Page 58 of My Heart Will Find You

She laughed. “A true man. As it happens, I did save you a bit.” There was a plate heaped full, a cloth over it, and she handed it to him.

“Trout?”

“Pat likes to fish,” she said, then quickly asked, “How is Rufus?”

“He’s doing well.” Max was eating fast, obviously ravenous. “He’s already had visitors.” He looked at her. “He wants to see you to thank you. And by the way, my men may light candles at your feet. Between cooking and saving Rufus, they think you’re from heaven.”

“Yeah? I like that. Tell me what happened.”

“Martha was great. It took me a while to get past her complaining, but I told her to stop it and fix Rufus.”

“And she knew what to do?”

“She did.” He was scraping his plate. “You were right about her. She was a nurse in the war.”

“But she was probably really a doctor. She just wasn’t given credit for all that she did.”

He shook his head. “Always my Etta. I’m sure that’s true. I saw nurses do incredible things. Anyway, she sewed him up.”

“That’s it? She just grabbed a needle and thread and went at it?”

“She doused his leg in whiskey and bawled us out for being so dirty. She told us we were useless and worth nothing.” He shrugged. “It was Martha being Martha.”

“But she did save him. And his leg.”

“She did. She wouldn’t let us move him out of her bed. I stayed there until he woke up. He looks good.” He handed her his empty plate.

“Why are your hands bleeding?” she asked.

“You think Martha was going to let us men sit there and do nothing? She put two of us to work on fences. She made Hank clean the stalls.” Max smiled at that. “Come here.” He held out his arms to her.

Without hesitation, she went to him and slid her arms around his neck. But before their lips touched, the sound of Alice’s laughter reached them.

Max moved his head away. “My sister is here?”

“Let’s shut the door and lock it.”

Max gave her a look that showed he knew she was hiding something. He went to the doorway and looked out. Alice and Pat had moved from under the trees and were by the water’s edge. “I’m going to kill him.”

She knew what he meant. Alice was barefoot and Pat was shirtless. His giant muscles shimmered in the fading light. Etta did a leap a gymnast would envy and put herself in front of Max, her hands on his chest. “You will not! Don’t freak out about this! He had her take off her shoe so he could see her foot. He’s going to make a brace for her leg. It won’t fix it, but she’ll walk more easily.”

Max narrowed his eyes at her. “He did it shirtless?”

“His shirt was bloody, remember? He carried Rufus out. Alice told him to take it off so she could wash it.”

Max looked at her in disbelief. “My sister never washed anything in her life.” He stepped around Etta, his head down like a bulldog, and started toward the river.

Etta spoke loudly. “I’m sure Alice will be happy about this. She will have lost two men in two days. One of them was given toyourformer girlfriend and now this one is being tossed out becauseyoudon’t like what he does for a living. Alice will surely understand and thank you.”

Max had his back to her, but she didn’t need to see his face to know his expression. He wasnothappy.

“Are you going to send Dad and me away?” came a small voice.

Etta turned and saw Nellie standing there, her new watercolor set in her hands. Her chin was trembling.

Max had stopped walking but he hadn’t turned around.

“I don’t know,” Etta said. “It’s up to my husband, the master of us all. The man who makes all the rules and pity on anyone who disagrees with him. He—”

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