches for free on the condition she share dinner with him that night. It was the first of many dinners, all of which Helaina had enjoyed. The isolation and boredom would have otherwise proved unbearable. At least Cox offered her lively stories and sometimes important bits of information. Tonight’s date proved to be no different.

“There was a tidal storm here two years ago. Most of the damage was to the east of us. It fairly destroyed villages along the coast, both east and west.”

“How awful. Were many lives lost?”

“Oh yes. It could have been much worse, however. The natives seemed to realize the dangers in some areas. They moved inland and then went to high ground. Of course, the promise of gold in this land has caused white men to come and settle. But they generally are incapable of dealing with the problems and complications of life in the North.”

“Did you come for the gold, Doctor?”

He laughed. “In a sense. I knew there would be a need for a doctor, so I came to offer my services. Which I’ve done. I haven’t regretted my choice, but I am thinking of returning south—to my home state of Colorado.”

“I’m sure you’ll be needed wherever you go,” Helaina offered.

“I’m still surprised that you should want to travel into the vast unknown,” Dr. Cox said, pouring himself a large glass of port. “Are you certain you won’t have any?”

Helaina shook her head. She knew she needed to keep her wits about her at all times. “Thank you, no. As for the travel, what can I say? I have a streak of adventure in me. My husband always told me I was much too wild to tame.” It was true, Helaina thought. Although not in the sense of travel, but rather in her craving of big-city life. There was to be no bucolic farms for this woman.

“It has been good to share your company. My own dear wife of twenty years died only last year. But of course I told you that already.”

Helaina nodded. The man was twice her age, but she knew he eyed her with matrimonial contemplation. “It is hard to lose those we love, but I find that putting my attention on the life around me has helped me to overcome such loss.”

“To be certain, but one cannot discount the possibility of remarriage.”

Helaina toyed with her food. “Well, for myself, I do just that. I have no desire to remarry.”

“But you are a young woman—only twenty-six. Even the Bible speaks that young widows should remarry.”

Helaina bristled at this comment. People always used Bible references as the definitive beginning and end to any solution. “I care not what the Bible says, Dr. Cox. I have not given myself over to worldly religion and spiritualism.”

“Nor should you. The Christian faith is neither one.”

“I don’t particularly care to move forward with this topic of conversation. I have made up my mind that I have little choice left but to return to Seattle and start anew with my endeavors to go north.”

“I wish you would stay. At least until I could accompany you south. Your company over supper has given me something to look forward to,” the doctor protested.

Helaina shook her head. “I will go tomorrow and book passage on the next ship. I have wasted entirely too much time.”

“I’m sorry you consider it a waste,” the older man said, looking genuinely hurt.

Helaina had no desire to devastate the poor man. “Doctor, I do not consider our shared meals to be wasted effort or time. I do appreciate the companionship you’ve offered and am sorry that I cannot remain and share a friendship with you.”

“I would like you to consider sharing more than friendship—”

Helaina put her hand up to silence him. “I know what you would have me consider, but I cannot. Please understand; it isn’t that you wouldn’t make any woman a fine husband, but I will not remarry. I have no heart for it.”

“Love would come in time—don’t you think?”

Helaina remembered a shadowy vision of her husband lying dead in a pool of blood. She’d not actually seen the scene except in blurry photographs, but many times she had imagined it in detail. “No. Because I would not allow it to. I’m sorry.” She got up from the table, most of the food still on her plate. “If you’ll excuse me, I must retire.”

Helaina sat in her hotel room for hours after that. She thought of the strange land outside her windows. A harsh, unsympathetic land where the men were so very lonely. People here often had both a deep loneliness and an eternal desire for the land around them. It seemed a curse and a blessing.

“I could never love this land—this harsh land of extremes.” Conversation with the doctor told her of long winters with darkness. The silence and isolation drove many people insane. She would not be one of them.

Getting up, she made her way to the window and pulled the heavy drapes into place. There were two sets—both designed to block out the summer light. This world seemed so foreign. She honestly wondered how anyone could stand living here for more than a few weeks at a time. Perhaps it was good that she’d missed catching up with Jayce Kincaid.

She was about to change her clothes and retire when a knock sounded at her door. Apprehensive, she went to the nightstand by the bed and pulled out her derringer. “Who is it?”

“Dr. Cox,” the man called out.

She frowned. What did he want with her? Had he thought to come here hoping to change her mind regarding marriage?

“What do you want?” she asked, still refusing to open the door.

“I . . . well, that is . . . after you left, a thought came to me. A way to get you to your ship.”

Helaina tucked the gun in her pocket and opened the door. Dr. Cox stood there, hat in hand. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s a ship that heads north regularly to deliver the mail. It should be making its way in the next couple of days. At least that’s the schedule it’s supposed to follow. I checked it out.”

“Go on.” Helaina wasn’t entirely sure this would be her answer, but she had no other leads.

“I thought you might catch a ride with them. They could take you along as they make their rounds. You might catch up to your ship and be able to join them.”

Helaina considered his proposal for a moment. “It might work.”

“There’s something else. I heard from someone this evening that the
Homestead
planned to stop for a time in Kotzebue. One of the natives from Nome hopes to enlist the help of his relatives and get them to join the expedition to help with hauling and such things. The mail ship will go to Kotzebue.”

This time Helaina smiled. “Dr. Cox, you have given me renewed hope. Thank you for your kindness.”

“Perhaps while you are north, you will rethink your position on marriage,” he said, his expression hopeful.

Helaina didn’t want to encourage the man falsely, but neither did she want to further his pain. “Obviously this is a land of possibilities. One can never tell what Alaska might convince me to reconsider.”

He grinned and bobbed his head up and down at least ten times. “Exactly. One can never tell. Why, just look at this town. One day there was nothing here but a small village—then gold was discovered and the place swelled with people and things. It’s like that in Alaska. One minute things seem hopeless and without any chance of working, the next they are teeming with possibilities.”

“I can see that you are right, Doctor. Tomorrow I shall go in search of information on catching passage on the mail ship.”

He looked at the floor. “Well, good night, then.”

“Good night, and thank you.” She closed the door quickly, unwilling to give him a chance to speak another word.

Leaning back, she sighed. This was better than she could have hoped for. A ride north and the
Homestead
’s delay in Kotzebue just might be her salvation.

Chapter Ten

T
he storm eventually passed, but a thick fog persisted, keeping the party land bound. It would be much too dangerous to try to navigate the waters in such conditions, but their supplies were running low and Jayce was growing progressively worse. The leg was swelling and had turned red around the wound. Leah feared blood poisoning or worse, knowing gangrene was a threat in an injury like this. Leah knew it would cost Jayce his leg if the infection went unchecked.

During this time, the men often trekked out into the fog to hunt, leaving Leah alone with Jayce. There was nothing anyone could do for him, so it seemed foolish that everyone should sit idle while the camp grew hungry. Leah found that as she sat beside him, the memories poured in.

In Ketchikan, Jayce had been boyish in charm and nature. He had once climbed a spruce just to impress Leah with his ability. She remembered them sitting together talking about the vegetation and nature of this area of Alaska. It was such a contrast to many other areas.

“The Yukon was beautiful,” Leah had told Jayce, “but not this lush and green.”

“It’s all the rain. This area gets so much more moisture through the year. You would think the snow levels would make up for it elsewhere, but it doesn’t. It has to snow a great deal, inches and inches, to even equal a single inch of rain.”

Leah enjoyed having him tell of places in the interior. “Some people think Alaska Territory, and all they can imagine is snow and ice. But I’ve seen places where the natives grow vegetables larger than any I’ve seen in the States. I’ve spent winters in parts of the territory that were far milder than those I experienced in New York. It’s amazing how we convince ourselves that things should be a certain way—when in fact we have nothing on which to base our assumptions.”

Like now,
Leah thought as she touched Jayce’s forehead.
I know in my heart how things should be, but they are not that way at all
.