Chapter 62

Nettie woke, certain she was sleeping on the floor. Her arm throbbed, her head pounded, and the rest of her body ached, stretched out on some hard surface. "Miss Price? Can you open your eyes for me, please?" The cool, crisp voice was familiar, but it wasn't old Doc Rollins, the only physician she'd ever seen - and then not since she was a child.
Nettie managed to unstick her eyelashes. At first, everything was blurry. A large male shape loomed over her and she shrieked, automatically bringing her arm up to cover her face. At least she tried. Her left arm screamed in pain, and cold, while her right seemed limp as an overcooked noodle.
"It's all right, Nettie." A warm hand landed on her right shoulder. That voice, she knew - even in her dreams, which this had to be. She blinked and looked up to see Eli's big form take shape as her vision cleared. "Doctor Lexington has to take a look at your broken arm. It's going to hurt. Do you want some morphine?"
Nettie shook her head. "No drugs." Her mother had died of an overdose and her father was a drunk. Nettie didn't trust any of it. "Why did I sleep so long? Did you already give me something?" She heard the terror as her voice rose in pitch.
"Just a little ether. You were waking up when we carried you up from the car. Dr. Lexington had to take some X-rays, and he didn't want you to wake during the process."
"No more." She shook her head, until it made her dizzy and her stomach roil.
The doctor, a thin man with a bald pate and oversized mustache frowned. "But miss, as a medical professional, I can assure you that the anesthetic is necessary - "
"She said no." Eli stopped the doctor mid-sentence. "She managed to cope while I splinted it. She's strong. You want my handkerchief again, Net?"
"Yes." She remembered now - him coming to the house and binding her arm. He said he was taking her somewhere. She looked around at the sterile, all white surgery room. A woman in a nursing uniform stood beside the door, her lined face devoid of expression.
He nodded as he knotted up a clean hankie. "I know you didn't want to see Doc Rollins. I can vouch for Dr. Lexington. He's patched me up after fires more times than I can count. You can trust him."
"Fine." She reached up for the knotted cloth with her good hand and stuck it between her teeth.
Eli caught her hand in his big, warm one. "Squeeze as hard as you need to."
Nettie nodded to both him and the doctor and closed her eyes to wait for the pain.
Apparently they'd undone the splint before she'd woken, so it was quicker than she'd expected. The doctor's hands were surprisingly gentle as he gripped her arm on either side of the break. Still, she gripped Eli's hand hard and bit down on the cloth. When the bone clicked into place with an audible snap, she spit out the hankie and screamed, squeezing his hand so tightly she was afraid she'd break his fingers.
"Excellent job." Dr. Lexington beamed at her with approval. "I've seen lumbermen who didn't manage that with such courage. Still, you're very lucky it was a clean and simple break."
"But I screamed." Her eyes watered, too, a few tears leaking down her cheek. "Sorry."
The doctor smiled, his mustache twitching. "Only the once. Believe me, that's unusual. Fortunately, it was a very clean break. You shouldn't have any permanent damage, if you're lucky. For now, we'll keep it splinted and iced for a few days and then we'll put a cast on it, once the swelling's gone. Mr. Lawson, if you could leave the room while I conduct the rest of the examination? Nurse will stay, of course."
Nettie didn't want Eli to leave, but she didn't want him to see her undressed, either. She'd discovered by wiggling her toes that someone had already removed her shoes, and she was pretty sure she wore nothing but her slip, if that, beneath the blanket, since her arms were bare and her shoulders draped with a second thin blanket, like a shawl.
"You don't have any other broken bones," the doctor said as soon as the door clicked shut behind Eli. "I didn't X-ray your ribs, but they seem to be simply bruised. Your ankle is sprained, but it will heal apace with your arm. The best news is that there are no fractures on your cheekbones or jaw. The swelling and bruising on your face should be gone within a week."
"Thank you."
"Now let's check those ribs while you're awake." He pulled back the blanket enough for her to see that even her slip and elastic corset were gone. All she wore was her camisole and drawers.
She winced as he poked and prodded, but in the end they agreed that most of her injuries would heal on their own. Only her arm and ankle required any special treatment.
"Nettie, is there any chance that you might be pregnant?" His expression didn't change, didn't show the disgust she would have seen on Doc Rollins's wide face, though the nurse wrinkled her nose.
"No." She felt her skin blush beneath the bruises. "I'm a...that is, I haven't ever..."
His smile was kind. "Well, then that's one less thing we have to worry about, isn't it?"
Mortified, she only nodded.
"And can you give me your birthdate and age?"
"I'm twenty-three." She rattled off her birthday, which had been more or less ignored since her mother died.
"Then you're a legal adult. Not even your father can access your records without your written permission." That was good to know.
"Are you sending me to the hospital?" The last time she'd been there after one of her father's beatings, they'd given her right back to him - which had meant another thrashing as soon as they got home. She'd been laid up for two days in the attic, with no food, limited water, and nothing but a bucket to relieve herself in.
"In other circumstances, I might, but Mr. Lawson explained some of the situation. I know it's out of the ordinary, but as long as you're willing, I'm releasing you to his care. He assures me his housekeeper is a skilled nurse and that his sister will be there to act as chaperone."
"I didn't know Diana was in town." Eli's sister had been in the year above Nettie at school, but the two girls from opposite sides of the tracks, so to speak, had been friends of a sort. Diana had gone to finishing school and was now married to a lumber magnate and living in Grand Rapids.
"Well, young Mr. Eli is a truthful sort, so likely she is." The doctor pulled back the covers and smiled. "Now I know you don't like medicine, and I suppose you have your reasons, but you listen to me, young woman. I want you to take two aspirin tablets, every four hours, for at least a week. It will help with the pain and the swelling, which is the important thing. If you don't want any lasting damage to that arm, we have to keep the swelling down. Understand?"
Nettie didn't much like it, but she supposed aspirin was pretty safe, as drugs went. It was the one thing she sometimes took after her father had hit her. She nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Now Nurse Callahan will help you get dressed." He left her alone with the steely eyed older woman.