When he finally managed to get the pants on, he put on his shirt, which proved to be much easier. Out of breath, he sat on the dry part of the couch and threw his head back. He never thought it’d be so hard to put clothes on. He’d really had taken this simple task for granted.
After a few minutes, he heard something shatter on the kitchen floor.
“I told you to watch Adam,” Rachel yelled.
“I only looked away for a little bit,” Isaac snapped back. “I have a right to tie my shoe.”
“Well, help me get him before he ruins all of the cookies,” Rachel said.
Dave groaned and put his arm over his eyes. This wasn’t good. Mary was not going to be pleased when she returned. Dave forced himself to sit up straight and called for the kids to get back into the parlor where he could watch them.
Chapter Three
Mary had just finished cleaning up the last of the cookie crumbs off the kitchen floor when Joel entered the room. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and rinsed the washcloth in the soapy bucket.
“How bad is his leg?” she asked as she put the bucket on the worktable.
“He broke it,” Joel said. “I have some things at the office I can use to make a splint, and I have a crutch he can use.”
“How long will Dave need to be in a splint?”
“Anywhere from a month and a half to two months. It all depends on how good he is about staying still and letting his body heal. If he follows my instructions, he’ll heal sooner rather than later. He’s young and has good bones. That’s the good news.”
Frowning, she asked, “Is there bad news in addition to the good?”
He gave her a shrug and smiled. “I’ve heard quite a few married women say their husbands are impossible to deal with when they can’t work. I’m not sure how Dave will be for the next few weeks.”
“The important thing is he’ll be alright.” Then, just to be sure, she asked, “Will he walk again?”
“He will, and he’ll be able to do it without any help. In the meantime, he’ll need to use a crutch, but he has to be careful how much he uses it. The less he aggravates his leg, the better. I’ll go more into what you two can do when I return. I want to get that splint on him. I should be back in an hour.”
She nodded. What a relief. At least it wasn’t serious. She didn’t know what Dave would do if he could never walk again. His whole life was about working on the farm. He loved it out here. She didn’t think he could be happy spending the rest of his life indoors all the time.
Joel left the room, and Mary hurried to empty the bucket of soapy water outside. Then she put the crumpled-up cookies in the pig’s slop. When she returned to the kitchen, she was happy to note that Isaac and Rachel were quiet. Earlier, Isaac and Rachel had been arguing over who was to blame for the mess in the kitchen. She would have told Dave he just needed to send Isaac outside to the porch to get them to stop fighting, but he’d looked so overwhelmed she decided not to bother him about it. Instead, she insisted the children be quiet while their uncle looked at Dave’s leg before she went to the kitchen.
Now, as she came into the parlor, she saw that Adam had fallen asleep next to Dave. She hurried over to him. He was going to stay up late tonight for sure. She took Adam in her arms and encouraged him to wake up.
“Is Pa really broken?” Rachel asked her.
Mary felt a chuckle rise up in her throat. “No, sweetie. He’ll be fine. It’s just his leg that’s broken.” She glanced at Dave. “Did Joel tell you how long you need to stay off of it?”
Dave grimaced. “Six to eight weeks.”
“The time will go fast,” Mary assured him. “We should get some books from Rick or Joel. Between them, they have a lot of them.”
“I don’t know if I’m up to reading,” Dave said as he studied his leg, which was propped up on the table in front of him.
A pillow had been tucked under it, and Dave’s pants had been cut so that she could see the discoloration below his knee. She could barely make out where the bone had broken, though.
“I can’t believe I fell off a horse,” Dave muttered.
“It was an accident,” Mary said. “It could have happened to anyone. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You’re a skilled rider.”
He shot her a pointed look. “If memory serves, you were afraid Adam was going to fall off the horse the other day when I took him for a ride.”
“Adam’s only two. A fall would be much worse for him.” Since Adam was waking up, she set him down and took him by the hands and encouraged him to walk.
“Who’s going to take care of the crops?” he asked.
“I can check the crops. They really don’t take much work this time of year. All they need is time to grow. The real work is at harvest.”
Dave considered her words and seemed to feel better after hearing them.
“Everything will be fine,” she added. “Think of this as a break from all the work you do around here.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s the best way to think of it.”
Noting the reluctance in his tone, she smiled. “Joel said the more rest you get, the sooner you’ll be able to get back out to the fields.”
He nodded in a way that let her know he would take it easy while his
