Healing Hearts (Easton Series #2) (15 page)

Chapter 24

  
A
dog
barked outside the surgery, and Hannah looked toward the window. She wanted to
find a place to hide, as she was trapped in an awkward conversation. She was
accustomed to patients asking all manner of questions, but this one was
embarrassing and infuriating. Worst of all, it came from Nelda Rose, and it had
the markings of a scheme behind it.

  
Oh, it started innocently enough,
with the usual pleasantries.

  
“How are things at the hotel?”
Hannah asked when she opened the door to her friend.

  
“Wonderful. Is the quick visit all
right?
 
Rose is napping.” The
feather on Nelda’s new green, stylish hat bobbed. It seemed John Hawkins
couldn’t stop showering his wife with gifts lately.

  
“Of course, of course.”

  
Nelda brightened. “We’re so busy and
happy with the baby and all. Mrs. Cranston says I should let her cry.
 
She says crying is good for babies.”

  
“Nelda, Rose cries because she’s
unhappy. She needs a diaper change or burping.”

  
“That’s what I said, and I should
tend to her, right?”

  
“That’s right,” Hannah reassured.

  
“Sometimes she wants to be held
and rocked. She fusses when she’s tired.”

  
“That’s normal, and you can rock
her. Your movements rocked her when she was inside you. Babies naturally find
the motion comforting.”

  
She brightened. “I won’t spoil her
by holding her, then?”

  
“No, not at all. Hold her and rock
her. When you get tired use the rocking cradle.”

  
“There’s one other thing . . . but
. . .” Nelda looked sheepishly at her hands.

  
“But what?”

  
“Doctor Hannah, since the baby
came I’ve been busy and tired, and well . . . “ A blush began to creep up
Nelda’s neck.

  
“I can imagine.”

  
Nelda took a deep breath. “Yes,
and keeping John happy in the bedroom isn’t the same.”

  
“Give it time.” Hannah stifled a
choke and tried to change the topic. “Would you like some tea?”

  
“It’s been months.” Nelda
hesitated. “Doctor Hannah, what do you do to get your husband interested?” Her
voice was brittle as fine china.

  
Hannah coughed. “Uh . . . I don’t
know. It, uh, comes naturally.”

  
“But certainly there must be
something you do he likes, and being a doctor and all, well, I expect you know
more about such things. You know.” She threw her hands palm up in front of her.

  
“Nelda, excuse me. I left some water
to boil on the stove. I hear it hissing now.”

  
Hannah fled the room, hoping Nelda
would forget the line of their conversation, but Nelda doggedly pursued her
into the kitchen. Hannah was pouring tea leaves into a cheesecloth.

  
“Thanks for the poultice for
Rose’s diaper rash,” Nelda continued. “Please come by the hotel for dinner.”

  
Hannah’s hands shook and she kept
her back to Nelda. Appearing to be busy was her best defensive tactic. “Will do,
thank you,” she fired back over her shoulder.

  
Nelda took the hint. “All right.
Thanks for the advice, Doctor Hannah. I have to get back. Rose will be waking
from her nap. See you soon?”

  
“Oh, yes. Goodbye, Nelda.” Hannah turned
and hugged her friend, and then she watched Nelda depart and hurry up the path.

  
Hannah dwelled on Nelda’s problem
and what she knew about intimacy, which was darn little beyond basic knowledge
about how the sex act was performed. As the day wore on, her lack of knowledge
about intimacy nagged at her like an ill-fitting shoe. She’d help Nelda if she
knew more, but knowing more required research, and with the only man she was
allowed. It meant exposing her whole self to another person. It would take
courage – the kind of courage Adella Kelpin had.

Chapter 25

 
J
ed had been up most of the night
considering his highway, this life with Hannah that brought him peace of mind,
and then practicing the right words to convince her to consummate their
marriage, and thinking about how to hide his disappointment when she said no.

  
When he came back from visiting
Watkins at the general store he saw her sitting under the oak tree in the front
yard, her back against the trunk, sketchpad on her lap. Her eyes were closed as
if she were imagining a scene to draw.

  
As he passed by Hannah opened her
eyes and smiled. “Afternoon, Jed.”

  
“Afternoon, Hannah.” He bent his knees
to squat beside her, and he glanced at her latest creation and thought about
how her head would come to his chest if he hugged her. “I like the path winding
away into the horizon. I wonder where it’s going?”

  
She cocked her head to the one
side. “It meanders to a creek lined with trees. Birds of every color and song
live there,” she explained with a girlish, shy smile.

  
“That’s lovely. I’d like to know
this place.”

  
“Speaking of lovely,” her voice
wobbled, “Nelda’s trading medicine for supper at the hotel. Come with me, and
we won’t have to cook tonight.”

  
Jed’s eyes held hers as he rose
from the fragrant earth. “Don’t have to sell me on it, Doc. I’ll get cleaned
up. What about Jake?”

  
“He went to work for Farrell after
school, and they’re keeping him for supper. It seems the pay is better there
than here.” She laughed.

  
“Ah.” His heart lightened, and he
couldn’t keep the grin from his face. It would be just the two of them.

  
Jed went into the house and
splashed hope onto his face at the kitchen washstand. Then he shaved and
changed into his best pair of brown trousers. He sighed and thought about
relaxing in the candlelight of Hawkins dining room as he chatted with Hannah about
the day’s events and local news. Maybe he’d try out the new joke he’d heard at
the store -- a story about a minister, a cowboy, and two unruly steers. If he
were lucky she’d let him touch her hand or perhaps kiss her cheek. It wasn’t
everything he wanted, but he wouldn’t give up on the possibility of more in
their relationship, in time. He finally felt he was beginning to understand
what made his sweet Hannah so hesitant to trust his affection.

  
Jed reached for the innocence of
his youth when he went back outside to find Hannah for supper. He wanted to
spend time, free of encumbrance from the past; he wanted to believe in dreams
and finding them in the form of a beautiful, intelligent woman with capable
hands and a creative mind. He wanted her to see the hero he could be.

  
Hannah had moved from under the
tree to the porch, where she was rubbing charcoal onto her drawing. He knew
this because a smudge had appeared across her soft ivory cheek. A chill descended
with the setting sun.

  
“Come inside, you’ll catch cold.”

  
She rose from her work. “Okay. I’m
just about finished.” Hannah’s skirt swished, and he watched the sway of her
hips as she entered the house and set her sketch on the table. When she came
out again she was wearing a wool cape and cap. Jed captured her hand and lifted
it to the crook of his arm, and they walked in silence, breaths fogging the
air.

  
At the hotel John greeted them,
little Rose Hannah on his hip; when they stepped into the dining room, he
showed them to their usual table near the fireplace. “Jed, we have your
favorite pie tonight.” John was in a jovial mood, and the baby cooed to the
lilt of his voice.

  
Hannah took a little hand and
squeezed gently. “Rose is more beautiful each time I see her.”

  
“That she is,” John agreed, “and more
spoiled, too.”

  
Jed pulled out Hannah’s chair and
Hannah’s “thank you” floated like a cloud. He waited for her to sit and felt
the warmth of her back against his fingers; he used the opportunity to lean
over and inhale the fragrance of her thick chestnut hair. She was the sweetest
thing he’d known in years.

  
While they waited for supper he
watched the firelight flicker over the stone hearth. “I visited Adella and Pete
today.”

  
“And?” She raised one eyebrow to
peer at him from beneath soft lashes.

  
“It’s going well. I see a change
from the severe angle already, but she has to stay off the foot. Pete made
crutches for her to walk on.” The fire was warm, and Jed impulsively pushed up
the sleeves of his blue cambric shirt.

  
Hannah stared at his forearm. “I
talked to Watkins about getting more fruit into the store as we head into
winter.”

  
Jed nodded. “I hate to think on
winter sickness, but it’s a fact. The youngest and oldest need to stay out of
the cold.”

  
She shivered. “Yes. The fire feels
good tonight.”

  
“Indeed.” He liked the way the
flames reflected in her eyes.

  
Hannah reached across the table
and touched a scar that ran along his wrist. “What happened here?”

  
Jed stiffened. It had been so long
he no longer felt the need to hide the wound. He thought about lying, but lies
were not for Hannah.

  
“I cut my wayward self in my
sleep, long ago.” Sorrow and pain battled in his eyes.

  
“Oh.” She gazed at the creases at
the corners of his eyes and knit her brow, anxiety darkening her face.

  
“You know why. I’m a different man
today, no longer locked in a prison of guilt and fear. I’m finding a peace I
haven’t known in years.”

  
“It’s good.” She was silent a
moment, and her eyes misted. She swallowed. “I saw Nelda earlier today.”

  
“Oh? Everything’s fine, I hope.”

  
“Yes, the usual. Colic and diaper
rash.” Hannah twisted her mouth into a frown. “She did have a problem I couldn’t
advise her on.”

 
 
“What is it? Perhaps I can assist.”

  
“Well, she wanted to know how to
please her husband in the bedroom. She thought I’d have, uh, ideas on that,
seeing as I’m newly married.”

  
Jed guffawed. “Wish I’d been a fly
on the wall, just to see your face.”

  
“Yes. It was quite awkward.” She
hesitated. “I know the basics of how it all works . . .”

  
“But you should have knowledge
from experience, to understand pleasure as much as you know pain,” he grinned,
“to empathize with your patients.”

  
“I admit, I thought about it.” Her
cheeks were blazing. “Surely you’ve been with women. Tell me what a man
enjoys.”

  
Jed was taken aback but he
automatically checked his emotions.
Keep
it light, and tread carefully
, he told himself. He gave a brusque nod
before delving into his response. “Uh, I don’t like to talk about other women
with my wife, but, as you’re also doctor and my colleague, I respect the
clinical nature of your curiosity.” He waved his fork in the air and paused. “Before
the war I had someone, and I liked the same things you would likely enjoy
– kissing, touching in intimate places.” He lifted one shoulder. “It
comes natural-like to people in love.”

  
“Oh.” She stared at his face. “You
were in love then?”

  
“I thought I was,” he tossed it out
and shrugged, hoping to ease any fears she might have about lingering feelings.
“She’s nothing to me now,” he added. “It was a long time ago. I barely remember
it.”

  
“Oh.” Her eyes shifted back to her
plate.

  
Well, this is something
, thought Jed. Her inquiry into the nature
of lovemaking was a start. If she wanted to take the plunge into physical relations,
then he was the only one who could sate her curiosity.

  
Suddenly he felt as nervous as a
new bridegroom.

*
          
*
          
*

  
Hannah listened for Jed’s even
breathing, as it drifted from outside her room where he rested on his pallet.
He’d come so far. He hadn’t woken her with a night terror in two months. Hannah
ran her hands over the scars on her legs, and she thought about Adella and
Pete. She’d spent years harboring anger toward her parents, but no more. She
lived far away from home now, she reminded herself. She could live her own way,
and find contentment in her new life. Couldn’t she?

  
Immersed in her thoughts, she
didn’t hear Jed when he got up from his bed and crept into her room.

  
“You awake?” His voice was hoarse
and deep.

  
“Yes. You all right?”

  
The clock in the hall struck one. It
was fully dark, but she could smell his nakedness, thick and stark and musky.
Thunder rumbled in the distance; primal electricity permeated the air.

  
He lit on the edge of her bed.
“Hannah, give me your hand.”

  
Hannah reached out and folded her
fingers around his. The night was still and cool, and rain began to pelt the
roof in a steady drumbeat. Her heart raced with it.

  
“You said you needed to learn to
pleasure a man.” He paused, the rain pounded harder, and when she didn’t answer
he continued. “I’ll show you.” He brought her hand to his crotch and slid it
over his erect shaft.

  
Hannah felt the soft sheath
covering his hardness. He groaned.

  
“Like this.” Jed ran her fingers
over the tip. His voice sounded pained.

  
Wind rattled the windows, and
Hannah was absorbed in a new kind of anatomical discovery.

  
“It feels good?”

   
“Oh yes. Oh yes.”

  
Jed lifted a lid on the tingling
under her nightgown, in the places she usually tried to ignore, as he guided
her hand, showed her the strokes. Abruptly he turned to his side, facing away
from her. He groaned and stiffened with his climax.

 
 
Hannah put a hand to his back, felt his heavy breathing rise and fall
with thunder peals, and when he turned back and kissed her she knew she’d
satisfied his need. She lay her head on his naked shoulder and he tangled his
fingers in her hair as he massaged her scalp. “Now you know something about
what a man’s likes.”

  
“Besides cooking.” Hannah didn’t
know why, but she had to make light of the intimacy they’d just shared, as if
she couldn’t admit the profound satisfaction she was feeling.

  
“Sweetheart, I’m willing to be
your husband, in more than name, whenever you are ready.”

  
“Oh.” She nuzzled his neck. “You
could start by getting under the blanket to keep me warm.”