LITMIR.BIZ

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hear her soft voice, see her gentle smile, look into her bottom less eyes.

      All that mattered was doing his job. Doing it well and living up to his expectations of himself.

      Teena climbed until she reached the river. There she left the trail and found a place away from the clump of many booted feet. She sat down and watched the water sing past. She tried to sort out her thoughts, make sense of the strange feelings rolling through her.

      Dr. Jacob was a hard man. A white man with no regard for anything but his own interests. Not that it mattered. All she wanted from him was a chance to learn what he knew about healing. Nothing more.

      Yet she’d watched the way he was with Burns and the pup, and she had seen so much more than a white man with white man’s greed. She’d seen the flash of tenderness as he watched Burns, the gentleness in his hands as he examined the pup, the kind determination as he talked to the boy about caring for the animal, quietly teaching responsibility as her people did when children were much younger.

      Afterwards, when Burns had come out to play with the dog, she told him about fishing for food for the animal. About teaching it to remain at home when ordered to do so. “Is Dr. Jacob your brother or father?” she asked.

      Burns grinned. “Neither. Only met him on the boat on the way up here.” His expression grew dreamy. “I wish he was, though. He cares about me more than my father does. Ain’t got no brother.”

      That one statement—I wish he was—sat like something warm and sweet in the secret corner of her heart. A man who won the respect of someone younger deserved admiration.

      Even if he saved his kindness for the white man.

      She sighed. Life used to be so simple. So straightforward. She knew what was expected of her—work hard to feed the family, respect her elders, marry the man of her father’s choosing, follow the events of each season. But things had changed.

      She brought her attention back to the trail. This hungry search for gold had turned her life upside down, shifted her world sideways. Things would never be the same.

      As if her thoughts had brought him toward her, Dr. Jacob climbed the path. He didn’t look her way. She wondered that the silent cry of her soul at seeing him didn’t draw his attention to her. Who was this man? Why should she feel such a stirring inside at the mere sight of him?

      She didn’t move. Barely breathed. She wanted him to see her. But hoped he wouldn’t. She was not in a mood to deal with the way his eyes alternately flashed disapproval then darkened with some kind of interest. Or was it curiosity?

      He passed out of sight.

      She sat there a moment or two, waiting for her insides to calm, her reason to return. Then she pushed to her feet and headed down the trail to help with the clinic construction.

      The three Tucker sisters were hard at work in the afternoon sun when she reached the clinic. Perhaps they no longer needed her help. She hung back to watch and wait.

      “Burns,” Frankie called. “I could use a hand with this here board.” The boy hurriedly left his pup.

      As Lucy waited for Burns to do Frankie’s bidding, she pulled out a pretty white hankie from her pocket and patted her brow. Both her sisters stared.

      “What?” Lucy demanded.

      “What good’s that little bit of cloth?” Frankie appointed herself spokeswoman. “Where’s your bandanna?”

      “I gave it to Caleb.”

      “Why?” Both her sisters looked her up and down like she had suddenly changed form before their eyes.

      “Well, for goodness’ sake. Can’t a woman give her man a gift?” She jammed the hankie back in her pocket and picked up a hammer to drive a nail into a board with such fury that Teena flinched.

      Burns stared wide-eyed. He glanced over his shoulder, as if wondering how to escape these rowdy women.

      Margie and Frankie considered each other then shrugged, gave a sad shake to their heads and returned to work.

      “You want to help me, Teena?” Margie gave Lucy a sideways look.

      Teena worked alongside Margie for some time. “You remind me of a friend I used to have,” Teena said, after the tension had melted away.

      Margie removed nails she held in her mouth to ask, “A good one, I hope?”

      “Sarah McIntyre. Her father taught us about Jesus.” As they worked together, she told Margie about the white friend she’d had as a child.

      “Sounds like she accepted you the way you are.”

      Teena considered the words. “She never saw me as an Indian, but as a friend. I never saw her as white, but a friend.”

      “That’s special. Not often we find such acceptance. I can tell you, not everyone sees past the rough exterior of the Tucker sisters to our hearts.” Margie shook her head. “I never figured any of us would marry. I don’t aim to give up my independence for the sake of a man.” She gave Lucy a sideways look, but Lucy either didn’t hear or decided to act as if she hadn’t. “How ’bout you, Frankie?”

      “Not me either.” Frankie puffed out her lips and made a rumbling noise. “I got bigger aspirations.”

      Teena wondered what those aspirations were, but she didn’t have the right to ask.

      Apparently, Margie thought she did. “You still hankering for a man’s job?”

      “Ain’t no man’s job I couldn’t do,” Frankie muttered, her shoulders rigid.

      Lucy stopped work. “It’s not about proving you’re equal to a man. It’s about sharing—” She patted her chest then jerked her eyes downward and stopped speaking.

      Teena waited, wanting to know what made Lucy smile like she had a special secret, but Lucy didn’t continue. Instead, she set her hammer on a stack of wood.

      “I’m going home to make supper for Caleb.”

      Frankie and Margie both stared after her departing figure. “Well, if that don’t beat all,” Frankie mumbled, then resumed work.

      Teena and Margie did the same, the unnatural silence broken by hammer beats. For Teena’s part, she longed to ask Lucy if being married to Caleb brought that sweet smile to her lips.

      “Anyone there,” one of the men in the tent called out.

      “Guess he’s calling you,” Frankie said to Burns.

      “I don’t know what to do for them.” The boy looked scared half to death.

      Teena itched to step inside and offer her comfort, but she feared Jacob’s anger. Feared triggering it would end forever any hope of being allowed to learn from him. However, Burns’s discomfort was very real. “Just ask what he wants. Perhaps only a cup of water.”

      Burns’s eyes were wide as he ducked into the tent. Teena listened from outside. If she was needed she would disregard Dr. Jacob’s order to stay away from his patients. Not even to please him would she ignore a person’s sufferings. Not even a white man’s.

      Burns stepped out in a few minutes. “Donald wanted a drink just like you said.” He glanced at the trail. “I wish Jacob would get back. The other man opened his eyes and stared at me.” He shivered. “It gives me the creeps.”

      Teena knew of a ground root that would ease the man’s worry as he recovered his mind, but she dared not give it to him. Perhaps she could make a tea using it, and ask Burns to get the man to sip it. She took a step toward her sack of remedies.

      “Here comes Jacob,” Burns yelled. “Hurry up. That man is waking up.”

      Teena slid back to Margie’s side and pretended an interest she didn’t feel at the position of a board.

      Margie considered

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