Chapter Forty-One
Though the Irish and Reds had done a fine job of stabilizing and improving the rope bridge they’d constructed, Joseph still worried about his girls crossing it. The river was frozen over, just not solidly enough to trust the ice. He didn’t breathe easy until all three of them were back on his land, safe.
Ivy hadn’t stopped talking since they left the Dempseys’ house. His little chatterbox seemed almost back to normal. If only the nightmares would leave her be.
Emma had spent the day stuck to Finbarr’s side like bark on a tree. Joseph had worried she would drive the poor boy mad. He wasn’t the carefree, sunny young man he’d been before the fire, though he let Emma sit at his side. Neither of them talked, not even to each other, but there was a contentment there that Joseph hoped would one day see them both return to the happy children they once were.
He held the kitchen door open for the girls. Their faces were red from the cold. “Run upstairs and change into your flannel nightgowns,” he instructed. “I will come up and read to you before you go to bed.”
Ivy skipped off.
“Papa?” Emma lingered in the kitchen. She had been so quiet, so pulled into herself. It killed him by inches to see her that way. “Could we say good night to Katie before we go to bed?”
“Katie is still hurting. And she is very tired. We don’t want to wear her out.”
Emma’s mouth turned down. “And she’s sad, like Finbarr.”
Nothing slipped past Emma.
“Yes, they both feel very sad.”
“They’ll be happy again, Papa. You’ll see.” Her declaration bore the imprint of a question, as though she needed him to confirm her hopes.
“Of course, sweetheart. They only need time.”
She looked immediately relieved, though the worry in her eyes didn’t entirely disappear.
“I’ll be up soon, dear.”
Emma nodded and followed the path Ivy had already taken.
I pray you’re right, Emma. I can’t bear to see Katie in so much pain.
Mrs. Smith was in the parlor, working on a dress she’d been sewing over the past few weeks.
“Did Biddy leave already?” he asked.
“About an hour ago. She was feeling tired and intended to go home and rest.”
He would have to think of a way to thank Biddy for all she’d done. He knew the trip down the Irish Road and across the river was not an easy one for her with the added difficulties of pregnancy, and yet she returned again and again. He could never have seen Katie through this recovery without her. “How has Katie been today?”
“Better.” Mrs. Smith gave him an understanding smile. Did everyone in the town know of his feelings for Katie? “She has been asking for you for hours.”
“She has?” I should have come back sooner. I should have been here. “Is she still awake?”
“When I was last up there she was.” She motioned with her head toward the stairs. “And she asked if you were home. Again. It seems she would very much like to see you.” Something like a laugh twinkled in her eyes.
He and Mrs. Smith had settled their differences over the last few days. While the girls weren’t entirely comfortable in her presence, he had come to appreciate her ability to run the house and her willingness to help in Katie’s recovery.
He gave her a quick smile of gratitude and hurried up the stairs. Katie had been watching for him all day. He didn’t mean to keep her waiting even another minute.
Please let her be improving. Talking. Smiling. At least a little better.
His heart pounded against his ribs as nervousness clawed at him. He wasn’t sure he could endure seeing her in pain much longer. He stepped through the doorway to his room, telling himself not to get his hopes up.
She sat on the bed, leaning toward her feet, her hair spilling down in front of her face. He couldn’t tell what she was doing. She didn’t sound like she was crying. He heard no moans of pain. She certainly didn’t seem to be sleeping.
He stepped closer. With her only hand she was valiantly attempting to get a stocking on her bare foot. She couldn’t quite manage it though: each time she tugged it toward one side of her foot, it popped off the other.
A smile tipped his mouth. This was his Katie, facing problems head-on. She was no longer curled in a ball under the blankets, looking off into nothingness.
He moved quietly to the bedside as she tried the stocking once more. Without a word, he reached over and hooked one finger around the edge of her stocking, holding it in place so she could finally get it on. From that point, she managed the task with relative ease.
She glanced up at him through the fall of her hair. “I didn’t expect this to take so long.”
Joseph sat on the edge of the bed, facing her. Katie pushed her hair out of her face. Her eyes, thank heavens, weren’t as bleak as they’d been the last time he saw her. She looked better, stronger.
“I had this wonderful plan to come downstairs before you returned,” Katie said. “You were going to be very impressed.” She let out a puff of breath, sending a few loose wisps of hair wafting upward. “The stockings were harder than I expected.”
She never did give herself enough credit. “You managed to get both of them on. That’s something.”
“I’d meant to put my boots on as well, but I couldn’t find them. And, thinking on it now, I likely couldn’t have tied the laces anyway.”
Joseph laid a hand on her ankle, rubbing his thumb along her thick stocking. “One thing at a time, darling.”
She blushed so deeply and so immediately he couldn’t help chuckling to himself. She lowered her eyes. “You’ve never called me darling before.”
“Haven’t I?” He’d thought of her that way for a long time.
Katie gave him a tiny smile. “I do like ‘darling’ far better than ‘Miss May-kuh-lee.’”
She was smiling again. For the first time in more than a week he felt an easing of the pressure squeezing his heart. “What if I agree to call you darling from now on, and you agree to call me Joseph?”
Her expression was equal parts disbelief and amusement. “I always call you Joseph.”
“I know. I just really like the way you say it.”
She gave him a sidelong look. “Are you talking sweet to me, Joseph?”
He leaned in close to her. He’d never known anyone whose eyes were as purely brown as hers. Not even a flake of any other color touched their depths. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
He touched his fingertips to her bottom lip, tracing its upward turn. “I have missed that smile, Katie.” He cupped her face with his hand, memorizing the look and feel of her there, less burdened, less pained than she’d been since the fire. “I worried so many times during the last ten days that I’d never see you smile again.”
Her face fell. What had he said wrong?
“I know I’ve been difficult. I’m sorry about that.”
“No, no. That is not at all what I was saying.” He lifted her good hand to his lips. A single kiss on the back of her hand proved insufficient. He pressed another to the base of her fingers, then another to the tips. “I thought I lost you, Katie.” He held their clasped hands to his face. “I thought it far too many times.”
He would never entirely free his mind of the terror he’d felt while digging through the rubble of his barn, trying to convince himself she was still alive beneath it.
Katie leaned toward him, close enough to talk in whispers. “I think you rather like me, Joseph Archer.”
“I rather do.” He bent closer, the tiny gap of air between them all but disappearing.
“Katie! Katie!”
Why was it children had such a terrible sense of timing? He’d been not even a half-second away from kissing Katie. He couldn’t do so now with Ivy already climbing up the side of the bed.
“Katie, you’re awake. I’ve been waiting for days and days and days for you to be awake again. Can I sit with you?”
“Of course, dear,” Katie said.
Joseph helped Ivy up. “Be very careful. Katie is still hurt.”
Katie pulled her hand free of his to guide Ivy to the head of the bed and help her sit comfortably.
“Pompah didn’t come in to read to us, so I said to Emma, ‘I’ll find him and just you watch me.’ And Emma said, ‘I can’t watch you if you’ve left the room.’ Then I stuck my tongue out at her, and she stomped her foot.” Ivy grinned up at Katie, admiration filling every inch of her face. “I haven’t seen you in forever and ever, Katie. Are you still sad?”
Katie chucked her under the chin. “Less sad all the time, sweetheart.”
Ivy’s brow pulled in almost theatrically. “Mary said her grandfather told her papa that you don’t have any fingers left.” She glanced at Katie’s unbandaged hand. “But you have fingers; I can see them.”
Joseph set his hand on Katie’s shoulder. He would turn Ivy’s line of questioning if Katie needed him to.
But she proved resilient. “I have fingers on this hand, but not on the other. The fingers on that hand were too broken.”
“Ah.” Ivy nodded as though the entire thing made sense. “Did you know Finbarr’s eye is broken, too? He can’t see anything out of it. Not at all.”
“I had heard that.”
“Ooh, ooh.” Ivy popped up onto her knees, facing Katie, her eyes wide with excitement. “He could have an eye patch, and you could have a hook on your broken-up hand. Then you could be pirates. You would be the very best pirates. Oh, Katie, you could be just like Grace O’Malley, Irish Pirate Queen.”
“Where in heaven’s name did you learn about Grace O’Malley?” Katie’s eyes darted between Joseph and Ivy.
Emma answered instead. “Papa read us this book.”
All eyes turned to the doorway. Emma stood there, clutching a volume of Irish Legends and Histories against her chest, her arms wrapped around it.
The look Katie gave Emma nearly took Joseph’s breath away. She loved his daughter like her own, that was clear. His sweet, hurting Emma had found the caring, loving mother she’d needed the past years.
“My sweet Emma.” Katie held her hand out, an invitation Emma didn’t hesitate to accept. She too climbed up on the bed, snuggling next to Katie, just as Ivy was. Katie held her in a tight and loving embrace, saying again and again, “My Emma.”
His girls were happy and loved and safe. Joseph’s family was complete and together. He placed a kiss on the top of each of his girl’s heads.
“Do I get a kiss, as well, Joseph Archer?” If Katie’s flushed cheeks were any indication, she didn’t mean a quick peck on the top of her head.
Of course, with both of the girls as an audience, he couldn’t possibly kiss her as deeply or as thoroughly as he wanted to. Still, he had no intention of turning her down.
Joseph slipped a hand under her chin, tilting her face toward him. He lightly kissed the very corner of her mouth, then the other. Two tiny giggles stopped him before he could kiss her again.
He pulled back enough to see Katie’s smile. Though she’d winced more than once as the girls had settled in and though worry and pain still sat heavy in her eyes, she was returning bit by bit to the strong and hopeful woman he loved.
“Perhaps I should read the girls their story.” He made quite a show of rolling his eyes at their interruption.
Katie took his hand. He held it fast, cherishing the feel of her reaching out for him. “Read to all of us,” she said.
He didn’t have to be asked twice. Joseph adjusted Emma enough so he could sit next to Katie, with Emma nestled more or less between them. He held the book in one hand and Katie’s hand in the other.
Ivy put her arms around Katie, being noticeably careful of her injuries. “I love you, Katie,” she said earnestly. “Please don’t ever, ever, ever leave us.”
That brought Emma’s eyes to Katie’s face again. Joseph could all but hear Emma making the same plea.
Katie’s expression gentled. “Not ever again, my sweet girls.” She squeezed Joseph’s hand, her eyes moving to look at him. She smiled slightly. “Not ever again.”