The Healing Touch of his Love, page 10
“It’s been a long night. If our house weren’t in such shambles, I’d suggest that you sleep here. Still, thank you so much for coming all this way. It means the world to me ... to us, I mean,” Ginny said gratefully. As he gazed into her eyes, Kenton forgot his raised suspicions and was immediately put at ease once more. He wasn’t looking forward to the long ride home, but the memory of Ginny’s smile and kind words would stick with him for the rest of the night. There was no doubt in his mind that he was smitten.
Chapter 8
“Sam! Where is that boy? Have you seen him, Ginny?” Mrs. Hill asked anxiously, bumbling around the kitchen.
“No, I haven’t. Hasn’t he been working part-time with the blacksmith? That must be where he is,” Ginny said with a yawn. It wasn’t exactly early at ten in the morning, but it was always hard to rouse herself after working late at the saloon. Her father would likely be in bed until twelve at least, seeing as the late hours were even harder on him. Ginny would have liked to stay sleeping as well, but she had a dress to start making and couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
Mrs. Hill groaned and sighed but didn’t express to Ginny what the problem was.
“There’s no need to suffer in silence, Mother. What’s the matter?” Ginny asked.
“I don’t mean to complain. You know I don’t like to be negative about anything, but with Sam off at the shop, your father working all hours of the night, and Rory injured, I just can’t handle all the housework on my own. I’m sorry to bother you with all this because I know you’re working harder than the rest of us combined, but I really don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. Ah!” she cried out as she dropped the pot she’d just pulled out to use. It made a loud clanging noise as it hit the floor, and instinctively the mother and daughter both looked up nervously toward the ceiling. The sound had undoubtedly woken up Manny Hill, and he always had a terrible temper in the mornings.
“I don’t hear anything,” Ginny whispered carefully.
“He must be sleeping very deeply then.”
“Listen Mother, under the circumstances, maybe Father will agree to manage at the saloon by himself, and I can take care of some things around the house for you? I’ll fetch all the water and do all the heavy lifting that Rory used to do for you. If Father still insists on needed help at the saloon, I’m sure Sam can pop his head in each night after he gets finished at the blacksmith’s shop.” Ginny knelt down and picked up the dropped pot as she tried to reassure her frazzled mother.
“Thank you, my dear. You are truly the best daughter that a mother could ask for. What on earth would I do without you?” Taken up with the emotion of the moment and the stress of the previous few days, Mrs. Hill embraced her daughter, even still with the pot in between them. Ginny laughed, and a breeze blew in from the front room, which was still partially open to the fall air because of the recent fire.
“Oh dear, what are we going to do about the front room? I’m very grateful that we all escaped with our lives and so on, but now we have a gaping hole where our window used to be and no time to fix it!” Just like that, Mrs. Hill’s anxiety returned, and she started rushing around the kitchen once more.
“I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m still very confused about why or how that fire got started in the first place. Don’t you find it puzzling? I’m quite sure the window wasn’t open when we went to bed, there was no fire in the hearth, and no candles left aflame in the room. We’re miles away from any neighbors and their fires. It’s almost as if someone opened the window and threw some kind of torch inside it,” Ginny mused.
Mrs. Hill shook her head. “I’ve been wondering the same thing myself, my dear. I don’t understand at all how it could have gotten started. The only thing that makes rational sense to me now is that we were struck by a mysteriously silent bolt of lightning.”
Her mother’s comment made Ginny chuckle, and she was glad that the mood had lightened somewhat. There was no use worrying about something that couldn’t be changed. Regardless of how the fire started originally, the window and floorboards still needed to be fixed.
A knock at the door interrupted the mother and daughter. The sound of the knock seemed to send a shockwave through Mrs. Hill, and she jumped a little where she stood.
“Oh! Oh, right. The doctor has come to check on Rory, and I completely forgot. Will you answer the door and show him where Rory is? I’m just in the middle of baking the bread, and if I leave now, the kneading time will be all off,” Mrs. Hill said, her knuckles already pressed into the dough.
“Yes, of course,” Ginny answered, feeling herself start to get flustered. She was still just wearing her dressing robe, and her hair was in an uncombed braid that was fraying at the end. Ginny half considered rushing up the stairs and putting on something more appropriate, but the sound of Dr. Cook knocking on the door again stopped her.
“Girl, what are you stalling for? The doctor’s waiting patiently out there in the cold. If you’re worried about how you look, I’m afraid to say that there’s no time. You’ll have to make yourself look twice as pretty at church this week to make up for it,” Mrs. Hill said with a wink, pushing Ginny toward the door with her elbow.
If there had been time to blush, Ginny would have, but instead, she rolled her eyes and hurried toward the front door.
“Good morning, Dr. Cook, come on in. I do apologize for making you wait so long. We’re all a bit frazzled since the fire, as I’m sure you can imagine,” Ginny babbled as soon as she opened the door. She wanted to say more and explain her appearance, but the way he looked at her took her breath away and filled her core with warmth. She was instantly at ease in his presence and nervous all at once.
“No need to apologize. I was hardly waiting any time at all, and it is a fairly early hour in the morning. In my opinion, no business should be conducted before noon, but alas, health waits for no one.” Kenton took off his hat as soon as he stepped in and ran his hand through his dark curls.
“It’s hardly an early hour at all, but it’s kind of you to say so. I was up late helping my father out at the saloon last night, which is why I’m not ... well, appropriately dressed to be receiving anyone. Please excuse my appearance. My father is still in bed, so I’m doing at least a bit better than him!” Ginny felt herself rambling but couldn’t stop. Something about Kenton completely disarmed her.
“I think you look lovely,” Dr. Cook said simply.
Ginny couldn’t fight off the blush any longer, and a pretty pinkness started creeping up her cheeks.
“Thank you. You don’t have to say that,” she said with a giggle before changing the subject quickly. “Rory is just upstairs if you’re ready to see the patient?”
She started bounding up the stairs before Kenton could say anything in response. On the way up the stairs, she caught sight of her reflection in a piece of glass. She was looking distinctly not lovely, which made Dr. Cook’s compliment an especially puzzling one. Either he had poor eyesight, or was just saying that she looked lovely to be nice and not because it was true.
The third option was that he really did like the way she looked. She hoped that that was the case, though she found it difficult to believe. Left to her own devices, Ginny might have pondered the implications of such a compliment for the rest of the afternoon, but thankfully there was a task at hand to complete.
“Rory? The doctor’s here to see you,” Ginny said, announcing their presence carefully. Rory was sitting up in his small bed, his injured ankle propped up on a pillow and a book in his hands. He looked just about as ready as Ginny was to receive guests, but it occurred to her that Dr. Cook had likely seen all kinds of people in compromising positions. She could only hope that he wouldn’t judge her family too harshly based on their appearance. Though it was a chilly morning, Ginny moved to open the window in the small room, which had started to develop a stuffy smell thanks to Rory spending all his time in there.
“Good morning, Dr. Cook,” Rory mumbled. Ginny had noticed that both her brothers had developed a sort of monotone voice they used with strangers, and it wasn’t until they were on their own or amongst friends that more of their personality came through. Sam was better at putting on a polite face for guests, but Rory had yet to develop that skill. The pain he was experiencing due to his ankle only compounded the problem.
“Please, call me Kenton. How are you feeling, Rory? Have you been able to turn your ankle at all?” Kenton asked gently. He sat down beside the bed and started unwrapping the ankle to see how it was heeling. Rory took a sharp breath in as soon as his ankle was touched, a clear sign that he was still in serious pain.
“No. It still hurts a lot,” Rory grumbled back.
“Well, I can see why. This bruise looks like the northern lights somehow invaded your foot. Have you ever seen skin look that kind of green and yellow?” Dr. Cook asked in a conversational tone.
“Yes. Last winter Bradley Wilmington drank too much sweet wine by mistake, and his face looked just that color,” Rory said with a laugh, and Ginny smiled. It was impressive that Kenton had been able to break the ice with Rory in such a short time.
“Ah yes, I’m sure we’ve all had some unfortunate run-ins with sweet wine. Well, I’m sorry to say that I don’t have much news either way. It’s healing the way it’s supposed to, even if it does hurt quite a bit and the bruise looks like a muddled mess. There’s nothing to do but keep resting it and wait for time to heal it. I’ve brought you more of that tonic for the pain, which will hopefully help a bit. You should arrange for some visitors to come and keep you company! It can be lonely recuperating like this all by yourself, I’m sure.”
“I’ll send for some of your friends. Maybe Bradley would like to come by and see how frightening your ankle looks,” Ginny offered, intending to both tease her brother and appear helpful all at once.
“Sure. I guess I’d like that,” Rory said quietly.
“Alright, then. Well, I’ll wrap you back up here and leave you in peace to your reading.”
Seeing how good Dr. Cook was with her brother did nothing to help Ginny’s infatuation. He was clearly a very nurturing, caring, and helpful soul. It was almost unfair that he was so handsome on top of it all. Ginny had no interest in being just another girl in town that fancied the new doctor, but she couldn’t help herself. He was undeniably the kind of man that she hadn’t even known she’d wanted, and now there was no turning back. She couldn’t turn off the feelings that were beginning to blossom in her heart for Kenton, even if she felt bashful about them. If she told Ashley the truth, then she’d have to endure a lifetime of teasing. On the other hand, Ashley was just about the only person that she could confide in.
“How is your father doing after the fire?” Kenton asked once he’d finished re-wrapping Rory’s ankle. As they stood outside his room on the upstairs landing, Ginny noticed for the first time just how tall the young doctor was.
“He’s alright but worried about the future. We’ve had our fair share of struggles as a family over the last few months, and now with the house repairs on top of everything ... it’s just all a bit too much for him,” Ginny confessed. It felt easy opening up to Kenton as if she could share anything with his kind eyes.
“I can only imagine. I’m sorry if I made the conversation awkward when I was here after the fire and implied that I recognized your father from earlier in the day. I was just so certain that it was him that I had seen in the general store buying lamp oil. Or at least trying to buy lamp oil.”
Ginny’s brow furrowed. “To be honest, Kenton, I’d completely forgotten about the incident altogether. I wouldn’t worry about it. My father has too much on his mind these days to hold any one conversation or comment against someone.”
Together, they walked back down the stairs toward the front door, though Ginny wished she could find an excuse to keep him there longer. Alas, everyone else in the family was healthy, so there was no reason to take up any more of his time.
“Well, I’m relieved to hear it. I’m sorry about the state of the front room. Have you had any thoughts as to what or who might have started the fire?” Kenton asked.
“Who? It hadn’t occurred to us at all that any one person might have been the cause, but I suppose there’s a possibility of that. We’re at a total loss about how the fire started but trying to put our energy into moving on and mending the place. It happened, and there’s nothing to be done about it now. We’d rather put the whole difficulty behind us,” Ginny explained.
“I can completely understand that. Well, I should be off now. Let me know if Rory’s state worsens at all, and please give my regards to the rest of your family. Will I be seeing you at church this week?”
Ginny nodded more emphatically than she meant to.
“Yes! Yes, you’ll see me there, and I’ll be wearing proper attire, I swear.”
Kenton smiled. “As I said, I think you look lovely.”
With that, he tipped his hat to her and stepped down off the porch toward his waiting horse. Ginny had never felt her heart skip a beat before, but that morning she was sure it had skipped five.
Chapter 9
“As you can imagine, improving the pass through Absaroka range would help us out on several fronts. The closest train stop is still a day’s ride away, but if we can establish ourselves as more than just the last trading post before the park, then I think there’s no limit to what we can accomplish here in Park County. All sorts of goods and supplies will be more easily accessible, and life will improve for the residents in many ways. The good Dr. Cook here has been making quite an impression on me since his arrival.
Dr. Cook has made it clear to me that we need more frequent deliveries of medical supplies for the good of our growing population. If any of you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Kenton, that probably means you are wonderfully healthy. He’s kindly joined us today for the town meeting, however, so please greet him afterward if you haven’t yet been introduced. You can’t miss him; he’s the youngest and most handsome of us all,” Mayor Daniels said, eliciting an appropriately hearty chuckle from the small crowd of town representatives surrounding the table.
Kenton had been honored to be invited to the town hall meeting and was very pleased to hear about Mayor Daniels’ plans. In his experience, it wasn’t often that politicians listened to their people without some kind of financial lobbying involved to grease the wheels. In Maine, Kenton wouldn’t have dreamed of asking a local representative to do him a favor without offering something in return.
The table of gentlemen, including all the local shop owners and leaders of industry, nodded politely in Kenton’s direction.
“How exactly do you see this infrastructure project being funded? It’s all well and good to discuss getting our own train station and a clear pass for travelers, but without some kind of outside investment, I’m not sure how we’ll make it happen,” Manny Hill grumbled. Kenton watched carefully to see how Mayor Daniels would handle the saloon owner’s pessimism.
The young doctor understood why Manny would be less than optimistic about the future. After the way his house had mysteriously caught fire, it made sense that he would be thinking only of the potential downfalls. Still, Kenton found himself slightly suspicious of the Hill patriarch. He was sure that he had seen him at the general store, yet the older man had denied it entirely. Kenton couldn’t think of a single reason why he hadn’t wanted anyone to know he was at the general store.
“Now here’s why I need all of your help. Of course, I could write away to industry leaders from the capital or the like, secure one large investment and have some kind of coal mine move into town as soon as the pass is cleared. I don’t think that any of us want that, however. We should be developing all kinds of diverse business here in Park County and not rely on one single industry that could collapse at any moment.
