The Amish Heart of Ice Mountain Read Free Page B

hands together, then pressed her fingers to her lips. “But he will live?” she asked.
    â€œYes,” the doctor answered gently. “Would you like to see him? He’s fairly well sedated, but he might be able to hear you if you talk to him.”
    Sarah dropped her hands to her sides. “Yes . . . please.”
    She followed the doctor through a myriad of doors, moving deeper into the recesses of the building, until the rooms became smaller, quieter, and a feeling of sober vigil hung in the air.
    â€œIn here.” The doctor gestured, and she went inside the open door. A nurse was pressing buttons on a computer but paused to smile kindly in her direction, then slipped away, leaving Sarah to approach the bed alone.
    Edward’s head was swathed in bandages, and the right side of his face as well. Tubes and machines surrounded his bed like alien sentinels and she longed to care for him in the simplicity of home. She forgot, for the moment, his slurred promise of an annulment, and all of her that thanked Gott for the gift of healing she carried wanted to help him now.
    She glanced into the hallway, then got as close to his left side as possible, bending to stroke the back of his strong hand, which looked strangely out of place against the crisp white sheet. She whispered in his ear.
    â€œEdward, it’s Sarah.” Your wife . . . “You’re in a big hospital—they had to helicopter you from Coudersport. But you’re going to be all right . . .” But, dear Gott , is he? Losing his eye and having his handsome face scarred will surely affect him emotionally....
    He stirred and moaned faintly and she spoke a bit louder.
    â€œI’m going to stay with you, Edward. Don’t be afraid.” She looked up when the nurse reentered.
    â€œI’m sorry, ma’am, I’ll have to ask you to go back to the waiting room. He needs to sleep. The doctor said you can come back in a few hours and stay longer.”
    Sarah nodded, then impulsively bent and kissed Edward’s cheek, wondering if he’d accept such an action if he was fully awake. And then she followed the nurse out of the room.
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    It was dark except for the muted glow and beep of strange machines when Edward woke to feel with tentative fingers at the mass of bandages on his face and head. He tried to remember how he’d come to the hospital room, but all he could seem to recall was standing in front of Bishop Umble and Mahlon Mast and marrying Sarah. Marrying Sarah . . . but she’d made it clear that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. . . .
    â€œEdward?”
    He turned his head in the direction of Sarah’s gentle voice as a soft overhead light came on, and he thought he must be in a dream.
    â€œEdward, you’re in the hospital. A tree fell on Grossmuder May’s cabin and you were badly hurt.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with my head?” His voice sounded strange to his own ears and his throat hurt.
    There was an infinitesimal pause, and then she moved into his line of vision. Her gray eyes were wide, searching, but he saw a calmness there that made him relax for a moment. “Edward, the doctors couldn’t save your right eye.”
    He tried to process her words and reached his fingers once more to the wad of bandages over the side of his face. “What?”
    He saw the concern in her stare but no pity, and he thought that perhaps he had heard wrong.
    â€œYour right eye is gone,” she said slowly.
    He nodded, thinking of the only trip his family had ever taken away from Ice Mountain, when his mother was still alive. A trip to Cape May—to the seaside. Where he’d seen a one-eyed man begging for money along the boardwalk. The man’s empty eye socket had been uncovered and had gleamed with sullen red scarring in a way that had seemed both fascinating and horrifying.
    Now Edward knew a fear in his soul, that he would be monstrous,