Her Healing Ways Read Free Page B

thy wife here. And then I will do whatever I can for her.”
    Lon marveled at the Quaker’s calm voice. It shouldn’t have surprised him that the man with the rifle was also confounded. The man froze, staring forward.
    Dr. Gabriel moved away to a patient and began to give the woman another dose of the saline infusion.
    â€œYou have to come with me, lady!” the man demanded. “My wife won’t come here.”
    Dr. Gabriel glanced over her shoulder. “Is she still conscious?”
    The man lowered his rifle. “No.”
    â€œWell, then what is stopping thee from carrying her here? If she is unconscious or delirious, she won’t know where she is.” The Quaker said this in the same reasonable tone, without a trace of fear. Lon had rarely heard the like.
    This woman was either crazy or as cool as they came.
    The man swung the gun above Mercy’s head and fired, shattering one of the bulbous oil lamps behind the bar.
    Lon lunged forward and struck the man’s head with the butt of his pistol, wrestling the rifle from him. The man dropped to the floor.
    â€œDoes he have a fever?” the Quaker asked as she gazed at the fallen man.
    Lon gawked at her. Unbelieving. Astounded.
    â€œDoes he have a fever?” she prompted.
    After stooping to check, Lon nodded. “Yes, he’s fevered. Doctor, you are very cool under fire.”
    She gazed at him, still unruffled. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time a weapon has been aimed at me.” She turned away but said over her shoulder, “Set him on the floor on a blanket. Then please find out where this poor man’s wife is and see if she’s alive. I doubt there is anything I can do for her. But we must try. And, Lon Mackey, will thee please keep asking questions? We must get to the source before more people die.”
    Lon carried the unconscious man and laid him down, then asked another person where the man’s home was. As he turned to leave, he snatched up the rifle and took it with him. He didn’t want anybody else waving it around.
    Since the war, nothing much surprised him. But Dr. Mercy Gabriel had gotten his attention. She could have gotten herself killed. And she didn’t even so much as blink.
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    Mercy went about her round of injections, thinking of Lon and the ease with which he’d subdued the distraught man. She had never gotten used to guns, yet this was the second time today men had been forced to draw guns to protect her.
    A young woman with a little girl in her arms rushed through the swinging doors. “My child! My Missy is having cramping. They said that cramping…” The woman’s face crumpled and she visibly fought for control. “Please save her. She’s only four. Please.” The woman held out her daughter to Mercy.
    â€œJust cramps, nothing else?”
    â€œJust cramps. She started holding her stomach and crying about a half hour ago.” Tears poured down the woman’s face.
    â€œThee did exactly right in bringing her here so quickly. I will do what I can.” Mercy lifted the child from her mother’s trembling arms, tenderly laid the little girl on the bar and smiled down at her. “Thee must not be afraid. I know what to do.”
    Mercy felt the child’s forehead. Her temperature was already rising. Mercy fought to keep her focus and not give in to worry and despair. God was in this room, not just the deadly cholera.
    The mother hovered nearby, wringing her hands.
    Mercy bent to listen to the child’s heart with her stethoscope. “Missy, I need thee to sit up and cough for me.”
    The mother began to weep. Mercy glanced at Indigo, who nodded and drew the woman outside. Then Mercy went about examining the child. Soon she glanced over and saw that Indigo had left the woman near the doors and was continuing her roundsof the patients. Indigo bathed their reddened faces with water and alcohol, trying to fight their