Jolted awake, Audrey sat up in bed and tried to orient her senses. A shadowed form loomed nearby, and she heard a muffled sob. “Come quickly. Willow is worse.”
“Copper? Is that you?”
“Yes. You’re needed in Willow’s room.”
Audrey threw back the sheet and swung to her feet. She can’t die, Lord. Please…not when she’s fought so hard to stay alive.
“She’s burning up with fever, tossing and turning, muttering those senseless words. It’s frightening.”
Audrey pulled on a robe as they left her bedroom. “Have you sent for the doctor?”
“Yes…and Jolie.”
How did you bring down a raging fever? Copper had bathed Willow in cold baking soda water—was there something more that could be done? She trailed Copper down the hall to the door of Willow’s room, which stood open. Tucker bent over the bed, talking to Willow, his tone urging calm.
“Don’t, love. You’ll hurt yourself.”
She rolled away from him, and he caught her and eased her back to the mattress. Audrey moved to the opposite side of the bed. “How long has she been like this?”
“Half an hour or so. She’s been getting steadily worse for the past couple of hours.” He glanced up. “Stay with her…I’m going for the doctor.”
“I thought he’d been sent for.”
“Adele went, but that’s been twenty minutes ago.”
“Of course. Go.”
Nodding, he left in a run.
“Tucker?” Audrey called after him. “Take the kitchen lantern. It’s filled with oil and the wick trimmed.”
Copper pushed past him. “I’ll get it for him.”
Willow muttered a string of indecipherable sentences. Audrey laid her hand on her friend’s forehead. Burning up. This afternoon she’d been almost cool. Copper’s footsteps sounded on the stairway. Seconds later, she stood in the doorway. Audrey turned to meet her eyes and saw the same fear she felt raging through her mind.
A breathless Adele returned with a small pail. “There’s hardly any ice left. It’s all melting.”
Audrey took the bucket. “Thank you, Adele. Now go have a cup of tea and send the doctor up the moment he arrives.”
Copper approached the bed. “Is it possible Willow has the same mysterious sickness…?”
Audrey pressed a hand to her throat. “Oh…I’d never considered that possibility…but no. This is the first time her fever has soared so high.”
“Look at her,” Copper urged. “She has the same hue, the same grayness.”
Audrey refused to accept the thought. Willow suffered from a blow, not the grave sickness that had claimed so many lives.
Footsteps pounded on the stairs, and a few moments later Tucker arrived with Dr. Smith in tow. The doctor shrugged out of his rain cape and snapped open his medical bag. He tucked the ends of his stethoscope in his ears and motioned for them to hold her still while he held it against her chest. Removing the instrument from his ears, he placed his hand on her forehead and then on her throat.
“We have to get that temperature down.”
Audrey nodded. “Tell me what to do.”
“Ice. You and Copper go to the icehouse and bring back all you can carry. I need Tucker here to hold her down. If she keeps flailing around like this, she’ll do even more harm.”
Audrey glanced at Copper and read her thoughts. The icehouse? Where all those bodies are stacked like sacrificial cord-wood?
Could they do this? She glanced at the bed and back to Copper and saw quiet resolve. She was so proud of her friend at that moment she wanted to cry. They could do this.
Copper nodded and Audrey confirmed, “We’ll get the ice.”
“There won’t be much,” Tucker warned. “The supply is nearly depleted.”
“Pray there’ll be enough.” The doctor bent to Willow, countenance grave.
The women took the stairs without speaking. Copper took a couple of buckets from the kitchen while Audrey relit the lantern. They took time to join hands in a silent prayer. Father, we’re helpless without your mercy. Let there be enough ice to help. Hunched before the driving rain, they set off.
The lantern threw out a dim radiance, barely illuminating the path. The icehouse sat at the edge of town, dark and scary in the best of times, petrifying on a windy, stormy night.
Copper broke the silence. “Hurry up. I want to get this over with.”
“I’ll hurry, but I can assure you nobody is going to leap out of their box and get you.”
“So say you.”
When they reached the structure, Audrey handed the lantern to Copper and reached for the door hasp. Easing the heavy wood open, she peered inside the pitch-back depths. The stench of death overpowered her.
Copper pressed close, lifting the lantern higher. Rows of pine caskets lined the brick building. In the center were a couple of melting ice blocks, and an ax.
Taking a deep breath, Audrey braced her resolve. This would be no different than having a client lying neatly on a table awaiting her service, only she wouldn’t have to touch or even see the body. Pure meanness set in, and she reached back and pinched Copper’s ribs.
Squealing, her friend bolted out of the door, nearly tearing the wood off its hinge.
Audrey stepped out and took her firmly by the hand. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.”
“You’re wretched!” Copper accused.
“True, but if you could see your face right now you’d know why.” Probably as comical as Audrey’s had been her first day of work at the parlor. “Come on, I’ll protect you.”
“You go.” Copper hung back, clearly peeved. “I wouldn’t be a stitch of help.”
“You have to hold the light.”
“I don’t have to do anything but die.”
“In which case, you will, and very soon if you don’t help me.”
“I can’t go in there.”
“Yes you can.” Audrey grasped her arm and pulled her into the black abyss. Copper’s breath came in ragged pants. “Hurry up.”
Audrey reached for the ax. “This will only take a minute.”
Swinging the pick, she chunked off a sizable hunk of ice. Even she was made a little uneasy by the grotesque shadow the lantern light threw against the walls: a cloaked figure swinging an ax with all its might.
Copper’s tinny whimpers filled the stillness. “This is wretched.”
Audrey lifted the ax over her head and brought it down with a resounding whack. A second lump of ice cracked, and she hit it again, breaking off enough small and medium-sized pieces to fill the buckets. Setting the ax aside, she picked up a pail and gave it to Copper. Grabbing her own pail, she stepped outside and closed the door.
Rain lashed exposed skin, hindering their speed. The lantern barely shed enough glow to show the path. Rough, mud-slick ground proved treacherous underfoot. Audrey slipped, almost spilling her bucket. Still they trudged ahead, putting one foot in front of the other. Upon reaching the Madison house, they removed their rain-soaked capes and toted the buckets upstairs, where the doctor dumped the ice in a bedsheet, instructing Tucker to twist it into a pack to fit against Willow’s feverish side.
Dr. Smith turned to Audrey, his voice rough with impatience. “What are you standing there for? We need more ice.”
Audrey glanced at Copper, and they silently turned and left the room.
The stormy night closed around them as they slogged through the mud and running water on their way back to the icehouse. Lightning flared overhead, and thunder roared. Imagined terrors waited outside the tiny circle of light. The wind picked up, howling like a banshee.
Inside the icehouse, Audrey held the lantern while this time Copper chopped enough ice to fill the buckets a second time. A sound suddenly caught Audrey’s attention.
Something moved in the darkness behind the stacked caskets.
Inside the block walls, it was quiet enough that she could hear a scratching sound. She caught her breath, glancing at Copper, who was blissfully unaware of the swish as she diligently whacked the large block.
The sound wasn’t coming from the boxes. Audrey ought to know. She’d prepared at least half of them. She knew Mrs. Helman had on a flowered dress, and Mr. Hutchison wasn’t wearing his store-bought teeth because he’d lost them somewhere on the trail.
“Is anyone there?” she called, ashamed of the way her voice fractured.
Cooper immediately dropped the ax and whirled to face her. “What?”
Aware the noise could well be her imagination, Audrey modified her response. “I…I asked, ‘Anybody there!’ You know…teasing—because we both know there’s…nobody there.”
“Well, stop it.” Copper lifted the ax and whacked off another hunk.
Green round globes glowed behind a box.
Audrey’s blood curdled. That was not her imagination. She carefully set the lantern on a box and eased closer to the source.
Copper chopped away.
The eyes moved closer. She whirled, ready to abandon Copper and save herself when she spotted a fat opossum wander into the light, moseying toward her.
To Audrey’s dismay, Copper spotted it about the time it spotted her. She squealed, and the lantern wavered.
Audrey whirled to steady it. “Do you want me to die of heart failure? I cannot bear the thought of walking back to that house in the dark.”
Sinking to her knees, Copper closed her eyes. “This is absolutely appalling!”
“Just hurry.”
Minutes later, Audrey closed the opossum inside the icehouse and secured the hasp. If it’d gotten in there on its own, it could surely get out on its own.
The women set off with the load. A rising stream of water blocked their pathway. Too tired to go around, they waded through. They reached the edge of the yard, and Copper suddenly went down, dropping her bucket. Ice flew in all directions. Audrey set down the lantern and helped her up.
“Is anything broken?”
Copper moaned. “I think I’ve turned my ankle.”
Audrey scrambled to retrieve the precious ice, and then turned back. “Lean on me.” She slid her arm around the girl’s waist and helped her to stand. “Don’t get upset. I’ll hold you steady. Can you hop to the steps?”
“I’ll try.”
The women forged across the rain-soaked yard, Audrey assisting Copper, who now carried both ice buckets. When they reached the house, Copper dropped to sit on the bottom step. “Let me scoot up. It would be easier than trying to climb them.”
Audrey didn’t argue. Copper might be little, but she and the ice were a bundle to support. She took both buckets and set them aside.
Easing herself up, one step at a time, Copper made her way to the top. From there, Audrey helped her inside. Not confident enough to tackle the stairs, she opted for the kitchen. Copper sank into a chair. “I’ll be all right. You take the ice upstairs before it melts.”
“I’ll be right back and we’ll get some ice on that ankle.” Audrey hurried outside and gathered the ice and carried both buckets inside before returning for the lantern.
Again Dr. Smith used the ice to fashion a pack and then gave her a commiserating glance. “We need more.”
Audrey nodded and plodded downstairs. She could not make the trip back to that icehouse by herself, but she had to, for Willow’s sake. She stood at the top of the steps, staring uncertainly into the darkness. She had to have help. But whom could she turn to?
Eli? Caleb?
Eli it was.
Holding the lantern low enough to illuminate her steps, she hurried down the road.
The Gray house was dark when she reached it. She tapped on the door, not wanting to wake Tate or Mrs. Gray. When she didn’t receive an answer, she rapped louder. The door swung open, and Eli appeared, snapping suspenders into place.
“Willow’s worse. We need ice to bring down her fever.”
She had wakened him from a sound sleep. His tousled hair whipped in the rainy gale. “What?”
“I need help! Copper and I made two trips, and then Copper hurt her ankle, and I can’t go back there by myself. I just can’t.” To her mortification, she broke into tears.
He drew her close, her slicker drenching his bare chest and trousers. “Calm down. I’ll help you. Just let me get some clothes on.”
“Thank you.” She openly bawled. “Thank you ever so much.”
She waited on the porch, gaining control of her emotions until he returned. Taking her by the arm, he helped her off the porch. “I’ll get the buggy.”
A buggy. Of course. They could carry more ice that way. Why hadn’t she and Copper thought of that earlier? Audrey relaxed, so thankful to have someone else in control. Willow would be fine now.
Eli stopped the horse in front of the house and helped her up onto the seat. She huddled against him, for protection, but mainly because she wanted to. He didn’t object. She drank in his presence, his strength, and closed her eyes, powerless to explain why it took a crisis to bring them together. Why couldn’t they have one sane moment of togetherness without pending doom?
“There’s an opossum in the icehouse.”
He glanced down at her. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve been there twice already tonight. I don’t know what it’s doing there, but it gave me quite a start.”
She could feel his grin. “I’d think so.”
He put his arm around her and drew her closer. “So the icehouse bogeymen got you?”
“Of course not.” She snuggled nearer, drinking in the exquisite moment. “But it was rather startling when the little dickens walked out and stared right at me. It was so very spooky in there, and all those clients gave the icehouse quiet a macabre air.”
Eli laughed—a strong, manly timbre. “A fine undertaker’s assistant you are. I’d think you’d be used to the deceased by now.”
One thing she wasn’t used to: this intimacy. But she didn’t question it. She relished it, and longed for more.
They reached the icehouse, and Eli made short work of the opossum, turning him out in the rain. Then instructing Audrey to remain in the buggy, he swung a few swift blows with the ax, and loaded the chunks of ice. Thunder blasted overhead, and she covered her ears as Eli picked up the reins, and in a few minutes they drew up in front of the Madison house.
“I’ll carry the ice upstairs.”
Audrey swiftly swung out unassisted. “I’ll do my share. Time is short.”
He filled a bucket for her before picking up his own load. When they reached the upstairs bedroom, he paused in the doorway, his face draining of color. Willow twitched and jerked uncontrollably, her sweat-soaked hair hanging in strings. She moaned, as though in anguish.
“Dear God…” He set down the buckets.
Audrey’s gaze sought Tucker, who sat hunched over, grief shadowing his tight features, praying.
“Bring it in,” the doctor ordered. “It’s melting almost as fast as we get it in place.”
Eli empted the buckets while Audrey went to check on Copper. She found her sitting at the kitchen table, her foot propped on a chair. “What’s happening? I’m about to go out of my mind sitting here. Willow…?”
“No change. Eli and I brought the last of the ice. If she needs more there is none. Can you make it upstairs if I help you?”
“I can try.”
“I’ll get Eli to lend us a hand.” Audrey caught him as he was starting upstairs with the last bucket of ice and explained the situation.
“Let me deliver this and I’ll be right back.”
Ten minutes later he entered the kitchen. Gathering Copper around the waist, he helped her to stand and take a cautionary step. Noting the limp, he swept her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs. Audrey trailed, actually envious of her friend’s injury. To be carried in his arms…Protected. Loved to the very depths of her soul by this man…
She shook desire aside. She’d just been given a rare moment of privacy with Eli Gray. God was good.
If only he would be good enough to spare Willow, she would never ask another thing of him.