Chapter 5

Jarrod never lost consciousness, but it took him a moment to realize he'd hit a rock with his upper left arm when Clara dropped dead in the road and the buggy upset. His left arm was immediately paralyzed. He only had time to wonder if it was broken before he tried to get up and find his wife.

"Maggie?!" he yelled. "Maggie, answer me!"

She didn't.

Jarrod was frantic. There was still some light in the sky, but none here, so he couldn't see where his wife had landed. He prayed to God she wasn't under the buggy. He found his way there somehow, crawling through the dirt.

"Maggie? Maggie, where are you? Maggie!"

She still did not answer.

Jarrod felt for his sidearm, but then he remembered he hadn't brought one. He tried to get up and found his right knee was twisted, too.

"Maggie!" he yelled, his desperation growing every moment, his voice breaking apart with fear and grief.

He heard a moan, behind him, farther away from the buggy.

"Maggie!"

"Here," he heard her weak voice.

He tried to see her. It was too dark. "Talk to me!" he yelled and he remembered a time from years ago, when he'd been blinded and he was practicing following sounds. "Keep talking to me! I can find you!"

"Here," she just said again, weakly. "Here. Here."

Jarrod found her in less than a minute. She was about ten feet from the buggy, down a slight slope off the side of the road. She had landed in tall grass.

"Maggie," he said desperately. "Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?"

"My back," she moaned. "I've hurt my back."

"The baby – are you hurting inside? Are you bleeding anywhere?"

"I don't know," she said. "What happened?"

"Something happened to Clara. I think she just dropped dead and the buggy went over."

"Oh – " Maggie moaned. "I can't move. My back hurts too much."

"Don't try to move at all. Just stay still. I don't want you to do any more damage than there already is, all right?"

"Yes. How are we going to get help?"

"I'll get it, but you have to stay perfectly still until I get back, understand?"

"Yes," Maggie said and relaxed. "I won't move."

Jarrod felt her hair and kissed her there. "I don't know how long this is going to take. I'm going to get the blanket out of the back of the buggy for you if I can."

"All right."

"Give me a minute. I've hurt my knee."

"All right."

Jarrod scrambled back to the buggy as best he could, shaking like a leaf, praying for all he was worth that an angina attack would not hit him now. Found the back of the buggy, but the blanket wasn't there. It must have fallen out. He felt around the ground desperately for it.

He heard a sound. Another buggy, coming up behind him.

My God, they won't see us in the dark.

"Stop!" Jarrod yelled as loud as he could. He waved his arms wildly, trying to stand, trying to move, but he knee kept giving out. "Stop! Stop!"

It came to a stop just before it hit him. Jarrod heard Carl's voice and remembered, he and Maggie had left the house before Carl and Audra had.

"Carl – " Jarrod croaked and fell down.

"My God, Jarrod!" Carl yelled, and he and Audra were beside him in a moment. "What happened?"

"Where's Maggie?" Audra asked.

"Not far," Jarrod said, "down in the grass. Maggie?!"

"Here!" her voice came.

"Get the blanket out of the buggy," Carl told Audra. "Take it down to her. Tell her I'm going to fire my sidearm."

"Are we too far from the house for anyone to hear it?" Jarrod asked.

"I don't know," Carl said. "Won't find out until we try. How bad are you hurt?"

"Arm and knee," Jarrod said. "Maggie's hurt her back."

"What happened?" Carl asked again.

"Clara just dropped in the road, turned the buggy over," Jarrod said.

"I'm gonna fire my gun," Carl said, and he did it, three times, then a pause, then three times again. Then he said, "I'm gonna get the lantern out of the back of our buggy and get some light out here."

"Okay," Jarrod said.

Meanwhile, Audra had managed to find Maggie. "Maggie, it's Audra, I've brought a blanket."

"I hope that was Carl shooting," Maggie said weakly.

"It was. We're trying to get help. How badly are you hurt?"

"I don't know," Maggie said. "My back hurts so much it's blotting everything else out."

"Did you lose consciousness?"

"No, and I don't feel any bleeding. I hope I just twisted my back."

"Don't try to move at all. I'm going to put this blanket over you."

"All right. Is Jarrod hurt?"

"Not badly, I don't think. You just try to relax. We'll get help somehow."

"Audra?!" Carl's voice came.

Audra looked up and saw Carl had a lantern lit. "Maggie, Carl has light up there. Can you see it without moving?"

"A little."

"You stay very still. I need to go up and see what he wants. I'll come back as soon as I can."

"All right."

Audra climbed back up to the road and met Carl where Jarrod and Maggie's buggy had turned over. He shone some light on it. They could see Clara dead in the road, the buggy on its side.

"We might be too far from the house for them to have heard the shots," Carl said. "I want to go back there and get help. Will you be all right out here? I'll leave you the lantern."

"How will you see your way on the road? How will anyone see you?" Audra asked, worried now about him, too.

Carl said, "I gotta take my chances. There shouldn't be anybody else out here, and if I'm careful, I should be able to see the road once I get out of this moon shadow."

"Is the moon up?"

"Just barely, but it's getting lighter out here." Carl kissed his wife and gave her the lantern. "Try to keep Jarrod and Maggie calm, get Jarrod back away from the buggy. His lantern is smashed, so it won't help you. Just keep light somewhere so it can light up the buggy and all of you, okay?"

"All right," Audra said. "Be careful."

Carl went back to Jarrod and helped him back around the buggy, then eased him down into the grass beside Audra and Maggie. "I'm on my way," he said, and soon they heard him driving away.

Maggie moaned.

"Maggie?" Jarrod said, reaching for her.

Audra held the lantern close to Maggie, looking for blood, but she saw none. She didn't know if that was good or bad.

"It's just my back," Maggie said. "I don't hurt in my abdomen, just my back."

Jarrod was practically in tears, and it wasn't from his injuries. "Try to stay still, sweetheart." He took the blanket Carl had found for him and laid it over the one already over Maggie.

Audra took her first look at Jarrod and saw that his arm was bleeding, all the way through his jacket. Quickly, she put the lantern down in the dirt at the edge of the road, lifted her skirt and ripped the bottom trim off her petticoat. Before Jarrod could object, she wrapped the fabric over Jarrod's jacket, around the place in his arm where the blood originated.

"I thought I just bruised it," Jarrod said.

"No, it's bleeding. This ought to stop it. But I don't see that Maggie is bleeding anywhere."

"Jarrod – " Maggie said.

He leaned close and touched her hair. "I'm right here. We're going to be all right as soon as we get some help."

"I'm awfully glad we had that talk with everybody about all the responsible things we've done," Maggie said.

Jarrod chuckled a little. "Timing is everything, isn't it?"

He looked at his sister's face in the lantern light. He couldn't see Maggie – she was in grass that was high and blocking the light from where the lantern was on the road. But what he saw in Audra's face was scary enough. He tried to give her a smile, leaned over and kissed her.

"Ah, Pappy," she said and smiled. "You just never change."