Once home, John was no longer Ada’s brother, but became Dr. Wallace. He gave orders to the servants and directed Samuel to be taken upstairs to a guest room. Their mother met the commotion with a hundred questions, which John dismissed, his attention wholly on his patient.
Then John asked Ada, “I need help, but I can’t have you go squeamish on me. Are you up to it?”
Was she? Helping Nana when she was sick and helping John attend an injured man were far different.
“Well? I need to know.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll help.” Of course I’ll help. It’s Samuel.
“Then get in here.”
Ada did not have time to feel squeamish or to think about the fact that Samuel was in their house. In the need of the moment, he became a generic man in trouble. She surprised herself by being able to separate her emotions from the work, assisting John as he cleaned the open wounds and tried to determine the extent of the deeper injuries.
“He has multiple bruises and contusions, but I don’t see any broken bones,” John said.
Ada moved to the far side of the bed and helped wrap a bandage around Samuel’s arm, keeping the fabric flat and smooth.
“Gentle now,” John said.
Only after they were finished did Ada allow her gaze to fall upon Samuel’s face. With the blood cleaned away, and his hair swept back …
He’d lost weight, but he was still her Samuel. His high cheekbones, his strong brow. She put a hand on his forehead. “Samuel,” she whispered, “I’m here.”
John cleaned up his instruments and put them in his doctor bag. “I doubt he can hear you. He has a concussion—a blow to the head. As you’ve seen, he fades in and out of consciousness and is very disoriented. He doesn’t understand where he is, and he’s delirious.”
“Will he be all right?”
“The cuts and bruises will heal, but his internal injuries are unknown.”
Ada wanted to place her hands on his wounds and will him to health. She pulled a chair close to the bed. “I’ll sit with him.”
John put a hand on her shoulder. “You did very well, sister. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Nor did I. I’m just glad I could help.”
John looked at her, then at Samuel, then at Ada again. “But please remember this. Just because you found Samuel doesn’t mean he’s yours again. He left you. He’s made no effort to contact you. He’s moved on, and so have you.”
His directness surprised her. “I know.”
And she did know. But … she couldn’t deny that his presence seemed an answer to prayer.