Rachel's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The woman could not stand on her own. Rachel got her out of the cabin and onto Pepper's back, but the woman slumped forward and her breath came shallow. Blood had dried black on her side under the torn dress. When Rachel lifted the cloth to look, the wound was deep and the edges had gone red and hot. Rachel had bandaged cuts before. This was past her. "She needs the doctor," Rachel told the brother. "Now. Not my cabin. Town." She put the brother up behind his sister to hold her steady. Rachel walked at Pepper's head and kept the pace slow so the woman would not slide. The ride to the settlement took the rest of the afternoon. Twice the woman moaned and Rachel stopped to check her breath. Once she did not moan, and Rachel had to shake her shoulder before she stirred. They came into town at dusk. Rachel meant to go straight to the medical building. But the doctor's windows were dark, and a boy on the step said Dr. Richard had ridden out that morning to a birth on a far farm and was not back. Rachel stood in the road with a dying woman on her dog and no doctor. Down the lane the chapel windows were lit. She had passed it a hundred times without going in. Tonight the bell tower stood over the only lamps still burning on the street. She led Pepper to the chapel porch. She banged the door with the flat of her hand. Pastor Jeff opened it in shirtsleeves. He looked at the woman on the dog and did not ask questions. "Bring her inside. Lay her on the front bench." Rachel and the brother carried the woman in. Pastor Jeff pulled the lamps close and cut the dress away from the wound himself. His hands were steady. "I served four years with a field surgeon before I took orders," he said. "Boil water. There's a kettle in the back. And I need clean linen. The altar cloth will do." Rachel did what he told her. He cleaned the wound, cut away the bad flesh, and stitched it with thread from his own coat. The woman screamed once and then fainted. Pastor Jeff kept working. When he was done he bound the side tight and felt her forehead. "Fever's already up," he said. "She'll need watching three or four days. She can't be moved." "I'll pay for her keep," Rachel said. "Pay the doctor when he's back. She stays here till then." The brother sat on the floor by the bench and put his head in his hands. Rachel stepped out to the porch. Pepper was waiting. Rachel wiped her palms on her trousers and found them shaking. One rider was still out there. He knew her face now. He knew where she lived. And she had just told half the town where the woman he wanted was sleeping.