He rushed to fulfill the directive. Flora moved to her husband’s side, who set an arm around her shoulders.
“We’re likely to keep them here for a day or two,” the doctor warned.
Lorenzo nodded. “We suspected we wouldn’t be hurrying back. We’ve all we need in the wagon.”
“The room beside this one is empty. I don’t mean simply that there’s no one using it; I mean it is literally empty. There’s no furniture or anything.”
Lorenzo didn’t look the least upended by that. “We can pass a night or two on a floor, especially if it puts us near the children.”
“Everyone can take it in turns to look after them,” Dr. Jones said. “Then no one has to go entirely without sleep.”
“You already have a patient,” Flora said. “We don’t wish to take you away from her.”
Here was a worry Sophie could assuage. “She’s much better. All that remains for her to do is to rest, and she can do that without the doctor’s attention. Dr. Jones, in fact, is certain she will be leaving in the morning.”
Lorenzo released a tight breath. Flora pressed a hand to her heart, brow still pulled but some of the tension lessening around her mouth.
“Undress the children,” Dr. Jones said. “As soon as Aidan returns with the water, we’ll begin cooling them off.”
The parents set to the task.
Dr. Jones crossed to Sophie. “Thank you. Flora needed comfort, and I didn’t seem to be offering as much of it as was needed.”
“Well, I don’t know enough about doctoring to have offered information or treatments. But I do know how to give support.”
“Is that part of your role with Mrs. Archer? You offer her reassurance in the storms of life?”
Sophie almost laughed. “That proverbial shoe is very much on the proverbial other foot.”
That seemed to surprise him. “I haven’t yet decided if you talk at cross purposes intentionally or if you are simply a very confusing person.”
She smiled at that. “And I can’t decide if you are blunt on purpose or if you are simply a very straightforward person.”
He seemed to study her. “I don’t know how long you will be in Hope Springs, Miss Kingston, but I doubt it will be long enough for you to sort out all the mysteries you’re likely to come across.”
“Are there a great many, then?”
He nodded and didn’t look away.
“And would sorting them out prove dangerous?” She wasn’t sure if she liked the idea or not.
“I would say difficult more than dangerous.”
Excitement bubbled a bit. “I think you will discover, good doctor, that I am terribly good at puzzles.”
The Campo children were at the infirmary for two days. Their fevers broke within hours of their arrival. By the end of the first day, they were eating. By the end of the second, they were tired but restless. And the next morning, the family packed up and returned home.
As was common, Burke had been paid in kind. Few people in the area had ready cash. Fortunately, Lorenzo Campo was as handy with a hammer and nails as Patrick O’Connor. He’d spent the second day of his children’s convalescence, knowing they were on the road to recovery, out back of the building, using the boards and nails Burke had set aside for the purpose of making a bed frame for the third room in Burke’s infirmary.
He had the rope needed for stringing the bottom of the bed. He had the heavy canvas for creating the mattress and tick. Any number of farmers in the area could sell him straw for stuffing them. He still hadn’t the number of stools he wanted or water pitchers, but those were secondary to having a bed for an ailing patient to lie on. The shelving and sitting room bench he wanted were even further down his list.
With the bed frame made, he was that much closer to having his infirmary put fully to rights. Everything might actually be ready by the time Alexander arrived. Burke would be able to hold his head high.
In the meantime, though, he had patients to look in on. He grabbed his doctoring bag and slipped out onto the porch. As always, he left a note on the door telling anyone who came by where he’d headed. Doctors weren’t afforded a great deal of privacy. They needed to be found at a moment’s notice.
That bit didn’t bother him, though. He’d not ever had time or space to himself, so he didn’t miss it. And he’d always wanted to be a doctor, which he now was. He had more reasons to be proud than disappointed, yet sometimes he fought precisely that.
He headed to the stables. The very back stall held his horse; the hardworking animal had been an expensive but very necessary purchase. His buggy he’d procured secondhand, thank the heavens. He’d not have been able to afford it otherwise.
