CHAPTER 5
None of them mentioned Benjamin for the rest of the time everyone was gone. Brianna and Marsali apologized to Skylar the next morning for clearly crossing a line that she had not been comfortable with. She said it was fine and that they should just forget about. So they did exactly that and acted like that night never happened.
The next couple weeks went by relatively uneventfully, though no one complained. Skylar was working with Ollie every day on his walking. He could stand on his own without assistance pretty easily, it was just the moving of his feet that was a little bit of an issue. If Skylar, or Bree or Marsali when they would help, would hold his hands, he could go all day. But if he was on his own, he would maybe get two steps in before falling on his bum.
"He's made such amazing progress," Bree would tell Skylar when she would voice her worries about him falling behind. "Jemmy just started walking on his own a few weeks ago, remember? He's not behind. He'll get the hang of it in no time, and then you're gonna wish he wasn't mobile because he's gonna wander everywhere."
Brianna was also still very jumpy. Every noise she heard sent panic through her and Skylar didn't know what she could do to help. She didn't want to force her to talk about anything she didn't want to, but it was obvious Stephen Bonnet haunted her mind still. She was so glad when Claire came back early and would be able to use her mother's intuition to help where Skylar couldn't.
The day Claire came back though, it was definitely a surprise. She and the others hadn't been gone for even a month when Skylar saw her driving the wagon up the path. She ran inside to get Bree and they both went to meet Claire in front of the house. But Claire wasn't the only surprise they were met with. Roger was with her as well on his horse.
"Mama? Roger? What are you two doing back so soon?" Bree questioned.
"What? Not happy to see us?" Claire joked.
"No, we're so excited you're back," Skylar told her. "But just...why?"
"Yer Da doesna trust me," Roger answered as he dismounted his horse.
"That isn't true," Claire corrected. "He asked Roger to accompany me back."
"Ordered, more like, wi' no choice in the matter," Roger muttered under his breath. He went to his wife and put his arm around her, and she did the same.
"Why did you need to come back?" Skylar followed. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, everything's fine. But, uh...you'll never guess it." Skylar and Bree exchanged a nervous glance while Claire went to the back of the wagon. She first helped down a young teenage boy they recognized, Josiah Beardsley. He had come to Fraser's Ridge in February and was allowed to settle without rent in exchange for being one of the primary hunters for Jamie. He was still a bit shorter than Roger, normal for being only 14 years old, and skinny, likely from hunger as opposed to strenuous labor. He had wild golden brown curls always pulled back into a ponytail and matching colored eyes. He had a sweet face that still had the soft boyish features of youth, but he would soon melt the baby face and the angles of his face would become much more defined.
Seeing him wasn't any sort of shock. What made Brianna and Skylar's mouths drop and their eyes pop out of their heads was the young man who came out of the wagon behind him. Physically, he was identical to Josiah. This other boy's cheekbones were much more prominent and the dark circles under his eyes made them look sunken in. His hair was down and Skylar could tell his curls would be just as wild as Josiah's if they weren't so dirty and matted. He was wearing only an torn undershirt and pants that were three sizes too big on him. He was likely the same height as Josiah but because he was hunched over he appeared a few inches shorter. He seemed very apprehensive about the new surroundings. His eyes darted around but kept them low and didn't look up at anyone. He kept fidgeting and looked like one wrong move would send him running.
Claire then introduced him. "Bree, Skylar, this is Josiah's twin brother, Kezziah."
And this is a twist I absolutely did not see coming, Skylar thought.
She took a small step towards Kezziah, not wanting to spook him, and spoke softly, "Hi, Kezziah. My name is Skylar. It's really to meet you."
He didn't say anything back or even acknowledge that she said something.
"He-he isna bein' rude, Mistress Murray," Josiah quickly put in. "He just couldna hear ye. He's deaf, ye see."
"Oh. Can he...can he communicate at all?"
"Aye. He does know words, he just doesna like te use them. He can read lips too. He speaks with his hands, and I can always understand what's he's sayin'. So I'm able te translate fer him."
"Let's all go inside and we can explain more," Claire suggested. "We can also get Kezzie and Josiah something to eat."
The group migrated into the kitchen and Skylar cut up some bread with butter and honey while Bree made tea for all of them. They made the twins comfortable in the surgery with their food and then the four sat around the kitchen table while Claire and Roger explained.
"So, this Beardsley asshole, he's dead dead?" Skylar clarified. Claire had just finished the story of how Kezziah came into their lives and all she and Jamie had to go through in order to free him and Josiah from their indentation.
"Yes. Jamie made sure of that," she emphasized .
"Those poor boys," Bree said softly, glancing to them through the surgery door. They were sitting together on one of the beds, eating and talking through Kezzie's version of sign language. They looked so happy to be reunited. "From what you said his wife told you about that place, it must've been absolute hell for them. I'm glad Josiah was able to escape when he did, but Kezziah..."
"It's going to take a long time to adjust and build up any sort of strength. But as long as he has his brother and we are all very patient and caring, it should be easier for him."
"Of course," Skylar replied. "And the baby? Bonnie, I think you said you named her? She's gonna be okay?"
When Jamie and Claire had gone to the Beardsley house, they found the newest, and last, Mrs. Beardsley. Her name was Fanny and they had discovered soon upon arriving that she was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby girl and she was so relieved to see that she was not her husband's. But because she thought herself unfit to be a mother, she left, leaving behind her newborn for Jamie and Claire to take care of.
"I believe she will be. We found a family in Brownsville who wanted to take her in. They had just lost their own child, so they have plenty of love to give her. Jamie promised me he'd see she was alright before carrying on with the rest of the men."
"All but one," Roger added. He then dropped another bomb in Skylar and Bree. "Isaiah Morton is gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Skylar didn't understand.
"He left the militia and ran away with a girl from Brownsville."
Skylar couldn't believe how casually that sentence had just come out of his mouth. "Wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry, he what?"
Brianna was just as taken aback by this news "Isaiah never seemed like such the impulsive type. I mean, to just meet some random girl and then deci-"
"He hadn't just met her," Claire interjected. "He met her when traveling through Brownsville a couple months ago. He and Alicia took an instant liking to each other and-"
"Quite a likin' ye each other," Roger put in, making sure Skylar and Bree knew what he was insinuating.
Claire went on, "Her family did not approve, so much so they tried to shoot Isaiah on sight when they all arrived. So, they ran away to be together. Him, her...and their child."
"There are so many twists to this story I can't keep up," Skylar said. "Where are they now?"
"I don't know. And if Isaiah knows what's good for him, they won't make their whereabouts known. But, we can't worry about them right now. What we need to focus on is getting Josiah and Kezzie's tonsils taken out as soon as possible."
Weeks before Claire had gone with Jamie on the journey of enlisting for the militia, Josiah had come to her complaining of a sore throat. When she examined him, she found that his tonsils were inflamed but that he would be able to hold off getting them taken out for a while longer. But when she met Kezziah, she discovered he had tonsilitis as well and, being in such a weaker state, would not be able to wait on surgery. Thus, she returned to the Ridge early with the twins and Roger to get them taken care of.
"Oh, that sounds like it's going to be so much fun," Skylar commented with heavy sarcasm.
Claire chuckled. "Don't worry, it won't be just you and me. We'll have Marsali as well and maybe I can convince Mr and Mrs. Bug to be in there as well, just in case we need extra hands."
"I can see if Lizzie can come," Bree offered. "She and Josiah are friends, so it might be a comfort to him to have her there."
"That would be wonderful. Thank you, darling. Now, I need to work round the clock on the penicillium mold. I don't want to do the surgery without it. I know we're close to finding it, so hopefully it'll be soon because I can't wait too much longer."
After getting Marsali caught up, she, Claire and Skylar walked through Josiah and Kezziah about what was going to happen. Both boys were definitely more than a little nervous, Kezzie more so, but Claire assured them that she would do everything she could to make it as easy on them as possible.
After another week and a half, the miraculous day arrived when Claire looked through her microscope and found what she had been praying for. She had created penicillin. The celebration couldn't last too long because now they needed to get ready to perform two tonsillectomies.
So the next morning, not wanting to wait any longer, the patients, doctor and her assistants gathered in the surgery to prep. They were joined by Mr. Bug and Lizzie.
Kezzie was going first, so Claire sat him in a chair and explained to him, "Before we start, I'm going to test to see if you have an allergy to penicillin." He looked to his brother sitting on the bed next to him, feeling wary. Claire put a hand on his shoulder and he looked back at her. "Don't worry, It's very simple. I'm going to put a bit of this," she picked up a bowl with the antibiotic inside, "on your arm, and then I'm going to prick you with a needle just beneath the surface of your skin so that the penicillin can get inside. We'll wait 15 minutes and, if you have no adverse reaction, we will be all set to begin." Kezzie just nodded, his nerves still visible.
Skylar touched his other shoulder and he raised his head to her. She gave him a kind smile. "This is the really easy part," she told him. "It'll be practically painless." His cheeks turned pink and he responded with just a shy smile and small nod. She squeezed his shoulder and dropped her hand to go stand behind Claire in case she needed anything.
Claire rolled up his sleeve and brushed the penicillin on him.
"Alright, here's the needle." When she pricked him, he let out a gasp, but nothing more. "There we go. Now we just have to wait. Josiah, why don't I do you now so we don't have to later?"
Josiah swallowed, still nervous even after seeing Kezzie get it. "Aye, Mistress."
While Claire did Josiah's test, Skylar smiled again and Kezzie and said to him, "See, easy. And was I right about it just being it being painless?"
Kezzie smiled back, less shyly this time, and nodded again.
After waiting the 15 minutes and seeing neither of them have any sort of reaction, Claire announced to them, "Congratulations. It appears the two are not allergic to penicillin." She picked up the bowl of the medicine and went to her counter at the other end of the surgery with Skylar and Marsali behind her. She found her syringe and needle and cleaned them as the other young women sterilized, for the third time that day, the other tools.
Skylar subtly glanced over her shoulder to the boys and whispered, "Everything's going well so far."
"So, the mold worked then?" Marsali asked Claire.
Claire was hesitant with her answer. "As far as I can tell."
Skylar and Marsali exchanged a look at the uncertainty of Claire's voice. "Ye dinna sound certain."
"Well, the test isn't always reliable."
"What, you mean someone can test negative for the allergy and it's not true?" Skylar questioned.
"It's very rare, but it can happen."
"And there's no way to tell if that's what's happening?" Claire shook her head.
Marsali tried to remain optimistic. "But, ye think all will be well?"
Claire exhaled softly and said, "Everything you do as a doctor involves risk. Even after you've done everything you can, there could still be unforeseen complications, sometimes even fatal. The more you can do to alleviate the risk, the greater the chance to save the patient. Now, this dose," she finished attaching the needle to the syringe and dipped it into the penicillin to draw it up, "should start the fight against the infection. She lifted it up and flicked the needle a couple times to get rid of any air bubbles, then tested to see if it worked. She pressed the plunger and a quick stream of the medicine shot out.
"That is a huge needle, omigod," Skylar commented.
"Keep that brave face, Skylar," Claire told her. "We don't want Kezziah to be afraid." Looking satisfied with the how the syringe was working, she instructed the girls, "Bring over the other sterilized instruments, please, and the lantern." Marsali picked up the tray of tools and Skylar took the lantern. When they returned to the rest of the group, it seemed they had interrupted an important discussion between the brothers.
"Is something the matter?" Claire asked when she saw Josiah signing wildly to Kezzie.
"Aye, um…" Josiah's face turned deep red. He looked to Skylar then back at Claire. "Kezzie was sayin' how he, uh…he thinks Mistress Murray is verra pretty." He spoke the rest very fast. "And I was informin' him that Mistress Murray is married, and a proper lady, so he must show more respect."
Skylar bit her lip to stop herself from laughing at how offended Josiah thought she would be over her brother's crush.
Omigod, they're both so adorable, she thought.
"It's okay, Josiah," she told him. "I'm the furthest from upset." She looked at Kezzie. "I'm flattered, Kezzie. Thank you. You are so sweet." He just smiled at her, feeling shy once more.
Though Claire found this distraction amusing and was fighting back her own wide grin, she needed to get back on track. "Alright, Kezzie, drop your britches," she directed him. His eyes went slightly wide, thinking he could not have understood correctly. He looked to Josiah and Mr. Bug, and they reiterated what Claire said. His eyes went to Skylar and his blush immediately covered his whole face down to his neck. He lowered his eyes to the floor.
Skylar understood and said, "It's okay. I won't look," then turned around. While Claire injected the penicillin, Skylar and Marsali chuckled inaudibly at the teenager's shyness.
He probably hasn't been around many girls in his life. But he seems really sweet. Hopefully some girl here will catch his eye and he hers. Josiah too. They deserve happiness like that.
When Claire was done, she had Skylar face forward again and the real work began. She had Lizzie put a sheet around him and Mr. Bug hold his shoulders to keep him still. Lizzie held the lantern close so Claire could see. She gave Kezzie laudanum for the pain then had him open his mouth. Marsali handed her a cork to put inside to keep it open. Skylar handed her her scalpel and she began.
After making her incisions, she had him bring his head forward so he could expel the blood filling his mouth into the bowl Skylar was holding. Skylar gagged and looked away for a moment while Marsali got up close so she could get a better look at what was happening.
God, she really is the perfect person for this job, Skylar thought about her sister-in-law. She doesn't frighten easily. Or at all.
"Keep the tongue depressed," Claire said to Marsali. She pressed down on his tongue with the thin wooden stick and Claire worked fast to get the tonsils out and into the bowl. When they were out, she put some gauze in a pair of small tongs and had Marsali hold that in his mouth.
"I'm going to have to cauterize the tissue," Claire thought out loud.
"You're doing great, Kezzie. You're almost done," Skylar said to him, giving him an encouraging smile.
Claire came back with her small hot iron. "Steady now. This can be the tricky part." She slowly brought the iron into Kezzie's mouth to seal the incisions. It made a hissing noise at the contact and Kezzie groaned in pain. Clenching his eyes shut.
"Just a couple more seconds. You can do this," Skylar cheered him on.
"There, done," Claire announced. She put her instruments down and wiped the blood of his chin. She laughed when she looked over at Lizzie and saw her eyes were closed and her head was pointed at the floor with a screwed expression of disgust. "Lizzie, you can open your eyes now."
"Holy mother of God," she breathed out and sat on the bed. She was so pale she was almost transparent and looked like she was about to be sick. Skylar poured her a cup of water.
"Drink this slowly. It'll help with the nausea and stop the room from spinning. Believe me, I know," Skylar told her.
"Thank ye." She took the cup and did what Skylar said.
"Are you alright?" Claire asked Kezzie. He nodded.
Skylar knelt down next to him and put her hand on top of his. "You're very very brave, Kezzie." She smiled wide at him and gave a small one back, the blush returning.
"Now, you need to get your rest," Claire went on. "Skylar, Lizzie, could you clean him up and put him to bed? He'll stay in my room." He shook his head and was going to try to protest but Claire stopped him. "No, don't try to talk. You'll hurt yourself." Instead, he looked to Josiah to speak for him.
"He insists on stayin' while ye do the same fer me."
"You're sure about this?" Skylar confirmed. Kezzie nodded. "Brotherly love at its finest."
"Well then, I suppose we should get started," Claire said. The boys switched seats and they began the whole process over.
When he was finished, Marsali stayed with Claire to clean up, and Skylar and Lizzie brought the boys to Jamie and Claire's room to get them into bed. They washed the rest of the blood off of their faces and put them in clean nightshirts donated from Roger and Mr. Bug. They made sure they were comfortable and Skylar placed a bell on the side table for them to ring in case they needed anything. When they were settled, the girls left them to rest.
As they walked back to the surgery, Skylar said to Lizzie teasingly, "So, I couldn't help but notice you and Josiah giving little looks and flirtatious smiles to each other. Before everything started today and also just now. Is there something going on between you two?"
Her face turned bright red and she tried to stutter out a response. "Oh, um…n-n-no no. Absolutely not. Josi-Josiah and I…we-we-we, we are only friends. We care fer each other only as friends. Friends, and nothin' more."
Skylar stuck her tongue in her cheek to keep from cackling out loud. "Uh huh, okay. Whatever you say." Lizzie kept her eyes to the ground the rest of the way and picked up her pace. Skylar chuckled to herself with a big grin.
Omigod, they're both oblivious, aren't they? If anyone can catch the 'just friends' lie from a mile away, it's me. I lived it.
The memory made a ping of pain spread through her chest. Before she and Ian were together, they had been best friends. They tried again and again to convince their friends that that's all they were and all they would ever be, but everyone could see through it. They all knew how in love they were with each other and were just ignoring it rather than doing anything about it. Skylar was even trying to convince herself she had no romantic feelings whatsoever for Ian. Of course she couldn't since that wasn't true; and after way too long, they finally gave up the act.
I wasted so much time, she kept reprimanding herself. If I had just been honest with myself, we could have been together so much sooner and maybe things could have possibly turned out different. We could've been married sooner and had a child, and then he wouldn't have left me.
After helping Claire and Marsali with the final touch ups in the surgery, she dismissed them all, thanking them again for their incredible work and congratulating them on the success.
Skylar headed straight for Bree and Roger's cabin. She left Ollie with them early that morning, and she wanted so bad to see her son. When she got there, she walked inside.
"Hello? Is everyone decent?" she joked. She looked to the chairs in front of the fireplace and saw Bree hunched over in one. "Bree? Are you okay?"
She sat up and sniffed. Wiping her eyes, she answered, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay."
"Omigod, Brianna." She rushed to her and sat in the chair next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just…" She was trying to hold back from crying, but she couldn't stop it.
"What happened? Talk to me." She held Bree's hand.
"I messed up, Sky. I really really messed up."
"What happened? Where's Roger?"
She closed her eyes and more tears fell. "I'm so stupid," she said more to herself than Skylar.
"Brianna, what happened?"
She swallowed and took a large breath in and let it out slowly. She opened her eyes and looked at Skylar. Skylar waited without saying anything until Bree was ready. She then explained.
"You remember how I went to see Stephen Bonnet in the jail?"
"Yeah."
"And how I told him that Jemmy was his?"
"Yeah, you were just trying to give him some comfort because you're too nice of a person."
"Well, when I told him that, he gave me this." She opened her fist revealed a tiny gemstone. "He told me to use it to provide for the baby and give him a good life."
"Okay. So, how did you mess up?"
She paused and took another breath. "I never told Roger about any of it. I mean, I told him I went to see Bonnet, but he thought I just went to see him be executed. I didn't tell him about actually talking to him or…or what I said."
"Okay." Skylar had a feeling of where this was going.
"He found the gem today. He knew it was Bonnet's. When he confronted me about it, I-I had no choice but to tell him the truth."
"Let me guess, he didn't like it?"
"Skylar, he was so angry. I've never seen him look at me like that before. I could see he felt so…betrayed."
"Why would he feel betrayed? Because you didn't tell him about talking face to face with Bonnet?"
"Because I told Bonnet that he was Jemmy's father."
"But you didn't mean that. He knows you couldn't have meant that."
"He doesn't see it that way. He sees it as I told Bonnet he's Jemmy's father and I never said the same words to him."
"Because it's so obvious that that's what you believe that you don't need to put it into words. To me, if you were trying to convince Roger that Jemmy is his, it would make it more suspicious that maybe you don't believe that."
"He asked me what I really believed, who I truly think Jemmy's father is. My mind was screaming at me to say I know it's him, it's Roger, Jemmy is Roger's. But I was just so in shock at what was happening and I was so scared and confused, I felt like I wasn't in my body. I couldn't form any words. I just stood there, staring at him. I didn't say anything. And then, he walked out. He left, and I just let him go." Fresh tears started falling down her face and her voice was cracking.
"I'm sorry, he left? He just fucking left? Where did he go?"
"I don't know. He didn't say anything."
"What is wrong with him? You don't just leave! You keep talking! This is obviously a major deal to him, and the only way to work through it is to talk about it. How the fuck does he think anything will be solved if he just up and walks out?"
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have said that to Bonnet, or I should've told Roger right away. I shouldn't have kept this from him."
"Brianna, this is not your fault. Roger is blowing this way out of proportion. You only said that lie to the bastard because, again, you are way too nice. Roger is your husband, he should know that's why you did that. You did nothing wrong."
"I don't know if he's gonna come back. What if he can't trust me anymore and doesn't want to be with me?"
"That's not happening. I won't let it. Can you keep Ollie for a little longer?" She stood up and went back to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To find that idiot and beat some sense into him."
She went outside and just started walking. She was determined to find him.
"Roger! Roger Mac! Show yourself!" she called.
After a half hour, she found him near the edge of the woods close to the Big House, sitting against a tree.
"There you are. Goddamnit, Roger," she exclaimed.
He looked over at her and was very confused to see her.
He sat up straighter. "Skylar, what the hell are ye doin' here?"
"What the hell are you doing here? Why did you walk out on Brianna?"
He scoffed and leaned back against the tree. "Ye spoke te her, I'm guessin'."
"Yeah, I did. I'm gonna ask again, why would you just walk out?"
"How could I stay there? She's been lyin' te me fer over a year. I don't know who she is anymore."
"Omigod, don't be so dramatic. If you just stopped thinking about yourself and took a second to think about why she said what she did to Bonnet, you would realize how stupid you sound right now."
"I understand plenty why she did. She thinks Jemmy is Bonnet's. She's never thought I was the father. She's only been stringin' me along while I play the fool thinkin' we're a family."
"Are you serious? You really think that's the truth?" He rolled his eyes and looked away from her. "And even if Jemmy was Bonnet's and that's what Bree thought, what would it matter? She didn't choose to raise him with Bonnet, she didn't marry him. She married you. She wants to raise Jemmy with you. She is choosing you to be his father. Fuck biology. You're really going to allow some random DNA to decide whether or not you can love your wife and son?"
Roger shot to his feet. "Ye have no right te tell me what I should or shouldna do. Ye could never understand what I'm goin' through right now."
"How about what Brianna's going through right now? What you are forcing her to go through? While you're out here sulking and feeling sorry for yourself because Jemmy may or may not have been made by you, your wife is at home scared out of her mind that you don't love her anymore. Also, putting her aside for a second, what about Jemmy? He's an innocent in all this, and you're so eager to destroy the only family he's known because of one misunderstanding?"
"What do ye propose I do then? Go back and lie te Jemmy about who his father is fer the rest of me life. I couldna look at myself in the mirror. Ollie doesna even have a father and never will, so do not act like ye have any sort of idea of how I'm feelin'." He heard the words too late and he couldn't erase them. He saw Skylar physically react and his stomach dropped. "Skylar, Christ, I-I didna me-" he tried to take it back, but Skylar stopped him.
"Mmm mm. No. Don't." She felt a knife go into her chest when he said it, and it was slowly being turned. Every fiber of being was telling her to hurt him. She wanted to make him bruise and bleed. But she was here for Brianna and she couldn't lose sight of that. She needed to get away from him before she acted on those urges, so all she said was, in a harsh low tone, "Even though Brianna deserves so much better than you, she loves you. So go home to her before you lose the best thing that has ever happened to you." She then whipped around and stalked back to the cabin, shaking from fury the whole way.
