The Outsider

The Outsider Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: The Outsider Read Online Free PDF
Author: Ann H. Gabhart
Tags: Religión, Romance, Historical, Ebook, Inspirational
life, and it was a good life.
    Yet as her eyes fell on her bandaged hand, she couldn’t deny the tingle of excitement that pushed through her at the thought of the doctor touching her hand again. His hands held a sort of magic. They looked big and strong like the hands of one who worked the earth, but at the same time they were gentle and soft to the wounded.
    Her face warmed at the thought and then once again she felt shame. Such thoughts were surely a sin. Yet another sin she would be unable to confess to Sister Mercy.
    She curled her fingers into a fist and was glad for the pain that took her mind away from the doctor.

3
    Brice Scott sat by the boy all through the day, sometimes dozing in his chair but always rousing at once to dose the boy with more of the sleeping medicine whenever he moved or cried out. Then he would replace the compresses on the boy’s burns. The ones on his arms and face would amount to little. In time the red might even fade from his skin. The burns on the boy’s legs were different. He’d always carry the scars of them and perhaps even the pain. Still, Brice had hopes the boy might regain the use of his legs if he had a strong enough will. It would take courage for him to stand on his feet and walk again.
    At least he’d live to have the chance. Not all who were burned so badly could hope for that. Brice frowned. He didn’t want to think about little Amy Sue, but the sight of the boy’s charred skin kept bringing up her memory. She’d been four when she’d caught her dress tail on fire, and she was the only one of his stepbrothers or sisters that Brice had any feelings for. Maybe that was because she was yet a baby when they brought him back from the Indians.
    Brice hadn’t been at the cabin the day she had been playing too near the fire while her mother washed their clothes. By that time he’d been plenty old enough to hire out to a neighbor. But they said she ran, and the flames wrapped her in a shroud of death before anyone could catch her to put them out. He got to her before she died, but there’d been many times when he wished he hadn’t. He never forgot her face twisted in pain as she tried to reach for him to hold her.
    He didn’t stay for the burying. He walked out of the cabin and away. His father had died the year before, and his stepmother was ready to marry again. He had no reason to stay.
    Being on his own had been hard at first, but Brice knew if he just kept pushing forward, doing whatever had to be done, the world would make room for him. His years with the Indians had taught him that. He’d lived with them for almost five years before a group of hunters had come into the Indian village and traded for him when he was twelve.
    In the end, it had been the fever that had decided his future. He’d never been sick in his life, but suddenly one morning the grippe shook him with chills and burning flashes that threatened to eliminate all his problems of how he was going to live.
    A settler was kind enough to take him in and send for the local doctor. As soon as Dr. Andrew Feeley walked through the door, Brice knew what he wanted to do with his life if he survived the fever. There was such an air of assurance and confidence about the little man as he put a cooling hand on Brice’s brow and proceeded to bleed him quickly and capably. His very presence seemed as good as his treatment, and Brice wanted to be able to walk into a sickroom and make the air more hopeful just because he was there. He wanted to be able to do something besides watch when something happened as it had to little Amy Sue.
    The boy on the bed moaned and brought Brice back to the Shakers’ log cabin. The sleeping tonic was wearing off and the boy was trying to open his eyes. It was time to see if he was ready to face his future. Brice held a glass to the boy’s lips to let the cold water trickle into his mouth.
    The boy sputtered and coughed, but the water brought him fully awake. For a moment, confusion
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