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I must close, as an extra rehearsal has just been called for tomorrow’s performance at the new opera house.
Winifred
May 12th
Dear Zane,
My father has passed away. It is all I can do not to rail at God for taking him. Everyone at the conservatory is being very kind, and it eases somewhat the awful ache I feel inside.
The funeral is tomorrow afternoon.
Winifred
May 16th.
Dear Winifred,
You must know how much I grieve with you for your father’s loss. Death is such a blow that I sometimes wonder how we human beings manage to go on with our lives. Celeste’s death left me numb for days. I hope this will not be true for you, for it is hell to get through.
I am thinking of you.
Zane
PS: I am still expecting you in June. Do you promise?
May 29th
Dear Winifred,
I have heard nothing from you for weeks. Are you all right?
Zane
June 7th
Dear Zane,
I have been teaching nonstop and have two more concerts before the end of the term. I plan to arrive on the seventeenth. I am so tired I will have to sleep for a week when I get there.
Winifred
Chapter Ten
The train from St. Louis pulled into the Smoke River station with a blast of its whistle and squealing brakes. Zane tied the buggy reins to the brake handle, climbed down and strode onto the platform. He scanned the passenger car for a glimpse of Winifred through the windows, then watched the people debarking. Person after person stepped off the train but there was no sign of her.
The platform cleared. Had she missed the train? Could he have misunderstood the date? Convulsively he clenched his fists.
And then a slight figure in a pale green skirt and matching shirtwaist stepped down onto the iron step. A uniformed conductor set a valise behind her and handed her a green paisley shawl.
Her face looked flushed. She paused, holding onto the handrail for support, and Zane surged forward. “Winifred!”
He reached her just as she took an uncertain step toward him. “Zane.”
And then her knees gave way and she crumpled. He caught her up into his arms. “Winifred, are you all right?”
She opened her eyes. “Valise,” she murmured. “Can’t lift.”
He swung toward the train and nodded for the conductor to set her luggage onto the platform. “Charlie!” He yelled for the stationmaster, then halted a young boy racing toward the station house. “Get Mr. Kincaid, will you, son? Ask him to keep that valise over there behind his desk.”
“Sure, Doc.” The boy trotted off.
Zane carried her to the buggy, slid her onto the seat and hurriedly climbed into the driver’s seat. Before he even lifted the reins, Winifred tipped over against his shoulder. Her teeth were chattering.
For the first time in his life he whipped a horse, but even so it seemed to take hours to reach the house. He reined up, set the brake and jumped out.
“Sam!”
He pulled Winifred into his arms and started up the porch steps. “Sam!”
The front door swung open ahead of him and without a word Sam reached out to help him. “Take the buggy back to the station. Get her valise from Charlie.”
Inside he brushed past a wide-eyed Yan Li, climbed the stairs two at a time and laid Winifred on her bed in the room next to his. She was barely conscious. Hurriedly he unbuttoned her shirtwaist, yanked his stethoscope from his back pocket where he always carried it and bent over her.
Her skin was too hot. Her heartbeat was thready and irregular, but the rales he heard in her lungs told him everything.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Am I ill?” she whispered.
“You have pneumonia, Winifred. Both lungs.” He straightened and shouted over his shoulder. “Yan Li. Bring a basin of cool water and some towels.”
He turned his attention back to Winifred and finished unbuttoning her blouse. “I’ve got to bring down your fever. Need to sponge you off.”
She nodded. Her lids drifted shut. “Thirsty,” she muttered.
Yan Li stepped into the room, a china basin of water in her hands and two clean towels draped over one arm. “Sam here now,” she said.
“Ask him to bring up the valise. See if you can find her night robe.”
A soft patter of footsteps echoed down the stairs and then returned. “Robe,” Yan Li said. She laid the silky garment across the single chair in the room. He recognized it, the blue one with long sleeves, and his breath caught.
