As Ginny fell asleep that night, she couldn’t get the kind doctor’s face out of her mind. She had keenly remembered his handsome profile from the brief look she’d gotten of him at church the week before. As it turned out, his voice was even more attractive than his jawline. He had a low and commanding voice that might have scared her had it belonged to someone else, but coming from him, it had a very comforting effect on her. She’d never met anyone quite like him. Ginny smiled, thinking about the conversation she’d had with her friend Ashley just a few days before.
Ashley had been adamant that love at first sight could be as real as any other love. She’d claimed that she wanted nothing more than a handsome cowboy to strut into town, take one look at her, and decide to settle down. Ginny had said that she thought the whole notion ridiculous. How could you love something or someone that you didn’t know anything about? Still, there she was, having only met the kindly doctor for a matter of mere minutes, and she was already smitten with him.
Suddenly she understood why everyone in town seemed so taken, nay obsessed, with Dr. Cook. Not only was he handsome, but he was polite and helpful and clearly had the townsfolks’ best interests at heart. She knew it was silly to yearn for someone she’d just met. More than that, it was apparent that she would have a lot of competition for his attention, but she allowed herself the indulgence. Finally, her eyes closed, and she drifted off into a pleasant slumber, hoping that she would see him again soon.
It wasn’t until a few hours later that she realized just how soon she might need to see him. The smell of smoke infiltrated her dreams and filled her lungs. If she hadn’t been a light sleeper, she might not have woken up at all. When she did, there was a haze over her room and a heat coming from the downstairs that was stronger than any bonfire she’d ever felt.
Coughing herself awake, Ginny fought her way out of the blankets and safely felt the floor beneath her feet. Carefully, she made her way toward the door and opened it with the sleeve of her nightdress pulled over her hand for protection.
The hallway was filled with even more smoke than her room, and she could hear the roar of flames from downstairs. Without wasting another second, Ginny started yelling for everyone in the house to wake up. Tearing into her parents’ room, she shook them awake.
“Mama! Mama, you’ve got to wake up right now. There’s a fire. I think it’s coming from downstairs!”
“What are you on about now?” her father asked grumpily, waking first even though Ginny was shaking her mother’s shoulders and not his. Finally, Mrs. Hill woke with a start and sprung up to a sitting position.
“What’s wrong? Where are the children? Is everyone safe?” Mrs. Hill asked anxiously, though she was clearly unaware of the specific dangers of the situation.
“It seems there’s a fire, my dear. Come, follow me. We need to get out while we still can. I’ll go wake up the boys,” Mr. Hill said, rising to the occasion surprisingly well.
“No, I’ll go make sure the boys get out safely. You take Mother out front and see what you can do about putting the fire out. Goodness knows there are no neighbors nearby to help us in any way,” Ginny insisted, pushing her parents toward the door to the hallway.
“Please be careful!” Mrs. Hill coughed out before starting down the stairs with Ginny’s father leading the way.
Safe in the knowledge that her parents were conscious, Ginny started in on the task of waking her brothers. They were both deep sleepers, and Ginny could feel the smoke starting to close in on her own lungs. She tried to keep low as she walked, but it still managed to cloud her vision and sting her eyes. Ginny tried to yell as she made her way to the other side of the hallway where her brothers’ room was, but she couldn’t get a word out. Instead, her throat closed up into a tight cough, and she tried not to panic.
Making sure to pound on the door before she opened it (hoping that the sound might wake the boys) she finally turned the knob and entered the room. Thankfully, the smoke hadn't fully made its way in, and she could speak again.
“Rory! Sam, wake up!” she yelled at the teenage boys sprawled out across their twin beds.
“What is it?” Rory grumbled, and Sam just turned over in bed as if he hadn’t heard anything at all.
“There’s a fire downstairs; you need to get up now!” she cried out. Finally, she’d gotten their attention, and the boys sat up.
“Are Mother and Father awake?” Sam asked as they made their way to the staircase.
“They’re already downstairs, or at least I hope they are,” she responded.
The hallway was becoming increasingly filled with smoke as the seconds ticked by. It was impossible to see anything, though she could feel the warmth coming from the rest of the house. She felt around for the banister with one hand and clutched Sam’s hand with her other.
“Slowly but surely,” she called up to her brothers as she started the panicked descent toward the front exit.
It wasn’t until she and Sam were standing at the bottom of the stairs that she realized that Rory wasn’t with them.
“Rory!” they both called up toward the younger boy, but there was no response.
“He wasn’t following you?” Ginny asked Sam.
“I thought he was, but I guess he wasn’t. I’ll go back up for him,” Sam offered, but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps rushing down the stairs. The quick footsteps collapsed into a thunderous rumbling noise, and Rory’s tumbling body almost knocked over both Sam and Ginny. It appeared that his attempt to catch up with his siblings had ended in disaster.
“Are you alright? We need to move,” Ginny coughed out as she and Sam knelt down to help their brother up again.
“I couldn’t see or hear anything, then my shirt got caught on a loose nail and ... ah!” Rory cried out in pain, clutching his ankle. “Wait, I need to lean on one of you.”
In the end, he put an arm over each of them, and the three siblings made their way safely out the front door together. Ginny noticed that the downstairs was smokier than the upstairs hallway. It soon became clear that the fire was contained in the front parlor, and the flames were growing higher thanks to the wind coming through an open window.
“Oh, thank goodness you all made it out alive! What took you so long?” their mother asked frantically when they emerged, embracing each of her children.
“Rory fell down the stairs,” Ginny revealed, turning around to look at the house once more. It was only the parlor that seemed to be on fire, though she couldn’t think what would have caused the flames to catch. They hadn’t lit any logs in the front fireplace, and she was certain no candles had been left burning. Most strange of all was the fact that the front window was open as if someone had tossed a burning torch in through it and run away.
“Where’s Father?” Ginny asked, trying to think what she could do.
“He’s fetching water. You ought to go help him. Try and help fill as many buckets as possible,” Mrs. Hill responded, urging her children toward the pump, about fifty feet away.
Ginny didn’t need to be told twice. After running to the shed to pick up as many water buckets as she could find, she raced back to the pump, filling the buckets as quickly as she could.
“Thank you. It’s helping!” her father called out as he came to pick up a full bucket and left behind an empty one for her to refill. For the next half hour or so, they all worked together, moving quickly from the pump to where the flames were engulfing their precious house. Rory did his best to help by taking over Ginny’s position by the pump but was unable to run due to his ankle.
Finally, it seemed like they were making some difference, and eventually, the heat started to subside. The roar of the fire quietened to the crackling of embers, and the Hill family took a collective deep breath.
“How bad do you think the damage is?” Ginny asked her father. He shook his head somberly.
“As if we haven’t had enough bad luck recently. I can’t quite believe all this. Well, the good news is that the fire seemed to stay contained in the parlor, but I’m sure we’ll have to replace all the floorboards, not to mention the furniture. There’ll be no entertaining guests for quite some time now, I’m afraid,” he said sadly to his wife.
“I don’t give a fig about entertaining! Rory can’t seem to walk, and I think that’s far more concerning,” Mrs. Hill responded in a harsh tone.
“It’s fine,” Rory tried to protest, but the painful wince he gave as soon as he tried to put his foot down said otherwise.
“It’s broken, I just know it. Ginny, we need to fetch the doctor right away.”
Ginny felt a pang of guilt shoot through her as she wondered if her passing wish to see the doctor again had somehow resulted in the fire and her brother’s broken ankle. She shook away the thought. She knew that she was just being superstitious. Leaning down, she looked at Rory’s ankle. They were lucky that the moon was bright that night; otherwise, they might not have been able to see anything at all. Even in the darkness, however, Ginny could see that Rory’s limb was already turning an angry shade of purple.
“Can you turn it?” she asked, reaching over to inspect the swelling.
“I can try,” Rory answered bravely as he attempted to swivel the joint. Unfortunately, it didn’t move an inch, and Rory still yelped out in pain.
“Yes, it seems we need to call for the doctor indeed. I’ll take one of the horses. Do you think it’s safe to go inside and fetch a coat?” she asked her family cautiously.
“I’ll go in first and get one for you,” Sam offered, and he sprinted off before anyone had time to tell him to be careful.
Mr. Hill shook his head dejectedly. “What on earth did we do to deserve all this bad luck? We haven’t needed to call for a doctor since Rory was born, some thirteen years ago, and now we’ve lost all our money, our house is on fire, and our son may never walk again.”
Normally, Ginny and her mother could laugh and poke fun at her father’s grim outlook, but that night was different. Mr. Hill was generally given to pessimism, but in this case, it certainly felt like someone had it out for them all. How else was everything to be explained?
“Now that the smoke is clearing out, it doesn’t look all that bad. We’ll definitely need new furniture, but at the very least, I don’t think all the floorboards will need to be replaced. Here, Ginny, I brought you a coat. I wanted to move quickly, so I’m not really sure who the coat belongs to. Will this do?” Sam asked when he returned from his initial scout of the house and damage.
“It will have to,” Ginny replied, looking over what was actually her father’s coat. It was too big around the shoulders for her, and she practically looked like a child in it. For a moment, she honestly considered sending her brother back into the smoke-filled house to fetch her the right coat, but she stopped herself. As much as she didn’t want the handsome doctor to see her in such a sorry state, there was no time to be wasted. Rory’s ankle needed to be attended to as soon as possible, and at least she would be warm.
“Sam, go saddle up one of the horses for Ginny so your sister can go fetch the doctor,” Mrs. Hill ordered her eldest son. With a quick nod, Sam rushed off toward the barn, happy to have something to do. Ginny, too, wished she had something that could take her away from her parents’ bickering and Rory’s yelps of pain, but there was nothing to do but wait for the horse.
“Oh, what’s to become of us?” her father cried out, and Ginny and her mother rolled their eyes.
Thankfully Sam worked quickly and brought the horse out for Ginny in no time.
“Ride swiftly and safely!” Mrs. Hill called after Ginny as she galloped away from the house, a thin stream of smoke still drifting up from the ashes of what used to be their parlor.
The ride was a terrifying one, as Ginny tried to guide the steed along the dark, tree-lined road as quickly as possible toward the new doctor’s house. She knew the streets of Park County like the back of her hand, but everything looked different in the dark. Shadows of naked branches reached out across her path like clawing fingers stretching out for her, and she drew her father’s coat in close around her. More than once, she thought she saw a figure slinking back into the trees as she approached, but she tried to tell herself that it was merely her mind playing tricks on her. Her horse was strong and fast, unlikely to be spooked by a wandering weasel or even a wolf. Telling herself that she was doing what she needed to do to save her brother’s leg, Ginny pressed on.
Finally, she arrived in front of the doctor’s door. It was a pleasant enough small house, but Ginny could see, even in the dark, that its front needed a new coat of paint. After tying up her horse by the porch, she walked silently up the stairs before remembering that she was there to wake the doctor up, so there was no sense in being quiet. Still, she took a moment to try and wipe the dark smudges she was sure crisscrossed her face and smoothed out her long braid. Looking down at her father’s coat that landed just above her ankles, she quickly decided to give up on making herself look presentable.
She wasn’t there to flirt with the doctor after all; she was there for her brother’s sake. If they didn’t get back to him in time, there was a chance that he might never walk again. She’d seen lesser injuries cripple other people in the area, but she had full faith that the good doctor would know just what to do.
Taking a deep breath in to calm her nerves and remembering how much was at stake, she started pounding on the door.