Confronting Bugbears
Not long after she left, Christy started to worry that the exertion of rushing back to the Mission was going to set the bloodstains on her sleeve. She could sew something over the lighter streaks on her bodice, but the sleeve was soaked through. When she passed an old tin cup resting beside the water, she stopped long enough to scoop up some of the cold water and douse her arm a few times. Mostly, she just didn't want it to dry and make it harder to remove.
That was the condition she was in when she came across Miss Alice saddling up her horse near the Mission.
"It isn't my blood," Christy shouted over to her mentor, who was holding a hand up to block the sun so she could see her properly. Christy broke into a run, watching Miss Alice tie her horse back up and holler for David.
"Tell me you aren't hurt, child," Miss Alice said, her voice rich with concern. "If not thee, then Neil-"
"He's unhurt," Christy said. "A group of Jarvis Tatum's family came to confront him, and one of them was injured by his own weapon. They've calmed down and aren't angry anymore. Neil stitched him up, and I helped."
Miss Alice's hands fluttered about, first to cup Christy's face, then to press to her own breast in concern, and finally to test the wetness of the soiled sleeve. "You did well to hold your arm close. I might have called down an army of angels to MacNeill's if I'd seen this first instead of thy face! Come, we will get thee into something clean and work at removing the stain." She set a gentle hand at Christy's back to lead her up to the house, but Christy resisted.
"Wait, I came to ask if the injured man can stay at the Mission a few days to recover? Umphrey Tatum-"
"Jarvis's older brother," Miss Alice said with some surprise. "He's a long way from home. Jarvis moved closer to Cutter Gap when he married Ellie." She closed her eyes for a minute, lips moving as she worked out the logistics. "Where is the injury?"
"His leg."
"A horse, then?" At Christy's nod, Miss Alice nodded decisively. "You head in and change. Remove everything, now. Once blood's set for a spell, the fabric's ruined. I'll saddle up Theo and find David in the meantime."
"Yes, Miss Alice," Christy said- but just as she turned to run up to the Mission house, she felt a hand on her non-stained arm.
"I can send Ruby Mae to fetch more men, if there's still danger?" Miss Alice's expression brooked no prevarication.
"Not anymore, I don't think," she answered truthfully. "I was arguing with Neil when the group of them showed up. I suggested we make them some food in case they'd been traveling a long time, hungry and angry. Doctor MacNeill took it out to them and I stayed inside. I don't know what he said, but after the explosion-"
"Explosion!"
"I think they brought black powder. Neil said after they spoke, Umphrey tried to take apart whatever he'd set up with the powder, and it blew up."
Speaking it aloud and seeing Miss Alice's expression of deep concern made Christy a little dizzy. She shut her eyes for a second only to find her hand tightly clasped in two shaking hands.
"Oh, Christy."
"I was praying, Miss Alice," she whispered. "I don't think I thought about how scary it was until now."
"Umphrey Tatum is well known as the most impulsive man in these mountains. Go on up. I'll find David," Miss Alice said, her voice trembling with emotion. "I am so very glad that-" She broke off.
Christy brought their joined hands up and kissed the back of Miss Alice's. "Me too. Oh, and please don't tell David about the blood? He'll be angry at me for any number of imaginary reasons!"
oOoOoOo
David had been doing more work around the schoolhouse with John Spencer, so the two of them and Miss Alice all went to Neil's to fetch the injured Umphrey. This left Christy with Ruby Mae and her many (damaging, inexplicable) ways to get blood out of fabric. After ten minutes, Christy realized it had been a mistake not to hide away while she worked on her dress, but by now, that couldn't be helped.
At least if Ruby Mae was engrossed by the blood and Christy's role in helping fix up a member of a murderous posse that had traveled fifty some miles to attack their beloved Cove doctor, that meant she wasn't engrossed by something much more scandalous.
The sound of horses drew the redhead away, but Christy decided that Ruby Mae's penchant for gossip meant there wasn't much reason to hide what they'd been doing. She set her wet, less-stained dress aside for now, stripping off the apron she'd put on to protect her second outfit. By the time she was finished with this, David and Umphrey had arrived.
As soon as Christy walked out to greet them, she knew something was wrong. David's expression was black as could be, though Umphrey himself seemed in very good spirits.
For some reason, he reminded her of the mailman, Pentland.
"There's the angel!" Umphrey declared from his precarious position on Theo.
David swung down from the saddle. "Doc gave him something to help with the pain."
"We set up a space for you upstairs, but it'll be lunch soon, so I reckon you'd rather set up on the porch until then. I got a new zucchini recipe from Miss Hattie I think I'm brave enough to try!" Ruby Mae said brightly.
"Go on up," Christy told her, hoping Ruby Mae would be so busy working out that new recipe she wouldn't hear whatever else a medication-enhanced Umphrey Tatum might have to say.
"I'm going to lead him as close to the house as I can," David said. He sounded like he'd swallowed something particularly disgusting, and Christy followed behind them with no small amount of trepidation.
"I don't need no lunch. Don't want to be no bother, with'n you being so nice and all," Umphrey said. "That soup you and the doc-"
"You did say you ate already. Multiple times," David said curtly.
"Do you need help getting up the stairs?" Christy offered, hoping to refocus both men. They responded at the same time.
"That would be mighty sweet of ya."
"I could use your help with the horses, actually. Head over there?"
"Lookin' forward to hearin' one of yer sermons before I head on home, Preacher. You've got a fine grip on the doom and hell of it all," Umphrey remarked. If he'd been of sound mind it might have been incisive commentary on David's current temper, but she got the impression it was just good-natured honesty.
David looked over at her and made a gesture for her to get out of there. She took hold of Theo's lead and did as he asked, but with every step away from the pair of men, she worried more about what Tatum could have possibly said to get David in such a dark mood. She had a fairly good idea, unfortunately.
Christy had mostly gotten Theo settled in the stable when David arrived.
"Before you say anything, please remember what Doctor MacNeill said about pain medicine and how it can scramble a person's brains?" she said placatingly.
It was a mistake to mention Neil.
David picked up the saddle she'd been unable to mount in its proper place and manhandled it away. "Scrambled or not, he thinks the two of you are married."
"Plenty of people have made that very same mistake after seeing the two of us work together at the Mission," Christy reminded him. In the back of her mind, two different selves were warring; one wanted to stop anything like that from ever being said, and the other wanted to know more.
"His reasoning sounded quite well founded, Christy."
She marched out from where she'd been brushing Theo. "David! That man had just blown himself up after walking for days to yell at a stranger! Over something he was deeply mistaken about! If you did that and a woman came out of that stranger's house with soup, you'd think the same thing."
"What were you doing cooking at MacNeill's anyway?"
"Trying not to get blown up," she said wryly. She lifted the brush to continue grooming the horse.
"I need you to be serious." David's voice was very close, and Christy decided she wasn't going to turn around. She knew by experience that might make her feel bad for upsetting him, and he was being unreasonable.
Of course, if he'd known exactly what had transpired at Neil's, David would have every reason to be jealous and upset- but he didn't, and she had no intention of telling him.
"Please remember what today was like for me. I was quite frightened when those men showed up. It took the two of us a while to figure out something that wouldn't antagonize them further," she said quietly. "I got the impression that it would be best to focus on the man's injury rather than correcting any… misconceptions."
"He sang praises of the two of you as a couple for half the ride back to the Mission, Christy!"
Instead of getting more frustrated with him, Christy had a moment of clarity. David Grantland was a man of action, someone who planned to bend the world to his will or die trying. She wondered how often he'd ever truly failed at something, and hoped that failing to court her wasn't going to be the first time. That thought brought another to mind.
"He was glad to be alive, David," she said, sidestepping past Theo, so she was no longer crowded into the stall door by David's bruised ego. "Glad to be alive and grateful to the two people he sees as part of saving him, not to mention a little tipsy, or whatever you'd call it, from the pain medication. That's all."
"You should be more worried," David said, though his aggression seemed to have eased a little. "I'll ask MacNeill to put him straight, but the damage may already be done, depending on who else was listening."
She knew he meant Ruby Mae. "Some people just like to see the world in a romantic, idealized view. From what Miss Alice said, Mr. Tatum might be like that too. I'm not sure anyone else will take what he says all that seriously, not when they know the truth."
David stood sideways for a long moment, as though wrestling with what he wanted to say. Finally he started for the door, tossing one last thing over his shoulder.
"You won't be using such rosy words to describe either of them if you end up trapped here."
Christy knew exactly why he was upset. She wished she could soothe him, but right now the David Grantland who was walking out of the stable wasn't the dear friend she felt such a kinship to. He was the spurned suitor, and that version of David never had listened to her very well.
oOoOoOo
She avoided speaking to anyone else that afternoon by secreting herself away at the schoolhouse to scrub more at her dress, organize her lesson plans, and think. As the sun set, she found her plight darkly amusing. In her attempt to lift the creative and academic spirits of her students, and in the wake of their delight in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, she'd described a short list of other plays for the students to vote on.
They'd chosen Hamlet- and here she was, hidden away scrubbing desperately at the bloody proof of her misdeeds.
"That's a ridiculous comparison!" she said aloud. There was something satisfying about speaking such a refutation aloud, but this time it fell short of relief. After all, she had behaved with righteous indignation toward David, but if he'd known the true circumstances of her morning at the doctor's cabin, that attitude would have been reversed, and with good reason.
Christy sighed. Over and over, that same series of thoughts showed themselves, just as Neil had implied they would… and it hadn't even been a full twelve hours since she'd shown up to pound on his door.
"Now that is a weary sound."
She almost dropped the soaking wet dress onto her lap at the sound of Miss Alice's voice. Christy looked up and saw her mentor standing at the doorway with a gentle smile.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked.
"You mean, did I hear thee speaking to the wind?" Miss Alice asked, walking slowly into the room, looking around at the most recent of the students' drawings tacked up along one side of the wall.
Christy looked down, embarrassed. "I don't know who I was speaking to. Just realized I'm here scrubbing blood out of my dress during the same week we're reading Macbeth."
"Are thee under the mistaken impression that every faithful servant of God should have no guilt to refute?"
"How do you do that?" Christy asked, standing up. It was time to give up on the dress for the night.
"Do what?"
"You have an amazing ability to cut down to the heart of everything I'm thinking. It's unnerving sometimes," Christy admitted. She snuck a look at Miss Alice and saw no particular condemnation, so she continued. "Sometimes I worry that God is tired of all the things I feel guilty for. When I was little, I used to spend so much time asking Him for forgiveness during my daily prayers that my mother thought I was making things up so I could delay my bedtime."
Miss Alice clasped her hands in front of her and let out a little laugh of pleasure. "I can picture that so very clearly, thank you, Christy."
"The older we get, the more complicated it all is, don't you think?" She paused, unsure of how exactly to word her concerns. When she was ten, 'sin' seemed so easily spotted and avoided, but ten or so years later, she was realizing that the ease had shifted the other way. It seemed the perfect time to seek the counsel of someone she looked up to as much as Miss Alice, but after the day's events…
"What is it?" Miss Alice set a gentle hand on her arm. With her eyes shut, Christy spoke, the words tumbling over each other to escape before she changed her mind.
"Tatum's brother has made some assumptions about the food I cooked to persuade them not to harm the doctor."
"That he surely has."
Christy opened her eyes and looked over at Miss Alice in horror. The older woman's tone was exactly the sort of exasperated frustration she'd heard in David before his jealousy had taken over.
"How many people has he spoken to about it?" she whispered.
"So far, anyone who will listen."
"Miss Alice, I promise you-"
"I know. Shhh, dear one; I wish I could reassure thee in the way you most wish," Miss Alice said, lifting her hand to brush a lock of hair away from Christy's face. "Just as I can see a tableau of the story you just told me of thy childhood, I can also see you and Neil planning out the best way to escape that dangerous situation." Her hand fell to Christy's shoulder, squeezing it encouragingly. "You did not do wrong in this. It is unfortunate that in his enthusiasm, Umphrey Tatum has concluded, wrongly, that you and Neil are wed."
The weight of knowing about Margaret's death was suffocating. Neil had been right. She did regret having that answer.
"What can we do?" she breathed.
Miss Alice released her shoulder gently, in increments, as she spoke. "I've come to induce thee to attend dinner. Neil is unable to, busy as he is with the reconstruction work on his property. If you are also missing, it would give the impression that the two of you-"
"I understand," Christy interrupted.
"Good."
Miss Alice was making her way slowly back toward the door, and something about her posture made Christy ask, "How bad is it?"
Her friend and mentor paused and looked up at the ceiling. "This may yet be repairable. You should know that David has already spoken to me. His solution…"
"He wants to propose," Christy said, unable to keep her tone entirely neutral. Now Miss Alice turned to look at her, neither disappointed nor surprised.
"You're not wrong. He was quite insistent. I'm afraid I had to be harsh with him, which he may take out on thee, or on Neil, more likely."
Christy was wide-eyed. "What did you say to him?"
"I told David that pressure to make such an important decision after a traumatic experience is neither loving nor godly, no matter what kind of white knight he sees himself to be. You are, Christy Huddleston, the sort of young woman who seeks to rescue thyself, I think."
"Thank you," Christy said, taken aback. "I'm sorry about David. I think he-"
Miss Alice made a sharp noise to stop her. "Thou art reverting to childhood, now. That is not your guilt to bear."
"I just wish I knew how to be kind to David Grantland without him reading so much into it, and I wish I could explain to Umphrey Tatum that I was comfortable cooking a meal at Dr. MacNeill's without him thinking there's a closer relationship there!"
"Do you wish me to be honest with thee, Christy?"
"I don't know," she said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't know how everything got so complicated."
"Whether by purpose or not, Christy, there is a closer relationship there. It is not fully in the eye of the beholder, no matter how much you wish it to be so."
"I promise you, I had no intention of-" She broke off, words failing her.
"The ways of God are mysterious, and we do not always see His hand when it moves. That can lead us as His servants to question ourselves, sometimes in fear, when events move beyond our direct intention."
Christy shook her head, lost, and Miss Alice looked down, her lips bending into a smile before it faded away.
"It seems the more troubled I am, the more I sink into philosophy."
"I am everyday heartened by your words of wisdom, Miss Alice," Christy said.
"And I am everyday delighted by your outlook on the world, Christy Huddleston. Come," Miss Alice said, holding out her arm for her to take. "I'll try again, just for thee," Miss Alice said as they walked in tandem down the stairs of the schoolhouse. "I know you do not seek to replace my daughter in any sphere that may present itself to you."
If she'd been in any other position, been standing anywhere else, Christy would have pulled back, but she was captured by affection and politeness, something Miss Alice had to know. All she could do was try to keep pace with her mentor.
"I'm glad you know that, because it's true," she whispered. In the deepest recesses of her mind, she asked herself: Is this what sinning feels like? A terrible knowledge tearing you apart every time you're faced with the need to keep silent?
"I told you once that thou art 'another gift,' and that truth is renewed for me often, Christy."
A powerful need to tell Miss Alice exactly how much she loved and respected her washed through Christy, but it wasn't the time or place for that. The emotion was strong enough that she nearly stumbled when Miss Alice led them not to the steps leading up to the Mission, but instead to the footbridge nearby. After ensuring that her footing was sound, Miss Alice released her and turned away, gripping the railing as if needing it to remain upright.
"What is it?" Christy whispered.
"I received a letter a day or so ago. I recognized the handwriting-"
This was definitely what sinning felt like. There wasn't a way to pretend she didn't understand, so she whispered, "Your daughter?"
Miss Alice looked over then, and in her eyes was the kind of desolation that could only mean one thing. She smiled, but somehow it wasn't out of place.
"A last message, written with her characteristic war between grace and fury. Buried in the hurtful words and empty anger was a desire to use me as a weapon against her husband. I refuse."
It was clear that the letters were very, very different, with Neil's a short, impersonal missive, prompted by Margaret but penned by the clinic itself upon her death- but the letter sent to Miss Alice sounded, in a word, monstrous.
"That is so awful," Christy whispered. "I'm sorry."
"So am I. She knew how important it was that the two of us come to an understanding, particularly after her illness. Her-" Miss Alice's voice faltered, and Christy reached over to squeeze her hand on the railing. "Her letter made it very clear that I had failed, and there were no second chances."
Christy had spent the time since Margaret MacNeill's return trying very hard not to think badly of her- in truth, trying not to hate her. After all, the Bible said it was like a kind of murder… but right now, hating her felt entirely appropriate.
"I can tell by the strength of thy grip that you are struggling with a response," Miss Alice whispered. "So am I, Christy. So am I."
"You both deserve better," Christy spat.
"I don't know about that. I do think it's one of life's great joys to be surrounded by people who believe as much."
oOoOoOo
Dinner was a trial. David had come out to find the two of them quiet and contemplative, staring out at the deepening twilight. He'd insisted on Christy taking his arm on the short walk back to the Mission, but by his pointed comments on the way, David hadn't been very pleased with her silence. There wasn't a polite way to remind him that she'd had a frightening and eventful day, but that wasn't the true reason.
"I'm going to ask thee a favor, but before I do, I'm asking that you keep your thoughts about it to yourself. I need to think on how best to tell Neil what happened. That means I'll need thee to keep thy knowledge about Margaret close, and trust that I will share that news in due time."
Miss Alice's decision was prudent, but it was a further complication on top of an already huge dilemma. Christy was used to being a go-between, a peacemaker, but this was as volatile as the black powder Umphrey Tatum had used to booby trap Neil's porch stairs.
Once everyone was seated at dinner she had a whole other trap to disarm.
"-my eyes open, and what do I see? The prettiest nurse I ever beheld, and not afeared of the blood, besides!"
"That's not true," Christy said, embarrassed. "Ruby Mae, this recipe is…" A horrible burp bubbled up in her chest, and she knew if she opened her mouth, an equally horrible sound would be released.
"It is indeed, quite something," David said quickly, lifting his brows in quiet concern beside her.
Christy pressed her napkin to her lips and nodded.
"And what a cook!" Tatum continued unabated. Out of the corner of her eye, Christy saw Ruby Mae's face fall.
It was time to change the subject.
"Mr. Tatum, I meant to ask earlier- where are your other family members?"
"Fixin' up the house, with yer doc! Should be good as new in a day or so." Tatum's smile was only slightly less bright than when he'd arrived.
"Dr. MacNeill is-" David started in a strident voice, but Christy set her hand on his, a calculated choice she hoped she wouldn't come to regret. As she'd hoped, he stopped speaking in surprise, and she jumped in.
"-a friend, one I stopped by to visit this morning. I'd heard how much he'd been hiding away, after…" Christy stopped, taking a deep breath. She'd pitched her tone to one much too cheerful for her next words. "After the loss of your sister-in-law. He wasn't eating."
Umphrey Tatum's hand was paused on the way to bringing a forkful of zucchini mash to his mouth, engrossed in her story. He nodded for her to continue, and the slight movement put paid to the forkful.
"Well, you and your family… arrived, and the doctor and I argued for a while about what to do." Christy looked down to adjust the napkin on her lap, moving her hand from David's in the process. What she was saying wasn't a falsehood exactly, but it wasn't the full truth, either. "In the end, we decided I ought to make more of the food I'd come by to force him to eat, and see if offering it to you would help you see the way to an understanding."
"So you ain't his?"
Christy shook her head, feeling a heat in her cheeks that she dearly wished would dissipate. Miss Alice took up the story, speaking warmly of Ellie Tatum, and Christy took the opportunity to drink half of her water glass, shutting her eyes and trying to calm her nerves.
The memory of Neil's hand at her back and the way his fingers had gotten tangled in her hair struck her unexpectedly, followed right after by the ghost sensation of his lips on hers. Grabbing her napkin, she pressed it to her mouth, torn between stimulating the sensation further and distracting herself away from the private moment. Miss Alice was right. There was a connection there.
"Christy?"
It was David's voice, pitched under the conversation going on at the other side of the table.
"I'm fine," she lied. It was among the many untruths she'd told that day, and given the many secrets the day held, she didn't see how to avoid telling more in the days to come.
Note: Thank you to the anonymous commenter who alerted me about the bugged chapter. In 20 years using the site I've never seen that happen! Even after I fixed it, the chapter was cached incorrectly and continued to give me the error. I apologize if it happens again! I was worried for a second there that updating the chapter after finding an error resulted in the bug, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Thanks also to those who reviewed. This story is bugged in another way- it shows zero hits. If you're enjoying what you've read, please drop me a line? Thanks again, it's a true joy to write this. I think it'll be around 10-13 chapters and will show the joys of a brand new relationship.