“Miss Emma is doing a fine job looking after her granny, from all I can tell,” Patrick said. “You might have yourself the makings of a fine nurse there.”
The oldest Archer girl was reliable as the day was long, and she had a good head on her shoulders. But Burke had learned over his three years in Hope Springs that she worried tremendously when people were unwell. There was no telling if those anxieties would prove too much when tending to patients who were in a bad way.
“My Eliza’s been a bit nervous with Miss Kingston here,” Patrick said. “She and Mrs. Archer are the most elegant people we’ve had at our inn. Likely the finest we’ll ever have. Joseph’s been one of us for so long, ’tis easy to forget that he has claim to that too.”
“I had a patient in Chicago not long after I finished my schooling whom Mrs. Archer reminds me of. She, too, was quite flush in the pocket and, as Mrs. Archer seems to be, a good sort of person. She also paid me generously enough for me to purchase the doctoring bag I am still using.” That had been the best sort of surprise. “The well-to-do patients were in no way more important, but when they were generous, it was a very helpful thing.”
“The grandest building I ever worked on was the viceroy’s residence in Ottowa.” Patrick had traveled about as a builder before settling down in Hope Springs. “The people who call that building home have more money than the likes of you and I will ever see. Yet, I can’t say those of us who toiled at that building site were paid terribly well.”
Burke nodded slowly, his mind filling with far too many similar remembrances. “Generosity from the wealthy is welcome, but stinginess seems more common.”
“A full shame, that.”
“And yet,” Burke continued, “there are folks like your family who haven’t a great deal to their names, but what they have they share willingly and readily.”
“M’parents and siblings are good sorts, though I say it m’self. They gave me hope when I hadn’t any of m’own.”
The entire O’Connor clan had made Burke feel welcome in Hope Springs from the very first. He was deeply grateful for that. And Patrick and Eliza had become friends, which he’d needed. Still, there was a hole, a gap in his life.
Patrick’s family offered him the hope and reassurance he needed. Burke didn’t have any family to speak of. And he felt that lack more often than he cared to admit.
During the brief silence between them, Miss Kingston arrived in the public room. She’d arrived a bit disheveled the day before. She’d since put herself to rights. And yet, something about her didn’t entirely fit the prim impression she was giving. A few tendrils hung wild from her very properly styled hair. Her fashionable dress was paired with very sensible shoes rather than elegant ones. Her eyes darted about the space with an eagerness that contradicted the sedate expressions most of her station adopted.
She was so very intriguing.
“Good afternoon.” She smiled at them and crossed directly to them. “I’ve come looking for a task.”
She was a decidedly direct person, there was no mistaking that.
“How are you with a hammer and nails?” Patrick asked.
“I haven’t the first idea.” Miss Kingston made the admission without any indication of embarrassment. “But I’m willing to try my hand.”
“You’ll end up pounding your hand, is what you’ll do.” Patrick barely held back a laugh. “Sanding’d be a safer choice.”
“I’ve never done that before, either, but I’m a quick study at most things.” Miss Kingston watched them both with seeming eagerness.
“Why is it you’re not looking after Mrs. Archer?” Burke asked. He needed to know if his one and only patient had been left alone with no one to answer her call should she be in distress.
“It seems half the town is looking after Mrs. Archer,” Miss Kingston responded. “The younger Mrs. Archer, all three of her children, a Mrs. Dempsey, whom I’ve not met before, as well as a Mrs. O’Connor, are all up there attempting to be in the room with our ailing patient, despite there not being nearly enough space for so many people.”
“The rooms may be small and humble, but they’re adequate.”
Her brow pulled in confusion. “I wasn’t insulting your rooms.”
Why was it she managed to put his back up so quickly? It had happened before in the twenty-four hours she’d been in Hope Springs. He didn’t dislike her; not at all. But she had him on edge.
“Have you any ideawhichMrs. O’Connor is visiting?” Patrick asked.
Miss Kingston smiled. “Not your wife. That is the extent of my ability to identify her.”
“Your options are a lady who wears green-tinted spectacles, one who is a bit older than I am with a sweet disposition, or a woman old enough to be my mother.”
“Because sheisyour mother,” Burke said.
Amusement sat entirely naturally in Miss Kingston’s expression. “The woman visiting upstairs was not wearing spectacles, and, while she was quite lovely, I suspect she is not the sweetly disposed woman of about your age.”
“Ma, then.” Patrick smiled fondly. “I’d wager she heard someone new had arrived and couldn’t contain her curiosity.”
