Read Online The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice - Free Book Online Page B

pinned the sheet closed over Thomas’s body. Together, Lucas and Mr. Stukeley put the lid back on the coffin and covered it with dirt once more.
    Mr. Stukeley carried Thomas’s heart back to the house, where Mrs. Stukeley had the fire blazing. Lucas watched, transfixed, as Sarah was brought over to the hearth. Mr. Stukeley placed the heart in the flames. As it burned, Mrs. Stukeley fanned the smoke into the room, toward Sarah, who breathed deeply of it. Then the others, too, moved closer to breathe in the smoke. When the flames died down, Mrs. Stukeley gathered the ashes, mixed them with water, and gave the potion to Sarah to drink.
    Lucas joined the family in a prayer for Sarah’s recovery, then made ready to leave. The family was quiet and subdued, as befitted such a solemn ritual. But, afterward, there was something new in the room and in the faces of the Stukeley family. It was hope. Lucas could feel it filling his own heart as well, as he rode slowly back to Doc’s in the darkness.
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    When he had rubbed down Jasper and given him an extra portion of oats, Lucas stopped by the next stall to give Moses’s nose a rub. “Sorry for leaving you behind, Moses,” he said. “But I couldn’t very well ride the both of you, now, could I?”
    Moses rolled his eye, but moved his head so Lucas could rub between his ears.
    â€œCome on, boy.” Lucas coaxed him with a laugh. He continued to talk soothingly as he scratched the big horse’s head. “Don’t be feeling sorry for yourself. I’ll take you next time, how’s that?” With a final pat to Moses’s smooth back, Lucas went to the house to find Doc Beecher. He couldn’t wait to tell Doc what had happened at the Stukeley farm.
    To his disappointment, he was greeted in the kitchen by Mrs. Bunce, who said, “Dr. Beecher has gone to bed, Lucas, and at this late hour I’ve already had my supper. I’ve kept yours warm. But, first, it’s time for you to bathe.”
    At the mention of supper, Lucas’s stomach growled, and he looked longingly at the pot that sat on the cookstove.
    â€œThere’s hot water and soap and, as you can see, I’ve washed your clothes.”
    Lucas sighed. So it was to be another bath. He thought of Eben Oaks asking, “Is she as persnickety as they say?” and his lips twitched in a smile. Once again he promised himself that he’d ask whether Doc held to all this washing and bath-taking.
    Doc. He’d been feeling “puny” that morning, and had gone to bed early. “How’s Doc?” Lucas asked Mrs. Bunce. As soon as he asked the question, he realized he was afraid to hear the answer.
    â€œMuch better, he says,” she answered briskly. “You be sure and wash up properly, mind you,” she said, turning to leave the room.
    â€œYes, ma’am,” said Lucas.
    Shivering as he undressed, Lucas wished again that Doc was awake so that they could talk over Sarah Stukeley’s cure. Washing himself “properly,” as he’d been instructed, he marveled at how much his life had changed in the short time since he had come to be apprenticed to Doc Beecher. Here he was, he thought, grinning sheepishly, taking his second bath in only—what?—five days.
    But it was more than just the bathing. More, too, than the big house with all the fine and fancy things in it, that made his life here so different. Lucas struggled to fix in his mind just exactly what it was that felt so new. It was something about Doc himself. It was the way Doc talked to Lucas.
    At home on the farm, life had been hard. Mama, Pa, Asa, and Lucas himself had all worked from sunup to sundown just to finish the chores. When dark came, they usually fell into exhausted sleep. There was laughter and there was talk, sure, but most often it was about the crops or the weather, or the work that had to be done the next day.
    Pa had been, for the most part,