Well, water fresh and cold. Can you get me a full bucket? Anna went. Martha worked. She got quinine into the child in the only way you could get quinine into a child who kept bringing things back up, which was small amounts on a very short schedule with a great deal of patience and a willingness to try again when it didn't stay down the first time.
Silas appeared in the doorway at some point, and she told him without looking up to get the cold water bucket from Anna and bring it in. And he did. At another point, she became aware that someone had put coffee on the stove, and she thought distantly that it might have been Silas, because the only time that kind of small, practical kindness appeared in the background of a crisis was when someone sensible was managing the background. 2 hours later, the child's fever had not broken, but it had stopped climbing, and the child had kept three doses of quinine down, and the thin, awful crying had softened into sleep. Martha stood up from the bedside with both hands pressed to her lower back and found Silas standing near the door watching her.
She hadn't heard him come back in. "How long have you been standing there?" She said. "A while," he said. She walked past him to the table and sat down heavily, and someone put a cup of coffee in front of her, and she wrapped both hands around it and drank. Yan Kowolski sat across from her.
He was a thin man with large honest hands and the look of someone who had not slept in 48 hours. She'll need to be watched tonight. Martha said the fever may still climb before it comes down. If it goes higher than it is now, don't wait. Get someone.
My nearest neighbor is 4 miles. Yan said. I know. Martha said, "I mean, get Mr. Boon." She looked at Silas without planning to.
If they need to send a rider. He's the closest reliable help they have. Silas was looking at her with that expression again. The one she couldn't categorize. She looked back at her coffee.
We need to start back, she said. We can't make the pass in the dark. Silas nodded. He stood. He said his goodbyes to Jan and then went outside to get the wagon ready.
And Martha started to follow him and found Anna Kowolski's hand on her arm. Thank you, Anna said. I did what I could, Martha said. Keep the quinine going through the night. Small amounts.