Earth Angels Read Online Free PDF Page A

became the easiest thing in the world to smile cheerfully at her nastiness.
    And cantankerous, dour Mr. Wallace—Granny had confided that his beloved only son had drowned in Whitefish River, and Mrs. Wallace had hung herself shortly afterwards. The tragic facts made it easier to deal with him.
    So this morning when the old woman’s order was completed, Emma decided that if anyone could tell her about Joseph Gillespie, it was Granny. She made a cup of peppermint tea and put out a plate of sugar wafers.
    “Joseph?” Granny smiled her toothless grin, dunking the biscuit in the tea. “I brought him into the world, and a fine big boy he was, near on ten pounds,” she said. “Born January 30 th , worst snowstorm I ever remember in these parts. He was a special child, born with a caul.”
    “What’s that, Granny?” Emma had never heard of it.
    “It’s a veil, or a hood over the face,” Granny explained. “Only ever saw it that once, even with all the babies I brought into the world. Good luck, it is. Means they have the gift.”
    “What kind of gift, Granny?”
    “They can see things. Spirit like things. From the Beyond. If a babies born in the caul, it’s called an angel birth.”
    In spite of the warmth radiating from the heater, Emma felt a chill run down her back. “You mean Joseph—you mean if Joseph was a woman, he’d be a witch?”
    Granny laughed. “You got it backward, child. Very opposite. He has the power to keep witches and warlocks away. There ain’t no evil in those born with the caul, only goodness. Prob’ly why he’s such a good doctor, got the healin’ powers, does Joseph.”
    “What were his parents like?” Emma didn’t want to hear any more about the caul thing. It sounded superstitious to her.
    “Salt of the earth, those folks. Carrie, Joseph’s mother, lost three babies before he came along. Came late in their lives, Joseph did. His mama was forty-four, Philip more like fifty. Gave up hope of a family long since, they had. They was some proud of that boy, and rightly so. Smart as a whip, always a kind and thoughtful boy. A good son to them, right up to the end. Never saw a boy as tore up over losin’ his folks as Joseph was. Looked to be at death’s door hisself fer a time. There was a girl he fancied, she died about the same time as his folks did. Ruth Montgomery was her name. The typhoid took half the town that year. After that Joseph sold up and left, thought we’d see’d the last of him. But lo and behold, back he came to do his doctorin’. He came and visited me straight off, never forgot old Granny in spite of all his book larnin’. I taught him lots about birthin’ that ain’t in no books, I did. He comes and sits with me every two weeks or so, and we get to jawin’ and have a cuppa. He’s a special one, Joseph Gillespie.”
    Emma understood that the women in Demersville respected and trusted Granny. They might have shunned the young doctor if Granny had spoken against him. And by respecting and honoring Granny, he’d avoided the competition and bad feelings that often sprang up between a formally trained doctor and the local midwife in a small town. And not least of all, he’d made the old woman happy and proud.
    “You heard from yer pa lately, Emma?” Granny had a habit of changing the subject when it suited her.
    “I had a letter just last week. He’s heading up to Canada. He asked to be remembered to you.” Emma swallowed the homesick lump in her throat. She missed her Papa something awful, but she tried never to let it show.
    Granny and her father had hit it off the moment he and Emma had first driven their wagon into Demersville last July. Emma remembered every detail of that day. It had marked the beginning of a new life for her, thanks to her papa’s kindness and wisdom.
    An itinerant handyman, Shawn was able to repair almost anything with the odds and ends he kept in the back of the wagon. When they passed Granny’s cottage, they saw that half the