“Yes, and that makes me angry to even consider running off with my tail between my legs. Won’t that make them think they’re winning? Dammit, all we want to do is help people.”
Neil nodded as someone knocked at the door. “Aye, of course you do. We heal the people who get hurt because of destructive people like these two. We’re not supposed to be part of the damage, lass. Ah…do you want me to get that? If it’s another ranch hand needing help, I can take care of him.”
She stood and headed to the front. “No, healing someone always makes me feel better. Maybe it will cut through all this anger and confusion I feel.”
When she opened the door, she gaped at the Prentice boys, all standing on the porch with worried expressions. They stood beside her mother, who was only wearing a white nightgown. Tears were running silently down her pale face.
“Hannah, she made us bring her.” Luke had a protective arm around her mother. “She was crying and saying she had to talk to you. We couldn’t get her back to the house, and neither Ma nor your father were answering their phones at work.”
She pushed down her wild emotions. “It’s okay, Luke. I’ll take care of her now. Mother…”
Recognition flared in her weary eyes and she padded forward in bare feet and took her hands. “Hannah…I had to come. Sarah came home this morning, and she told me you couldn’t leave. If you did, you’d never come back home again. We’d lose you forever.”
A chill ran over her. Had Sarah finally appeared to her mother because she was thinking of returning to Scotland? Oh my God!
“Don’t leave, Hannah.” She wrapped her arms around Hannah’s neck and cried. “Please stay. We need you.”
The Prentice boys were looking on, stricken. Biting her lip, she willed herself not to cry as she held her mother’s frail body. There was no denying how ill her mother must be.
Neil appeared at her side, compassion softening the hard planes of his face. “The poor dear.”
She continued stroking her mother’s back. “Can you call my father and tell him to come?”
He nodded with troubled eyes. Leading her mother inside gently, she drew her to the couch and held her as she cried, calling out pleas for her to stay and tortured mumblings about how she couldn’t lose both her girls.
Neil must have taken care of the Prentice boys after he’d called her father. In the quiet living room of Will’s house, Hannah clenched her eyes shut in agony from all the pain inside her.Would I ever not feel devastation from losing my sister?But it wasn’t only that. It was the traumatic ripple effect her death created…losing a mother and father she used to look forward to coming home to.
And then there was Ben.Could I survive losing him again?It was an agonizing thought.
And leaving Sanctuary Springs...
Because Sarah was right. If she left, she wouldn’t be coming back.
When the door opened sometime later, she looked over and swallowed thickly. Her father’s silver spectacles were askew as if he’d been in a rush to reach the ranch. His facewas lined with suffering. As their gazes locked, all she could think was,how had it come to this?
He stiffened his spine and walked over, and she then realized he had his medical bag with him. When he opened the bag and pulled out a syringe, she wanted to fight him.
No, not this. Please no.
But she wouldn’t win. She’d seen him give her mother a sedative like this after Sarah had died and had yelled at him to stop as it continued.
Do something! Stop drugging her. Make her cry. Make her…be like Mom again.
They sat there, not looking at each other, as she continued to hold her mother. Soon her crying stopped. Her small body went limp, and Hannah had to fight tears as she laid her back and smoothed her hair back from her face.
It’s not right. She doesn’t deserve this. All she wants is her daughter back.
She fought back tears. Damned if she was going to cry in front of her father. All he was doing was holding her hand, his face its usual stoic mask.
Why can’t you do more?
Neil appeared suddenly and put his hand on her father’s shoulder. “Let me take her out to the car, Dr. Montgomery. I promise I’ll be gentle.”
Her father nodded curtly, but he didn’t follow Neil after Hannah kissed the side of her face softly and said goodbye.
The snap of her father’s medical bag brought her up. “Your friend explained why your mother wanted to see you this morning,” he said in a voice tight with repressed pain. “When I asked him what Taft had given you last night, he filled me in.”
Leave it to Neil, she thought, to do his best to build a bridge over the vast expanse separating her and her father. “I?—”
