Read Online Coming Up Roses by Catherine Anderson - Free Book Online

that, a body. His was just made a tad differently than hers, and now was no time to note the dissimilarities. She grabbed the cloth she had used earlier and began helping Marcus Stone wet McGovern's feverish skin.
    From that second on, Kate did what she had to do, the devil take propriety. Marcus Stone made no more mention of what ladies should or shouldn't see.
    They were all that stood between Zachariah McGovern and death.
     

Chapter 6
     
    O ver the next three days, Kate learned the true meaning of exhaustion. With scarcely a wink of sleep and very little to eat, she drove herself to set one foot before the other, to do whatever had to be done to keep Zachariah McGovern alive.
    It wasn't easy to cheat death.
    As reluctant as she had been to let Marcus Stone stay over, Kate didn't know what she would have done without his help. He not only spelled her at Zachariah McGovern's bedside, but also kept the chores done, which included milking Henrietta, who had wandered home the second night.
    As the endless vigil wore on, Kate stopped feeling nervous while Stone was in the house. She couldn't say exactly why. Maybe because he seemed as ill at ease in her presence as she did in his. It was a little difficult to feel threatened by a man who nearly tripped over his own feet when he was around her.
    On the fourth afternoon, Doc Willowby came by to check on Kate's patient and finally said the words she had been praying to hear. "I don't believe it, but I'll be danged if I don't think he might pull through."
    Kate stared down at her still-unconscious patient through a blur of relieved tears.
    Doc smiled and sighed. "I think it's time for you and Mr. Stone here to get some well-deserved rest." He drew the sheet higher on McGovern's chest. "He's resting easy. The initial danger has passed. All we can do now is force fluids down him and pray infection doesn't set in. In his weakened condition, that would kill him for sure."
    Kate turned to the doctor. "Is there any way that I can stave off infection?"
    Doc pursed his lips. "Hot poultices, maybe. As hot as the skin can stand and applied for thirty minutes every four hours. Other than that, there's nothing."
    Kate exchanged glances with Marcus Stone. "We can do that."
    Doc clamped a hand over Kate's shoulder. "First, you get some sleep, young woman."
    Marcus seconded that. "He's right, Miz Blakely. You're beginnin' to look like you was rode hard and put away wet." Glancing back at Doc Willowby, he added, "She ain't hardly let her head touch a pillow once. I offered to spell her so she could sleep, but she wouldn't have none of it."
    "You see that she does now," the doctor ordered. He gave Kate a fatherly pat. "I'll come back out at the end of the week. If you need me before then, Mr. Stone can ride in and fetch me."
    Kate followed the doctor from the bedroom. "You truly think he'll make it, Doc?"
    Doc Willowby opened the front door and then paused. "God willing, yes. You've worked a miracle, young woman. In my line of work, I don't see many."
    "Only God works miracles."
    "Sometimes through good people like you," the doctor retorted. "Mind you, now, he won't be doing a jig any time soon. That poison has played heck with his system, and it'll take a spell to work its way out. He's liable to suffer more fever. And he'll be as weak as a scoured calf for weeks. Start him off on broth, then slowly add solids into his diet."
    Kate leaned an arm against the door as she watched the doctor go down the porch steps. The relief she felt weighed on her body like a thousand pounds of lead. Now that the worst was over, she couldn't muster the will to move or even think why she should. She felt Marcus Stone step up behind her.
    "Why don't you feed that girl of yours her supper early and git yourself some sleep? After I git the chores done, I'll stay handy this evenin' to take care of the boss."
    Kate blinked and straightened. Miranda. Her mind was so numb, she had nearly forgotten her daughter.
    "I'd feed