“Yeah, in about six or seven years.”
“Sooner than that.” Mabel smiled. “You’re kinda cute, Riley…”
The kid was just like her mother, Riley scoffed.
Riley wanted to shrivel up and die. The kid thought she was a boy, a boy for the taking like her mother thought Sam was for the taking. It bothered her that she could lose Sam to this she-devil woman. But short of making a spectacle of herself she didn’t know what to do. Her father had taught her that anything worth having was worth waiting for, so if Sam was worth it, she’d wait, hold her tongue, but it wasn’t easy.
Nodog seemed to be of the same temperament as he stayed behind the wagon too.
***
The next day though Dorothy took sick and they halted the wagons to see to her. She had a fever and later the same day broke into a rash. Riley became concerned and wouldn’t leave her side.
Sam looked at Riley. “This ain’t good. She’s got a real unhealthy looking pallor, her eyes…their listless. She’s sick. She’s really sick. We best stay where we are ‘til we see what this is about.”
“Shore was sudden, wasn’t it?” Riley remarked as she watched Mavis towel the little girl down.
“Could be one of those kid things, or could be serious. I just don’t like the way her eyes look, so unfocussed. It’s a bad fever.”
“You go on and drive the wagon, I’ll tend her,” Riley offered Mavis a break in taking care of the little girl.
“You don’t mind?” Mavis asked, perplexed.
“Nope, I shore don’t.”
All evening Riley tended the kid while Mavis made supper and then she spelled her once more.
Mavis was worried, she trembled as she changed the rag on her head, Riley noticed and for a while Riley felt sorry for her.
“She’ll be alright,” Riley encouraged her.
“She’s my baby girl…” Mavis glanced at Riley then Sam. “I cain’t lose no more youngun’s. I just can’t.”
After the second day with fever, Sam made a decision. “We got to take her to the river. To get the fever down.”
“The river? What river?” Mavis asked.
“Trinity is the closest I reckon. We got to get that fever down, as fast as we can,” Sam insisted.
“Okay, let’s pack up then.” Mavis started moving everything inside the wagon and instructing the others.
It was at least five miles to the river and Riley washed Dorothy down all the way. The rash spread, and Sam was worried they might have some epidemic on their hands. Even if it was just measles it could be bad.
As they came alongside the Trinity, Sam dismounted and went to scoop the child up in his arms.
Mavis and Riley followed closely behind him. “What are you gonna do?” Riley asked.
“Cool water will bring the fever down, gotta put her on the banks of the river and keep pouring the cool water over her. Once the fever is broke we can see how she is. You undress her down to her drawers and sponge her off.”
Mavis looked nervous. “You know what you’re doin?”
“I’ve tended some with fever before,” Sam said.
Riley looked at Mavis and extended a hand. “Sam’s been brought up by the Indians, he knows lots of tricks. It’s best to trust him.”
Mavis stared down at Riley’s hand. “Dorothy’s my baby…I can’t lose her. You understand?”
Riley nodded, her heart going out to Mavis and the others as they looked so forlorn. “I know, but Sam can help her. I’m sure of it.”