HCTB Chapter 17 Jeremy's Back

Tuesday morning, Jeremy stood on deck with Clancy when Seattle came into view. He was happy to be home. He'd hired twelve new workers and had gotten to know them pretty well.

The church bells rang with shouts alerting the town that the ship was coming in. The port was slowly filling with town's people anxiously waiting for passengers and news from San Francisco. The crowd seemed a bit less jolly than normal but Jeremy didn't notice. He had mixed emotions. He was anxious for Jason and Josh to meet the men he had hired, and Josh's troubles still weighed on his mind. He had missed Candy and had packed away a pretty hat he found for her in a small San Francisco millinery shop along with gifts for the children and his brothers. It took up to 30 minutes to finally dock and allow passengers off.

Jeremy stood with Davy next to him. "I think you'll really like it here,' he said. "It's slower than San Francisco but people are friendly."

Jeremy was the first one off the ship, Davy on his heel. He had already made eye contact with Candy, who wore an unusual anxious expression along with Lottie and Biddie.

"How do I tell him?" she asked them, who stood beside her.

"I don't know," Biddie answered. "I hope Joshua's doing okay…"

"Biddie!" Lottie cut her off "Don't, Dr. Wrights with him, he's going to be fine," she snapped.

Biddie looked down briefly at Lottie's scolding before trying to lighten her mood.

"They'll be happy to get my chicken soup. That will cure anything," Biddie said.

Jeremy rushed towards Candy taking her in his arms. He kissed her, looked into her eyes and gave her a tight embrace. "I've missed you," he told her before letting her go. "I want you to meet Davy," he said.

"Hi mam," Davy said.

"Davy." Candy said trying to smile but failing miserably.

Tears stung her eyes. She had to tell him, but was happy to see him at the same time.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh Jeremy," Candy said, her chin quivering.

"Someone shot Joshua," Biddie blurted out.

"What?" Jeremy looked from Candy to Biddie then back to Candy.

"Joshua… Jeremy's brother?" Davy asked Biddie

"Yes, he's the middle one," she said to Davy.

"I found him when I went to bring him lunch on Saturday," Candy said.

"He's up at the old home cabin. Jason's with him," Lottie said. "But you should go."

"I've already got a wagon ready," said Candy "I'm going with you,"

"I made my chicken soup," Biddie added.

"I need to go," he said. He looked at Davy and then to the men getting off the ship. "The loggers," he started.

"Jeremy looked at Lottie, "Could you have Clancy take the men to camp till I get back?" He asked hastily.

"We'll be fine," Davy reassured him, "Just go to your brother."

"I'm sorry, this isn't the welcome I'd hoped for," Jeremy said to Davy.

"I'll talk to Clancy," Lottie reassured him.

Candy rushed to the wagon with Jeremy as Clancy watched from the ship. He could tell something was wrong.

Lottie and Biddie went to Clancy with serous look on their faces. They filled him in on Joshua's shooting and why Jeremy had taken off in such a hurry. "I told Jeremy you would take new loggers to camp. Jason's left Big Swede in charge. He can handle everything from there," Lottie said.

"Do they know who did the shooting?" Clancy asked.
"No," Lottie said.

"Is it bad?" he asked.

"Dr. Wright removed the bullet, but it was bad. He's not out of the woods yet," Lottie ached.

Clancy ran his hands over his face, holding back emotions.

"I'll get Jeremys packages and take the men to camp," he said. Suddenly he blurted out in a sob, "He can't…" Lottie put her hand on his arm. "Stop," she shouted in her demanding tone. "You stop it. He's going to be fine, and I won't hear any more." She demanded.

Biddie just stood there. Trying to think of something to say that would lighten the mood but her normal quips weren't there. She just took out a hankie and blew her nose.

"Take the men to camp. When you get back, I'll have a drink ready for ya'," Lottie told Clancy.

On the way to the cabin Candy told Jeremy how Christopher and Molly exposed Missy's lies about Joshua attacking her. "If we hadn't kept them from hearing Missy's accusations, we could have prevented all of this," she fretted. "I feel just terrible about that."

"Candy, you can't blame yourself for that. You were protecting them. There's only one person to blame and that's Missy."

"Well Missy left town with Burt last Sunday," Candy said. "She didn't say anything, she just skipped out. She didn't even have the guts to say she was sorry to Joshua," Candy said.

"Good riddance," Jeremy said.

"You know Emily never went to see him," Candy said. "Even after she found out the truth, you'd think… well it's only been three days, but I thought she would want to be there," Candy said.

"She believed Missy, and that say's a lot," Jeremy said, "so tell me everything,"

Candy went over everything from the moment she found Joshua.

"Jason, Dr. Wright and Corky are there now. Jason's left the logging to Big Swede."

"Big Swede?" Jeremy sounded surprised.

"Jason doesn't care about anything except Josh right now," Candy said.

"Yea, but it's just been two days. I think Corky's going back when you get there. Jason needed someone there in case of an emergency."

"Corky hasn't left his side. I didn't realize how close he was."

"Yea Corky and Josh have been friends since we were just kids. We all went to school together. They picked on Corky about as bad as they picked on me, him for being so little, and me for my stammering. Joshua was always the one standing up for us and usually he was the one that always ended up with the black eye."

"I think that's just being a big brother," said Candy. "Josh mentioned Jenny. I asked Jason who she was and he said she was your sister, well she would have been, but she died when she was a baby."

"Yea, she would be 6 years older than me. I've wondered what it would be like at times, but Josh… he would always ask Jason what he remembers. Our parents didn't like to talk about her. I think it was too painful for mama, but she always kept up her grave. She was always planting flowers."

"Jason showed me her grave marker," Candy said. "Joshua had it all cleaned up. I think it would nice to plant some flowers up there."

"Maybe we can," Jeremy said.

"Maybe now that the truth is out, Joshua will be happier," Candy said.

"Yea, I hope so," Jeremy said.

When they finally pulled up to the cabin, Jeremy jumped down and helped Candy. Corky met them first.

"Corky," Jeremy greeted him. "How's he doing?"

"Doc Wright says he's getting better, but he sleeps most of the time," said Corky.

Jeremy went into the cabin and met Jason. He looked past Jason to Joshua, who was asleep on the small bed. Jason smiled, "He's asleep, but Allyn said he's going to be fine."

Allyn stood up and stretched her back. "I'm going to walk outside for some fresh air," she said and smiled at Jeremy. "I'm glad you're here," she added.

"You still don't know who did this?" Jeremy asked looking to Jason.

"No, but I'm sure it had something to do with the accusation Missy claimed. Now that the truth is out, whoever did it, hopefully won't try it again."

Jeremy walked over and sat down next to Josh. He took his hand and looked at Joshua's face. The right half still had purple bruising down to his cheeks. His head was wrapped in gauze where the mule had kicked him.

Jason had a fresh pot of coffee made, and he walked out onto the porch, handing Allyn a fresh cup.

"Thank you Jason," she said.

"I guess you'll be going back?" he asked her.

"Yes, believe it or not I do have other patients," she smiled. "But I'll be back in a couple days to check up on him. He should heal nicely, if he doesn't try too soon. He'd lost a lot of blood before Candy found him, and that's made him weak, so healing will take longer. That concussion is another thing to consider. He'll need to stay in bed at least the rest of the week, and if he's anything like his two brothers, I don't envy you one little bit," she smiled.

"Yes, there are some things my brother has plenty of patience for, but lying around in bed isn't one of them," Jason admitted.

When Jason and Allyn walked back into the cabin, Jeremy told Corky and Jason about Davy and the other eleven men he'd hired. He really liked Davy and was sure Jason and Josh would as well. They felt it was finally safe for Corky and Doctor Wright to return with the others back to Seattle.

"Jeremy, I'm leaving the business in your hands," Jason said. "You know what to do, and you know the men you hired," he said. "With you, Corky and Big Swede each running a team, you should be able to get us caught up."

Joshua woke up long enough to visit with Jeremy and hear about his trip to San Francisco. He seemed to be in good spirits but his energy wasn't there. Jeremy could see the tiredness in his brother's eyes. He wasn't used to seeing Joshua so weak.

"Peggy asked about you," Candy told him.
"Peggy?" Joshua asked. He'd not thought of Peggy in a while. "How's she doing?" he asked. "She's doing fine." Candy said. "She wanted me to tell you that she hopes you feel better soon."

Josh remembered them pretending they were married to fool her Uncle Jebediah and it made him smile.

"I wonder if she still has it?" he asked.

"Has what?" asked Candy asked.

"The marriage certificate. She said she wanted to hang on to just in case," he smiled.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Candy grinned.

"Oh and Molly and Christopher wanted me to tell you that they hope you get better soon, and they are both going to draw a picture for you," she said.

"That's nice," he said. "I'm so grateful to them." He added.

While Candy was inside with Joshua, Jeremy motioned for Allyn to step outside.

"Is it normal for him to be so weak?" he asked with worry.

"Jeremy, he took a bullet to the chest, and from our guess, Candy didn't find him for nearly twenty hours. I didn't arrive for another eight hours, by then he'd lost so much blood, it's lucky he survived at all. It's going to take him a long time to fully recover," she said "But he's young and was strong before he was shot. A lot of people wouldn't have survived the first night, and it's only been two days since the surgery," she reassured Jeremy.

Realizing he could very well have lost his brother while he was away hit Jeremy hard. Jeremy began to shake.

Jason stepped out and saw his baby brothers reaction. He put his arm around him, "He's going to be fine Jeremy. He's our brother, and now you're back, it just makes us all stronger."